Review: The Girl Who Trusted Ghosts, by K.C. Tansley

About the book, The Girl Who Trusted Ghosts The-Girl-Who-Trusted-Ghosts-Amazon

  • Series: Unbelievables (Book 4)
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Beckett Publishing Group LLC
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 15, 2025
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 344 pages

The key to my future is hidden in the past. But can I face the dark family secrets buried in 1591 and make it back in time to save everyone I love?

The Kingsley, Mallory, Radcliffe heirs and I (the Langley heir) journey to our family estates on a mission. We must each gather a unique ingredient tied to our family’s elemental abilities for a long hidden incantation that will reveal what bound our families together centuries ago.

Across the ages, I’ve seen firsthand how dark magic has attacked our families and grown more powerful every time it hurts us. We need this vicious cycle to end, and the key to fighting our enemies is hidden in our history. Danger stalks us at every turn, and someone I love is kidnapped. I have no idea who took my loved one or where they went. But I know how far my enemies will go to prevent me from casting this spell, so I must do it.

The spell unexpectedly transports us back to 1591 England. To a time when our ancestors worked together with the Fitzgeralds to reseal an ancient evil, the Dark One. Can we unlock our families’ hidden histories and uncover how to fight this enemy, along with the Fitzgerald’s dark warlock back in our own time?

If you’re seeking magical family sagas that stretch across a thousand years and will keep you reading past midnight, love that endures for centuries, and exciting quests through time, join Kat on her next pulse-pounding adventure!

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About the author, K.C. Tansley KC Tansley

K.C. Tansley lives on a hill somewhere in Connecticut with her guardian Shih tzus, Bentley and Akira, who alert her to every squirrel and delivery person who dares to enter their domain. She tends to believe in the unbelievables–spells, ghosts, time travel–and writes about them.

Never one to say no to a road trip, she’s climbed the Great Wall twice, hopped on the Sound of Music tour in Salzburg, and danced the night away in the dunes of Cape Hatteras. She loves the ocean and hates the sun, which makes for interesting beach days.

The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts is her debut YA time-travel murder mystery novel. As Kourtney Heintz, she also writes award winning cross-genre fiction for adults.

Connect with Kourtney:

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My Thoughts Melissa

I’ve been following Kat Preston and her friends since the very beginning of K.C. Tansley’s series, and I’m always glad to step back into their world of haunted heirlooms, family curses, and time slips that send you tumbling into history before you’ve quite caught your breath.

 

This fourth installment, The Girl Who Trusted Ghosts, wastes no time plunging Kat, Evan, and the other heirs into danger. Their task sounds deceptively straightforward: gather the ingredients needed for a long-hidden spell that might finally reveal what bound their families together centuries ago. Of course, nothing is ever simple in Kat’s world. Dark magic stalks their every move, kidnappings raise the stakes, and one ill-fated incantation hurls them straight into 1591 England — a time when their ancestors faced off against the Dark One himself.

 

What I continue to love about this series is the sense of continuity. Each book has its own adventure, but the threads of family history, betrayal, and legacy weave tighter and tighter the further we go. You can read this one on its own, but the experience is infinitely richer if you’ve been along for the whole ride.

 

Kat herself is growing in fascinating ways. She’s braver, more determined, and her connection to both her ancestors and her own abilities deepens here. Evan, too, comes into sharper focus, and their relationship—complicated by curses and centuries-old secrets—adds both tenderness and heartbreak. Watching them together makes the looming question of whether they’ll ever get a happy ending all the more poignant.

 

Tansley keeps the pacing taut, but what lingers for me are the details: the way ancestral ghosts become guides, the discovery of why some of the original families were destroyed, and the truth behind the split from six to four. These moments give the story weight, reminding us that the battle against darkness is never just about spells and enemies; it’s about the choices people make, generation after generation.

 

By the time I turned the last page, I felt like I’d been on a roller coaster—twists, plunges, and breathless pauses where you’re sure the next drop will finish you, only to find you’re strapped in for one more plunge. It’s exhilarating, and it leaves me more than ready for the conclusion in Book Five.

 

A great read, thoroughly engaging and captivating. If you’re looking for a magical family saga with stakes that stretch across a thousand years, and a heroine who has truly come into her own, this series delivers. I’m already signed up for wherever Kat’s journey takes us next.

 

Goes well with:  beef and barley stew, rustic bread, and a strong mug of black tea.

Review: The Girl Who Loved Ghosts, by K.C. Tansley

The Girl Who Loved GhostsAbout the book, The Girl Who Loved Ghosts

 

  • Series: Unbelievables (Book 3)
  • Paperback: 302 pages
  • Publisher: Beckett Publishing Group (September 16, 2019)

She’d do anything to save her friends and family. But will that mean sacrificing the ghosts she’s grown to love?

Kat is trying to settle back into her senior year at McTernan Academy, but destiny keeps getting in the way of schoolwork and friendships. Continuing her magical training means abandoning her best friend, until an attack by a mysterious entity on campus proves that the only place they’ll both be safe is Dumbarton, the ancestral home of the Langley family.

