The Dead Romantics ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

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Ukrainian
Thai
G👀dreads About 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.

Genre: Fiction, Romance, Paranormal, Fantasy

The How/Why: No idea so probably a recommendation. I'm always fascinated by the funeral business...and ghosts... but romance? Not so much.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

🎉 Overall Storytelling? 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

🎣 Did it grab and keep my attention? 🎣🎣🎣🎣🎣

🗣️Would I recommend it to anyone? Yes ➕

🕮 Would I want a sequel? Yes ➕

📚 Would I want to read more books by this author? Yes ➕

💣💥 📢 Content Warnings? DɇaṪh, BŪllƴinᶃ

🌶 Spice? Spice light 🫑

🌪 Plot Twist? Yes

👟 Pace? Good

💻 Tidbits ~ I love this story, the family, the small town community, the love connection. I don't gravitate towards Romance but this one gets all the stars and all the hearts. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 💓💖💗💘💝

The Gift: Florence can see and communicate with ghosts. Sounds a little corny but it is NOT corny. It's not spooky or creepy. It's touching with a side of snarky banter.

Her family owns a funeral business. Only Florence and her father have the ability to interact with ghost, usually lingering seeking answers or just someone to talk things through before they move on. 

The Consequence: At 13 years old Florence helps solve a murder by communicating with a ghost. Her gift feels more like a curse as she's made fun of and bŪlliɇd to the point where she leaves town the minute she's old enough and doesn't want to ever go back. Her incredibly understanding family visits her periodically so she can stay away.

10 Years Later: She's a ghostwriter for a popular romance author. After a bad breakup filled with betrayal, she doesn't believe in true love or Happily Ever Afters anymore. 
“Because storybook love only existed for a lucky few—like my parents. They were the exception to the rule. I’d been fooling myself for far too long, believing in Grand Romantic Gestures and Happily Ever Afters. Those weren’t written for me. I wasn’t the exception. I was the rule.”
Romance books are supposed to have a HEA so she's beyond stuck. New editor Ben won't give her an extension. Things go from bad to worse when she gets the dreaded phone call that her father has died and she must go home. 

She's home. Her family is glad she's there even though her sister is a little cranky and still holding a grudge that she left. The town offers an outpouring of love and respect for her father. And then, in the doorway, no, that can't be Ben in a ghostly form. Yes, yes it is. 

The rest of the story is her coming to terms with missing her dad and regrets for not visiting, planning his funeral according to his quirky last wishes, getting to know her ghostly editor, and trying to break through her blank pages to finish her final book in the series of her ghostwriting gig. 

“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 will be true."

Kudos to the author for the ability to write about loss and grief and somehow it's not depressing, but uplifting and comforting. 

Here's to midnight cemetery walks and battery acid coffee aka zoom-zoom juice.

🎧 Narrator: Eileen Stevens 👍

🎧10.25 hours 🕮 368 pages

Extra Tidbits ~ Per Librarian Google: In real life they estimate between 50% and 80% of bestselling nonfiction books are written by or with the help of ghostwriters. Celebrity books closer to 90% and political closer to 100%. 
Due to ghostwriting strict non-disclosure agreements, there are not statistics on what percentage of fiction books utilize ghostwriters. Curiosity ghosted me on this one.

I created with Gemini AI

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