Book Title: Soul Searching
Author: Lyla Sage
Publisher: Quercus Books
Publication Date: September 2025
Having loved Lyla Sage’s Rebel Blue Ranch series, with its warm small-town charm and lingering emotional arcs, I came into Soul Searching (Book 1 of the new Sweetwater Peak series) with both excitement and high expectations. The biggest shift here is the genre: Sage trades cowboys and ranches for contemporary paranormal romance, complete with ghosts. It’s an ambitious pivot, and a fascinating chance to see her strengths — banter, chemistry, and humour — play out in a supernatural setting.
For the most part, Sage manages to retain her signatures: the zingy banter and an ensemble of endearing characters; the set-up is inviting, the voice is warm and wry, and the world-building explains the ghosts as cozy-spooky rather than horror, which is a relief. I’d much rather have Casper than Annabelle.
The opening chapter sets us up nicely with an introduction into our major characters: Collins Cartwright as a carefree bolter, Clarke Cartwright as the responsible twin, and Brady as the dependable male lead. Each of them are coming into the story with deep histories, the repression of some emotions and an escape from the painful parts of their lives. All of them, however, finding some respite in Sweetwater Peak.
“That’s a long time to hold a grudge.”
“This town is held together by grudges—grudges and chewed-up gum, Brady. It’s part of our weird little ecosystem.”
It has all the charms of a small, ghost-town down. The first time Collins meets Brady, she greets him with a generous macing of pepper spray right in his eyes. Talk about a meet-cute with plenty of opportunities for callbacks. We also get a good glimpse into the sisterly dynamic between the twins, and soon enough, the entire Cartwright family, and much else of Sweetwater Peak.
Collins is returning to her hometown under the pretext of saving her family’s business and properties from a sordid developer. But really, Collins has hit a plateau in her career. She’s scared that she might have peaked, and that everything is downhill from here. While she’s unclear if she’s back to recalibrate or recuperate, her lack of future plans leaves a wide-open window of decisions.
Meanwhile, she is lodging with Brady in exchange for working for his relatively new upholstery business, and she takes to the work like a natural. The Cartwrights are a typical small-town family, with quirks, traditions, and an extension of goodwill to honorary members of their family, like Boone Ryder.
The dialogue and humour are where the book really shines — it’s punchy, sharp, and genuinely funny. That’s always been a strong part of Sage’s writing, so it’s not much of a surprise. But since the balance of banter and supernatural metaphors is a big part of the plot tension, let’s look at the new territory Sage has ventured into.
Sage clearly thought through believability in the supernatural reveal. Instead of info-dumping that the heroine can communicate with ghosts, she frames the revelation in a fun, realistic way: when Collins tells Brady about her powers, they are high, which lowers the stakes and makes the confession feel organic, both hilarious and oddly plausible.
If you look back at the Rebel Blue Ranch series, characters like Cam, Dusty, Wes, Ada, naturally shine on their own. But when it comes to their interpersonal dynamics, it sometimes feels like the legwork wasn’t fully done. Instead, their chemistry leans on an air of inevitability, as though we’re meant to accept that of course they’ll end up together, without watching the pieces truly click into place.
In Soul Searching, we see a bit more promise. The characters arrive likeable and legible, with hints of deeper knots you want to tug at. You can feel the scaffolding of a series being raised: a place you’ll want to revisit, not just a plot to be solved once. But even here, the interpersonal dynamics can still feel more obvious than earned.
It’s a fun romp, a true “popcorn read.” What BookTok and Bookstagram would happily call a palate cleanser. You don’t pick it up for literary succinctness — though sure, a little trimming of fluff words and filler spaces could have made it crisper. At times, the narration labels beats and underlining tropes that would land better as subtext. The best romances let the reveal sneak up on you; here, a few moments point and tell (“this is X, that is Y”), which can flatten the magic.
Still, when Sage eases off the signposting, the chemistry hums and the pages fly. This is the kind of story that works best when you don’t overanalyze it under a harsh literary lens. It’s a light, playful read. Making it a great pick for all the reasons that readers gravitate toward these books.
Worth mentioning is also the author helping crossover characters from other books in the same universe, so seeing an old familiar name (a couple of beloved Rebel Blue Ranch characters) was a delight. A great book to pick up if you’re in the mood for something multi-genre — part romance, part supernatural, part small-town drama.
“I liked the way he looked at me like I was a puzzle he was dying to solve instead of one he wished he could put back in the box.”
If you enjoyed the whole shtick of an accomplished photographer going jaded on her career, you should also check out One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune, another hot favourite book from 2025. These books feel like the summer and autumn counterparts of similar stories, each made unique by a parallel tangent.
With Soul Searching, Sage tried on a new silhouette, and she looks different. And it’s a good kind of different.