The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

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.

I am obviously far from the target reader demographics this book is intended for but I still found it to be an pleasant, if not predictable read. It’s a comforting feel-good romance novel ironically focusing on a protag who believes love is dead after being betrayed and taken advantage of by a insensitive ex/aspiring author. I’m not a typical fan of the romance novel genre so take my opinions with a grain of salt, but I picked this up based on intriguing synopsis and the extended pun on “romance is dead.” Also the concept of a ghostwriter having to write a novel while in the presence of a ghost of her editor, genius.

Despite my initial excitement for the book’s concept and plot, majority of the time I wished the novel dug a little deeper (get it-) into the themes of coping with loss, healing from betrayal (both romantically and socially) and returning to one’s roots. I acknowledge the primary purpose of this book is the romance, but during some of the quieter moments it often showed signs of being something more profound and touching making it all the more frustrating when it settles for skimming the surface of these heavier subjects instead.

While reading the story I couldn’t help but laugh at how emotionally volatile and avoidant Florence’s thoughts and actions were, granted this is coming from a reader who’s far closer in personality to Benji. Poston gives it her best to rationalize and draw you in to Florence’s struggles, but I occasionally found the constant emotional outburst tiring, particularly the several chapters where she repeats “Dad is dead” unironically about 10 times within three pages. That being said, one of my irl friends has an uncanny resemblance to Florence’s internal thoughts and feelings right down to her wallowing pick-me-up instant mac and cheese dinner so I know many readers other readers find her extremely relatable. Ben also neatly fits the perfect dreamy lead role but at the cost of coming off as being too perfect and slightly bland. I appreciate flawed characters that are grounded with a touch of realism; Ben always says the right words, has a tragic yet cliched backstory, has a heart of gold despite being professional and organized, it’s like checking off obligatory traits on the ideal love interest tropes.

This was going at a steady 3 to 3.5 rating up until after Mr. Day’s funeral sequence. Maybe my frequent reading of crime and mystery thrillers is skewing this, but up until that point there wasn’t a single plot twist or revelation that I didn’t see coming (character growth moments and familial developments included). However there was one particular surprise related to Ann Nichols that pleasantly surprised me which helped solidify the ending for me. The final 5 chapters also were handled with more finesse and attention to detail (or rather attention to avoiding potential plot holes) than I expected for this genre bumping this up just barely up to the 4 star level.

I realize this review sounds quite negative (apparently Florence isn’t the only one’s romance that’s dead on arrival), but overall I thought it was still a fun and light-hearted read; it was often good, but so close to being great. And for being so far from my preferred genres and character tones, I think The Dead Romantics did a pretty admirable job! The fact that I’m adding Poston’s recent The Seven Year Slip to my to-read list should be considered a resounding success.