The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston is a story about love and grief and how we work our way through both - sometimes, hand in hand.

When I tell you this book made me sob, wow 🥲✋🏼

This story made me feel so many feelings and now I can’t wait till it’s out in the world so I can reread it and annotate the crap out of it.

The use of the supernatural could’ve gone very campy but it was perfect. Our MC, Florence Day, can able to see ghosts and happens upon her very hot (very dead) editor which, gets the ball rolling for us and opens a new world of supernatural romance. The romance and the banter between Florence and Benji were top-tier!

This book has some heavy topics but they’re presented in such a comforting way? Please prepare to have nonstop tears running down your face. It’s such a relatable story, trust me, you have to pick this one up when it releases!

The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston releases on June 28!

Thank you so much to Berkley Romance for the opportunity to read this e-ARC!

I LOVE Ashley Poston so much, i’ve only read her Once Upon A Con series but thoroughly enjoyed them so i’m stoked to have been able to read this book early! It had me in tears to my surprise, and was such a fun and entertaining and odd read! It was such a fun supernatural twist, if you’d call it! I highly recommend, such an interesting read!!

ashley poston once again you have stolen my heart.
Florence Day (which is a very rom-comy name btw I love it) no longer believes in love, which sucks because she's the ghost writer for a very popular romance author and her lack of belief in a happily ever after translates to her work. Needless to say, it's a bit of a struggle. It's a compound of series of unfortunate events - her (hot) new editor won't give her an extension, she finds out her father has passed away and has to go back home for the first time in a decade and apparently her editor is dead and is now a ghost who has unfinished business with her?

I really, really loved this book. Poston's writing style has always been something I've enjoyed and when I found out she was writing an adult romance I couldn't be more excited. This book was so much fun but also so different - our main character sees ghosts, likes to go on moonwalks through a cemetery and seemed all around like a little ball of chaos as a kid. Her and Ben's relationship was so adorable, their banter???? Ashley Poston knows how to write banter omg. ALSO I loved that in the family dynamic - Florence had her faults!! She wasn't a perfect person and that's okay!! It made her so real. I didn't really expect the themes of family and grief to be as prevalent and hit me as hard as it did but alas here we are.

The Dead Romantics, on my initial perusal, isn't my usual read but something about the synopsis piqued my curiosity so I decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did. The story of Florence and Benji is so wonderfully unlikely and yet so addictive that even if you don't normally read a novel that requires that you suspend belief about ghosts, you willing do so and you love every second of it.

Florence comes from a family who runs a funeral home and they're every bit as wonderful and quirky as you'd want them to be. She's escaped their small town to write in NYC (and to escape the unwanted and mean spirited attention of her peers...because of a ghost story) which is how she meets Benji. He's her new editor who refuses her request for a deadline extension...one that she's pushed back quite a few times. Her night only becomes worse when she discovers her dad is gone and she must get home to help bury him and navigate a hometown she hasn't been in in over ten years. You can only imagine her dread and then her surprise when Benji shows up as a ghost.



While their story is unlikely, it's so much fun to read. Both of them have interesting personalities that compliment each other, if for no other reason than for how different they are. She's free spirited, he's a little more uptight; she seems to be in avoidance mode, he tends to be more direct but it works. As she works through her grief, he does too. As she remembers what she loved about love, he also learns some things about himself when it comes to love and relationships. As the novel and their relationship progresses, you can't help but root for them.



While the big reveal wasn't all that much of a surprise to me, I didn't care because I loved all the moments leading up to it. The execution of the funeral, her fun family, the interesting townspeople, and both Florence and Benji's backstories all made this such a fun read; I really hated saying goodbye to them at the end.

To me, a 5 Star review is one that invokes a big response. When I am reading a story, the tears are rolling, and I cannot stop reading, it is going to be a winner.

I was thrilled to find a brand new author with the talent to crack a hardened heart like mine. So many romances and so little time anymore, but this one – this one is special!

Poston manages to surprise me, intrigue me, and envelop me right into an amazing story! I just freaking loved this book and could not stop reading! I do not even have enough adjectives to describe this one.

Awesome characters with deep souls and a story that was so special to me! I know this author is going to be one that will be on my watch list and Auto Buy list for a long time!

ALL THE STARS! This book is an all time favorite as it is a love letter to romance, family, grief and quirky family/town. This book was a delight to read.

