Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Dead Romantics

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

9 reviews

lizzye33's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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wilybooklover's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

2.5

This had such an interesting premise, but sadly didn’t live up to my expectations. There was so much potential here for fun ghost interactions and swoony romance, but it seemed to get overshadowed by the family/ex drama, funeral plans, and lots of talk about grief. The setup was so delightfully weird, and I just wish it had delved into the seeing ghosts aspect more. I would’ve loved more detail around the murder that Florence solved as a teen, for example. The plot seemed very chaotic and bounced from one thing to the other without giving the characters time to breathe, and despite being labelled a romcom, I thought it was more cringe than funny. I think the scene where she forgives her former bully is supposed to show growth and maturity or whatever but it honestly just made my soul leave my body in second-hand mortification. Not to mention that she calls coffee zoom zoom juice. Zoom zoom juice.

I did really like Ben, he was very sweet (to the extent that I didn’t understand Florence’s initial antagonism towards him). Loved the pining when he’s a ghost and they can’t touch no matter how much they want to. Their first kiss scene before he becomes a ghost did bother me; you can’t just go around suddenly kissing people who have expressed zero indication of interest without asking or at least giving them time to pull away first, especially if you work with them. It’s one thing if they had been flirting or something first but it literally came out of nowhere and it’s never mentioned again in the rest of the book.

And it was so odd and unbelievable that Florence just went off to finish writing the book for three months before going to see Ben after he woke up from his coma.

Oh, and they’re not gauges — they’re plugs, or tunnels. Gauge is a measurement of the thickness, not a type of jewellery. A minor pet peeve.

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rachaelreadsalot's review

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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wet_towlette's review

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I love a good ghost love story. The tension in knowing that they can’t touch and the Inevitability of their end, it’s too good. This one was definitely predictable but that’s okay because I knew what I was signing up for. I knew I was gonna get that rom-com sort of ending and that’s fine. Although I found that that little bit of “miscommunication” at the end was quite redundant. Maybe there was like a page quota to meet or something idk

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rhythmofryn's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This book was like a warm hug for my heart. Accepting that everyone is going to die is REALLY hard for me and it’s hard for the main character, Florence, too. Florence and her dad have such a precious and cherished relationship and her grief about losing him is never minimized but she learns how to continue living. The romance is the perfect amount of spice (imo) with some pretty intense dirty talk but relatively brief and sparsely described actual sex. I also really loved how Florence’s relationship with her ex is handled. It’s super realistic to still have feelings for someone who didn’t treat you well and I loved how Florence dealt with that. This book is a love letter to family, romance novels, life, and death. Seriously, just go read it.

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thatswhatshanread's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

A very sweet and—despite being about ghosts—realistic look at loss, love, and life events. This isn’t strictly a romance, but the romance found within the pages is tender and charming and at times, a little sad and a little bleak. But that’s what makes it feel so real. The writing reminded me of Beth O’Leary meets Sally Thorne.

In a word, this story was unexpected. I was expecting more of a cute paranormal romance, but that’s not really what it was. I was expecting it to go in many different directions than it did. In the end, I really loved where it went.

I would also say this book is like (the family drama of) The Haunting of Hill House mixed with a touch of Sixth Sense meets Ghosts (UK version all the way) with a little Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist and Just Like Heaven and Six Feet Under. If that gives you any idea at all of the genres this novel encompasses. In other words, a great book for the season that isn’t scary!

AND great LGBTQ+ rep in this one!!

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kfmcf's review

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emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was a solid read overall. It was quick and enjoyable. I liked the premise, I liked the characters, it was a good time.

I really liked the town of this story. I understood the people, it felt like a real town but with a little extra magic. Florence's family was also fun and the dynamics were enjoyable

her never seeing her dad as a ghost was the correct choice. It would have been really hard to pull off well so I think her seeing the ghost of him in what he left behind was far more effective </spoiler >

I was frustrated by a few things:
1) the twist.

this twist was not hard to see and that's fine, it doesn't need to be mind blowing. But obviously Ben was in a coma. I wish Florence had known and was working with him to wake up instead. It could have still worked without Ben knowing he wasn't dead. The twist about her being a literal ghostwriter tho was fun.

2) Ben was unbelievable as a real guy. He felt very much like a geeky girl's dream. I wanted a bit more depth from him. I like The Princess Bride as much as the next but oy the quote.

I also found it hard to believe that her book, that sold extremely poorly, changed his whole outlook on novels (romance in particular). Especially if his grandmother was so prolific.

3) the NAME dropping my gosh. We get it you read. This book made so many references to other authors and books and every time it just completely yoinked me out of the story.

I also want to say, that when the MC is supposed to decompress by writing smut - you expect the spice to be great. And it really wasn't. It was very late and felt super tacked on. I think the chemistry between the two leads not being the best might have contributed.

These complaints are more nitpicky than they seem - I did still really enjoy the book and will pick up what the author writes next.

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laurenkimoto's review

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emotional lighthearted sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Ahhh the sun-genre that is romance books about people who read/write/edit romance books
It is a romance but it’s also about processing grief, love, life, anger and more

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chavborromeo's review

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dark sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I picked this book because the premise was interesting. To be honest, this plot does not new to me. I read and watched a lot of similar theme to this one. So, I'm just picking with the two: if Ben was really dead or just in coma.

I though this book is funny but I didn't even laugh? The characters are so bland. There are a lot of scenes that's so boring. I already half way and there was no much exiting scene. Her father died but I think that was not sinking to her first because I didn't feel sad or what. I just felt sad when it revealed that her father knew she's a ghostwriter all along. And he actually knew her books.

Florence ex is a plagiarist, liar, fucking asshole. I really hate Alice at the beginning. Because Florence leaving their hometown was valid. Imagine you were a kid and you were bullied? I want to fucking leave ASAP. But then again Alice's feelings are also valid. They were close.

Lastly, when they are already aware that Ben is just on coma, Rose denied that she initiated that Ben was already dead? Then why did she said "The world lost another fine ass.” What did she mean by that?

Anyway, I just the last last scene. And also I love Carver and Nicki and their parents relationship❤

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