Starred review from May 2, 2022
Poston (Geekerella) makes her adult debut with a refreshing rom-com about love, loss, and hope. Florence Day’s life is organized around two major secrets: she’s the ghostwriter for a household name romance writer, and she can see ghosts. One secret is kept out of legal obligation, the other self-preservation. A recent breakup has halted her ability to write happily-ever-afters, but when she requests yet another extension from her new—and incredibly attractive—editor, Benji Andor, she is indisputably shut down. Her looming deadline is put on hold, however, when her father dies, and Florence returns to her hometown for the first time in 10 years. She’s expecting to see her father’s ghost. She’s not expecting to see Benji’s ghost. He’s died in the time between their last encounter and her trip, and now he’s haunting Florence. As she attempts to fulfill her father’s peculiar last wishes, memories of him—the only other person in her family who could see ghosts—reignite her ability to write. And, as she and Benji grow closer posthumously, she rediscovers her belief in happy endings. Poston manages to both affirm the cynics and give hope to the romantics by simultaneously embracing and subverting rom-com tropes. The sparkling dialogue makes the characters come alive—even the dead ones. Readers won’t be able to put this down. Agent: Holly Root, Root Literary.
December 1, 2022
It is hard to write romance novels when you no longer believe in happily-ever-after. For ghostwriter Florence Day, this task is complicated even further by the annoying appearance of dead people, who hope that she will help them accomplish a last earthly task so they may cross into the afterlife. What might have been a full-on immersion into a quirky, farcical rom-com clich� turns into a reimagining of true love, an acceptance of the love and support of family, and a sweet homage to the romance novel genre. Florence's family owns a funeral home, and ghosts are no stranger to her. When she travels home to help her family prepare for her father's funeral, she is visited by her recently deceased, hunky editor, and it quickly becomes too much for her to handle. But not all is as it appears, and Florence may get her second chance at love, and in spite of her misgivings about writing true love stories, she even submits her book on time. Eileen Stevens narrates this funny, emotional book with enthusiastic energy and meaning. VERDICT A nice, sentimental, fun read that will find its way into listeners' hearts.--Laura Brosie
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