The Dead Romantics

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.