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The Dead Romantics
A disillusioned millennial ghostwriter who, quite literally, has some ghosts of her own, has to find her way back home in this sparkling adult debut from national bestselling author Ashley Poston.
Florence Day is the ghostwriter for one of the most prolific romance authors in the industry, and she has a problem—after a terrible breakup, she no longer believes in love. It’s as good as dead.
When her new editor, a too-handsome mountain of a man, won’t give her an extension on her book deadline, Florence prepares to kiss her career goodbye. But then she gets a phone call she never wanted to receive, and she must return home for the first time in a decade to help her family bury her beloved father.
For ten years, she’s run from the town that never understood her, and even though she misses the sound of a warm Southern night and her eccentric, loving family and their funeral parlor, she can’t bring herself to stay. Even with her father gone, it feels like nothing in this town has changed. And she hates it.
Until she finds a ghost standing at the funeral parlor’s front door, just as broad and infuriatingly handsome as ever, and he’s just as confused about why he’s there as she is.
Romance is most certainly dead . . . but so is her new editor, and his unfinished business will have her second-guessing everything she’s ever known about love stories.
Florence Day is the ghostwriter for one of the most prolific romance authors in the industry, and she has a problem—after a terrible breakup, she no longer believes in love. It’s as good as dead.
When her new editor, a too-handsome mountain of a man, won’t give her an extension on her book deadline, Florence prepares to kiss her career goodbye. But then she gets a phone call she never wanted to receive, and she must return home for the first time in a decade to help her family bury her beloved father.
For ten years, she’s run from the town that never understood her, and even though she misses the sound of a warm Southern night and her eccentric, loving family and their funeral parlor, she can’t bring herself to stay. Even with her father gone, it feels like nothing in this town has changed. And she hates it.
Until she finds a ghost standing at the funeral parlor’s front door, just as broad and infuriatingly handsome as ever, and he’s just as confused about why he’s there as she is.
Romance is most certainly dead . . . but so is her new editor, and his unfinished business will have her second-guessing everything she’s ever known about love stories.
345 pages, Paperback
First published June 28, 2022
8,381 people are currently reading
310k people want to read
About the author
Ashley Poston
27 books19.2k followersNew York Times best-seller by day, fanfic author by night.
Viist her at www.ashposton.com.
Viist her at www.ashposton.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36,913 reviews
January 24, 2022
Oh noooo, I really did not like this book, which is such an absolute _bummer_ because the general overarching concept is such a chef's kiss. Besotted ghosts & a romance novelist? Please, sign me right up. But wow, did that execution fail. I wanted more BBC Ghosts vibes and instead got...a slog. Guys, what are these 5 star reviews? Did we read the same book? Has your only introduction to literature been bad fanfiction and hearing Rory talk about literature on Gilmore Girls? Because honestly, this sucked, and the more I think about it, the more I think it sucks. While writing this I originally gave it 2 stars (2.5, truthfully, but couldn't bring myself to round it up to 3), but now that I'm remembering all this shit, I have rounded it down to a mere 1. It gets an extra .5 for the cover and because I like the title.
Let me just get it out of the way now: the entire time I was reading it, I kept thinking "what is this twee millennial nonsense", and I say that as someone who is a twee millennial. Of cooourse ~Florence (no nickname, ~Florence every time) writes """"smutty""" xfiles fanfiction, brings her new boss a cactus while waltzing in, late, in like ratty jeans and converse (???), has a pArTy GiRL Asian roommate with a sweet hookup to the coolest bars, has a gay and Very Supportive brother, a goth girl sister who is ~dark but with a ~heart of gold, and a nonbinary friend who owns a super quirky b&b (poison plants on etched on doorways! Oh my!) but actually spends the whole time reading books at the desk, pouring rum & cokes, and being nonbinary, I guess. The mayor of their town is a golden retriever, for gods sake, something mentioned at least once every chapter. Her parents met at a furry/mortuary convention (I'm not sure furry conventions were a thing 25+ years ago) and are just the MoSt in love and are just the MoSt quirky. Tattoos! Blasting music while you dance around your funeral home (??)! Waffle House breakfasts! Latino Elvis at the dive bar! Credit card debt! I oNly DriNk RuM & CoKes! Cleaning gravestones (except for the racists-- gotta remember this is set in SC)! Being "run out of town" because she solved a murder at 13 (okay like, what was that? The town is so unsupportive of her "gift", instead of just brushing it off as the ramblings of a middle schooler, that she feels like she could _never_ return to it, but somehow a dog mayor and a Very Unprofessionally run funeral home is a-okay. Sure, why not)! Getting revenge on her ~~bully with a Really Smart Biting Sentence. Coffee is "zoom zoom juice"! Punching her ex in the nose (umm, that's not charming, that's assault but also I want to punch her for that zoom zoom juice bullshit)! ~Happy Death Day balloons at a funeral! It's exhausting. It's nonsense. It's a waste of a great book cover and also my time.
And l i s t e n. I'm not even touching the part where she can talk to ghosts because she only does it like 2 times and it was weak, but I will touch the part where Benji is basically a jar of mayonnaise LARPing as a romantic love interest. No one talks this way. No one acts this way. Insta-love is such a drag and of course ~Florence and Benji have it immediately. She kisses him outside a super exclusive bar after having talked to him for, what, 5 minutes total in her entire life? And of COURSE it was the best kiss evvvver. She's deranged. She's the one who should have been run over by the car. And the whole Big Drama of ~Florence's entire existence being the fact that her ex boyfriend wrote a story about her life and managed to get it published. Like, fine, okay whatever, it's stupid nonsense, but she never _actually_ gets over it. She fusses the ENTIRE novel about it, and then hits her ex boyfriend in the hospital as revenge?? Which is not cute or empowering, she should undergo some court ordered anger management classes. Also I feel like the author stole that ~you used my life for your boooooook~ concept from the movie Music & Lyrics and Drew Barrymore could pull it off SO MUCH BETTER than ~Florence ever could.
Benji, again, is nothing. He is a vast blackhole of a character with no discernible personality but says really stupid things like "imagine how many wishes you could get out of these. At least one is bound to come true." when they are standing in a field of dandelions (because of COURSE they are, this is twee nonsense) and steals lines from The Princess Bride about the shortage of perfect breasts (it is creepy when Benji does it, it is not creepy when Cary Elwes does). Their relationship is based off nothing. It is not steamy or sweet or a good use of my ability to read. It also makes NO SENSE AT ALL that she can see him as a ghost when he was just in a coma or some shit. He didn't die! He has no business being a ghost. And honestly, why did no one tell ~Florence that her boss was in a coma the day before her deadline was due? Does she not have any work friends or idk, check her email maybe? Surely the publishing house would send an email at the VERY LEAST. When her roommate sent her a *TEXT* about it, she was like "hm, weird okay" and did zero followup. Benji told her that he had no family but did have a cat and she wasn't worried that oh my god, no one would feed it and it would just starve to death? (And of COURSE the stupid cat is named after Dolly Parton because, and I'lll repeat it again: this is twee millennial nonsense). And then ~Florence rushes to the hospital to see Benji when he (unfortunately) wakes up, only to hard pass at the last minute? Lord, she sucks. Oh, and I didn't even mention how she literally runs away from every single conversation she has with another character in the book. Someone is talking to her and she just quick gets up and leaves. It's weird and kept taking me out of the story (which, honestly, might not have been a bad thing now that I think about it).
I hate all of these people and I hope their stupid unprofessional funeral home business is shut down by the state authorities. They should all be hit by cars.
I was really excited to get my copy from @Netgalley but, yeah, now I'm not.
EDITED TO ADD: Apparently she & her gay brother read The Hating Game together (which is deeply weird) but she's talking about Benji in relation to The Hating Game (?) he says "Tall, dark hair, blue eyes that match the color of the wallpaper in his bedroom?' 'That's it! Though his [Benji's] eyes are brown. Like chocolate brown". Which is a confusing sentence because Josh's eyes weren't the color of his wallpaper in the book but WHATEVER, keep The Hating Game out of yo' mouth if you can't get it right, you know what I mean?
Let me just get it out of the way now: the entire time I was reading it, I kept thinking "what is this twee millennial nonsense", and I say that as someone who is a twee millennial. Of cooourse ~Florence (no nickname, ~Florence every time) writes """"smutty""" xfiles fanfiction, brings her new boss a cactus while waltzing in, late, in like ratty jeans and converse (???), has a pArTy GiRL Asian roommate with a sweet hookup to the coolest bars, has a gay and Very Supportive brother, a goth girl sister who is ~dark but with a ~heart of gold, and a nonbinary friend who owns a super quirky b&b (poison plants on etched on doorways! Oh my!) but actually spends the whole time reading books at the desk, pouring rum & cokes, and being nonbinary, I guess. The mayor of their town is a golden retriever, for gods sake, something mentioned at least once every chapter. Her parents met at a furry/mortuary convention (I'm not sure furry conventions were a thing 25+ years ago) and are just the MoSt in love and are just the MoSt quirky. Tattoos! Blasting music while you dance around your funeral home (??)! Waffle House breakfasts! Latino Elvis at the dive bar! Credit card debt! I oNly DriNk RuM & CoKes! Cleaning gravestones (except for the racists-- gotta remember this is set in SC)! Being "run out of town" because she solved a murder at 13 (okay like, what was that? The town is so unsupportive of her "gift", instead of just brushing it off as the ramblings of a middle schooler, that she feels like she could _never_ return to it, but somehow a dog mayor and a Very Unprofessionally run funeral home is a-okay. Sure, why not)! Getting revenge on her ~~bully with a Really Smart Biting Sentence. Coffee is "zoom zoom juice"! Punching her ex in the nose (umm, that's not charming, that's assault but also I want to punch her for that zoom zoom juice bullshit)! ~Happy Death Day balloons at a funeral! It's exhausting. It's nonsense. It's a waste of a great book cover and also my time.
And l i s t e n. I'm not even touching the part where she can talk to ghosts because she only does it like 2 times and it was weak, but I will touch the part where Benji is basically a jar of mayonnaise LARPing as a romantic love interest. No one talks this way. No one acts this way. Insta-love is such a drag and of course ~Florence and Benji have it immediately. She kisses him outside a super exclusive bar after having talked to him for, what, 5 minutes total in her entire life? And of COURSE it was the best kiss evvvver. She's deranged. She's the one who should have been run over by the car. And the whole Big Drama of ~Florence's entire existence being the fact that her ex boyfriend wrote a story about her life and managed to get it published. Like, fine, okay whatever, it's stupid nonsense, but she never _actually_ gets over it. She fusses the ENTIRE novel about it, and then hits her ex boyfriend in the hospital as revenge?? Which is not cute or empowering, she should undergo some court ordered anger management classes. Also I feel like the author stole that ~you used my life for your boooooook~ concept from the movie Music & Lyrics and Drew Barrymore could pull it off SO MUCH BETTER than ~Florence ever could.
Benji, again, is nothing. He is a vast blackhole of a character with no discernible personality but says really stupid things like "imagine how many wishes you could get out of these. At least one is bound to come true." when they are standing in a field of dandelions (because of COURSE they are, this is twee nonsense) and steals lines from The Princess Bride about the shortage of perfect breasts (it is creepy when Benji does it, it is not creepy when Cary Elwes does). Their relationship is based off nothing. It is not steamy or sweet or a good use of my ability to read. It also makes NO SENSE AT ALL that she can see him as a ghost when he was just in a coma or some shit. He didn't die! He has no business being a ghost. And honestly, why did no one tell ~Florence that her boss was in a coma the day before her deadline was due? Does she not have any work friends or idk, check her email maybe? Surely the publishing house would send an email at the VERY LEAST. When her roommate sent her a *TEXT* about it, she was like "hm, weird okay" and did zero followup. Benji told her that he had no family but did have a cat and she wasn't worried that oh my god, no one would feed it and it would just starve to death? (And of COURSE the stupid cat is named after Dolly Parton because, and I'lll repeat it again: this is twee millennial nonsense). And then ~Florence rushes to the hospital to see Benji when he (unfortunately) wakes up, only to hard pass at the last minute? Lord, she sucks. Oh, and I didn't even mention how she literally runs away from every single conversation she has with another character in the book. Someone is talking to her and she just quick gets up and leaves. It's weird and kept taking me out of the story (which, honestly, might not have been a bad thing now that I think about it).
I hate all of these people and I hope their stupid unprofessional funeral home business is shut down by the state authorities. They should all be hit by cars.
