Book Review: A Ballad Of Phantoms And Hope By K.M. Moronova

A Ballad of Phantoms and Hope By K.M. Moronova

Book Review: A Ballad of Phantoms and Hope by K.M. Moronova

A Ballad of Phantoms and Hope by K.M. Moronova - Book 2 in the Harlow Sanctum interconnected series

Tropes: Paranormal Romance, Ghost Romance, Slow Burn, Emotional Read, Grief, Found Family, Dark Past, Spin-Off, Interconnected Series, Low Spice

Summary:

"Death is not the end of us." A Ballad of Phantoms and Hope is the spin-off to The Fabric of Our Souls, and it needs to be read second: this is a story about characters you meet there, and it will not hit the same way out of order.

It follows the emotional, heartwarming story of two mentally unwell ghosts who have both lost their way.

Lanston. It has been five years since he died and he is still here, still haunting this world, and he has all but given up hope of passing over. Then he is dragged along to a spring performance with Yelina and Jericho, and sees the most beautiful phantom he has ever laid eyes on dancing on the stage. Meeting her, he realises how alike they are. But something dark is chasing her, and it keeps her at a distance.

Ophelia. She has spent years evading other phantoms, keeping them safe and away from the shadows that follow her. For some reason she cannot stay away from him. He invites her to Harlow Sanctum and asks her to help him finish their bucket list, because he wants to move on. But her past is exactly what stops her wanting to follow him into the dark.

 

BOOK REVIEW

I'll be honest with this one: I wasn't a massive fan, and I've sat with that a bit before writing it down, because The Fabric of Our Souls meant a lot to me and I wanted this to land the same way.

The best part, by a distance, was getting Lanston again. Being back in that world and around those characters is genuinely lovely, and there were moments that gave me exactly the feeling I came for. If you fell for the first book, that alone might be enough reason to pick this up.

But I never fully got there with Lanston and Ophelia. The premise is beautiful on paper, two ghosts working through a bucket list while one of them tries to decide whether to let go, and K.M. Moronova writes grief with real tenderness. I just didn't feel like this story needed to exist in the way the first one did. It expands the world without adding much weight to it, and I finished it feeling like I'd read a companion piece rather than a book with its own reason to be there.

It's a slow, quiet, low-spice read, which is not a criticism in itself, but it does mean the emotional payoff is carrying almost the entire book, and for me it didn't carry far enough.

So a mixed one. Beautifully written, genuinely sad in places, and worth it if you want more time in Harlow Sanctum or you read everything K.M. Moronova puts out. I just expected more.

“I want my love to haunt you. Until the stars die—until all the water in the ocean dries and we're all that's left in this cruel, dark world.”

If you loved The Fabric of Our Souls and want to stay in that world a little longer, A Ballad of Phantoms and Hope will give you exactly that, plus more of Jericho. Go in expecting a quiet, grief-soaked companion story rather than a follow-up with the same impact, and read the first book first.


A Ballad of Phantoms and Hope by K.M. Moronova mood board