[Review] The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

Publisher's synopsis: 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 thoughts: This review is a long time coming. I was so excited for this book. I've loved all of Poston's YA books, and I couldn't wait to dive into her paranormal, adult debut. I actually started reading an advanced copy before it even came out. . .  and then I put it down. For months.

I didn't put The Dead Romantics down because I didn't like Florence or Ben, or because I didn't enjoy Poston's writing style. Quite the opposite, in fact. I set this one aside because I figured there was heartbreak on the horizon for Florence and I was so moved by the story that I didn't want to go through her heartbreak with her. 

When I couldn't stay away from Florence's troubles any longer, I dove back in and devoured the last half of the book. This ended up being a right book at the right time, and it was definitely a top read of 2022 for me. 

I can't recall the last book that made me feel this hopeful for a HEA. Florence had so many factors working against her: writer's block, losing her belief in love, the loss of her father, falling in love with someone she couldn't have. But Poston wrote this story in a way that didn't make me sad for Florence (despite a few tears towards the end). In fact, I spent the whole book hopeful; I didn't know how Poston was going to pull off a HEA for Florence and Ben, but I had this unwavering need for it to happen. 

There's very little I didn't absolutely love about this book. I loved Florence's journey from start to finish: her black sheep status within her family, her preternatural ability to see and talk to ghosts, even her loss in her belief in love. It all made me just love Florence's character. Of course, I also loved Ben. He was just a perfect (albeit slightly unattainable) book boyfriend. Ben and Florence's romance was admittedly nowhere near your standard courtship, but I could not get enough of those paranormal elements. 

Sometimes, books are meant to be read at a certain point in your life; as much as I loved the story and the writing when I first picked this one up, clearly I was meant to put it aside for a bit and devour it months later. The Dead Romantics ended up easily being one of my favorite reads of the year, and I can't wait to read Ashley Poston's next story. 

[While I ended up finishing the book with my own, purchased copy, I have to thank Berkley Publishing for providing an ARC of this title to get me started!]

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Release date: 6/28/22
Format: eARC/physical
eARC provided via: NetGalley