I was really excited to get my copy from @Netgalley but, yeah, now I'm not.
EDITED TO ADD: Apparently she & her gay brother read The Hating Game together (which is deeply weird) but she's talking about Benji in relation to The Hating Game (?) he says "Tall, dark hair, blue eyes that match the color of the wallpaper in his bedroom?' 'That's it! Though his [Benji's] eyes are brown. Like chocolate brown". Which is a confusing sentence because Josh's eyes weren't the color of his wallpaper in the book but WHATEVER, keep The Hating Game out of yo' mouth if you can't get it right, you know what I mean?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 6, 2025
This is the kind of book that beckons you to return to its pages when you're feeling down, lost, or overwhelmed, seeking a glimmer of hope and the promise that things will indeed get better. It has captivated my heart in every possible way, from the author's sharp and sarcastic tone to the endearing and quirky family members and the beautifully executed paranormal love story. Every aspect of this book is simply extraordinary.
Let's dive into the plot, starting with Florence's ultra eccentric family. The Days are not your typical funeral parlor-dwelling, fashionably odd clan like the Fishers from Six Feet Under or the Addams Family. They reside in the charming town of South, where they conduct funeral services as their family business. With a unique perspective on death, they honor the departed in a respectful and professional manner. They're not the spooky, haunted family you'd steer clear of; rather, they are peculiar, entertaining, vivid, and vibrant individuals who possess an innate understanding of the delicate balance between life and death.
Florence and her father share a special gift. Both can communicate with and assist the souls of the deceased in fulfilling their unfinished business. However, when thirteen-year-old Florence used her abilities to help solve a murder case by speaking with the victim's ghost, she became the town's outcast, bullied by her peers. This drove her to leave town as soon as she applied for college, severing ties with her hometown for years.
But fate takes an unexpected turn one fateful day. Firstly, she faces a looming deadline for the book she's ghostwriting, and her new, tall, broad-shouldered, and utterly charming editor, Benji Andor, refuses to grant her an extension. Little does he know that she's the true author of the book, and she's left with only one night to complete the final chapter. Struggling to find inspiration, Florence has lost her belief in happily ever afters after enduring a devastating breakup that shattered her perception of love stories.
And just as she tries to absorb this unsettling news, she finds herself in a bohemian bar with her best friend, face-to-face with her ex, and unexpectedly crossing paths with Benji. As if that weren't enough, she receives the shocking revelation of her father's passing. But the surprises don't end there. When Florence opens the door of the funeral parlor, expecting a visitor, she is greeted not only by a ghost but also by the apparition of Benji himself, in need of her assistance. What on earth is happening?
Prepare yourself for a captivating tale of meet-cutes, misadventures, humorous misunderstandings, and heartwarming reconciliations between a boy with a touch of the ghostly and a girl who coexists with spirits. This book has enchanted me beyond words. It has undoubtedly secured its place among my top five favorite romance reads of the year.
It's an entertaining, emotional, and spiritually resonant journey, interwoven with ghostly elements that add a touch of magic. I fell head over heels for this addictive and lovely story. My heartfelt gratitude goes to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for graciously sharing this incredible digital review copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts. And of course, a special thanks to Ashley Poston for crafting such a marvelous book that has touched my soul.
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Let's dive into the plot, starting with Florence's ultra eccentric family. The Days are not your typical funeral parlor-dwelling, fashionably odd clan like the Fishers from Six Feet Under or the Addams Family. They reside in the charming town of South, where they conduct funeral services as their family business. With a unique perspective on death, they honor the departed in a respectful and professional manner. They're not the spooky, haunted family you'd steer clear of; rather, they are peculiar, entertaining, vivid, and vibrant individuals who possess an innate understanding of the delicate balance between life and death.
Florence and her father share a special gift. Both can communicate with and assist the souls of the deceased in fulfilling their unfinished business. However, when thirteen-year-old Florence used her abilities to help solve a murder case by speaking with the victim's ghost, she became the town's outcast, bullied by her peers. This drove her to leave town as soon as she applied for college, severing ties with her hometown for years.
But fate takes an unexpected turn one fateful day. Firstly, she faces a looming deadline for the book she's ghostwriting, and her new, tall, broad-shouldered, and utterly charming editor, Benji Andor, refuses to grant her an extension. Little does he know that she's the true author of the book, and she's left with only one night to complete the final chapter. Struggling to find inspiration, Florence has lost her belief in happily ever afters after enduring a devastating breakup that shattered her perception of love stories.
And just as she tries to absorb this unsettling news, she finds herself in a bohemian bar with her best friend, face-to-face with her ex, and unexpectedly crossing paths with Benji. As if that weren't enough, she receives the shocking revelation of her father's passing. But the surprises don't end there. When Florence opens the door of the funeral parlor, expecting a visitor, she is greeted not only by a ghost but also by the apparition of Benji himself, in need of her assistance. What on earth is happening?
Prepare yourself for a captivating tale of meet-cutes, misadventures, humorous misunderstandings, and heartwarming reconciliations between a boy with a touch of the ghostly and a girl who coexists with spirits. This book has enchanted me beyond words. It has undoubtedly secured its place among my top five favorite romance reads of the year.
It's an entertaining, emotional, and spiritually resonant journey, interwoven with ghostly elements that add a touch of magic. I fell head over heels for this addictive and lovely story. My heartfelt gratitude goes to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for graciously sharing this incredible digital review copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts. And of course, a special thanks to Ashley Poston for crafting such a marvelous book that has touched my soul.
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July 27, 2022
oh my fucking gawwwd!! i didn’t think i’d love this book as much as i do. once i cracked open this book at the crack ass of dawn i couldn’t stop reading. personally I’ve never read anything like this before. i didn’t know i could cry tears of joy to this extent. the high i left reading this book felt like my own personal brand of heroin (sorry for the twilight reference, it just came out of me unexpectedly) this might be the best book i’ve read this year so far.
so long sorry short this book is about this very much alive woman who’s a ghostwriter that doesn’t believe in love anymore and her editor who is an actual ghost that believes in love but doesn’t think he deserves it. after her father dies she goes back to her hometown and this dude pops up out of no where and they both think it’s to help her finish her manuscript. they slowly form feelings for one another but the big question is: how can she continue loving a ghost?
now this book had me second guessing everything i knew the entire way through. i really couldn’t predict shit for the life of me. is it a romance so that does equal 🟰 happily ever after but even knowing that i thought i’d have to come to terms with a bittersweet ending. and i feel like if the author can make me second guess literally everything i know about the romance genre then that is a job well done.
this book was written for the burnt out older siblings. it’s for the people that never fit into society’s mold for them. to those this didn’t peak in high school. if i could embody this book into a song it would be “mirrorball” by taylor swift (fr like listen to the lyrics, it’s literally the whole plot of the book)
the chemistry and tension and angst between ben and florence was palpable and tangible. they literally couldn’t touch one another (one of them being a ghost) yet still created the most beautiful and heart wrenching love story. and it’s so much more than that too. Florence being the oldest sibling, her father dying, (not a spoiler, it’s in the blurb) and her finding her footing when it seemed like the world was ending for her but it was just the beginning. the way grief and heart ache was written into this story was beautifully done and i’ll always admire it. i will say i could’ve live w/o the pop culture references but it didn’t take away from the story at all and i kinda admired it ngl
so long sorry short this book is about this very much alive woman who’s a ghostwriter that doesn’t believe in love anymore and her editor who is an actual ghost that believes in love but doesn’t think he deserves it. after her father dies she goes back to her hometown and this dude pops up out of no where and they both think it’s to help her finish her manuscript. they slowly form feelings for one another but the big question is: how can she continue loving a ghost?
now this book had me second guessing everything i knew the entire way through. i really couldn’t predict shit for the life of me. is it a romance so that does equal 🟰 happily ever after but even knowing that i thought i’d have to come to terms with a bittersweet ending. and i feel like if the author can make me second guess literally everything i know about the romance genre then that is a job well done.
this book was written for the burnt out older siblings. it’s for the people that never fit into society’s mold for them. to those this didn’t peak in high school. if i could embody this book into a song it would be “mirrorball” by taylor swift (fr like listen to the lyrics, it’s literally the whole plot of the book)
the chemistry and tension and angst between ben and florence was palpable and tangible. they literally couldn’t touch one another (one of them being a ghost) yet still created the most beautiful and heart wrenching love story. and it’s so much more than that too. Florence being the oldest sibling, her father dying, (not a spoiler, it’s in the blurb) and her finding her footing when it seemed like the world was ending for her but it was just the beginning. the way grief and heart ache was written into this story was beautifully done and i’ll always admire it. i will say i could’ve live w/o the pop culture references but it didn’t take away from the story at all and i kinda admired it ngl
May 20, 2024
if you can get over the fact that the mc says things like “doggo” or “chaos gremlin” or “zoom zoom juice” unironically (and often) then this is pretty cute
August 21, 2022
ughhh. this is honestly so stinkin' cute, i cant handle it. 😩
as her adult debut, AP has knocked it out of the park and she needs to only write adult romance novels from now on. i beg. ive read some of her YA books and i was never really a fan because of how juvenile they felt. but this. this book is magic. i loved everything about it.
and im not gonna lie - i got a little teary eyed during a couple of scenes. so if a book can thaw my stoic heart and make me feel something, its an automatic 5 stars for me.
↠ 5 stars
as her adult debut, AP has knocked it out of the park and she needs to only write adult romance novels from now on. i beg. ive read some of her YA books and i was never really a fan because of how juvenile they felt. but this. this book is magic. i loved everything about it.
and im not gonna lie - i got a little teary eyed during a couple of scenes. so if a book can thaw my stoic heart and make me feel something, its an automatic 5 stars for me.
↠ 5 stars
February 1, 2023
wow wow wow I loved every bit of this. I'm having a hard time even thinking of anything to critique. It's far from what I expected and I found it incredibly hard to put down.
December 4, 2024
4.26!
“I'd always written how grief was hollow. How it was a vast cavern of nothing.
But I was wrong.
Grief was the exact opposite. It was full and heavy and drowning because it wasn't the absence of everything you lost - it was the combination of it all, your love, your happiness, your bittersweets, wound tight like a knotted ball of yarn.
My first Ashley Poston book was a hit. I feel like the writing style of this book caught me in a whirlpool of emotions and AAAAAHH I loved it, it was a super fast and cute read. You know the books that you know you would love from the start, yeah this was exactly that because I feel like the writing is filled with so much emotion! I just dont understand how this book hit so much like the writing wasn't even poetic but it hit me so hard and not me thinking this would be a cutesy romance but I loved how it was more than just a sweet romance and it didnt fail to deliver on that!!
“There is no happy ending, theres just. . . happily living. As best you can.”
Our main character, Florence, I felt so close to her, reading this story was so sad, a major part of her story was dealing with loss and the portrayal of the grief was so well that it just made me want to read more about it. The way we get to know and the situations she is Ghostwriting for an author and failing to meet her deadline with a grumpy, cute editor I thought this was a normal romance but the grief aspect was just done so beautifully, it really made me feel so sad because I sat and thought for a minute of what I would've/would do if it was my dad? I would be completely lost because even though my bond with my mother is more strong but I would feel so helpless and lost without a father because from my very first breath he has been a shoulder I have clung on and to thing that such an important person in your life, who has shaped up every aspect of your life till now and who you share such beautiful memories with would someday not be there with you feels so unimaginable. Seeing Florence e cope with her dads loss hit way too hard, I loved reading about her because it felt real, it felt natural and I loved it. Ben, our love interest! I didn't really think he would be a ghost lol but I loved him, he was soooo cute and I loved reading about him, how much he cared for florence and how he came back I was in love with that. I liked the plot twist with this character at the end.
“Everything that dies never really goes. In little ways, it all stays.”
The romance, was the cutest. I was so conflicted on how a ghost and a humans relationship would work but it was very well managed and the situation in which they both met, I think hit the characters very hard and brought them closer which was so fun to read about. The things that often said were cheesy at the times but the story itself was so cute that it didnt really bother me. Also the slow burn in this one burned till the very end so the frustration was through the roof but I love that so it worked in my favor. Safe to say they both delivered on the romance and as they should because I had pretty high hopes for them.
Overall, I really enjoyed it!
___
My first Ashley Poston book, yay! I am in love with the concept of ghostwriting and FMC being one is so 🤭
Also Roxy has been telling me to read this since the past two* years sooo I finally caved in.
“I'd always written how grief was hollow. How it was a vast cavern of nothing.
But I was wrong.
Grief was the exact opposite. It was full and heavy and drowning because it wasn't the absence of everything you lost - it was the combination of it all, your love, your happiness, your bittersweets, wound tight like a knotted ball of yarn.
My first Ashley Poston book was a hit. I feel like the writing style of this book caught me in a whirlpool of emotions and AAAAAHH I loved it, it was a super fast and cute read. You know the books that you know you would love from the start, yeah this was exactly that because I feel like the writing is filled with so much emotion! I just dont understand how this book hit so much like the writing wasn't even poetic but it hit me so hard and not me thinking this would be a cutesy romance but I loved how it was more than just a sweet romance and it didnt fail to deliver on that!!
“There is no happy ending, theres just. . . happily living. As best you can.”
Our main character, Florence, I felt so close to her, reading this story was so sad, a major part of her story was dealing with loss and the portrayal of the grief was so well that it just made me want to read more about it. The way we get to know and the situations she is Ghostwriting for an author and failing to meet her deadline with a grumpy, cute editor I thought this was a normal romance but the grief aspect was just done so beautifully, it really made me feel so sad because I sat and thought for a minute of what I would've/would do if it was my dad? I would be completely lost because even though my bond with my mother is more strong but I would feel so helpless and lost without a father because from my very first breath he has been a shoulder I have clung on and to thing that such an important person in your life, who has shaped up every aspect of your life till now and who you share such beautiful memories with would someday not be there with you feels so unimaginable. Seeing Florence e cope with her dads loss hit way too hard, I loved reading about her because it felt real, it felt natural and I loved it. Ben, our love interest! I didn't really think he would be a ghost lol but I loved him, he was soooo cute and I loved reading about him, how much he cared for florence and how he came back I was in love with that. I liked the plot twist with this character at the end.
“Everything that dies never really goes. In little ways, it all stays.”
The romance, was the cutest. I was so conflicted on how a ghost and a humans relationship would work but it was very well managed and the situation in which they both met, I think hit the characters very hard and brought them closer which was so fun to read about. The things that often said were cheesy at the times but the story itself was so cute that it didnt really bother me. Also the slow burn in this one burned till the very end so the frustration was through the roof but I love that so it worked in my favor. Safe to say they both delivered on the romance and as they should because I had pretty high hopes for them.
Overall, I really enjoyed it!
___
My first Ashley Poston book, yay! I am in love with the concept of ghostwriting and FMC being one is so 🤭
Also Roxy has been telling me to read this since the past two* years sooo I finally caved in.
March 19, 2025
if i like a romance novel, i am prepared to throw a themed parade, sing titles from the rooftops, bake between 9 and 21 cakes in the shape of letters in order to spell out the writer's name, and/or give up my everyday life to marry the concept of the story like when nuns marry jesus or whatever.
so reading the author's other books seems like the least i can do.
plus, i love ghosts.
i have a tattoo of one. i would like to believe in them. back in my single days, my dating app bio was "somewhat friendly ghost" (now up for grabs for any of you flighty grumps out there).
in other words, i was susceptible to the charms of this book.
it isn't quite the seven year slip (a bit more awkward, a bit cheesier, filled with really weird small errors and redundancies that threatened to drive me old-timey mad), but it's a fun one.
bottom line: discovering a reliable romance author was not a 2024 prediction for me, but thank god.
3.5
so reading the author's other books seems like the least i can do.
plus, i love ghosts.
i have a tattoo of one. i would like to believe in them. back in my single days, my dating app bio was "somewhat friendly ghost" (now up for grabs for any of you flighty grumps out there).
in other words, i was susceptible to the charms of this book.
it isn't quite the seven year slip (a bit more awkward, a bit cheesier, filled with really weird small errors and redundancies that threatened to drive me old-timey mad), but it's a fun one.
bottom line: discovering a reliable romance author was not a 2024 prediction for me, but thank god.
3.5
December 10, 2021
EDITED THE DAY AFTER I POSTED MY REVIEW BC I REMEMBERED SOMETHING:
TIMOTHEE.
CATLAMET.
okay pls carry on and go back to your lives.
GUYS GUYS GUYS THIS IS A MASTERPIECE!!! I LOOOOOVED this book I loved the Reylo feels it gave me (BENJI! ROSE! WAFFLE HOUSE!), I loved the publishing commentary, I loved Florence and her dad, and Alice and Mairmont, I loved Florence's quests toward the funeral, I loved the Omegaverse fic jokes (I HAVE BEEN THERE). Also this book mentioned pretty much all my fave romance authors and I squealed Every. Single. Time. And of course the love story was TOP TIER 800/10 THE MOSTEST PERFECTEST-the way Ben and Florence were meant to be together and so many little things in their pasts connected them ASUHAIUHIEUEUG SO delicious. THE ENDING WAS SO GOOD GUYS SO GOOD!
Basically The Dead Romantics is the most beautiful, poignant story, full of the most beautiful, poignant characters. Florence is exactly the type of lovable, endearing, relatable lead I want to fall for, and her journey through learning how to love again had me squealing, sighing, laughing. Touching, funny, breathtaking, hopeful, dreamy PLEASE READ THIS PLEASE READ THIS!!
Disclosure: I got a free ARC from Ashley Poston's publisher WHICH IS ALSO MY OWN CORPORATE FATHER.
TIMOTHEE.
CATLAMET.
okay pls carry on and go back to your lives.
GUYS GUYS GUYS THIS IS A MASTERPIECE!!! I LOOOOOVED this book I loved the Reylo feels it gave me (BENJI! ROSE! WAFFLE HOUSE!), I loved the publishing commentary, I loved Florence and her dad, and Alice and Mairmont, I loved Florence's quests toward the funeral, I loved the Omegaverse fic jokes (I HAVE BEEN THERE). Also this book mentioned pretty much all my fave romance authors and I squealed Every. Single. Time. And of course the love story was TOP TIER 800/10 THE MOSTEST PERFECTEST-the way Ben and Florence were meant to be together and so many little things in their pasts connected them ASUHAIUHIEUEUG SO delicious. THE ENDING WAS SO GOOD GUYS SO GOOD!
Basically The Dead Romantics is the most beautiful, poignant story, full of the most beautiful, poignant characters. Florence is exactly the type of lovable, endearing, relatable lead I want to fall for, and her journey through learning how to love again had me squealing, sighing, laughing. Touching, funny, breathtaking, hopeful, dreamy PLEASE READ THIS PLEASE READ THIS!!
Disclosure: I got a free ARC from Ashley Poston's publisher WHICH IS ALSO MY OWN CORPORATE FATHER.
July 28, 2022
scientists have finally discovered a cure for insomnia and it's this book
it wasn't bad, but it was just.. very boring. there really isn't another way to say it.
i feel like the concept had way more potential and that potential was just not used at all.
there were two good scenes at the end and if there had been any kind of build up beforehand they would have hit really hard, but alas.
i also quite liked the afterword by the author and i wish the rest of the book had been more like the afterword which kinda was better written and more interesting than the actual story.
i think if you...how do i put this... haven't read that many romance novels that you're just tired by certain characteristics of the genre as i am, you will probably enjoy this
but if you feel like every romance you read is just the same then there's also nothing new for you to find here.
it wasn't bad, but it was just.. very boring. there really isn't another way to say it.
i feel like the concept had way more potential and that potential was just not used at all.
there were two good scenes at the end and if there had been any kind of build up beforehand they would have hit really hard, but alas.
i also quite liked the afterword by the author and i wish the rest of the book had been more like the afterword which kinda was better written and more interesting than the actual story.
i think if you...how do i put this... haven't read that many romance novels that you're just tired by certain characteristics of the genre as i am, you will probably enjoy this
but if you feel like every romance you read is just the same then there's also nothing new for you to find here.
April 15, 2025
Florence Day, a ghostwriter for a prolific romance author, has a deadline looming over her like a storm cloud.
Unfortunately, after a break-up that left her heart shattered, Florence no longer believes in love. It's hard for her to write what she doesn't believe.
When her new editor, the tall and handsome Benji Andor, refuses to give her the extension she needs to wrap up her latest novel, Florence's back is against a wall. She needs to finish this book. She cannot fail.
But just when Florence thinks things are at rock bottom, they get so much worse. After Florence receives a late night phone call from her mother, her entire world grinds to a halt. Her beloved father has passed away.
She needs to get to her small South Carolina hometown as soon as possible. It's the first time in a decade that Florence has been back to Mairmont and as far as she can tell, not much has changed.
Her mother, brother and sister are there and the family funeral parlor is still running like a well-oiled machine. The only thing missing is her father's presence. It's a loss Florence feels through her entire being.
Florence and her father shared a very special gift: they see ghosts. This isn't something Florence necessarily wants, it actually ruined her teenaged years, but she's made a certain peace with it.
But when she sees a ghost waiting for her on the steps of the funeral home, she's shocked and he seems equally confused to be there.
There must be unfinished business between them, something she can help him with. The more they get to know one another, the more Florence's feelings towards love begin to change.
Y'all, The Dead Romantics took me completely by surprise. I put off reading this for a few months, because I just wasn't sure I would be in the mood for this 'type' of story.
I was so wrong. I would always be in the mood for this type of story, because it's Ashley Poston that gets me every time. I just absolutely adore her characters, writing style and smart, sarcastic sense of humor.
It's like she sees me, and I see her too.
I cannot express enough how much I loved everything about this book. From the very start, I felt attached to Florence and getting to go on her journey with her, I felt it.
At times it was like a gut-punch, at other times it was like being tickled by butterfly wings, but I was with her every step of the way.
While there is romance in this story, to me, that aspect wasn't the shining star. To me, the thing that stood out the most was Florence's path of self-discovery and her relationships with her family members and her past.
I loved the exploration of love and the many facets where love can be found in the world around us. Love isn't just mutual attraction and sex with a partner, it's so much more than that, surrounding us from the first day we make an appearance on this earth, and following us long after.
I went on a roller coaster ride with The Dead Romantics. It was a ride I never wanted to end, but I was left with such a sense of hope at the conclusion.
Ashley Poston, you have absolutely filled my heart. This is a special story, one that will stay in my heart for a long time to come. My ghost-loving heart sings!
Thank you so much to the publisher, Berkley, for providing me with a copy to read and review. Poston knocked this out of the park, to the moon and back!
Unfortunately, after a break-up that left her heart shattered, Florence no longer believes in love. It's hard for her to write what she doesn't believe.
When her new editor, the tall and handsome Benji Andor, refuses to give her the extension she needs to wrap up her latest novel, Florence's back is against a wall. She needs to finish this book. She cannot fail.
But just when Florence thinks things are at rock bottom, they get so much worse. After Florence receives a late night phone call from her mother, her entire world grinds to a halt. Her beloved father has passed away.
She needs to get to her small South Carolina hometown as soon as possible. It's the first time in a decade that Florence has been back to Mairmont and as far as she can tell, not much has changed.
Her mother, brother and sister are there and the family funeral parlor is still running like a well-oiled machine. The only thing missing is her father's presence. It's a loss Florence feels through her entire being.
Florence and her father shared a very special gift: they see ghosts. This isn't something Florence necessarily wants, it actually ruined her teenaged years, but she's made a certain peace with it.
But when she sees a ghost waiting for her on the steps of the funeral home, she's shocked and he seems equally confused to be there.
There must be unfinished business between them, something she can help him with. The more they get to know one another, the more Florence's feelings towards love begin to change.
Y'all, The Dead Romantics took me completely by surprise. I put off reading this for a few months, because I just wasn't sure I would be in the mood for this 'type' of story.
I was so wrong. I would always be in the mood for this type of story, because it's Ashley Poston that gets me every time. I just absolutely adore her characters, writing style and smart, sarcastic sense of humor.
It's like she sees me, and I see her too.
I cannot express enough how much I loved everything about this book. From the very start, I felt attached to Florence and getting to go on her journey with her, I felt it.
At times it was like a gut-punch, at other times it was like being tickled by butterfly wings, but I was with her every step of the way.
While there is romance in this story, to me, that aspect wasn't the shining star. To me, the thing that stood out the most was Florence's path of self-discovery and her relationships with her family members and her past.
I loved the exploration of love and the many facets where love can be found in the world around us. Love isn't just mutual attraction and sex with a partner, it's so much more than that, surrounding us from the first day we make an appearance on this earth, and following us long after.