Evan struggles with his coursework, a flirty new housemate, and his daunting responsibilities as the Kingsley heir and new owner of Ravenhurst manor. He tries to hold onto his normal college life, but he knows it’s only a matter of time before he and Kat have to travel into the past again… And Kat is in mortal danger every minute they wait to retrieve the last amulet they need to defeat the Dark One.

As her normal life slips further away, Kat must face the terrible cost that comes with time travel. Completing her quest in the present requires changing the past. She knows that the results of her actions can be disastrous–because the ghosts of her ancestors tell her of their tragic fates. A trip to eighteenth-century Connecticut might change everything. Kat tries to protect everyone she loves, but risks destroying every relationship that matters to her.

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KC TansleyAbout the author, K.C. Tansley

K.C Tansley lives with her warrior lapdog, Emerson, and two quirky golden retrievers on a hill somewhere in Connecticut. She tends to believe in the unbelievables—spells, ghosts, time travel—and writes about them.

Never one to say no to a road trip, she’s climbed the Great Wall twice, hopped on the Sound of Music tour in Salzburg, and danced the night away in the dunes of Cape Hatteras. She loves the ocean and hates the sun, which makes for interesting beach days. The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts is the first book in her YA time-travel murder mystery series.

As Kourtney Heintz, she also writes award winning cross-genre fiction for adults.

Connect with K.C.

Website | Facebook | Twitter


Melissa A. BartellMy Thoughts

I’ve been reading The Unbelievables series since the beginning, and it’s been a pleasure watching Kat grow up, just as it’s been a pleasure seeing K.C. Tansley’s writing get deeper and more evocative with every novel. Part of that, of course, is that her main character is getting older, but part of that is that when you’ve been writing in the same world for a while it becomes more and more real, just as it does when you’ve been reading it for a while.

At this point, I feel like Kat and her roommate/best friend Morgan, Evan, and even Seth are my friends, not just characters in books – they’re that well-drawn. When Kat feels alienated from Evan because his houseguest is getting flirty, I feel for her as keenly as I did when my own high school crush showed interest in someone else.

But this third installment in The Unbelievables series, The Girl Who Loved Ghosts, isn’t some teen romance. Sure, there are elements of romance in it, but it’s really about Kat’s calling to speak with ghosts, to help them solve their unfinished business, and for her combined work with Evan to unite their families, working with the living and the dead to do so.

This is a gripping adventure through time. It has moments of darkness and danger, but it also has moments of great poignance. It’s about honoring family, but it’s also about being true to yourself.

I loved revisiting Kat at her school, and joining her and Evan (and their friends) on their trans-dimensional trips to Dumbarton, but, as always, I was sad for the visit to end, and cannot wait for book four.

Goes well with beef stew and hard cider.

 

 

Review: The Girl who Saved Ghosts, by K.C. Tansley

About the book, The Girl who Saved Ghosts

 

  • Print Length: 258 pages
  • Publisher: Beckett Publishing Group (October 17, 2017)
  • Series: The Unbelievables (Book 2)

The Girl Who Saved GhostsShe tried to ignore them. Now she might risk everything to save them.

After a summer spent in a haunted castle—a summer in which she traveled through time to solve a murder mystery—Kat is looking forward to a totally normal senior year at McTernan Academy. Then the ghost of a little girl appears and begs Kat for help, and more unquiet apparitions follow. All of them are terrified by the Dark One, and it soon becomes clear that that this evil force wants Kat dead.

Searching for help, Kat leaves school for the ancestral home she’s only just discovered. Her friend Evan, whose family is joined to her own by an arcane history, accompanies her. With the assistance of her eccentric great aunts and a loyal family ghost, Kat soon learns that she and Evan can only fix the present by traveling into the past.

As Kat and Evan make their way through nineteenth-century Vienna, the Dark One stalks them, and Kat must decide what she’s willing to sacrifice to save a ghost.

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About the author, K.C. Tansley

K.C. TansleyK.C. Tansley is the bestselling and award-winning author of The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts (2015). She lives with her warrior lapdog, Emerson, on a hill in Connecticut. Never one to say no to a road trip, she’s climbed the Great Wall twice, hopped on the Sound of Music tour in Salzburg, and danced the night away in the dunes of Cape Hatteras. She loves the ocean and hates the sun, which makes for interesting beach days.

Connect with K.C.:

Website | Facebook | Twitter


My Thoughts:

Melissa A. BartellK.C. Tansley’s Unbelievables series captured my imagination when I reviewed the first book in the series two years ago. Now, with the second book, The Girl who Saved Ghosts, I feel like I’m revisiting old friends. They’ve grown and changed a bit since our last meeting, but Kat and Evan are still brave, kind, and a little bit reckless, the way we all wish we could be.

