Reviewed by Mal
TITLE: The Haunting Crush
SERIES: Related to Mesa Boys
AUTHOR: Christie Gordon
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 318 Pages
RELEASE DATE: February 11, 2025
REVIEW:
This was my first book by this author and let me tell you, things move fast. Told almost entirely from Kai’s pov, this story has a bit of everything – ghosts, opposites attract, possessive mcs, economic differences, hurt comfort, coming out, bullying etc. Kai has an epic crush on his chem partner Conner but they could not be more opposite with Conner part of the popular crowd and Kai identifying as gay at a casually bigoted school, full of stereotypical jock boys giving him a hard time. He doesn’t believe anything will come of his crush until one rushed encounter proves otherwise but as expected the next day nothing has changed.
5 years go by and Conner who had left is back, dealing with a bit of an existential crisis, invariably ending up spending time at Kai’s place of work. All of this is made even more interesting by the absolutely inexplicable things that are happening at Kai and Bryce’s home, Bryce who’s been his friend since school. The paranormal aspect is a sudden build and adds a layer to the plot between the two protagonists since conveniently Conner knows a lot about it. I found it novel the way it was intertwined into the story vs being the central plot but still the overall of the lore and events lined up too neatly and quickly, missing the mark for me .
One of the things I found challenging was Conner’s character blowing hot and cold through most of the book, you could see he was completely confused and having difficulty coming to terms with his own wants and needs, feeling pressurised by the expectations laid on him. I think this would have benefitted from either an exposition with another character or Conner’s pov being shared with us.
The other thing that did feel like a bit of a let down was the romantic plot development, the story lacked a certain emotional build up beyond the physical attraction, I missed the pining, the swoon, the tension which would have come naturally in a storyline of this kind.
Also, the way things were handled with Kai’s mom towards the end, it felt like Conner completely invalidated Kai’s struggles since childhood, this felt off. I’m not sure what it was meant to accomplish in the overall plot
I did appreciate the way the author authentically depicts the casual everyday homophobia and racism with its deep roots in the lives of the protagonists and how that inhibits and limits so much for them. I also liked Kai’s found family at the bar.
RATING: 
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