I went on a roller coaster ride with The Dead Romantics. It was a ride I never wanted to end, but I was left with such a sense of hope at the conclusion.
Ashley Poston, you have absolutely filled my heart. This is a special story, one that will stay in my heart for a long time to come. My ghost-loving heart sings!
Thank you so much to the publisher, Berkley, for providing me with a copy to read and review. Poston knocked this out of the park, to the moon and back!
October 25, 2024
5 Stars!
OMG- What can I say? All the feels! Poston made me laugh, cry, scream, and squeal with joy - what an utterly beautiful romance. 💗😭💗😭💗😭
Alexa play Unchained Melody- IYKYK.
The Dead Romantics follows the story of Florence. A ghostwriter who can no longer write because she does not believe in love. But when the ghost of her new editor shows up, she starts to believe maybe she could love…except he’s a ghost.
I was so enchanted from the first page until the last page of this book. The writing is beautiful and haunting. The story touches on feelings of heartbreak, grief, loss, memories, anxiety and self confidence in her novel, which moved me in a huge way.
There's something about a walk under the moon light in a graveyard with my love that just speaks to my soul. ⋆｡°✩☾⋆｡°✩
"It's a stroll- most of the time, through a graveyard. Dad says you can only take a moonwalk when there's a good moon. No clouds, no rain. Don't look at me like that - yes . Graveyard."
I bit my lip to keep the smile from my face. He had a point. But him asking was... unexpected. And I didn't know what it was- probably the rum and cokes- but it might've been the way the silvery moonlight fell across his face, and the way his hair was a little flop and his eyes were dark and deep and not at all cold or cruel, like I'd imagined in my head. As though he was actually looking at me, really looking, and wanted to know me and this weird life I lived. No lies, no walls of fiction- only this strange little secret no one knew.
“Because ghost stories were just love stories about here and then and now and when, about pockets of happiness and moments that resonated in places long after their era. They were stories that taught you that love was never a matter of time, but a matter of timing.”
There's a cast of characters that are all well rounded and lovable, including a dog who is the mayor. Filled with tons of corny 'dad jokes' if you will, but that actually had me laughing while sitting at my work desk. Poston goes so wide range with emotions in this book and I'm so here for it, one min I was laughing under my breath at work and the next sobbing with tears of joy.
The conclusion, albeit a little predictable- I didn't even care, I was so invested in this story and full of happiness my heart wanted to burst-at the end I just wanted to go squeeze someone to let some of it out.
“Everything that dies never really goes. In little ways, it all stays.”
“The universe sends you the things you need when you need them.”
OMG- What can I say? All the feels! Poston made me laugh, cry, scream, and squeal with joy - what an utterly beautiful romance. 💗😭💗😭💗😭
Alexa play Unchained Melody- IYKYK.
The Dead Romantics follows the story of Florence. A ghostwriter who can no longer write because she does not believe in love. But when the ghost of her new editor shows up, she starts to believe maybe she could love…except he’s a ghost.
I was so enchanted from the first page until the last page of this book. The writing is beautiful and haunting. The story touches on feelings of heartbreak, grief, loss, memories, anxiety and self confidence in her novel, which moved me in a huge way.
There's something about a walk under the moon light in a graveyard with my love that just speaks to my soul. ⋆｡°✩☾⋆｡°✩
"It's a stroll- most of the time, through a graveyard. Dad says you can only take a moonwalk when there's a good moon. No clouds, no rain. Don't look at me like that - yes . Graveyard."
I bit my lip to keep the smile from my face. He had a point. But him asking was... unexpected. And I didn't know what it was- probably the rum and cokes- but it might've been the way the silvery moonlight fell across his face, and the way his hair was a little flop and his eyes were dark and deep and not at all cold or cruel, like I'd imagined in my head. As though he was actually looking at me, really looking, and wanted to know me and this weird life I lived. No lies, no walls of fiction- only this strange little secret no one knew.
“Because ghost stories were just love stories about here and then and now and when, about pockets of happiness and moments that resonated in places long after their era. They were stories that taught you that love was never a matter of time, but a matter of timing.”
There's a cast of characters that are all well rounded and lovable, including a dog who is the mayor. Filled with tons of corny 'dad jokes' if you will, but that actually had me laughing while sitting at my work desk. Poston goes so wide range with emotions in this book and I'm so here for it, one min I was laughing under my breath at work and the next sobbing with tears of joy.
The conclusion, albeit a little predictable- I didn't even care, I was so invested in this story and full of happiness my heart wanted to burst-at the end I just wanted to go squeeze someone to let some of it out.
“Everything that dies never really goes. In little ways, it all stays.”
“The universe sends you the things you need when you need them.”
November 7, 2024
3.25 stars ⭐️
⤷ spoiler-free review!! ⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ ࣪
the first 60% felt like a whole lot of nothing. i was honestly confused about where the story was going because it didn’t seem to be progressing at all, but the last 40% picked up and i cried like 5 times 🥲 grief is such a strange thing, and reading about it makes me so sad 😭😭😭
“She told me that you don’t ever lose the sadness, but you learn to love it because it becomes part of you, and bit by bit, it fades. And, eventually, you’ll pick yourself back up and you’ll find that you’re okay. That you’re going to be okay. And eventually, it’ll be true.”
ᡣ𐭩.ᐟ florence day
while i empathized with florence’s situation, her constantly having dirty thoughts about benji and her saying how she wanted to put googly eyes on rose’s vibrators and benji’s six pack made me feel a little uncomfortable 😭
ᡣ𐭩.ᐟ benji andor
initially, i thought benji was going to be the brooding and grumpy type, but he turned out to be a cutie patootie and gave off golden retriever vibes.
ᡣ𐭩.ᐟ florence day and benji andor
i really loved their moments together. they were so raw and real with each other, and they matched each others freaks 🤭 they just felt right for each other.
overall, even though i didn’t end up loving this book, i still enjoyed it, and it was a beautiful and emotional read.
“Always. I’m yours, Florence Day,” he said, and kissed my knuckles.
Those words made my heart soar. “Ardently?”
“Fervently. Zealously. Keenly. Passionately yours.”
”And I’m yours,” I whispered, and kissed him in a cemetery of immaculate tombstones and old oak trees, and it was a good beginning. We were an author of love stories and an editor of romances, weaving a story about a boy who was once a little ghostly and a girl who lived with ghosts. And maybe, if we were lucky, we’d find a happily ever after, too.
pre-read 👻:
i absolutely loved the seven year slip, so i hope i’ll love this one too 🤞🏻🧡
⤷ spoiler-free review!! ⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ ࣪
the first 60% felt like a whole lot of nothing. i was honestly confused about where the story was going because it didn’t seem to be progressing at all, but the last 40% picked up and i cried like 5 times 🥲 grief is such a strange thing, and reading about it makes me so sad 😭😭😭
“She told me that you don’t ever lose the sadness, but you learn to love it because it becomes part of you, and bit by bit, it fades. And, eventually, you’ll pick yourself back up and you’ll find that you’re okay. That you’re going to be okay. And eventually, it’ll be true.”
ᡣ𐭩.ᐟ florence day
while i empathized with florence’s situation, her constantly having dirty thoughts about benji and her saying how she wanted to put googly eyes on rose’s vibrators and benji’s six pack made me feel a little uncomfortable 😭
ᡣ𐭩.ᐟ benji andor
initially, i thought benji was going to be the brooding and grumpy type, but he turned out to be a cutie patootie and gave off golden retriever vibes.
ᡣ𐭩.ᐟ florence day and benji andor
i really loved their moments together. they were so raw and real with each other, and they matched each others freaks 🤭 they just felt right for each other.
overall, even though i didn’t end up loving this book, i still enjoyed it, and it was a beautiful and emotional read.
“Always. I’m yours, Florence Day,” he said, and kissed my knuckles.
Those words made my heart soar. “Ardently?”
“Fervently. Zealously. Keenly. Passionately yours.”
”And I’m yours,” I whispered, and kissed him in a cemetery of immaculate tombstones and old oak trees, and it was a good beginning. We were an author of love stories and an editor of romances, weaving a story about a boy who was once a little ghostly and a girl who lived with ghosts. And maybe, if we were lucky, we’d find a happily ever after, too.
pre-read 👻:
i absolutely loved the seven year slip, so i hope i’ll love this one too 🤞🏻🧡
November 23, 2022
The Dead Romantics was so cute and unique! I have truly never read a book with a plot like this one. Plus it was funny too! I loved all of the puns and cute one-liners. Overall a light, fun, and ghostly read👻
March 18, 2022
This is the weirdest, cutest, most fun book I've read in a long time. Also, it made me cry.
The Dead Romantics in some ways reminds me of The Haunting of Hill House (the Netflix adaptation), but replace the horror with comedy. Hear me out:
- Ghosts
- returning to a home/home town you fled from
- Family dynamics
- a family holding the funeral for their own family member
- Themes of grief
The key difference is that The Haunting of Hill House would follow a tear-jerking scene with a jump scare, and The Dead Romantics follows it with the most bizarre and hilarious situations.
But let's talk about the sense of humor this book has. I don't see it being perfect for everyone, but damn was it perfect for me. I was laughing out loud constantly while reading this. I have a collection of highlighted quotes that, out of context, make no sense, and barely even make sense in context. It's amazing.
The romance in this book is also absolutely incredible. I loved our two main characters, and I love how they interact together. Plus, throw in the angst with him being a ghost? Perfection.
But beyond the comedy and romance needed in a romcom, this book delves into family and grief. I didn't expect to cry when I picked this up, but I found myself fighting tears on multiple occasions. It's truly a beautiful meditation on loss that I know will stick with me.
I will be forcing everyone I know to read this book.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me an eARC to review
The Dead Romantics in some ways reminds me of The Haunting of Hill House (the Netflix adaptation), but replace the horror with comedy. Hear me out:
- Ghosts
- returning to a home/home town you fled from
- Family dynamics
- a family holding the funeral for their own family member
- Themes of grief
The key difference is that The Haunting of Hill House would follow a tear-jerking scene with a jump scare, and The Dead Romantics follows it with the most bizarre and hilarious situations.
But let's talk about the sense of humor this book has. I don't see it being perfect for everyone, but damn was it perfect for me. I was laughing out loud constantly while reading this. I have a collection of highlighted quotes that, out of context, make no sense, and barely even make sense in context. It's amazing.
The romance in this book is also absolutely incredible. I loved our two main characters, and I love how they interact together. Plus, throw in the angst with him being a ghost? Perfection.
But beyond the comedy and romance needed in a romcom, this book delves into family and grief. I didn't expect to cry when I picked this up, but I found myself fighting tears on multiple occasions. It's truly a beautiful meditation on loss that I know will stick with me.
I will be forcing everyone I know to read this book.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me an eARC to review
January 30, 2023
thoughts and feelings to come in my annual "reading subscriber favorites" video on jan 25th :)
January 24, 2025
2.5 stars
The Dead Romantics follows Florence Day, a ghostwriter who’s lost her faith in love after a devastating breakup. When her father passes away, she returns to her hometown for the funeral, only to encounter a ghost—her unexpectedly handsome, recently deceased editor, Benji. As Florence grapples with grief, family dynamics, and unresolved emotions, she begins to question everything she thought she knew about love.
➸ If you loved this book, I’m sorry, but I’m about to tear it apart. I wanted to love this. I really did. I had high hopes because I adored The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston, and I thought this one would be just as good. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Very, very wrong.
This book was supposed to be heartwarming, but instead, it was awkward and flat. The chemistry between Benji and Florence? Nonexistent. There was no spark. Benji seemed too obsessed with Florence’s boobs, while Florence obsessed over putting googly eyes on his abs. 💀
And Florence… ugh. She tried so hard to be quirky, but it came off as forced and, frankly, annoying. She was immature, constantly cracking jokes that fell flat, and instead of being charming, she just grated on my nerves. I didn’t find her funny or endearing—I just wanted her to stop talking half the time.
Benji was as exciting as a wet paper towel. The only thing I liked about him was his love for romance books, but even that couldn’t make up for his lack of depth.
The writing was okay. Ashley Poston is a talented writer, and there were a few moments where I thought the book had potential. Some lines had emotional weight, but they were few and far between. Most of the book felt flat, with glimpses of something better buried under poorly developed characters and a plot that didn’t go anywhere.
I thought the whole funeral and grief storyline would really pull at my heartstrings, but it just didn’t. The grief didn’t feel genuine or deeply explored, so it didn’t hit me emotionally. I didn’t cry or even come close—it just felt kind of hollow.
