The Dead Romantics by 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.

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.

Paperback, 368 pages

Published June 28th 2022

 by Berkley

4.5/5 stars

Ashley Posten is not a new author to me. I have previously read her YA book, Among the Beasts & Briars, and loved it and honestly it wasn’t till I was partway through this book that I made the connection.

The Dead Romantics is a story about Florence Day, told from her POV. A ghost writer for a famous author she doesn’t just have writers block, she has romance block after a terrible break up. What follows is her return to the home she left, well, not exactly left, but was practically driven out of 10 years previous as word of her ability to converse with ghosts, was met with mockery, amongst other things.

The Dead Romantics is a book about relationships, about grief and healing past hurts. And there are ghosts which just blends in perfectly with the family business of a funeral home. What transpires is a heartwarming ghosty romance that was entertaining and fun to read. It was unique and I’m so happy I went into this story blind.

A big shout out to the IG reading community for highly recommending this one which had me grabbing it. My only beef is why I waited so long to crack it open.

This book was part of my 2022 Reading off my Shelf Challenge