Charming and poignant, this ghost story is a little bit romance and a little bit women's fiction. Our hero is a ghost, so that causes plenty of tension, naturally. But as someone who exclusively reads romance novels, I wasn't making an exception for this. There's a sweet and swoony love story wrapped up in the center of a somewhat heavy book about grief and processing loss. Mixing bleak moments with hopeful ones, this intricately weaves together so many important themes in a masterful way. And the ghost puns! SO MANY ghostly references within the text, I loved it. The romance reader in me gobbled up every little bit of the romance; I personally wanted a stronger focus on that, but that's because I'm greedy. One of the best parts of the book is how it balances the light with the dark - there's as much time spent on the pain of death as there is the hope for the future. And that one-of-a-kind feel is what makes this a truly special book - a truly special romance novel - even if this romance reader wanted a stronger focus on that element.
The story follows Florence, a woman who ghostwrites for a famous romance author. When her own debut novel failed, Florence was worried that her career was over, but she's found success being the woman behind the scenes. At least she did, until her own love life imploded a year ago. Now Florence is on a tight deadline to produce a happily ever after, and she just doesn't have it in her. She's starting to think that love is dead, and the sudden death of her father certainly doesn't do anything to change her mind. So when Florence's sexy and stern new editor shows up on the funeral home's doorstep - as a ghost - she's not sure what to think. Florence and Ben only met briefly before he became a ghost, and neither one is sure whether Florence is supposed to be helping Ben find peace or whether he's supposed to help Florence wrap up her novel while processing her father's death. Either way, as these two near-strangers spend time together, they begin to wish that they'd gotten closer before Ben crossed to the other side.
You're probably still skeptical about whether this is a romance novel or women's fiction, because of the ghost situation. I would call this a romance novel for readers who enjoy elements of women's fiction, because the book is truly Florence's journey, and that doesn't always involve Ben. But... yeah, it's a romance too. While much of the book is emotional and full of grief (not only is Ben grappling with the fact that he's no longer amongst the living, but Florence's father has just passed away), it's also got a funny, uplifting side. It's hopeful. It's a little bit swoony. I loved the opposites attract vibes between Ben and Florence, and how they definitely wouldn't have found their way together if Ben hadn't experienced this time with her. Florence is a chaotic mess of a woman who communicates with ghosts, so that's not something the controlled, workaholic Ben would've been able to handle pre-accident. There are these tiny shifts to the dynamic along the way, and Poston does a masterful job of tying everything together perfectly. That's why this romance reader is willing to round up her rating - while I was greedy for more romance, this is the kind of book that I'm going to be reflecting on for a long time. And it had exactly the kind of ending I wanted.
Audio note: The audio was excellent! The story is told exclusively from Florence's point of view, so there is just a single narrator. But she does a great job of differentiating between the characters and giving a stellar vocal performance. I found her voice soothing and easy to listen to, perfect for the many different facets of the story. The runtime was just slightly too long for one day/sitting (10-11 hours), but I was eager to pick the book back up every time I had to set it down. It also makes an awesome workday listen, because there's little to no steam (Florence and Ben literally can't touch), and the romance is an achingly slow burn. I'm sure I would've enjoyed the book in a more traditional format as well, but the audio definitely enhanced the experience.
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Popular Highlights in this book
“Everything that dies never really goes. In little ways, it all stays.”Highlighted by 2,193 Kindle readers- Love wasn’t a whisper in the quiet night. It was a yelp into the void, screaming that you were here.Highlighted by 1,715 Kindle readers
- “This is exhausting,” he agreed softly. “All of it. Pretending to be okay while the world changes around you and leaves you behind to sit with whatever loss you found.”Highlighted by 1,321 Kindle readers
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Honest Review of The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
Candi Diaz
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Reviews with images
A beautiful story about love, life, grief, and death
First, a huge thank you to Berkley Romance and Ashley Poston for sending me an eARC to read and review! 🥺 I so thoroughly enjoyed myself, and this really got me out of my reading slump!“you don’t ever lose the sadness, but you learn to love it because it becomes a part of you, and bit by bit, it fades. And, eventually, you’ll pick yourself back up and you’ll find that you’re okay. That you’re going to be okay. And eventually, it’ll be true”Knowing just how much I LOVED Ashley’s Geekerella series, as soon as I heard she was debuting her adult RomCom, with speculative elements, I knew I had to read it! And she did not disappoint. Ashley Poston knows how to handle grief so beautifully in her stories. It’s real, and it’s raw, while also so hopeful. I feel like grief is often portrayed as this heavy, terrible thing that weighs us down, keeping us from life. And yes, that is a part of it. But through this story, Ashley shows us how much more to it there is. Grief is love. Love for the people who have left us—which doesn’t end when they’re gone, we take it with us. Love for the people we still have—who make it easier to get through. Ashley shows also how joy and grief can live simultaneously, and it’s ok to feel all these things at once. That death is sad, but it’s also a celebration of life.