I’m giving this 2.5 stars because the writing isn’t terrible. The prose kept me engaged enough to finish most of it in one sitting, and there were a few good lines along the way. But ultimately, the book didn’t do anything for me. I didn’t care about the characters, the plot, or the emotional depth it promised. It was a book full of missed opportunities.
This book had so much potential, and I really wanted it to work. It could have been heart-wrenching, beautiful, and emotional, but instead, it felt like a disjointed mess of forced quirks and flat characters. If you loved The Seven Year Slip and haven’t read this one yet, lower your expectations. I can’t entirely blame Ashley Poston because The Dead Romantics was published before The Seven Year Slip, and it's clear her writing has improved since then. Still, it doesn’t change the fact this book majorly disappointed me.
────⟡⋆˙✩ ⋆˙⟡────
picking up something heartwarming this time since my last read kinda traumatised me 🤪 heartwarming my ass
“I began to realise that love wasn't dead, but it wasn't forever, either. It was something in between, a moment in time where two people existed at the exact same moment in the exact same place in the universe.”
The Dead Romantics follows Florence Day, a ghostwriter who’s lost her faith in love after a devastating breakup. When her father passes away, she returns to her hometown for the funeral, only to encounter a ghost—her unexpectedly handsome, recently deceased editor, Benji. As Florence grapples with grief, family dynamics, and unresolved emotions, she begins to question everything she thought she knew about love.
➸ If you loved this book, I’m sorry, but I’m about to tear it apart. I wanted to love this. I really did. I had high hopes because I adored The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston, and I thought this one would be just as good. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Very, very wrong.
This book was supposed to be heartwarming, but instead, it was awkward and flat. The chemistry between Benji and Florence? Nonexistent. There was no spark. Benji seemed too obsessed with Florence’s boobs, while Florence obsessed over putting googly eyes on his abs. 💀
And Florence… ugh. She tried so hard to be quirky, but it came off as forced and, frankly, annoying. She was immature, constantly cracking jokes that fell flat, and instead of being charming, she just grated on my nerves. I didn’t find her funny or endearing—I just wanted her to stop talking half the time.
Benji was as exciting as a wet paper towel. The only thing I liked about him was his love for romance books, but even that couldn’t make up for his lack of depth.
The writing was okay. Ashley Poston is a talented writer, and there were a few moments where I thought the book had potential. Some lines had emotional weight, but they were few and far between. Most of the book felt flat, with glimpses of something better buried under poorly developed characters and a plot that didn’t go anywhere.
I thought the whole funeral and grief storyline would really pull at my heartstrings, but it just didn’t. The grief didn’t feel genuine or deeply explored, so it didn’t hit me emotionally. I didn’t cry or even come close—it just felt kind of hollow.
I’m giving this 2.5 stars because the writing isn’t terrible. The prose kept me engaged enough to finish most of it in one sitting, and there were a few good lines along the way. But ultimately, the book didn’t do anything for me. I didn’t care about the characters, the plot, or the emotional depth it promised. It was a book full of missed opportunities.
This book had so much potential, and I really wanted it to work. It could have been heart-wrenching, beautiful, and emotional, but instead, it felt like a disjointed mess of forced quirks and flat characters. If you loved The Seven Year Slip and haven’t read this one yet, lower your expectations. I can’t entirely blame Ashley Poston because The Dead Romantics was published before The Seven Year Slip, and it's clear her writing has improved since then. Still, it doesn’t change the fact this book majorly disappointed me.
────⟡⋆˙✩ ⋆˙⟡────
June 30, 2024
˗ˏˋ 4 / 5 ★’s for this beautiful book that went straight to my heart ´ˎ˗
This is the kind of book that you start reading without lots of expectations and then ends up truly surprising you. This book went straight for my feelings (I didn’t sign up for that, but I loved it), and made me contemplate lots of things. I was literally staring at the ceiling at 3 in the morning contemplating my entire life after some scenes and quotes.
I loved it. It made me reflect on death, grief, life, family, love, life’s purpose, work, and the people who are worthy of my time/love and the people who aren’t. It made me appreciate the little things and the time I spend with my loved ones because we don’t know when will be the last time we’ll see a place or a person. Life is unpredictable, and we don’t always like the outcome, but we can try. We can try to enjoy as much as we can with everything we have.
Also, this book taught me that it's okay to not be okay. Things can get better. Not now, but it will/can do it. Every healing process is different and that’s okay.
The romance wasn’t written perfectly in this book, but honestly? I don’t mind. I absolutely loved the brief moments of romance the main characters had and I loved their HEA. For me, it was predictable what was going to happen, and I loved that I was right about it. It would’ve destroyed me if they didn’t have a happy ending. But they did, and as the hopeless romantic that I am, I couldn’t be happier <3 I simply wanted more of them. That is my only complaint about this book, and it’s the same complaint I had with The Seven Year Slip.
This book is something different. It’s written beautifully and magically in so many ways, but it's not perfect. Maybe that’s why a lot of people don’t like it. But it was perfect for me, and hopefully, it can be perfect for other people too.
────── ⋆⋅🤍⋅⋆ ──────
❥ Many quotes just because I love them ✨
This is a random scene of an older couple (not the main characters) that literally had me SOBBING. He died years ago, and every year for their anniversary he manages (with the help of the fmc’s father) to give her lilies. He literally waited for her FOR YEARS by her side. At the end of the book, she died and they were able to meet again and leave together😭❤️🩹
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Anyways💜🦋 this is the second book I’ve read by this author, and I can’t wait to read more of her books!
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˚˖𓍢ִ໋🌼 ·˚ pre-read ˚ · ˖ I’m ready to fall in love with a ghost🤍 how poetic is that?
𓏲 ₊♡𓂃Love wasn't a whisper in the quiet night.
It was a yelp into the void, screaming that you were here.⋆𓂃ִֶָ ⊹˚
❥𝓜𝔂 𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓰𝓱𝓽𝓼💭 ˖⁺. ༶ ⋆˙⊹
This is the kind of book that you start reading without lots of expectations and then ends up truly surprising you. This book went straight for my feelings (I didn’t sign up for that, but I loved it), and made me contemplate lots of things. I was literally staring at the ceiling at 3 in the morning contemplating my entire life after some scenes and quotes.
I loved it. It made me reflect on death, grief, life, family, love, life’s purpose, work, and the people who are worthy of my time/love and the people who aren’t. It made me appreciate the little things and the time I spend with my loved ones because we don’t know when will be the last time we’ll see a place or a person. Life is unpredictable, and we don’t always like the outcome, but we can try. We can try to enjoy as much as we can with everything we have.
Also, this book taught me that it's okay to not be okay. Things can get better. Not now, but it will/can do it. Every healing process is different and that’s okay.
🌼“…you don't ever lose the sadness, but you learn to love it because it becomes a part of you, and bit by bit, it fades. And, eventually, you'll pick yourself back up and you'll find that you're okay. That you're going to be okay. And eventually, it'll be true.”🌼
The romance wasn’t written perfectly in this book, but honestly? I don’t mind. I absolutely loved the brief moments of romance the main characters had and I loved their HEA. For me, it was predictable what was going to happen, and I loved that I was right about it. It would’ve destroyed me if they didn’t have a happy ending. But they did, and as the hopeless romantic that I am, I couldn’t be happier <3 I simply wanted more of them. That is my only complaint about this book, and it’s the same complaint I had with The Seven Year Slip.
💐“Always. I'm yours, Florence Day,” he said, and kissed my knuckles.
Those words made my heart soar.
“Ardently?”
“Fervently. Zealously. Keenly. Passionately yours.”
“And I'm yours,”💐
This book is something different. It’s written beautifully and magically in so many ways, but it's not perfect. Maybe that’s why a lot of people don’t like it. But it was perfect for me, and hopefully, it can be perfect for other people too.
────── ⋆⋅🤍⋅⋆ ──────
❥ Many quotes just because I love them ✨
Buying books always made me feel better, even if I never read them.
“Love is a celebration of life and death. It stays with you. It lingers, my darlings, long after I'm gone. Listen for me when the wind rushes through the trees.”
“So, thank you for giving me words when I didn't think there were any left. I hope you never stop giving the world your words.”
Standing there in the middle of the dandelion field, looking up into Ben's soft ocher eyes, I began to realize that love wasn't dead, but it wasn't forever, either. It was something in between, a moment in time where two people existed at the exact same moment in the exact same place in the universe.
“There's nothing like the sound of the sky rattling your bones, you know?” he once told me when I asked why he loved thunderstorms so much. “Makes you feel alive. Reminds you that there's more to you than just skin and blood, but bones underneath. Stronger stuff. Just listen to that sky sing, buttercup.”
“Everything that dies never really goes. In little ways, it all stays.”
“You are perfect.”
“Am I?”
“Do I need to repeat myself?”
“As often as I deem necessary.”
Grief was the exact opposite. It was full and heavy and drowning because it wasn't the absence of everything you lost- it was the culmination of it all, your love, your happiness, your bittersweets, wound tight like a knotted ball of yarn.
I was so fucking sad, and yet there were moments when the tide would go back out and I wasn't drowning anymore in it- and they were all moments, I realized, with Ben.
Because of Ben.
“This is exhausting,” he agreed softly. “All of it. Pretending to be okay while the world changes around you and leaves you behind to sit with whatever loss you found.”
No one had ever thanked me for that before. For trying. Even though I was failing.
Would've, should've, could've.
Hindsight was such a bitch.
This is a random scene of an older couple (not the main characters) that literally had me SOBBING. He died years ago, and every year for their anniversary he manages (with the help of the fmc’s father) to give her lilies. He literally waited for her FOR YEARS by her side. At the end of the book, she died and they were able to meet again and leave together😭❤️🩹
A glimmer in the corner caught my eye. I glanced over.
An old woman with beautiful wide brown eyes stood in the doorway to the parlor, her hand outstretched to an elderly man in an orange sweater and brown pants, who took it tightly and kissed her knuckles. They shimmered in that star-glitter way spirits did.
“Now he can give her lilies himself.”
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Anyways💜🦋 this is the second book I’ve read by this author, and I can’t wait to read more of her books!
𓏲 ₊♡𓂃“There is no happy ending. There's just... happily living. As best you can.”⋆𓂃ִֶָ ⊹˚
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˚˖𓍢ִ໋🌼 ·˚ pre-read ˚ · ˖ I’m ready to fall in love with a ghost🤍 how poetic is that?
June 14, 2024
3,5 estrellas, no estuvo tan bueno como el otro 😭.
January 24, 2023
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DNF @ 24%
If I had taken the time to do an ounce more research and realized that the author of this book also wrote the Once Upon a Con series, I would not have bought this book. Because I really didn't like that series and it ended up having a lot of the same flaws that turned me off of this book. Contrary to what some might think, I don't actually enjoy writing negative reviews. I used to be a little more cavalier about it but now I really try to only buy books I'm sure about. And on paper, THE DEAD ROMANTICS sounded wonderful-- a ghost love story, a venture into the publishing world, lots of ANGST.
To be fair, THE DEAD ROMANTICS wasn't a bad book. It just pandered. A lot. I think Christina Lauren was mentioned like three times before the 24% mark. The main character tries just a little too hard to assure you, the reader, that she loves books. She doesn't have time to read them but she loves them and she'll be sure to tell you that constantly. She's also grossly incompetent and really twee. I try to be sympathetic towards heroines because I feel like SO MANY OF THEM get criticized for things that heroes would get a free pass for, but this one was genuinely unlikable. She's the "tiny" brand of heroine where she's made that her personality and complains constantly about people finding her cute. She's also really immature, to the point where she feels like she's in high school. And she's supposed to be good at her job? Uhh...
The plot is a little similar to Emily Henry's BEACH READ, in that it's about a heroine who writes romance novels who has given up on writing romance novels because she's given up on love, but BEACH READ was able to sell me on that a little better than this one did (even if it was also, dare I say it, a little too "I wear rompers and eat cake for breakfast and Zooey Deschanel is my patronus" twee).
But I'm a grumpy person who is very picky about chick-lit and contemporary rom-coms, so if you're super into that and you loooooooved BEACH READ and want more, more, MORE, you might love this. Thanks to Anniek for trying to BR this with me (I'm sorry you called it quitsies, too).
