I've been thinking hard lately. Like the kind of thinking hard where you are scrunching your eyebrows and don't even know it. Nothing serious. Sometimes it's just the mundane aspects of life that are on my mind. Sometimes, it just takes a lot of energy to plan the day, get everyone what they need, squeak in a bit of physical activity, try to have a semi clean home, etc. That's the kind of thinking that has worn on my lately. Maybe it's more trying to cram too much into a day. Maybe it's cabin fever from the winter weather. I bet many of you can relate to this feeling. A bit of a brain break was in order and Ashley Poston certainly fulfilled with The Dead Romantics. I'm a rom-com fan but never really thought of myself as a romance fan. I always thought of romance novels as steamy, make me blush, kind of books. The Dead Romantics is totally a romance but not in that steamy sort of way - rather like a cozy hug at the perfect moment. It's just the fit for that mentally-fatigued funk. Even if you haven't been a romance fan up until this point, I hope you give The Dead Romantics a try. It is my favorite book I've read in awhile.... probably since I read Matt Haig's The Midnight Library and I loved that book A LOT. Read on and I will share why I loved The Dead Romantics so much, and I'll fill you in on where I bought my copy ..... hint: it's that great deal I mentioned in my title.
As my title also implies, The Dead Romantics has a supernatural flair. Supernatural is not normally my jam, just as I didn't think romance was. Although I did like Ghosted by Rosie Walsh now that I'm thinking about it... Anyway, Poston gives us two main characters. We meet Florence Day, a ghost writer for a famous romance author. The problem is that Florence had her heart broken, ripped out and stomped on to the point that she doesn't believe in that happily ever after anymore. If she doesn't believe it, how can she write it? Her new strikingly handsome editor, Benji Andor, doesn't want to budge on the author's fast approaching deadline. And he is a true romance fan.
Florence's dad passes away though and what efforts she may have put toward finishing the book, if she actually believed in happy ever after, are suddenly thwarted when she returns to the small town she grew up in. Death was a part of her life from childhood as she was the daughter of the local funeral home director. Although death was an accepted part of her family's life, her dad's death negated any sense of peace she'd felt before. How can a book with a central theme of death and grief be filled with romance and hope, you may ask? Florence is in such despair but finds a little bit of light in her interactions with the ghost - a hope that things could get better.
Florence returns home to help her family with her dad's affairs and feels alone in taking on these rather specific and bizarre tasks until a ghost arrives at her door. A ghost she can see, talk to and maybe even help. Florence and her dad shared the ability to see and talk to ghosts but she's avoided this for 10 years because of how others perceived her. Florence's gift alienated her from her entire community, making her see her ability more as a burden than a gift. This new ghost, though, may very well show her the power of this gift. Florence has seen herself as a mediator of sorts in the past, trying to help ghosts with unfinished business. What if she is the one with unfinished business and the ghost is there to help her?
What I really loved was how Florence shared her hope and how she showed herself it was okay to find moments of joy amidst the sadness. I want to share a couple quotes from the book. The first that I picked really described the depth of Florence's sadness.
I thought about them because if I thought too much about Dad, the stone in my stomach would weigh me down to the center of the earth, and I'd never crawl out again.
Poston has a passage where Florence is trying to reason with how she can think about the good things in life amidst her grief.
He took my mind away from my sadness, when all I wanted to do was burrow myself in that sadness, make a nest of it, live there clinging to what was left of my dad.
Yes, incredibly sad and tear inducing. But also hopeful. Hopeful because there was a light that Florence could cling to and that light had the possibility to grow brighter and brighter. Poston also writes beautifully about how life felt like it was going on even though Florence wasn't ready. That light of hope, though, made her see that someday she also might be ready to take a few steps forward.
I saw myself in Florence's quirky personality so many times. Florence says
My mind liked to wander at night and shut up in the mornings, at the exact opposite times I needed.
Hello mentally-fatigued funk in one sentence. Spot on, Florence, spot on. Another passage that sang to me was when Florence and her ghost friend played a game where they sat on a park bench, watched the people around them and described what they thought was happening. My family and I play this game all the time. We will be sitting at a stoplight, see other people in their car talking, and role play the funniest versions of what we think they could be saying. If you haven't done this, you must try it. It's a recommendation from me (and apparently Florence, too) to make you laugh. I guess as I write I'm trying to show you that although there is a lot of sadness in this book, there is also hope, brightness and laughter. Must I also mention the chapter titles. They are amazing. Here's a sample: A Buried Story, Dead Romance, Dead and Breakfast, Past Tense. They are quite the puns. Again, bringing that brightness and laughter. Anyway, I totally recommend you check out this book. Now, continue reading to see how I scored an awesome deal on this book and I how I got all these books pictured below.
So this stack of 12 books right here - with
The Dead Romantics in it? Guess how much I paid? $100? Nope. $75? Nope. I paid $60. Not free by any means but they were only $3-$6 each for brand new books. I think I've told you before that I love the library but I'm hard on books. Like
really hard. One time I gave my sister a book that my dog tore a chunk out of - like literal bite shape and all. So, I typically buy used books because that's what I can afford. There's nothing like the smell and crisp feel of a new book - I now get to enjoy this x12. Hello new books! I ordered these books from BookOutlet.com. I was a bit nervous to see how the condition of the books would be but they are amazing. I'm not a rep of this company at all but I love passing on a good deal, especially one about books. So, you can use my link
here to get $5 off your purchase of $25. Remember that mentally-fatigued funk I mentioned earlier? This stack of books, including
The Dead Romantics, is sure to break me out of it. I will try to review more of these books as I read them.
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