“Love wasn’t a whisper in the quiet night. It was a yelp into the void, screaming that you were here.”This was also, of course, at it’s core a love story. Florence and Ben are honestly just so perfect for each other! I loved how their relationship developed. Their banter and wit, their chemistry. Do you know how engaging chemistry has to be when they LITERALLY CANT TOUCH BECAUSE HE’S A GHOST?! 🤣 It is not easy to do, but Ashley made it seem easy. I was hooked on them from their first meeting, and I absolutely loved the way it ended. I will be dreaming of Ben and Florence for a long time to come.“Worth wasn’t dependent on someone else’s love for you, or your usefulness, or what you could do for them.”Lastly, in this story, Ashley just so eloquently put to words so many things I struggle with myself. Learning how to unlearn that your worth depends on what you can do for other people, rather than just *being*. Learning how to let others in, let others help you, let them love you. Even if you feel you don’t deserve it, because you do. Learning not to let people walk over you, or use your kindness and your love against you either. I loved all the little tidbits about the publishing industry, and the things no one likes to talk about. Authors who are amazing writers but don’t “make it” because they don’t have the right recourses. How so many writers define their worth by their success, but the only thing that matters is their words finding the people who need to hear them. I truly cannot wait to read whatever comes next to Ashley, because I know I will love it.“…we popped champagne and played Dad’s favorite burned CD and danced through the parlors to all the good goodbyes, because endings were just new beginnings.”
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2022
“you don’t ever lose the sadness, but you learn to love it because it becomes a part of you, and bit by bit, it fades. And, eventually, you’ll pick yourself back up and you’ll find that you’re okay. That you’re going to be okay. And eventually, it’ll be true”
Knowing just how much I LOVED Ashley’s Geekerella series, as soon as I heard she was debuting her adult RomCom, with speculative elements, I knew I had to read it! And she did not disappoint. Ashley Poston knows how to handle grief so beautifully in her stories. It’s real, and it’s raw, while also so hopeful. I feel like grief is often portrayed as this heavy, terrible thing that weighs us down, keeping us from life. And yes, that is a part of it. But through this story, Ashley shows us how much more to it there is. Grief is love. Love for the people who have left us—which doesn’t end when they’re gone, we take it with us. Love for the people we still have—who make it easier to get through. Ashley shows also how joy and grief can live simultaneously, and it’s ok to feel all these things at once. That death is sad, but it’s also a celebration of life.
“Love wasn’t a whisper in the quiet night. It was a yelp into the void, screaming that you were here.”
This was also, of course, at it’s core a love story. Florence and Ben are honestly just so perfect for each other! I loved how their relationship developed. Their banter and wit, their chemistry. Do you know how engaging chemistry has to be when they LITERALLY CANT TOUCH BECAUSE HE’S A GHOST?! 🤣 It is not easy to do, but Ashley made it seem easy. I was hooked on them from their first meeting, and I absolutely loved the way it ended. I will be dreaming of Ben and Florence for a long time to come.
“Worth wasn’t dependent on someone else’s love for you, or your usefulness, or what you could do for them.”
Lastly, in this story, Ashley just so eloquently put to words so many things I struggle with myself. Learning how to unlearn that your worth depends on what you can do for other people, rather than just *being*. Learning how to let others in, let others help you, let them love you. Even if you feel you don’t deserve it, because you do. Learning not to let people walk over you, or use your kindness and your love against you either. I loved all the little tidbits about the publishing industry, and the things no one likes to talk about. Authors who are amazing writers but don’t “make it” because they don’t have the right recourses. How so many writers define their worth by their success, but the only thing that matters is their words finding the people who need to hear them. I truly cannot wait to read whatever comes next to Ashley, because I know I will love it.
“…we popped champagne and played Dad’s favorite burned CD and danced through the parlors to all the good goodbyes, because endings were just new beginnings.”
A beautiful story about love, life, grief, and death
Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2022
First, a huge thank you to Berkley Romance and Ashley Poston for sending me an eARC to read and review! 🥺 I so thoroughly enjoyed myself, and this really got me out of my reading slump!Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2022
“you don’t ever lose the sadness, but you learn to love it because it becomes a part of you, and bit by bit, it fades. And, eventually, you’ll pick yourself back up and you’ll find that you’re okay. That you’re going to be okay. And eventually, it’ll be true”
Knowing just how much I LOVED Ashley’s Geekerella series, as soon as I heard she was debuting her adult RomCom, with speculative elements, I knew I had to read it! And she did not disappoint. Ashley Poston knows how to handle grief so beautifully in her stories. It’s real, and it’s raw, while also so hopeful. I feel like grief is often portrayed as this heavy, terrible thing that weighs us down, keeping us from life. And yes, that is a part of it. But through this story, Ashley shows us how much more to it there is. Grief is love. Love for the people who have left us—which doesn’t end when they’re gone, we take it with us. Love for the people we still have—who make it easier to get through. Ashley shows also how joy and grief can live simultaneously, and it’s ok to feel all these things at once. That death is sad, but it’s also a celebration of life.