Kat, I felt, was the most changed, since her decision to allow ghosts back into her life is literally draining the life from her, but when she’s given a mystery to solve, she leaps into the task, and that’s what I really love about her.

Similarly, Evan is a strong support system – who doesn’t want a friend like him?

Author Tansley’s flair for vivid detail is even stronger in this novel, and one thing I really appreciated was that she managed to increase the risk and jeopardy for her characters without making them seem older than they should be.

As before, there’s an element of time travel in this novel, and Tansley handles the period sections of this novel most ably. Reading this book, you are no mere observer; you are transported into elite educational institutions, creepy estates, and old-world Europe, and it all occurs with the most delicious shiver up and down your spine, as if there might be a ghost standing next to you, just waiting to be noticed.

While this book is best enjoyed after reading it’s predecessor, The Girl who Ignored Ghosts, it’s equally satisfying as a stand-alone story.

Goes well with a Twix candy bar and a cold Dr. Pepper.

 

 

The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts, by K.C. Tansley (@KourHei) #review #coming_soon

About the book, The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts

  • Series: The Unbelievables Book 1
  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Beckett Publishing Group; 1 edition (August 1, 2015)

She tried to ignore them. But some things won’t be ignored.

Kat Preston doesn’t believe in ghosts. Not because she’s never seen one, but because she saw one too many. Refusing to believe is the only way to protect herself from the ghost that tried to steal her life. Kat’s disbelief keeps her safe until her junior year at McTernan Academy, when a research project for an eccentric teacher takes her to a tiny, private island off the coast of Connecticut.

The site of a grisly mystery, the Isle of Acacia is no place for a girl who ignores ghosts, but the ghosts leave Kat little choice. Accompanied by her research partner, Evan Kingsley, she investigates the disappearance of Cassie Mallory and Sebastian Radcliffe on their wedding night in 1886. Evan’s scientific approach to everything leaves Kat on her own to confront a host of unbelievables: ancestral curses, powerful spells, and her strange connection to the ghosts that haunt Castle Creighton.

But that’s all before Kat’s yanked through a magic portal and Evan follows her. When the two of them awaken 129 years in the past with their souls trapped inside the bodies of two wedding guests, everything changes. Together, Kat and Evan race to stop the wedding-night murders and find a way back to their own time—and their own bodies—before their souls slip away forever.

Buy, read, and discuss The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts

Amazon | Amazon Kindle | Goodreads


About the author, K.C. Tansley K.C. Tansley

K.C Tansley lives with her warrior lapdog, Emerson, and three quirky golden retrievers on a hill somewhere in Connecticut. She tends to believe in the unbelievables–spells, ghosts, time travel–and writes about them.

Never one to say no to a road trip, she’s climbed the Great Wall twice, hopped on the Sound of Music tour in Salzburg, and danced the night away in the dunes of Cape Hatteras. She loves the ocean and hates the sun, which makes for interesting beach days.

The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts is her debut YA time-travel murder mystery novel. As Kourtney Heintz, she also writes award winning cross-genre fiction for adults.

Connect with K.C.

Website | Facebook | Twitter


My Thoughts MissMeliss

I love a good ghost story, and even though I’m really old (a month away from 45) I still love the young adult/new adult genre, because I think some of the strongest female characters and most provocative stories are coming out of it.

The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts is no exception.

First, in Kat, we have a strong young woman who has personal experience with “unbelievables,” the author’s term for ghosts and other supernatural creations – the things we’re not, as rational adults, supposed to believe in. She’s smart, but she’s also got flaws, and I like that she’s not s superhero, just a girl with an ability to see into the unseen, an ability that, at times, is a blessing and at other times is a curse.

Then we have a neo-Gothic ghost story – a family castle on a cliffside, a decades-old murder mystery, love, money, intrigue – it feels both contemporary and historical at the same time, and author Tansley balances that feeling really well.

Mix in a research project, Kat’s teammates/friends, and bit of time travel, and this story is gripping and compelling and eerie enough that I had to brighten the lights in my room while I read it. (This may have been because I read it at 3 AM).

Kat and her roommate and best friend Morgan both felt like ordinary young women thrust into extraordinary circumstances. Their dialogue was believable, and they served as perfect counterpoint to each other. Evan, Seth, and Adam, the young men we see the most of, were also well drawn. I especially liked that even when Kat and Even grew closer, he retained his ‘still kind of a jerk’ behavior. He is kind of a jerk, but he isn’t a MEAN jerk, more a smartass, and I appreciated that.

The story itself was well-paced…just enough flashback to set up Kat’s ability, just enough of a glimpse at her present to connect her past and future, and then the mystery elements began to unfold, and everything clipped along at a glorious speed.

If you want something that defies pigeon-holing (It’s a YA, ghost, mystery, paranormal romance, time travel adventure) you definitely need to read this book. Afterward, we can bond over our mutual impatience for book two, because I believe that this series will take off, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Goes well with grilled chicken sandwiches, french fries, and sweet tea. (Trust me on this. )