“We are going out. Clearly I had a bad day, and by the looks of the new books on the counter, you did, too.”
― Ashley Poston, The Dead Romantics
Florence Day has secrets. She’s a ghostwriter for one of the world’s most famous romance novelists, Ann Nichols. After her own debut novel flopped, Florence picked up a sweet job ghostwriting bestsellers. No one except Ann, her publisher, and Florence’s best friend Rose know this. Despite her success, Florence is struggling to finish the final climactic scene in the final book in the series as she, a romance writer, no longer believes in romance after being betrayed by her boyfriend. Her new editor, her new tall, dark, and handsome editor, insists she submit the pages or be sued for breach of contract.
In addition to being a ghostwriter, Florence can see ghosts. The child of a funeral home director who also had the same gift, Florence grew up around death. At thirteen, Florence used her gift to solve the disappearance and murder of her classmate, and the stigma of being the “Ghost Whisperer” drove her out of her small town and directly to New York as soon as she finished high school.
Florence is summoned home to support her family after the death of a family member. However, she keeps seeing one very persistent ghost: the ghost of her new editor who, last time she checked, was very much alive and very litigious.
I liked the plot. I liked the main character. But I only made it one third of the way through before I started skimming. The details were not there. I don’t need a five hundred page tome but I do need more details than a copy/paste description of a heartbroken woman being dragged out of her apartment for a night out in New York with her crazy but loveable best friend. I don’t need a description of the main character’s brother working at “a tech firm,” being busy writing a “tech report,” or being a “tech hotshot.” There are plenty of tech jobs with actual titles. How hard is it to just pick one?
If you make everything surrounding the main character generic, then you’ve written a boring, generic book.
Which is a shame! Because the story is very good! I liked the plot a lot!!! But the author must have felt that she had to hit certain plot points to tell the story and, to me, those mandatory scenes with underdeveloped characters were Boring. As. Fuck.
This story would work well as a TV movie. The story is original and fun but damn, either get rid of the boring backstory and flat side characters or make them more than “Rich brother with a tech job” or “Wild but loyal best friend in NYC.”