Ashley Poston's fun, lighthearted novels for young adults (Geekerella; Heart of Iron) offer a blend of the fantastical infused with wit and romance.
The Dead Romantics, Poston's first book for adults, is a romantic comedy about 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; after publishing a romance novel that received a less-than-stellar reception, downcast Florence became an assistant-turned-ghostwriter for Ann Nichols, one of "romance's greats." Nichols is 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. But Florence is floundering, too depressed and 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 hot new editor at her publishing house, Benji Andor.
She's intent on finishing the manuscript, but then Florence runs into her ex, who stole the story of Florence's life--personal secrets about how Florence interacts with ghosts--and turned it into a book that sold at auction for $1 million. She further tailspins when she is summoned to deal with the devastating sudden death of a family member. But that is when a handsome ghost upends her beliefs about love.
Romance, chaos and complications are central components in Poston's refreshingly fun, spirited rom-coms, 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 in which ordinary people often find themselves entangled. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines