Spotlight & Giveaway: With All My Haunted Heart by Isabel Sterling

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Isabel Sterling to HJ!

Hi Isabel and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, With All My Haunted Heart!

 
Thank you so much for having me! I’m excited to introduce readers to this cozily haunted romance.
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

With All My Haunted Heart is a sapphic romance about a witch who’s hired to ethically haunt a small-town bed-and-breakfast…who finds herself falling for one of her non-magical owners.

At first, Pippa has no interest in figuring out the magical logistics of bringing ghosts to the B&B (she’s certain is a liability nightmare!), but the financial incentive could save her own floundering business, so she ultimately agrees.

From there, readers can expect chaotic ghost hunting excursions, queer found family, and some good old-fashioned pining. In addition to the cozier elements, the story also explores grief as each of the main characters learn to trust and love again after painful past experiences.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

“She stands in profile to me, and the way her forearm muscles flex as she kneads a giant mound of dough, the furrow of her brow as she concentrates… Watching her work does seriously unprofessionally things to my insides.

Making bread has no business being this goddamn sexy.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• Part of the magic system is loosely inspired by the way energy is channeled in Reiki (I got certified as a Reiki Master over the course of writing the book!)
• I was also inspired by the TV show Ghosts, where a woman has a near death experience and can suddenly see all the spirits who had died on the property of her newly inherited manor. I wanted to put my own witchy, sapphic spin on the concept! (But with very different ghost “rules.”)
• I’m not someone who typically makes playlists for my books, but I did listen to Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department on repeat through every stage of the book.

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

From the moment Pippa first meets Elle, she’s attracted on a purely physical level. Elle’s a total cutie with amazing forearms—what’s not to love! But once Elle pitches the idea of haunting the B&B, Pippa finds herself rather annoyed with the redheaded baker.

The two of them butt heads a number of times as they try to figure out the magical logistics of an ethical haunting, but it’s also through that process that Pippa starts to see the hurt Elle’s stubbornness is masking.

Once they feel safe enough to share the more tender parts of their pasts, that opens the door to something beyond simple physical attraction. The parts of themselves that other people have found off-putting end up being the things each woman likes most about the other, and being so truly seen like that becomes a fertile ground for falling in love.
 

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

I didn’t include this as a fun fact since it’s definitely not “fun,” but I developed the book after my four-year-old foster son, Rykelan, passed away. The book is dedicated to him, and I chose to write him into the story as a way to give him a happier ending than the one he got in real life.

Though it may not be quite as emotional for readers, I cried a ton every time I worked on the scene where Pippa gives him a newborn blessing:

With a deep breath, I call in magic and funnel additional power and strength into the crystals to fully charge and activate them. I place the stones inside the bassinet, creating a ring around Rykelan. Once everything is in place, I hold my hands over the bassinet and let magic flow through me. I hold Jackie and Marisol’s love for their son in my heart and encourage the magic to protect him physically, mentally, and emotionally.

When the magic is at its peak, I trace a traditional protection sigil across his brow. His skin is soft against my magic-heated fingers. I place my hands over his swaddled chest, close my eyes, and funnel all the protection, love, joy, and magic I can into the tiny human.

Rykelan makes a grunting noise, and I open my eyes to find that he’s woken up. The brightest blue eyes stare back at me, and a stream of intuition races through not just my mind, but my entire body, too.

Marisol and Jackie watching him take his first steps.

The blondest, barely there hair growing from his head, sticking up at odd angles after a nap.

Clumsy fingers gripping a board book while he chews on the corner.

Then he’s older, two or three, playing with plastic dinosaurs. I hear his squeaky little voice echo in my head. This is a stegosaurus. Rawr! He stomps the dinosaur on the table until it knocks into a bowl, sending bits of dry cereal skittering across the surface.

Rykelan kicking a soccer ball.

Learning to write his name. Making friends. Fighting over toy cars. Sharing art supplies.

There are holidays with his moms. Surrounded by a huge family who loves him. Opening toys. Playing in the snow, dressed so warmly he can barely bend his arms or legs. Reading bedtime stories.

One more hug, Mommy. A giant one!

The images come faster, and I watch as he grows up inside my mind. His moms are always there. Always loving him. Always hugging him tight no matter what mischief he causes. They put bandages on scraped knees. Cannonball into a pool with him. The love they have for him is fierce beyond measure. All-consuming. Unconditional.

It opens something lonely and grieving and broken inside of me.

“Is everything okay?” Marisol’s voice draws me back to the present, where the newborn Rykelan is swaddled tightly, those blue eyes shining like beacons. “Pippa? You’re crying.”

I brush the tears from my face, disconnecting from the flow of magic. “Happy tears,” I lie, though I am happy for their family. I try to shove down the grief for my own turbulent childhood, but the feeling resists. Presses back against my attempt to quell it.

“Anything else we need to do?” Jackie asks, her new motherly concern trained on me as I collect the crystals from Rykelan’s bassinet.

“It’s not required, but you can keep these in his room for the next twelve months.” I pass the crystals over to her. “Rykelan is going to have a beautiful life. He’s so, so lucky to have you as his parents.”

Readers should read this book….

If they’re looking for a cozy, witchy read that covers the full spectrum of emotional experiences. The book is at times funny and light while also making space to explore different kinds of grief.

Or, as Jessica James, author of For Our Next Song, said, it’s “profoundly emotional and bewitchingly sexy!”

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

I recently finished a second romance novel set in this same world (with some favorites from this book making appearances!) but I can’t give away too much yet! Readers can sign up for my newsletter to make sure they’re notified once the main character and title are revealed!

I also just turned in a cozy sapphic YA fantasy about rivals in a magically-televised marriage competition who find themselves falling for each other instead of the prince they’re meant to be wooing. A Most Perilous Proposal will be out spring 2028 from Simon Pulse.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: 1 giveaway, WITH ALL MY HAUNTED HEART by Isabel Sterling ( US only)

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Book Info:

Steadily losing clients to the new DIY-magic shop on the other side of town, Pippa Ainsley is getting desperate. Instead of paying the witch to correct their magical maladies, local mundanes have been taking their chances with the cheaper—and unpredictable—crystals and herbal blends. So when Pippa’s best friend hires her to inspect his newly acquired bed-and-breakfast for ghosts, she doesn’t think twice about it.

That is, until she learns that his unfairly attractive co-owner, Elle Thompson, doesn’t want Pippa to rid their business of spirits. She wants Pippa to give them an edge over the competition by haunting their B&B.

It’s the perfect challenge for Pippa’s experimental magic, but just because she could figure it out, doesn’t mean it’s a smart or safe idea. But Elle is persistent, and the financial boost could save her own business if Pippa succeeds. Soon, Pippa finds herself testing the limits of her magic… and her ability to stop the growing attraction she feels toward Elle, a woman with a painful secret of her own.
 
 

Meet the Author:

Isabel Sterling writes stories about queer love and resilience with a witty magical twist. She is the author of several YA and adult novels, including: These Witches Don’t Burn, This Coven Won’t Break, The Coldest Touch, and the forthcoming With All My Haunted Heart. Isabel is also a master certified life coach, the founder of The Confident Author Academy, and the host of The Author Burnout Cure podcast. An alum of Purchase College and Syracuse University, Isabel spent a decade working in higher education and LGBTQ non-profits before striking out on their own to write and coach full-time. Isabel lives with their spouse and fur-babies in Central New York, where the winters are frigid, the summers are too hot, and autumn is perfect.