I was captivated and delighted by this story of a ghostwriter and a ghost. Charming and compelling and captivating this adult debut by Poston suggests there are lots more wonderful stories we can look forward to.

This book was EVERYTHING. I loved it so much. A book about a ghostwriter of romance falling for the ghost of her editor...it's like it was written for me. It was soft and funny and perfectly paced. And while I guessed the twist early on, it didn't make the journey any less sweet or satisfying. This will definitely be one of my favorite reads of 2022.

books like this are the reason I'm glad that I don't read synopses sometimes

this book was a pleasure. there are themes about death so if those are triggering to you I wouldn't read this, but honestly I have trouble with death sometimes and I didn't find this sad or hard to read. it just made me feel warm. I saw other ppl say they found this book laugh out loud funny and I didn't really find myself laughing, but I enjoyed the book a lot.

again, this may be because I read this book without reading the synopsis, but I found I was often surprised by things that happened and felt like plot twists were thrown my way. I thought I was in for a regular romance and definitely wasn't

going to miss Florence Ben and her family so very much (even her dad. I left the book feeling like I really knew him)

overall a really warm lovely book

4.5 stars. Florence Day is a ghostwriter who can talk to ghosts. She’s ghostwritten three romances for a famous author, but she’s having trouble finishing the fourth book of her contract because she no longer believes in love. But her new, tall, handsome editor won’t give her an extension. Then, she gets a call that her father has died, and she has to return to the small town she was driven out of (after helping solve a murder with the help of a dead boy), and she gets unexpected help along the way.

This is a fun read. Even though a death of a loved one is what sets off the rest of the plot, it doesn’t seem sad, so I was surprised to find myself crying and grabbing at tissues more than once. It has the coincidences and implausible moments you expect in romance, mixed in with the complexities of family life and career and disappointments, and I enjoyed it a great deal.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this novel, which RELEASES JULY 5, 2022.

Review will post week of release date.

I almost passed this book up. The blurb was so intriguing with its mentions of ghostwriters and ghosts, funeral parlors, and dead editors, but I still hesitated. Mostly because I tend to grab up books like I’m hoarding in case of an apocalypse. I have zero willpower and my TBR shows it. But then one more email hit my inbox and I couldn’t resist anymore. I hit that read it button and never looked back. I’m so, so glad I did.

The Dead Romantics is a quirky, weirdly wonderful book about a woman finding her way through grief. Florence Day is a ghostwriter for an enormously popular romance author and she has a huge problem. She doesn’t believe in love or HEAs anymore. Which makes finishing this last contracted book an issue. She asks her new editor, who may or may not know she’s actually the ghostwriter and not just an assistant, for an extension, but when he says no she knows she’s in an impossible situation.

Then she receives news from home that her father has died and her whole world changes.


"For ten years, I hopped from one apartment to the next, chasing after a love story that wasn’t mine, trying to force myself to be the exception instead of the rule, and over and over again all I found was hearbreak and loneliness, and never did I see a murder of crows in a dead oak tree, or a ghost on my front steps, because I was like everyone else, normal and lost, and my dad was still alive."


It’s hard to encompass this book and the emotions it invokes with just a few paragraphs in a review, but I’ll do my best. When Florence heads back home after 10 years she is a little lost and deep in her grief for a father she adored. She feels like her life is in shambles, a failure who didn’t make it in the publishing world under her own name, who thought she found the “one” only to realize he used her for her stories and then stole them for his own book. Florence is a little bit of a mess and I loved her so much.


"We might’ve been a family in black, but our lives were filled with light and hope and joy. And that was something that Lee Marlow never understood, never wrote in his cold, technical prose.

It was a kind of magic, a kind of love story. I didn’t think he’d ever understand."


The Days are a staple in the small town community where she grew up. They own the only funeral parlor in town and have made giving heartfelt goodbyes to the dead and their loved ones the purpose of their lives. They are a marvelous group of individuals who embrace their differences and have a deep and abiding love for each other. They make this book shine and sparkle and I enjoyed every one of their interactions.

One of the gifts Florence and her father shared was the ability to see ghosts, which is what eventually drove Florence away from her hometown. But when she gets back to help with the funeral of her father an unexpected ghost appears… her new editor who refused to give her an extension.

