Blog Tour Stop: Ashley Poston’s THE DEAD ROMANTICS.

Summary

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.

My Review

Wow, Ashley Poston’s The Dead Romantics blew me away & had me freaking crying before taking my kids to gymnastics the other morning 😆.

This book engaged me emotionally on every level—it kind of has a Book Lovers effect in that way. The story weaves in happiness & grief, joy & sadness, laughter & tears in a most affirming way—as the book makes us aware time & time again, that weaving is life itself. The sour sometimes but always the sweet too.

At the beginning of the book ghostwriter Florence Day asks to write the last book on her contract as a non-romance bc according to her, “romance is dead.” (Ok, Florence, check back in with me later 🙄🤣). The editor Benji Andor, a hottie who clearly turns cold by her ask, says no.

Shortly thereafter, Florence’s beloved dad passes & Benji Andor, her editor, arrives at her family’s funeral home as a ghost. Good thing that Florence can communicate with them—even if that actually made her infamous in her small town.

This book obviously deals with some tough topics, including the loss of Florence’s dad, but it handles them so lovingly, so eager to see the possible beauty left in the world even through tears & wrenching sadness.

I missed Florence’s dad even though he was only alive on page for a short portion of the book. Just as I was happy for her happy memories & the moments she shares with Benji—because Florence’s narration reeled me in & I could feel the fullness of her, of her family too, as a person.

Quirky, funny, loving, hopeful, this book hits every note & I loved living in it for a while. Every character in The Dead Romantics feels special & precious. More books like this one, please.

5 ⭐️. Release date: 06/28.


CWs: Death of father. References to Benji’s car accident. Benji was cheated on in the past. Grief. Past bullying. Florence helps a murdered child when she was a teen. Devastating break up that Florence is still hurting from.


[ID: a white woman wearing a blue dress with polka dots holds the ebook while standing in sunflowers. The first shot is from above; the second is from a small distance & shows her smiling.]