Ashley Poston’s fun,
lighthearted novels for young adults offer a blend of magical realism infused
with wit and romance. Geekerella
is a clever send-up about what happens when a nerdy Cinderella-type attends a
Sci-fi convention. In Heart of
Iron, a princess in outer-space must find her way back home with the
help of lovable misfits.
The
Dead Romantics, Poston’s first book for adults, a romantic
comedy, centers on Florence Minerva Day, a smart, snarky millennial who is
nursing a broken heart and suffering from writer’s block. Florence is
emotionally on the skids. Having published a romance novel that received a
less-than-stellar reception, downtrodden Florence became an assistant-turned-ghostwriter
for Ann Nichols, one of “romance’s greats”—a well-established, popular author
who hasn’t left her home in Maine for the five years that Florence has been the
secret source behind her writing success. In the midst of her depression,
Florence is floundering, too turned off by love to write about it and meet a
looming deadline--already extended three times--to finish and deliver Nichols’s
next book to the new editor at her publishing house, Benji Andor. The handsome
hottie is cold and no nonsense. He totally unnerves Florence by threatening
legal action if the new Nichols book isn’t turned in asap.
Amidst Florence’s intent
to finish the manuscript, she runs into her ex, also a writer, a man who stole
the story of Florence’s own life—personal secrets she shared with him about her
family and their funeral home business and how Florence interacts with
ghosts--and turned her story into a book that sold at auction for a million
dollars. Weary after seeing her successful, user-ex again and faced with the
impending writing deadline, Florence’s life further tailspins when she is
summoned from her home in Hoboken, N.J., back to Mairmont, South Carolina to
deal with the devastating sudden death of a family member. Being back in a place
she longed to escape suddenly resurrects the past and elicits the presence of a
handsome ghost who wrenches Florence from her rut and upends her beliefs about
love.
Romance, chaos
and ratcheting complications are central components to Poston’s refreshingly fun, spunky
romcoms—and The
Dead Romantics is no exception. The beauty and charm of Poston’s storytelling continues to make
miraculous happy endings out of the messes from which ordinary people often
find themselves embroiled.
The
Dead Romantics by
Ashley Poston
Berkley (Penguin Books), $16.00 paperback, 368 pages, 9780593336489
Publication Date: June 28, 2022
To order
this book on INDIEBOUND link HERE
NOTE: To
read this review as published on Shelf Awareness
for the Book Trade (May 3, 2022 ), link HERE
NOTE: To read a
condensed version of this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's
Edition (July 1, 2022), link HERE
