Embedded Files
The Dead Romantics
Review By: Garima Agrawal
Pace: Medium
Level: Beginner
Genre: Fiction, Rom-com, Paranormal and Contemporary Romance
Triggers: Unexpected death of a parent, Mention of death of a child, Emotionally manipulative ex-boyfriend
Review:
A love story between a ghost and a human was the last thing I thought I needed this year.
'The Dead Romantics' by Ashley Poston is a book about a ghostwriter for a famous author who, after a very bad breakup, no longer believes in love. She's not able to write, and her new editor, Benji Andor, refuses to give her an extension to finish her book.
She is struck with a tragedy and has to go back home but unexpectedly crashes into the ghost of her very dead editor. Sparks fly from there. The book takes us through the journey of Florence's weird and complicated life and how she overcomes them.
I like to believe that I'm over my romance reading phase, which, for the most part, is true because nothing seems appealing nowadays, but boy, after a stressful exam week, a good romance is all that can fix my spirits (pun intended). My belief in love might be buried six feet under, but a good romance is something that can revive me from the dead.
I chose this book mainly because of how sick I thought the title was, plus I hadn't read any of Poston's work, so this seemed like an amazing opportunity to find my new favourite romance author, and oh my god, I have a lot of thoughts.
Writing-
I loved the writing. IT WAS SO COOL. The book was written from Florence Day's point of view, and the way her thoughts rolled out in her head is the same way I think. The pauses, the double guessing, the dead humour, all of it was so sick and fun to read because I related to it SO MUCH. The setting was used so beautifully and described in the best way possible. But there were some parts where she lost me in the plot because I caught myself skimming through the book a few times.
Characters-
The standout in this book, in my opinion, is how well the characters are written. Each character has a backstory or something that makes them so human to connect to. Each one has its own struggles and faults that make it wonderful to read. The other characters, like the siblings and the parents of Florence, her Ex-boyfriend, and her best friend, are all written well enough that you can understand their distinct personalities, other than being related to her. Usually, with rom-coms, the expectation is that there is this one messed-up character that gets fixed by their love interest. But here, both Florence and Benji are going through their own disturbances and problems, and together come out of it.
Other than that, the wholesome relationship between Florence and her family, especially her father, was something that really warmed my heart.
I do feel that the book was a bit longer than it should have been. But the obscurity of the plot kinda saves it. Another thing that I really like about the book is, for the most part it's a clean romance, which is not really normal to see these days after the rise of 'booktok' and 'bookstgram'.
Overall, it's a cutesy read for all those people who enjoy a 'good sunshine day read' kinda romance with little to no smut.
Had me squeal multiple times.
Fav characters: Benji, Carver, Rose
One-line review: A very cutesy cutesy romance.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse