The Dead Romantics

The Dead Romantics first caught my attention on bookstagram. No surprise there. Everyone was all a'chatter about this paranormal RomCom so I snagged a library copy. 

This was a unique story that, for me, was a blend of romance with a ghostly vibe with an unexpected focus on grief, family, and a character's self-discovery. The story focused on Florence, a disenchanted romance ghostwriter who can see dead spirits. She has a book deadline looming and a new-to-her editor who happens to be a handsome fella whose life is about to drastically change. 

Unfortunately, this wasn't as Rom or Com as I was expecting. It started off strong and I loved that the main characters are from the publishing world, but the story slowed in the middle and readers weren't given enough time to buy into the connection between them. In fact, it often felt like the romance took a backseat to Florence's family dysfunction and their grief. But I was happy to see that things pick up towards the end when Poston gives readers a nice twist and a satisfying if predictable ending.

This was a unique story, and I can see the author has some good writing chops, but it fell just shy of being endearing, funny or a gushy romance for me. Instead, it fell more towards Contemporary Fiction with a focus on loss, family, and personal growth.

My Rating: 3 stars

Author: Ashley Poston

Genre: RomCom, Paranormal Romance

Type and Source: Trade Paperback from public library

Publisher: Berkley

First Published: June 28, 2022

Book Description from GoodReads: 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.

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.