Review – The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Humor
Length: 366 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: June 28, 2022
ASIN: B09HTD8KQD
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed ebook from Library
Rating: 3/5 stars

“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.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this on ebook from my library.

Thoughts: This was a cute and fairly predictable paranormal romance. It was a quick read that I thought was fine but didn’t love. Previous to this book I have read a number of Poston’s books: Heart of Iron series (loved it), Bookish and the Beast (okay), Geekarella (okay), and Among the Beasts and Briars (liked it).

The story follows Florence Day, who left her home town to go to New York City to ghost write for a famous author. She suddenly has a new editor and a romance novel she can’t finish ghost writing because of a horrible break up she went through. Then the unspeakable happens, and her father dies. Now she is not only missing the deadline for her book, she has to travel back to her hometown where she is known as the odd girl who solved a mystery by talking to a ghost.

I liked some of the different elements to the story. Having Florence Day’s family own a mortuary and funeral home was quirky and fun. I also enjoyed that Florence could see ghosts, although I felt like we didn’t get enough of Florence interacting with ghosts throughout the book. The romance Florence gets involved in seems doomed from the start, but the “twist” was incredibly predictable. I was a bit disappointed in how predictable it all was.

This book ends up being more about Florence and her relationships with her family than anything else. It is also about Florence finding more confidence in herself and being okay with who she is and the path she has decided on.

This is an easy read and flows well. I just found it a bit…well boring…despite the paranormal elements. Everything about it is fine. It’s kind of a cozy paranormal romance mystery. I liked everyone and the story okay, but it just didn’t really suck me in and engage me.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this was okay. I just found it very predictable, somewhat boring, and not that engaging. I finished it but nothing that exciting ever really happened. If you are looking for a predictable, cozy romance with fairly subtle paranormal elements this might be a good book to pick up. It definitely wasn’t my favorite Poston book, though.