Not all ghosts are bound to the stage – some are bound to the stories we refuse to let go of.
Haunted theatres, slow-burn romance, and ghosts who won’t stay backstage.
Elise has always seen ghosts. She’s just gotten very good at pretending she doesn’t.
As the wig mistress for a national touring production of Pride & Prejudice: The Musical, Elise knows how to survive backstage chaos: keep the curls pinned, the actors calm, and the dead firmly in the background.
Every theatre has its ghosts, after all. Most of them are harmless enough—especially with Kevin, her acerbic spectral companion, offering commentary from the wings.
Joining a new company is supposed to be a fresh start. Instead, Elise finds herself pulled into a cast full of big personalities, old tensions, and more supernatural activity than she bargained for. Then there’s Graham, the reserved leading man playing Mr. Darcy, who seems determined to see past her carefully constructed walls.
But when something darker begins following Elise from theatre to theatre, the ghosts are no longer content to stay quiet. Strange accidents, missing cast members, and dangerous magic threaten to spill from backstage onto the stage itself.
To stop it, Elise will have to confront the past she’s tried to outrun, trust in her own power, and step into the spotlight before the final curtain falls.
Spooky, romantic, and laced with humor, Specters & Spotlights is a character-driven cozy paranormal fantasy ghost story about haunted theatres, found family, slow-burn love, and the courage it takes to step into the light.
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About the Author:
Shade Zarling is a Dallas-based writer, lifelong bookworm, and recovering theatre kid. A former singer and makeup artist, she spent years working backstage in haunted theatres and film sets—and has the ghost stories to prove it. Her fiction blends quiet magic, found family, and just the right amount of lingering dread. Specters & Spotlights is her debut novel.