Check out our interview with Isabel Sterling, the author of "With All My Haunted Heart."

What was your inspiration behind With All My Haunted Heart?

I’ve been obsessed with all things witches and magic since I was 12-years-old, so whenever I’m looking for a new story, that’s where I start. I knew wanted to play in a world where everyone already knows that magic is real, but I still wanted my main character to feel like an outsider, or at least be trying to do something outside the norm of the world.

Enter the ethical haunting of a bed & breakfast.

Instead of ridding a space of ghosts, what if my witch was tasked with haunting a currently ghost-free space? How would she do that? And how could she make it safe for the humans who stayed at the B&B while also compensating the ghosts who “worked” there?

And, perhaps the biggest question of all, why would someone hire her to create a business like that?

Once I had those questions, my brain couldn’t stop mulling them over until the story came flowing out.

What does Reading Rainbow mean to you?

For me, Reading Rainbow means being intentional about reading and supporting books written by and about LGBTQ+ people, and honoring the vast diversity that exists within that bigger umbrella. That means reading books by queer and trans BIPOC, neurodivergent, and disabled authors, too.

It’s also important to celebrate all the different types of queer stories that exist. Queer people are still queer even when they’re single. Asexual and aromantic people are part of our community. Bisexual characters in m/f relationships absolutely still count. Elevating queer stories in all genres—romance, fantasy, mysteries, thrillers, contemporary, and more—is important, too. We belong in all kinds of books.

Why do you feel representation of a variety of people is so important when it comes to writing books?

Who’s allowed to exist in media—and what stories are told about them—has a massive impact on how our society in general thinks about those people.

If you never see people like you as a main character, or if you’ve never seen those characters having happy endings, how are you supposed to imagine a happy future for yourself?

Not everyone has access to in-person examples of happy, thriving queer and trans adults, so having stories that can provide those examples is essential.

Tell us a little more about the book and why you decided to write it.

With All My Haunted Heart is about Pippa Ainsley, an experimental witch who’s estranged from her more “traditional” witchy family, who’s hired to “ethically haunt” a small-town bed & breakfast. She’s initially reluctant, but agrees when she find out the bonus for succeeding is enough money to save her floundering magical business.

But hunting for friendly ghosts to fill the cozy B&B gets complicated when Pippa finds herself falling for one of the B&B owners, a woman who has a painful reason for wanting a welcoming space for ghosts to spend their afterlives.

I came up with the idea for this book after the death of my 4-year-old foster son in 2024. I knew I wanted to write a Romance novel because of how much comfort those books had brought me during such a deeply tragic and painful time. The promise of a “happily ever after” when my own life was filled with so much grief was a much-needed balm.

As I wrote the book, it became a safe place to disappear from the hard stuff of my life—there’s plenty of humor and warmth and tenderness woven throughout the story—and yet it also gave me space to explore the grief I was experiencing. Each of the main characters deals with their own emotional wounds, and though their situations are different from mine, it still gave me a chance to process my own—still very fresh and raw—feelings.

What can fans expect from your book?

Readers will get the full gamut of emotions in this one. With All My Haunted Heart has a baseline coziness to it, but the story also explores the ways grief can leave a lasting impact. There are chaotic ghost hunting excursions, witchy puns, and the quintessential sapphic experience of “Is she flirting with me or just being nice??” It’s my hope that readers will laugh, shed a tear or two, and ultimately leave the story feeling like it was a much-needed hug of a story.

What's up next for you in the bookish world?

I can’t get into the details just yet, but I can confirm that there will be another book in the same world of With All My Haunted Heart coming out in 2027! The story is already finished, and I think readers will be thrilled to see whose love story we get next.

And then in 2028, I have my next sapphic YA novel coming out. A Most Perilous Proposal is an opposites attract/rivals to romance fantasy novel. I’m still working on edits, but I’m really excited to have something new for teen readers coming soon!