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OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: My 20 years' journalism experience include full-time roles as Cosmopolitan's Features Director (and sometime Sex and the Single Girl columnist), and Co-op Food magazine's editor.

In 2018, I decided to go freelance, and I now write for publications including The Guardian, The Observer, Stella, Sunday Times Style, Grazia, Stylist and Psychologies. I'm also an experienced product reviewer.

As a copywriter, I've produced content for clients including Mars, All Bar One, Fuller's, Rosa's Thai and ibis hotels, as well as volunteering my writing skills to FEAST With Us, a charity that fights food poverty in London.

My debut novel, The Time of My Life, was published in hardback by Sphere on 7 July 2022, and my second, Ghosted, will be released in August 2023. For booky things, I'm represented by Jo Unwin, and for everything else, you can find me on Twitter @Mullies.

OFFICIAL BOOK BLURB: How badly have you been ghosted? No, literally.

A year ago, Emily was ghosted.

But it's fine, she's over it. And Andy was never part of the plan anyway. She's working on Project New Emily - New Emily goes to cocktail bars, wears ankle-breaking heels and has her life together. She's looking for a new man to match; Andy's old Converse and bad jokes were never going to work.

Thoughts about Andy are firmly in the past - until his name is spelled out on a Ouija board at a party. Emily discovers that Andy didn't ghost her - he died. And just as she's trying to work out how she feels, Andy turns up in her flat as a ghost. A ghost . In her flat.

Once she's over the shock, Emily realises she needs to get rid of this ghost of dating past so she can focus on the new man in her sights - and that the only way she can do that is to help Andy solve the mystery of his death. But as she spends more time with him, she remembers how nice it was to let her guard down and just be Old Emily sometimes.

Emily must choose between her new life and the past that's come back to haunt her. But she soon discovers that when it comes to putting her ghosts to rest, it's not as easy as she might think...

FORMAT/INFO: Ghosted is available in hardcover, ebook and audio formats via Sphere (Little, Brown) in the U.S. from July 13, 2023.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: This is a cute contemporary mystery romcom that will make for a fun summer read.

Emily thought Andy had ghosted her. She's moved on, and focuses on making it big in her advertising job. When she hosts a party for her coworkers and a seance goes sideways, she finds his ghost in her living room. Andy hadn't ghosted her, he had died. And he has no idea how it happened. Moved by his situation, she lets him stay with her as she helps him figure out how he passed away.

A majority of the page length has Emily focus on 'righting' her life, and trying to outrun her childhood and family. She is obsessed with being perfect, working out, eating well, looking extremely presentable, but also on finding the right man to settle down with so that her children would never have a runaway father. I found myself sympathising with her when she wanted a better life, but her constant and compulsive need to be perfect in all aspects at the expense of those around her was very tiring. A variety of her relationships - with her mother, stepfather, childhood friend, her childhood memories, coworkers, and dates - were explored, which sort of did justify her desire to make a better life for herself, but each of them also made it very clear that she had self esteem issues she had to work through.

As far as Andy's presence in the story goes, it included a lot of funny slapstick moments, and in places, I couldn't help but smile as I read about his enthusiasm for life. I felt bad for how Emily was unfair towards their relationship, but I also couldn't help feeling like he needed to grow up. Emily shows plenty of growth in the book, and I was really glad when she ultimately came to realise that she should've paid as much attention to a man's behaviour as his career prospects.

This is a feel-good, happily ever after romcom, and there is plenty to keep readers want it for all characters. A big part of the book focuses on Emily's acceptance of her past, as well as inclination to be a part of her family's life, and there are quite a few heartwarming moments. The pacing and structure of this book left me wanting better. The mystery seemed to be set up a bit conveniently, and large parts of the book focused either on Emily figuring things out, and the part where she took action to help Andy determine the cause of his death felt very rushed.

CONCLUSION: Despite some stumbles in the structure of the story, I enjoyed this and breezed through it in a few evenings. If you want a happily-ever-after romcom with a bit of an easy mystery mixed in, this will make for an enjoyable read.