Lila Merriweather returns to Hollow Creek to save her grandmother’s house after the theme park sunsets the monster-building department that used to be her career.
A leaking roof and a judgmental cat greet her, along with one shot at the ten-thousand-dollar prize in the town’s legendary Halloween decorating contest—the same contest her grandmother dominated for twelve years.
Standing in her way is Grady Ellis, volunteer firefighter, three-time champion, owner of a two-story animatronic dragon, and the neighbor who posed her own skeletons into the words GIVE UP.
Stolen extension cords, sabotaged fog machines, and a meddling committee that forces them to build the kids’ Haunted Walk together only raise the stakes, until a nor’easter, a tiny shed, and a kiss she insists changes nothing still leave her determined to beat him on the merits.
When Devil’s Night exposes the forty-one secrets in Grady’s garage and a letter in her grandmother’s handwriting, Lila has one day to decide what Halloween is actually for.
