The Dead Romantics

A GMA Book Club Pick (A Novel)

By: Ashley Poston

Narrated by: Eileen Stevens

Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

A New York Times Notable Book of 2022!

The New York Times Bestseller and Good Morning America Book Club Pick!

"I LOVED this book! ...Funny, breathtaking, hopeful, and dreamy.”—Ali Hazelwood, New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis

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.

"One of the Summer's Hottest Reads"—Entertainment Weekly

©2022 Ashley Poston (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"It’s ‘While You Were Sleeping’ meets ‘Six Feet Under,’ and I need to yell to everyone about how good it is…The result is an antidote for despair, a romance that is frank about the fact that life ends and time marches on but that nevertheless insists: We aren’t a gothic horror novel. We’re a love story. This is a book to make you laugh during the funeral scene and cry when the dance party begins."—The New York Times

“We could all use a good summer ghost story, and you can't get much better than Ashley Poston's adult fiction debut.”—Entertainment Weekly

“I LOVED this book. A beautiful, poignant story, full of beautiful, poignant characters. Florence is exactly the type of lovable, endearing, relatable lead I want to fall for, and her journey through learning how to love again had me squealing, sighing, laughing. The Dead Romantics is like a beautifully crafted puzzle: at the end all the pieces fall perfectly into place, and the picture that they form is at once touching, funny, breathtaking, hopeful, and dreamy.”—Ali Hazelwood, New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis

Funny and Sweet

This book made me giggle and cry in equal turns and I loved it!!!!! I highly recommend to readers who love both.

Can't Put This One Down!

Loved It! Wonderfully written. Gripping and Sensitive. I fell in love with ALL of the characters in the story. Did not want it to end. Excellent Read!

Delightful read!

This sweet romance was just what I needed to cap off a rather trying summer. This isn’t my typical genre, but it lightened my mood, and I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next. Yes, it was a bit predictable, but that didn’t take away from the sweet joy of reading it! Good luck on your next book. I’ll be watching for it.

Very interesting

Great book that keeps you turning in all directions. Some far fetched stories, but they are used to hold your interest.

Sweet story, unique plot

Started a little slow, but I really enjoyed it overall. I found the characters relatable for the most part, though I wanted to shake FMC early on. Her arc was well done though, and the male lead was a great character.

One of my new favorite books!

I cannot express how much I loved reading this book… In short, it was so well-written, so original, and the characters were well-rounded. I found myself rooting for them the whole time, and had to find out what happened to them asap.

I thought the author not only wrote the romance in this book well, but also the complex feelings that go with the process of grieving a loved one. I love a good ghost story and a good romance, so the whole premise of the book had me hooked. This book is officially one of my favorites, now, and I hope this author keeps writing more!

Love just dosent describe how much I connected with this book

I don’t write reviews
But this book deserves one. I connected deeply with this book. I lost my own dad and I felt weirdly closer to him after reading this. I wanna thank the author for giving me that connection again. This book is worth the read. Deserves more than 5 stars!

Perfect Title!

Great story that I thought was going to be predictable, but it definitely was not. Enjoyed they twists and turns throughout. This story came at a perfect time in my life. Really enjoyed it!

predictable which can be a good thing (3.7)

as many people have mentioned, this is really predictable. predictable is not a bad thing. sometimes it's comfortable. I thought the plot was interesting. i'm not the biggest fan of the author's writing. I feel like she spent way too long inside the character's head when people are expecting her to answer things. that is always a pet peeve of mine, when a character is having a 3 page inner monologue; meanwhile, someone's hand is out stretched for a handshake. and the time lapse isn't addressed. also, the main character is a bit annoying. she plays the woe is me a little too well. like we get it. your first book wasn't a best seller, you're short, your bf stole your story. like girl, we get it!!! and, it was a bit repetitive like literal lines were used over and over again. it's not a bad book, but it's definitely not one of the best. as others have mentioned, the narrator's voice was difficult to listen to. some of the voices for certain characters was so irritating. this book didn't lure me in enough to read it which is why I listened, but I think I would have enjoyed it more without the narrator.

Love the idea but didn’t love the protagonist

I really enjoyed the last quarter of the book but most of the time I found the protagonist too selfish to be likable or relatable. And the banter between the siblings was stilted, which kept taking me out of the magic of the book. But I really liked the premise and actually really liked all the characters other than the protagonist.