2 stars
December 8, 2023
2 stars.
girls... the fmc said she wanted to put googly eyes on each of the mmc’s six abs. (????) that nearly killed me (not in a good way) and i almost put the book down forever right there.
i didn’t love this nearly as much as the seven year slip… in fact, that’s largely due to both books being a little too similar in structure. (biggest topic: grief, one family member dying, fmc loves books & is in the industry, mmc has a sort of magical detachment from reality, etc.) it’s like dr. pepper vs. mr. pibb — slightly different, but fundamentally the same.
sorry for this poorly written review. i'm not going to remember this book in a few weeks, so i'm not going to put the effort into being witty or detailed.
for the avid romance reader, there's nothing new to find in this story. read the seven year slip instead.
girls... the fmc said she wanted to put googly eyes on each of the mmc’s six abs. (????) that nearly killed me (not in a good way) and i almost put the book down forever right there.
i didn’t love this nearly as much as the seven year slip… in fact, that’s largely due to both books being a little too similar in structure. (biggest topic: grief, one family member dying, fmc loves books & is in the industry, mmc has a sort of magical detachment from reality, etc.) it’s like dr. pepper vs. mr. pibb — slightly different, but fundamentally the same.
sorry for this poorly written review. i'm not going to remember this book in a few weeks, so i'm not going to put the effort into being witty or detailed.
for the avid romance reader, there's nothing new to find in this story. read the seven year slip instead.
February 14, 2025
This book is enjoyable with one of the most interesting premises.
However, the romance did not win me as much as I hoped for. It feels like the whole plot shifted more on the funeral and the philosophy behind death, which is still pretty cool. While this book is likeable, it does not have the wow factor that makes me wanna rate this five stars.
If this book is marketed faithfully, I would have probably enjoy this better by having the right expectation. For now, it's fair to middling but I can see why people are loving it.
Further RTC
However, the romance did not win me as much as I hoped for. It feels like the whole plot shifted more on the funeral and the philosophy behind death, which is still pretty cool. While this book is likeable, it does not have the wow factor that makes me wanna rate this five stars.
If this book is marketed faithfully, I would have probably enjoy this better by having the right expectation. For now, it's fair to middling but I can see why people are loving it.
Further RTC
October 20, 2022
Ahhhh this was SO CUTE. I adore this romance, and I love how unique it is. It's the PERFECT October romance book. We follow Florence, who is a ghostwriter for a huge romance author, but she doesn't know if she believes in love anymore because she's dealing with a messy breakup. I love that Florence can she actual ghosts, so there's a bit of a paranormal spin on this romance, which makes it so fun! Her love interest in this book is one of the softest fictional men to ever exist. This writing style honestly reminded me quite a bit of Emily Henry, it was great!
This book also had me so emotional, because right at the beginning her Father passes away, and then she goes back to the small town she grew up and spends a lot of time with family and it just GOT ME. It was such a beautiful story, one I hope to revisit every Fall.
Here's the reading vlog where I read it: https://youtu.be/ZewT0NdeIUM
This book also had me so emotional, because right at the beginning her Father passes away, and then she goes back to the small town she grew up and spends a lot of time with family and it just GOT ME. It was such a beautiful story, one I hope to revisit every Fall.
Here's the reading vlog where I read it: https://youtu.be/ZewT0NdeIUM
June 20, 2022
Florence Day is not your average 28-year-old. She’s living in NYC with her best friend, Rose, successfully ghostwriting for Ann Nichols, a famous romance author, after a childhood spent helping her family run their small town Days Gone Funeral Home.
Oh yeah: and she talks with ghosts.
It’s an ability she shared with her dad and the thing that drove her out of little Mairmont, South Carolina, and has kept her away for the last ten years. I guess people think you’re pretty weird when you talk to people they can’t see.
Now, after her ex betrays her past secrets, she’s decided love is dead, which presents one big problem: How is she supposed to finish her last book for Ann, when she no longer believes in the very ideas her books are built on? Her deadline is tomorrow, and Ann’s handsome new editor, Benji Andor, isn’t budging on it.
As fate would have it, death intervenes in more ways than one, and Florence finds herself back in her hometown meeting a shockingly familiar and attractive new ghost who, ironically, may be just the right person to bring her hopes for ‘happily ever after’ back from the dead.
This is Ashley Poston’s adult fiction debut after a number of YA books, and while it took me just a minute to warm up to, I thought it ended up being pretty darn adorable overall.
Florence’s relationship with her wacky but wonderful family felt authentic, as we all know being around family can bring out our less than mature qualities! Her interactions with her ghostly new gentleman were sweet and charming (and even a bit spicy!), and I loved that the story approached romance in a uniquely different way for a change. This was full of fun characters, the story had nice LGBTQ+ representation, and there were some fantastically funny lines.
My recommendation? Don’t overthink this one. There are some logical inconsistencies with how this story’s ghost world works, but if you can suspend that disbelief yet again you may just have a delightful time!
★★★ ½ (rounded to 4)
Thanks to Berkley Publishing, NetGalley, and author Ashley Poston for this digital ARC which I’ve reviewed honestly and freely. It publishes on June 28th, 2022.
Oh yeah: and she talks with ghosts.
It’s an ability she shared with her dad and the thing that drove her out of little Mairmont, South Carolina, and has kept her away for the last ten years. I guess people think you’re pretty weird when you talk to people they can’t see.
Now, after her ex betrays her past secrets, she’s decided love is dead, which presents one big problem: How is she supposed to finish her last book for Ann, when she no longer believes in the very ideas her books are built on? Her deadline is tomorrow, and Ann’s handsome new editor, Benji Andor, isn’t budging on it.
As fate would have it, death intervenes in more ways than one, and Florence finds herself back in her hometown meeting a shockingly familiar and attractive new ghost who, ironically, may be just the right person to bring her hopes for ‘happily ever after’ back from the dead.
This is Ashley Poston’s adult fiction debut after a number of YA books, and while it took me just a minute to warm up to, I thought it ended up being pretty darn adorable overall.
Florence’s relationship with her wacky but wonderful family felt authentic, as we all know being around family can bring out our less than mature qualities! Her interactions with her ghostly new gentleman were sweet and charming (and even a bit spicy!), and I loved that the story approached romance in a uniquely different way for a change. This was full of fun characters, the story had nice LGBTQ+ representation, and there were some fantastically funny lines.
My recommendation? Don’t overthink this one. There are some logical inconsistencies with how this story’s ghost world works, but if you can suspend that disbelief yet again you may just have a delightful time!
★★★ ½ (rounded to 4)
Thanks to Berkley Publishing, NetGalley, and author Ashley Poston for this digital ARC which I’ve reviewed honestly and freely. It publishes on June 28th, 2022.
October 4, 2024
OH MY GOD😭 I’M NOT OKAY, I LOVED IT SO MUCH
➳review to come when I get out of my review slump🤞🏻
ᝰ.ᐟ pre-read: ᯓᡣ𐭩୭˚.
MY FIRST ASHLEY POSTON BOOK!!
I’ve read so many good things about this one, I’m so excited🤭
➳review to come when I get out of my review slump🤞🏻
ᝰ.ᐟ pre-read: ᯓᡣ𐭩୭˚.
MY FIRST ASHLEY POSTON BOOK!!
I’ve read so many good things about this one, I’m so excited🤭
June 1, 2024
between this and the seven year slip… i cannot pick a favourite. these books are for the girlies who romanticize everything, find sentimental value everywhere, cry in the car when childhood era taylor swift comes on, and pays attention to the little details that are answered with nuance and not outright 🤍 a masterpiece
October 13, 2024
“Because ghost stories were just love stories about here and then and now and when, about pockets of happiness and moments that resonated in places long after their era. They were stories that taught you that love was never a matter of time, but a matter of timing.”
This is the third book I have read by Ashley Poston, and I think it’s safe to say that I am completely in love with her writing style and the way she creates a magical world that captivates you, making you forget everything and allowing you to fully live with the characters. You experience their emotions—sadness, grief, happiness, and love. It’s so beautiful. Every emotion is articulated and expressed perfectly. What I particularly loved about this book is how she portrayed grief. It was so raw and real that it made me cry several times because I felt as if I were the one grieving. I loved it! 🤍
” There is no happy ending, theres just. . . happily living. As best you”
the characters
Florence
I love her so much. The way she felt so relatable to me was almost frightening. The betrayal she experienced from her ex and the bullying inflicted upon her by her town broke my heart. I admire how kind she was and how she always listened to those who needed to talk—whether they were dead or alive. The smallest gestures could make her heart melt because she genuinely prioritized other people's happiness above her own. I adored her special bond with her father; it made me cry because no one understood her the way he did. I also loved the way she cared for her family and how she witnessed her parents' love for each other. I adore her siblings and the depth of their care for her, as well as her care for them. Honestly, this was one of the best aspects of the book. The family dynamic was simply perfect! 🤍
”because I couldn't exist on my own, but sometimes I just didn't want to.
Sometimes I just wanted to let my guard down, let the pieces of me fall to the ground, and know that I had someone there who could put me back together without minding the sharp bits.”
benji
Who doesn’t love a man who is shy, incredibly handsome, and loves to read romance? He was simply wonderful. I adored every time he blushed so easily, how he cared for Florence, listened to her, and believed her. I want him so badly—even as a ghost, I wouldn’t mind! 😭
”Love wasn't a whisper in the quiet night. It was a yelp into the void, screaming that you were here.”
the romance
I enjoyed it. It was incredibly heartwarming and wholesome. The angst and the intense desire for them to touch each other but couldn’t was palpable. I loved every moment and felt it deeply. it was truly beautiful. The reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because I had high expectations for the ending, but it felt underwhelming to me.
I understand that the author aimed for realism, but you mean to tell me that after all the pain and experiences they went through, it would all be in vain because he thought it was a dream. Was he not even willing to make an effort to understand it? Would he have let it all slip away if she hadn't reached out with email? I didn't expect him to rush back to her immediately upon his return, but I also didn't expect this. I wanted to see some effort or at least a hint of caring to see things through.but like months went by and he didn’t do anything? The reason wasn’t reasoning with me ✋🏻
Despite this, it was the only aspect of the book that didn't resonate with me. I loved everything else, especially the family story and their dynamic; it was incredibly beautiful. The plot even reminded me of the movie "Just Like Heaven," which I adore. Overall, I highly recommend it. 🤍
”always. Im yours Florence day,” he said and kissed mu knuckles.
“ ardently?”
“Fervently.zealously. Keenly. Passionately yours”
“ and I’m yours”
“We might've been a family in black, but our lives were filled with light and joy and color”
“I feel like we’ve done a few of these . . .”
“But I could never touch you.”
“I’d be okay with that.”
“No one else will ever see me.”
“That means you’d be all mine.”
“I think, as readers, we all have a comfort read, the one book that protects us in the exact ways it needs to—whether it is a romance or erotica or a thriller or a crime story or a fantasy. A book that we find ourselves in, like looking in a mirror. Oh, you, too? It will ask, as it fills that soft, hollow place in your heart that nothing else dared to touch. I think we all deserve a book like that, whatever yours is.”
Read
March 12, 2022Source of book: NetGalley (thank you)
Relevant disclaimers: Social media moots with this author
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.
And remember: I am not here to judge your drag, I mean your book. Books are art and art is subjective. These are just my personal thoughts. They are not meant to be taken as broader commentary on the general quality of the work. Believe me, I have not enjoyed many an excellent book, and my individual lack of enjoyment has not made any of those books less excellent or (more relevantly) less successful.
This is an impressively weird book. I was trying to describe it to a friend, and I ended up with “Well, the heroine is a ghost writer who sees ghosts, and her family own a funeral home, and the love interest just died.” It’s also deeply, unabashedly and fearlessly earnest—which I think makes it, not quite a love it or hate it kind of experience, but at the very least the sort of thing that either works for you or doesn’t.
Mostly, it worked for me.
Before I get into it, though, I should just add, or at least clarify, that when I talk about The Dead Romantic’s earnestness, it’s a dimension of the text I legitimately admired, and I think it functions very successfully as a way to … omg is complexify a word? It shouldn’t be a word, it’s repulsive. But, like, functions very successfully as a way to add nuance and depth to a heroine who could otherwise get shoved into the quirky box and left there. Quirky heroines are kind of a complicated trope in the genre that I don’t feel super qualified to comment on. I think they can be very successful, in that they represent a subversion of the massively male-gazey manic pixie dream girl thing, as well as sort of pushing back against conventional ideas of how women should behave or how female characters should be written. But they can also end up Too Much territory (clown shoes on the wall has sort of become a personal shorthand for this) or overlap with Not Like Other Girls which is a problematic trope all of its own.
