The Dead Romantics | Review

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.

I kept hearing great things about this book and now I know why. It was all about grief and love and heartbreak and hope.

I loved this book. I loved the romance, the exploration of grief, the inner thoughts of a struggling writer, and everything in-between. 

The eccentric-ness of this book made me love it so much. We have Florence, who can see ghosts no matter where she’s at. When she’s forced to return to the town who never accepted her, she must confront not only her future without her dad, but also the past and what it all meant to her. Florence was the perfect character to lead this story. I truly don’t think things would have hit me as strongly or emotionally without Florence. She had lots of ghosts in her past to confront, a new ghost in the form of a very handsome editor, and the future of her writing. I wish I could properly explain how beautiful this book was, but you’ll just have to read it to find out.

There was a lovely slow-ish burn romance, as one has to be when one half of the couple is a ghost. We had Ben, who was a hard-hitting book editor, but also a really cute, blush-y guy. He was so adorable most of the time that I couldn’t help but fall in love with him. It was truly impossible to resist. I loved the scenes with him and Florence as they talked through their pasts and what they wished their futures could look like. They were so good together and I’m so happy I was able to experience their connection.

Lastly, I have to point out that while there were some parts of this book that were easy enough to guess, there were other parts that completely surprised. Particularly, the small twist at the end had me saluting Poston for her ingenuity.

If you like romance novels, even if you’re not a big paranormal romance person, read this book! There is a happy ending and I promise it will all be worth it.

Rating

To check out my other reviews, click here. Or to check out more books by Ashley Poston, go to her GoodReads profile or her website.