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A review by treadsbooks
The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
4.0
Tropes: Magical realism, paranormal romance (ghosts), insta-love, forbidden love, LBGTQ+ Representation in side-characters
Final Rating: 4/5⭐️
Let me start by saying I read The Seven Year Slip (which I absolutely LOVED) before reading The Dead Romantics. This may have been the wrong move, because this novel did not live up to my expectations. I kept having to remind myself that this was her debut and she was still figuring it out (not an excuse- but I do believe new authors should be given at least a little bit of the benefit of the doubt). I will also preface by saying I'm not much of a ghost person, so that could have also been a reason this book didn’t click for me the way I’d hoped.
Now all that being said, I still really enjoyed this read! The beginning was a bit slow, and it honestly didn’t pick up until over half way through the book - but once it did, it picked up QUICK! Ashley Poston has a beautiful way of giving you all kinds of whiplash in the last 70 or so pages. It really played with my emotions there for a sec haha.
This book explores themes of grief, loss, betrayal and heartbreak, as we follow our quirky FMC back to her hometown after losing her father. She has a special gift, where she can see the dead - helping them move on to wherever they go next. This gift wasn’t super prevalent throughout the novel - as our heroine prefers to ignore the ghosts - except in the case of Benji Andor, her new *very hot* editor. He comes to her in her hometown, as she’s already struggling to finish her manuscript (because she believes romance is dead - spoiler alert, it’s not) and grieving her father. The characters don’t have as much depth as I would normally like in my novels, but we are only seeing Florence, the FMC, in one frame of reference- her grief - so I am not mad at it because it makes sense for the story line. The way she moves through her grief and heartache throughout the novel was well-developed and well thought-out. I like that Benji helped her move through her heartache in a way that was constructive - forcing her to see the issues that she had with her previous relationship, instead of just replacing her ex with himself (essentially there was self-discovery involved, which I believe to be essential. You can’t just “get over your ex” because you find someone new.This is a big pet peeve of mine when it comes to romance novels, which Poston skillfully avoided so bonus points there.)
All in all, I did enjoy this read and I would recommend it, especially if you're into the paranormal sorts. However, if you only had one book left to read in your life - 1000% read The Seven Year Slip over this one.
Final Rating: 4/5⭐️
Let me start by saying I read The Seven Year Slip (which I absolutely LOVED) before reading The Dead Romantics. This may have been the wrong move, because this novel did not live up to my expectations. I kept having to remind myself that this was her debut and she was still figuring it out (not an excuse- but I do believe new authors should be given at least a little bit of the benefit of the doubt). I will also preface by saying I'm not much of a ghost person, so that could have also been a reason this book didn’t click for me the way I’d hoped.
Now all that being said, I still really enjoyed this read! The beginning was a bit slow, and it honestly didn’t pick up until over half way through the book - but once it did, it picked up QUICK! Ashley Poston has a beautiful way of giving you all kinds of whiplash in the last 70 or so pages. It really played with my emotions there for a sec haha.
This book explores themes of grief, loss, betrayal and heartbreak, as we follow our quirky FMC back to her hometown after losing her father. She has a special gift, where she can see the dead - helping them move on to wherever they go next. This gift wasn’t super prevalent throughout the novel - as our heroine prefers to ignore the ghosts - except in the case of Benji Andor, her new *very hot* editor. He comes to her in her hometown, as she’s already struggling to finish her manuscript (because she believes romance is dead - spoiler alert, it’s not) and grieving her father. The characters don’t have as much depth as I would normally like in my novels, but we are only seeing Florence, the FMC, in one frame of reference- her grief - so I am not mad at it because it makes sense for the story line. The way she moves through her grief and heartache throughout the novel was well-developed and well thought-out. I like that Benji helped her move through her heartache in a way that was constructive - forcing her to see the issues that she had with her previous relationship, instead of just replacing her ex with himself (essentially there was self-discovery involved, which I believe to be essential. You can’t just “get over your ex” because you find someone new.This is a big pet peeve of mine when it comes to romance novels, which Poston skillfully avoided so bonus points there.)
All in all, I did enjoy this read and I would recommend it, especially if you're into the paranormal sorts. However, if you only had one book left to read in your life - 1000% read The Seven Year Slip over this one.