“Love wasn’t a whisper in the quiet night. It was a yelp into the void, screaming that you were here.”
This was also, of course, at it’s core a love story. Florence and Ben are honestly just so perfect for each other! I loved how their relationship developed. Their banter and wit, their chemistry. Do you know how engaging chemistry has to be when they LITERALLY CANT TOUCH BECAUSE HE’S A GHOST?! 🤣 It is not easy to do, but Ashley made it seem easy. I was hooked on them from their first meeting, and I absolutely loved the way it ended. I will be dreaming of Ben and Florence for a long time to come.
“Worth wasn’t dependent on someone else’s love for you, or your usefulness, or what you could do for them.”
Lastly, in this story, Ashley just so eloquently put to words so many things I struggle with myself. Learning how to unlearn that your worth depends on what you can do for other people, rather than just *being*. Learning how to let others in, let others help you, let them love you. Even if you feel you don’t deserve it, because you do. Learning not to let people walk over you, or use your kindness and your love against you either. I loved all the little tidbits about the publishing industry, and the things no one likes to talk about. Authors who are amazing writers but don’t “make it” because they don’t have the right recourses. How so many writers define their worth by their success, but the only thing that matters is their words finding the people who need to hear them. I truly cannot wait to read whatever comes next to Ashley, because I know I will love it.
“…we popped champagne and played Dad’s favorite burned CD and danced through the parlors to all the good goodbyes, because endings were just new beginnings.”
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Top reviews from other countries
Annie Tasaka
This book will stay with me for a while.
Reviewed in Canada on October 23, 2023
Nimet
A ghostwriter x an actual ghost. Match made in heaven.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 22, 2024
Inizia con un Libro
il romanticismo non muore mai, e neanche i libri
Reviewed in Italy on June 15, 2023
Inizia con un Libro
Reviewed in Italy on June 15, 2023
Ogni aspetto di questo libro è semplicemente straordinario.
Ma veniamo alla trama: la famiglia Day (composta da madre, padre e i tre figli -> Florence, Carver e Alice) è una famiglia molto eccentrica e gestisce un’attività di pompe funebri in una piccola cittadina, hanno una visione tutta loro della morte e onorano le persone che se ne vanno in un modo rispettoso e unico.
Florence Day (la protagonista) e suo padre condividono un dono speciale: entrambi possono comunicare e aiutare le anime delle persone decedute che hanno ancora qualcosa in sospeso nella vita terrena. Ahimè, quando a 13 anni Florence risolvere un caso che riguarda l’omicidio di un suo compagno di classe, grazie proprio a questo dono, viene bullizzata e isolata da alcuni suoi concittadini.
Questo fatto la spingere a lasciare casa sua non appena fosse stata accettata da un college, e a non mettervici più piede per anni e anni.
Ma un bel giorno il suo destino prende una piega inaspettata. Dopo essere diventata una ghostwriter per una scrittrice di romanzi rosa di successo, si trova ad un punto morto (!): non riesce più a scrivere scene d’amore dopo la sua ultima delusione in questo campo! Il problema è che il suo nuovo editor, l’affascinante, altissimo e muscoloso Benji Andor, non vuole concederle l’ennesima proroga che le potrebbe permettere di finire l’ultimo libro compreso nel contratto stipulato da ghostwriter!
Sta ancora cercando di digerire questo diniego, quando riceve una chiamata da sua madre che la informa che il suo amato padre è venuto a mancare.
Così Florence si ritrova a tornare in quella cittadina da cui era fuggita/l’aveva fatta fuggire, ma le sorprese non finiscono qui:
Quando Florence apre la porta delle pompe funebri di famiglia, invece di ritrovarsi davanti qualcuno venuto a portare le condoglianze a lei, ai suoi fratelli e a sua madre, non solo vi trova invece un fantasma in cerca del suo aiuto, ma proprio il fantasma di Benji, il suo nuovo editore!
Questo libro mi ha toccata nel profondo, sia per il suo modo di parlare e gestire la morte, sia perché l’ho trovato proprio un viaggio quasi spirituale. Mi ha messa in pace con il mondo.
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