For me, what’s interesting about Florence is that while she has elements in common with the Quirky Heroine, in that when we first meet her, she’s wearing an over-sized tweed coat, hasn’t washed her hair, and is taking a cactus to the professional meeting she’s running late for, and her family background is this whole Six Feet Under funeral home scenario, but actually she’s not really quirky. She’s just painfully, awkwardly, unglamorously earnest. And I mean that in a good way. Because you can’t write un-earnestly about being earnest, and we live in a world that does not—as a general rule—value or celebrate earnestness.
All of which said, one of the difficulties of earnestness is that it’s sort of like trying to calibrate your toaster knob (not a euphemism). In the same way it’s borderline impossible to strike the right balance between burned-to-a-crisp and still-just-bread, the emotional space between heart-strikingly earnest and a little bit cringe seems infinitesimally and unpredictably small. Also, let me make very clear, very personal. So while there were elements of earnestness in this book that really got me in my squishy feelings, there were also moments that did the exact opposite (like the public confrontation Florence gets into with her small town nemesis where, totally unprompted, Florence is all "I forgive you" and I'm all "oh no, must you be so toe-curlingly American"). But, as you can see from that example, this very much a Your Mileage May Vary type reaction.
Just to give a bit of context, the deal here—as I mentioned above—is that the heroine of The Dead Romantics, Florence Day, is the ghost writer for a famous romance writer. As is required of a romcom heroine, she fled her small American town for the big city. Her family runs the town funeral town and are generally accounted a bit strange, albeit in a benign way. This all changed for Florence, though, when she helped the ghost of a thirteen-year-old boy solve his own murder and, suddenly, she was bullied as a weirdo, an attention seeker, and a liar. Her ghost writing (oh do you see, she sees ghosts, she is a ghost writer…), too, has recently hit a bit of a snag because, following a disaster break-up with a man she thought was The One, she no longer believes in love and, consequently, can’t write the romance she’s contracted to. On top of which, her old editor has recently retired, having been replaced with a hot guy. And THEN (wow, this feels like a lot) Florence’s dad dies, requiring her to return to the small town that exiled her, make peace with her (very loving) family and fulfil her dead father’s entirely unreasonable funeral requests. Seriously, the dude wants, like, Elvis and a thousand wildflowers organised by colour, and God knows what else. Obviously these are all carefully calculated acts of logistical tyranny to allow Florence to experience moments of emotional significance, and they are clearly supposed to be about helping his family come to terms with his loss, rather than a list of arbitrary demands for someone too dead to appreciate them. But sheesh. Given how fucking awful funerals are to arrange, I don’t know how I would feel about my legacy to my loved ones being “catharsis through administration.” Oh, and the hot editor guy was hit by a car and is now haunting Florence. They develop feelings.
Okay, so that is definitely a lot. But it does work, despite a touch of disconnect between where the book starts and where it ends up going. There’s a fair bit of publishing shade thrown here, which I very much appreciated in a popcorn.gif kind of way. For example, Florence’s first book, a romance, written under her own name, basically didn’t sell, and the house blamed her and dropped her (too real, man, too real) and I’m pretty sure her horrendous ex-boyfriend is a sort of straight Dan Mallory. He doesn’t leave cups of urine in his boss’s office (as far as we know) but he lives his life as a trail of lies and pitches himself to literary fame by co-opting a woman’s story. More seriously, though, The Dead Romantics has powerful things to say about grief and complicated things to say about family, both of which I am very here for, and the romance with dead hot editor is sweet and heartfelt, despite what felt to me like a rather shaky beginning.
I think the way the relationship between Florence and Ben (I should probably stop calling him Hot Editor Guy) is initially established was the main factor in my sense that the beginning of the novel is the teeniest bit misaligned from the rest. This isn’t a big deal, I hasten to add, but you know when it feels like the edges of things don’t quite match up? Basically Florence and Ben have their meeting, and Florence is all like “can I write a romance with a sad ending” (because … she’s a romance lover who genuinely wants to challenge the one central tenant of the genre? Girl.) and Ben, very sensibly, is like fuck no, and I want the manuscript tomorrow, and they’re suddenly In Conflict, and then Florence’s bestie drags her to something that basically seems to be The Moth and while she’s running away from her ex, who is about to do a bit, she runs into Ben, who happens to be there, and they randomly start making out in an alley? And, honestly, it all feels very compressed and out of nowhere: they were literally just having an argument about the HEA in romance while he was setting her an impossible deadline and now they’re at the same event on the same evening? Plus, at the point they’re snogging in the alley, she doesn’t know he knows that she’s the ghost writer (she poses as the romance author’s assistant) but SHE knows she’s the ghost writer, and we find out later, HE knows too … so what are you both doing right now? You can’t French your editor and your editor shouldn’t be Frenching you. I mean, right? Surely? There’s all sorts of power dynamics in play there, that neither one of them even stops to consider, although it quickly becomes irrelevant due to death of one party. Although that strikes me as a shaky reasoning for embarking on a lawsuit-enticing relationship with a professional colleague: "oh it'll be fine if one of us dies."
Retrospectively I do wonder if this scene in the alley was to establish a grounding of physical desire between Florence and Ben, given he’s a ghost and they can’t touch each other for the rest of the book. Which is, you know, a bit depressing, to say nothing of allocentric. Not that being ace is equivalent to being dead, but I think the assumption that touch (with an implication of sexual touch) is unquestionably integral to a functional relationship is problematic on principle. And, actually, there’s a moment later in the book where they discuss the reality of being in a long-term relationship where one of you is dead, and lack of touch/sex wasn’t, at that point, treated as any sort of major factor or deal breaker (which, again, I thought was nice: because while I do think touch can be an important facet of intimacy I don’t think it’s the be all and end all of everything).
I also really wish that Ben’s consent had been considered even a little bit relevant to the alleysnog. It turns out he really does want to be alleysnogged because he alleysnogs Florence after she’s alleysnogged him. But at the point she alleysnogs him, she has no notion he’s even interested in her (he could be gay, she might not be his type, she’s a WRITER HE’S WORKING WITH) let alone up for an alleysnog. But she just plants one on him regardless and while she apologises afterwards she’s more focused on herself (“I don’t usually do this”) than the reality that she could have just sexually assaulted someone? Even tall hot editors get to consent y’know.
Basically, this whole alleysnog business felt odd and uncomfortable to me, to the point that it felt almost like it had been jammed in at a later date or left in after subsequent editing rounds, especially because they barely mention it when Ben pops up as a ghost. And there’s a similarly out-of-place feeling scene when, post death, Ben sees Florence in the shower, and they’re both super embarrassed, and he blurts out that she has perfect breasts. And I think it’s meant to be cute in some way, or prove he’s attracted to her (which is already obvious) but it just makes him come across like an absolute arse. If you non-consensually witness a naked person, you apologise and leave quickly, you don’t take a moment to rate their body parts no matter how flustered you are or how much you like the body parts in question: “Oops, sorry I walked in on you, and now you’re screaming and trying to cover yourself, but I’ve just got to say: gorgeous vulva. The way your pubic hair frames the shape of it? Beautiful. Love it. A+. Sorry again.”
It's sections like this that make me ask myself who didn’t trust who when these scenes were conceived: did the editor or the author not trust readers to believe in the relationship if they hadn’t been witness explicitly to physical desire, or did the editor not trust the author with the characters, or did the author not trust their own characters? If I may take a moment to be uncomfortably earnest: someone should have trusted more. For my money (and admittedly I’m only one person) the relationship is tender and genuine, and there’s so much emotional tension around the fact that, y’know, BEN IS DEAD that forcing this specifically body-related UST into the story felt blunt in a way it didn’t have to.
Urk, this feels like a lot complaining. When actually I really enjoyed the book. I loved Florence and Ben together (random acts of alleysnog aside), and I loved Florence’s family, who are all well-articulated in their individual weirdness. Despite Dad’s Unreasonable Funeral (which, let's very clear, is a me problem, not a book problem), I also loved what The Dead Romantics had to say about grief and love and stories, and earnestness got me in the feels a whole bunch of times. I mean, just look at this swoonful piece of writing:
Mwah. Just mwah.
The book has such a lot going on, thematically and in terms of actual happenings, that it sometimes feels a little over-burdened by itself. For example, at Dad’s Unreasonable Funeral, Florence reads a letter he’s written to his family. Except she doesn’t read it to the reader. She reads it at the funeral and narrates what it contained. And I never quite worked out how I felt about this: whether it felt right that it remained private the family, or that I was sad that I didn’t get to hear her father “speak”. Despite being dead, he gets a lot of textual attention, so he’s very much a person, rather than an abstract or a plot point (and he does not, at any point, show up as a ghost--except that letter kind of IS his ghost) but death and stories are two of the book’s major themes. I think getting to hear his letter would have brought these together beautifully at the novel’s emotional climax. But I’m definitely not saying A Wrong Choice was made here. I can absolutely see why this scene happens the way it does. I can just imagine an alternative that could have worked too.
I’m starting to realise I’ve got a laundry list of things I could pick at, but they’re all pretty personal to me and my tastes (like where my own earnestness line is drawn, and why does everybody in this universe read paper books? Does nobody own an e-reader? They’re so much more convenient) and, ultimately, they kind of don’t matter. Because, however I felt about whatever, the book worked for me far more than it didn’t work. It’s an ambitious, unusual romance that is very much committed to telling the story it wants to tell in the way it wants to tell it. And, above all else, I admire it for that and I’m glad it exists in the genre, quietly expecting you to believe in ghosts, and then completely re-defining what we expect a ghost story to mean.
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Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.
And remember: I am not here to judge your drag, I mean your book. Books are art and art is subjective. These are just my personal thoughts. They are not meant to be taken as broader commentary on the general quality of the work. Believe me, I have not enjoyed many an excellent book, and my individual lack of enjoyment has not made any of those books less excellent or (more relevantly) less successful.
This is an impressively weird book. I was trying to describe it to a friend, and I ended up with “Well, the heroine is a ghost writer who sees ghosts, and her family own a funeral home, and the love interest just died.” It’s also deeply, unabashedly and fearlessly earnest—which I think makes it, not quite a love it or hate it kind of experience, but at the very least the sort of thing that either works for you or doesn’t.
Mostly, it worked for me.
Before I get into it, though, I should just add, or at least clarify, that when I talk about The Dead Romantic’s earnestness, it’s a dimension of the text I legitimately admired, and I think it functions very successfully as a way to … omg is complexify a word? It shouldn’t be a word, it’s repulsive. But, like, functions very successfully as a way to add nuance and depth to a heroine who could otherwise get shoved into the quirky box and left there. Quirky heroines are kind of a complicated trope in the genre that I don’t feel super qualified to comment on. I think they can be very successful, in that they represent a subversion of the massively male-gazey manic pixie dream girl thing, as well as sort of pushing back against conventional ideas of how women should behave or how female characters should be written. But they can also end up Too Much territory (clown shoes on the wall has sort of become a personal shorthand for this) or overlap with Not Like Other Girls which is a problematic trope all of its own.
For me, what’s interesting about Florence is that while she has elements in common with the Quirky Heroine, in that when we first meet her, she’s wearing an over-sized tweed coat, hasn’t washed her hair, and is taking a cactus to the professional meeting she’s running late for, and her family background is this whole Six Feet Under funeral home scenario, but actually she’s not really quirky. She’s just painfully, awkwardly, unglamorously earnest. And I mean that in a good way. Because you can’t write un-earnestly about being earnest, and we live in a world that does not—as a general rule—value or celebrate earnestness.
All of which said, one of the difficulties of earnestness is that it’s sort of like trying to calibrate your toaster knob (not a euphemism). In the same way it’s borderline impossible to strike the right balance between burned-to-a-crisp and still-just-bread, the emotional space between heart-strikingly earnest and a little bit cringe seems infinitesimally and unpredictably small. Also, let me make very clear, very personal. So while there were elements of earnestness in this book that really got me in my squishy feelings, there were also moments that did the exact opposite (like the public confrontation Florence gets into with her small town nemesis where, totally unprompted, Florence is all "I forgive you" and I'm all "oh no, must you be so toe-curlingly American"). But, as you can see from that example, this very much a Your Mileage May Vary type reaction.
Just to give a bit of context, the deal here—as I mentioned above—is that the heroine of The Dead Romantics, Florence Day, is the ghost writer for a famous romance writer. As is required of a romcom heroine, she fled her small American town for the big city. Her family runs the town funeral town and are generally accounted a bit strange, albeit in a benign way. This all changed for Florence, though, when she helped the ghost of a thirteen-year-old boy solve his own murder and, suddenly, she was bullied as a weirdo, an attention seeker, and a liar. Her ghost writing (oh do you see, she sees ghosts, she is a ghost writer…), too, has recently hit a bit of a snag because, following a disaster break-up with a man she thought was The One, she no longer believes in love and, consequently, can’t write the romance she’s contracted to. On top of which, her old editor has recently retired, having been replaced with a hot guy. And THEN (wow, this feels like a lot) Florence’s dad dies, requiring her to return to the small town that exiled her, make peace with her (very loving) family and fulfil her dead father’s entirely unreasonable funeral requests. Seriously, the dude wants, like, Elvis and a thousand wildflowers organised by colour, and God knows what else. Obviously these are all carefully calculated acts of logistical tyranny to allow Florence to experience moments of emotional significance, and they are clearly supposed to be about helping his family come to terms with his loss, rather than a list of arbitrary demands for someone too dead to appreciate them. But sheesh. Given how fucking awful funerals are to arrange, I don’t know how I would feel about my legacy to my loved ones being “catharsis through administration.” Oh, and the hot editor guy was hit by a car and is now haunting Florence. They develop feelings.
Okay, so that is definitely a lot. But it does work, despite a touch of disconnect between where the book starts and where it ends up going. There’s a fair bit of publishing shade thrown here, which I very much appreciated in a popcorn.gif kind of way. For example, Florence’s first book, a romance, written under her own name, basically didn’t sell, and the house blamed her and dropped her (too real, man, too real) and I’m pretty sure her horrendous ex-boyfriend is a sort of straight Dan Mallory. He doesn’t leave cups of urine in his boss’s office (as far as we know) but he lives his life as a trail of lies and pitches himself to literary fame by co-opting a woman’s story. More seriously, though, The Dead Romantics has powerful things to say about grief and complicated things to say about family, both of which I am very here for, and the romance with dead hot editor is sweet and heartfelt, despite what felt to me like a rather shaky beginning.
I think the way the relationship between Florence and Ben (I should probably stop calling him Hot Editor Guy) is initially established was the main factor in my sense that the beginning of the novel is the teeniest bit misaligned from the rest. This isn’t a big deal, I hasten to add, but you know when it feels like the edges of things don’t quite match up? Basically Florence and Ben have their meeting, and Florence is all like “can I write a romance with a sad ending” (because … she’s a romance lover who genuinely wants to challenge the one central tenant of the genre? Girl.) and Ben, very sensibly, is like fuck no, and I want the manuscript tomorrow, and they’re suddenly In Conflict, and then Florence’s bestie drags her to something that basically seems to be The Moth and while she’s running away from her ex, who is about to do a bit, she runs into Ben, who happens to be there, and they randomly start making out in an alley? And, honestly, it all feels very compressed and out of nowhere: they were literally just having an argument about the HEA in romance while he was setting her an impossible deadline and now they’re at the same event on the same evening? Plus, at the point they’re snogging in the alley, she doesn’t know he knows that she’s the ghost writer (she poses as the romance author’s assistant) but SHE knows she’s the ghost writer, and we find out later, HE knows too … so what are you both doing right now? You can’t French your editor and your editor shouldn’t be Frenching you. I mean, right? Surely? There’s all sorts of power dynamics in play there, that neither one of them even stops to consider, although it quickly becomes irrelevant due to death of one party. Although that strikes me as a shaky reasoning for embarking on a lawsuit-enticing relationship with a professional colleague: "oh it'll be fine if one of us dies."
Retrospectively I do wonder if this scene in the alley was to establish a grounding of physical desire between Florence and Ben, given he’s a ghost and they can’t touch each other for the rest of the book. Which is, you know, a bit depressing, to say nothing of allocentric. Not that being ace is equivalent to being dead, but I think the assumption that touch (with an implication of sexual touch) is unquestionably integral to a functional relationship is problematic on principle. And, actually, there’s a moment later in the book where they discuss the reality of being in a long-term relationship where one of you is dead, and lack of touch/sex wasn’t, at that point, treated as any sort of major factor or deal breaker (which, again, I thought was nice: because while I do think touch can be an important facet of intimacy I don’t think it’s the be all and end all of everything).
I also really wish that Ben’s consent had been considered even a little bit relevant to the alleysnog. It turns out he really does want to be alleysnogged because he alleysnogs Florence after she’s alleysnogged him. But at the point she alleysnogs him, she has no notion he’s even interested in her (he could be gay, she might not be his type, she’s a WRITER HE’S WORKING WITH) let alone up for an alleysnog. But she just plants one on him regardless and while she apologises afterwards she’s more focused on herself (“I don’t usually do this”) than the reality that she could have just sexually assaulted someone? Even tall hot editors get to consent y’know.
Basically, this whole alleysnog business felt odd and uncomfortable to me, to the point that it felt almost like it had been jammed in at a later date or left in after subsequent editing rounds, especially because they barely mention it when Ben pops up as a ghost. And there’s a similarly out-of-place feeling scene when, post death, Ben sees Florence in the shower, and they’re both super embarrassed, and he blurts out that she has perfect breasts. And I think it’s meant to be cute in some way, or prove he’s attracted to her (which is already obvious) but it just makes him come across like an absolute arse. If you non-consensually witness a naked person, you apologise and leave quickly, you don’t take a moment to rate their body parts no matter how flustered you are or how much you like the body parts in question: “Oops, sorry I walked in on you, and now you’re screaming and trying to cover yourself, but I’ve just got to say: gorgeous vulva. The way your pubic hair frames the shape of it? Beautiful. Love it. A+. Sorry again.”
It's sections like this that make me ask myself who didn’t trust who when these scenes were conceived: did the editor or the author not trust readers to believe in the relationship if they hadn’t been witness explicitly to physical desire, or did the editor not trust the author with the characters, or did the author not trust their own characters? If I may take a moment to be uncomfortably earnest: someone should have trusted more. For my money (and admittedly I’m only one person) the relationship is tender and genuine, and there’s so much emotional tension around the fact that, y’know, BEN IS DEAD that forcing this specifically body-related UST into the story felt blunt in a way it didn’t have to.
Urk, this feels like a lot complaining. When actually I really enjoyed the book. I loved Florence and Ben together (random acts of alleysnog aside), and I loved Florence’s family, who are all well-articulated in their individual weirdness. Despite Dad’s Unreasonable Funeral (which, let's very clear, is a me problem, not a book problem), I also loved what The Dead Romantics had to say about grief and love and stories, and earnestness got me in the feels a whole bunch of times. I mean, just look at this swoonful piece of writing:
Standing there in the middle of the dandelion field, looking up into Ben’s soft ocher eyes, I began to realize that love wasn’t dead, but it wasn’t forever, either. It was something in between, a moment in time where two people existed at the exact same moment in the exact same place in the universe.
Mwah. Just mwah.
The book has such a lot going on, thematically and in terms of actual happenings, that it sometimes feels a little over-burdened by itself. For example, at Dad’s Unreasonable Funeral, Florence reads a letter he’s written to his family. Except she doesn’t read it to the reader. She reads it at the funeral and narrates what it contained. And I never quite worked out how I felt about this: whether it felt right that it remained private the family, or that I was sad that I didn’t get to hear her father “speak”. Despite being dead, he gets a lot of textual attention, so he’s very much a person, rather than an abstract or a plot point (and he does not, at any point, show up as a ghost--except that letter kind of IS his ghost) but death and stories are two of the book’s major themes. I think getting to hear his letter would have brought these together beautifully at the novel’s emotional climax. But I’m definitely not saying A Wrong Choice was made here. I can absolutely see why this scene happens the way it does. I can just imagine an alternative that could have worked too.
I’m starting to realise I’ve got a laundry list of things I could pick at, but they’re all pretty personal to me and my tastes (like where my own earnestness line is drawn, and why does everybody in this universe read paper books? Does nobody own an e-reader? They’re so much more convenient) and, ultimately, they kind of don’t matter. Because, however I felt about whatever, the book worked for me far more than it didn’t work. It’s an ambitious, unusual romance that is very much committed to telling the story it wants to tell in the way it wants to tell it. And, above all else, I admire it for that and I’m glad it exists in the genre, quietly expecting you to believe in ghosts, and then completely re-defining what we expect a ghost story to mean.
Read
November 11, 2024pre-read:
we on a roll with ashley poston! i’m just loving her books sm omg and i hope this lives up to my expectations as well
we on a roll with ashley poston! i’m just loving her books sm omg and i hope this lives up to my expectations as well
January 31, 2025
⋆˚✿˖°꒰ঌ 3.5 ★ ໒꒱ ༘*.ﾟ
꒰🎙️꒱ؘ play ꕤ*.ﾟᯓ★
je te laisserai des mots by Patrick Watson
die with a smile by Bruno Mars & Lady Gaga
I think the universe is against me writing this silly review bc I've been thinking and 'writing' for almost 3 hours? I mean, wasn't actually writing since I got into a fight with a roach but oh well😔 (almost lost it, but got my revenge after 1 hour and half).
But that's enough of this story.
This was the first book by Ashley Poston I've ever picked up and I'm not disappointed, at all!😋 her writing wasn't bad and the characters were nice: the fmc, Florence, was very relatable🥹 and our love interest, Benji, is a cutie patootie.
The book follows Florence Day, a ghostwriter for a renowned romance author, as she navigates a difficult return to her hometown followed by her surprisingly dead (and handsome🫦) editor, who only she can see.
The plot was good, most of the time and the little plot twists here and there, absolute chef kiss!! But some chapters weren't interesting, like I couldn't care less about them😭and this created an alternation between parts that I couldn't wait to read and parts that I didn't care to read. The chapters are short, which is an appreciated trait in a book, but I wished there were a bit longer to focus more on Benji's background and some aspects of the book. This was surprising, since I would never say to make the chapters longer (hardcore short chapters fan🫱🏼🫲🏽) but that's how much I was invested.
Overall I would recommend this: there are some deep themes, such as grief and regret, and if you're okay with that and think that the plot is intriguing, you should give it a go. It's a bit different from the usual romance novels but it's worth giving a try🫶🏼
“You did say romance was dead.”“Aren’t you?"
br with lovely emss
I'm so excited to read this🤭have no idea of what's going on with the plot but I'm in for surprises
Because if there was one thing more powerful than death itself, it was true, undeniable love.
꒰🎙️꒱ؘ play ꕤ*.ﾟᯓ★
je te laisserai des mots by Patrick Watson
die with a smile by Bruno Mars & Lady Gaga
I think the universe is against me writing this silly review bc I've been thinking and 'writing' for almost 3 hours? I mean, wasn't actually writing since I got into a fight with a roach but oh well😔 (almost lost it, but got my revenge after 1 hour and half).
But that's enough of this story.
This was the first book by Ashley Poston I've ever picked up and I'm not disappointed, at all!😋 her writing wasn't bad and the characters were nice: the fmc, Florence, was very relatable🥹 and our love interest, Benji, is a cutie patootie.
The book follows Florence Day, a ghostwriter for a renowned romance author, as she navigates a difficult return to her hometown followed by her surprisingly dead (and handsome🫦) editor, who only she can see.
I wasn’t good at other people’s emotions because I didn’t know how to help, usually.
When someone was in pain, I wanted to fix it.
But I couldn’t.
The plot was good, most of the time and the little plot twists here and there, absolute chef kiss!! But some chapters weren't interesting, like I couldn't care less about them😭and this created an alternation between parts that I couldn't wait to read and parts that I didn't care to read. The chapters are short, which is an appreciated trait in a book, but I wished there were a bit longer to focus more on Benji's background and some aspects of the book. This was surprising, since I would never say to make the chapters longer (hardcore short chapters fan🫱🏼🫲🏽) but that's how much I was invested.
"You know, you being angry on my behalf is kinda sweet. I wish I’d met you sooner when you were alive.”
“Me, too".
Overall I would recommend this: there are some deep themes, such as grief and regret, and if you're okay with that and think that the plot is intriguing, you should give it a go. It's a bit different from the usual romance novels but it's worth giving a try🫶🏼
“You did say romance was dead.”“Aren’t you?"
br with lovely emss
I'm so excited to read this🤭have no idea of what's going on with the plot but I'm in for surprises
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