Benji Andor doesn’t understand why no one else but Florence can see him. He doesn’t understand why he’s more shadow than solid. It’s up to Florence to help him realize that he is dead and figure out why he’s still around. What can she do to help him wrap up his unfinished business? As Florence plans a funeral and deals with sadness and grief and missed opportunities, they grow closer. Ben is there for her like no one really has been for a long time. He sees her. He understands her. He helps her believe in love again.

You would think this would be a deep, dark, heavy book, but it’s really not. There is sadness and a couple of times I did get that heavy feeling in my chest and head which means that tears are imminent… but I also laughed and smiled and felt a lightness of spirit at the end. There IS a HEA. There are also twists and turns and unexpected detours. Surprises that made me grin in delight. There is an ending that left me satisfied.

The Dead Romantics is such a fabulous journey of life and loss and love. I enjoyed it so very much. I’m going to gently place it on my keeper shelf to come back to when I need to revisit these characters.

Highly recommend.

Favorite Quote:

Love wasn’t a whisper in the quiet night.

It was a yelp into the void, screaming that you were here.

So this was utterly charming and absolutely what I needed. It felt like one of those supernaturally inclined hallmark movies which, anyone who knows me knows I love hallmark movies. It had all the relatively lighthearted ease of one of those while blending in some very poignant conversations about grief and family (I ended up calling my dad half in tears because “the dead dad in the book loves Bruce Springsteen and I needed to tell you that I love and appreciate you ;~;”)
It’s a fast read which I absolutely needed after reading a lot of complex high fantasy novels, and I lost count of the number of times it made me laugh out loud.

Some of the authorial name drops felt a little…much in the beginning but those for the most part tempered off and if that’s my only so-called complaint then that’s an overall good book.

I really wanted to like this book. I love the concept! However, this was a miss for me. I didn't go on with the writing, and the story felt off. I don't like the "she's so small, he's so tall" trope. There was something so dramatic and cheesy the whole thing.

This was soooo good! I just love Florence and her story. Especially love the little mix of supernatural. I was sad to finish it and would love more of her and her family’s antics.

The Dead Romantics is a delightful and engaging tale that is pure fun. I love how clever and relatable Florence is. This is a book that you will not want to put down but will stay up all night to finish.

this was a very funny and a very cute rom com thag i really do think that a lot of people are most likely going to really love

Did it make me cry on a train? Sure did.
I feel this book hits the grief of losing your dad unexpectedly right on the head. The romance was cute too though. Minus the weird almost sex scene with a ghost.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
I LOVED THIS!!!!!!! The writing was sweet and sincere. There were a lot of things I was hoping would happen within the story and I'm glad it all actually panned out. I just think the entire plot of this was super clever and really well executed. I can't wait for this to come out so I can sell it to everyone.

It's happened again - I've fallen in love with a book about books! The Dead Romantics was surprisingly one of the best and most unique romance novels I've read all year. It was funny, heartfelt, and very, very fun, though when more serious topics were being discussed, Poston did an excellent job switching the tone of the novel to fit the situation. Florence was a refreshing main character, and I absolutely loved the usage of chapter titles (why did they ever go away!?) in expressing Florence's mental state. If you're interested in romance novels (with a twist), books about books, and ghosts, The Dead Romantics is absolutely the book for you.

BRB - going to binge the entirety of Poston's publishings.

Hi this book destroyed my life but in a hot way.

All I know is that my full review will come later because I still need to process what I read. I haven’t cried this much because of a book in probably two years.

Did I have “ghost rolling up shirtsleeves to expose muscular forearms” on my 2022 new kink bingo board? No, no I did not. Ben was such a perfectly sweet cinnamon roll and exactly the perfectly sweet cinnamon roll Florence needed.

The book deals with death, grief, and mortality so it is a heavy read. Thus, Ben absolutely needed to just be everything light and fluffy and sugary and awkward that Florence could fall back on when life got dark and hard. If the ghost is also hard, well ce la vie.

There was lots of tragic lamenting, moaning regretfully, and mishandling of mortification. I don’t know about you, but same. If you don’t dramatically throw your head back against your headboard and yell “fuck” a la Roy Kent because a ghost is now your new sexual fantasy, then are you really reading this book?

I’m seriously so emo right now. Don’t talk to me unless you’re a ghost who wishes you could hold me in your shirtsleeves-rolled-up arms but you can’t because you’re a ghost.