Dead Romantic

by Ruth Saberton

[Leah]

Ruth Saberton has long been one of my favourite authors, her writing style is second to none and I just adore her books, counting Katy Carter Wants A Hero and Escape For The Summer among two of my most favourite Chick Lit books ever. So when I saw Ruth was releasing THREE new books during the Autumn/Winter period (one short, one novella, one full length novel) I was the happiest girl in the world! Authors who give me multiple books a year are always my most favourite, because I do despise playing the waiting game... When I received Dead Romantic to review, I was promised a quirky read, and it certainly was that!

One of my favourite plots for authors to write about is dead people who come back to haunt real, living people. They're my favourite. Desperately Seeking Heaven by Jill Steeples is one of the most recent, and I really enjoyed it. What can I say? I like quirky novels like Dead Romantic and Desperately Seeking Heaven. I like the idea that when you're dead, you're not just gone, but you can be a ghost. It's much preferable. So I was interested to see how Ruth Saberton would pull it off. I wasn't aware that this was the plot when I first started, having started the book without reading the blurb, but when it became obvious that Cleo was able to see and interact with ghosts, most specifically that of Alex Thorne, I was super intrigued. Because the thing I love more than ghosts? Ghosts who play matchmaker... And Alex does that, as he tries to get Cleo to help his drink addled brother, Rafe; with whom Cleo once shared a Christmas Eve many moons ago.

It took my DAYS to read Dead Romantic. Work and life and sleep kept getting in the way, and that sort of tinged the book in a way for me because I have this weird thing where if I'm reading a book for too long (like 3 days or longer) I start to get antsy, and desperate to finish it, because my TBR pile is INSANE. So I did start to feel that itch, but only because that's how I roll, that's no indication of how good or bad the book was, that's just my general impatience with myself. The novel is actually pretty awesome. I liked everything about the novel. Cleo was a fantastic leading lady, and her narration was excellent. I loved that she was an academic, I loved hearing about Egypt and Aamon, and I found her job fascinating where I would perhaps have assumed I would have found it boring (I'm so judgey). But the real draw for me (and probably a lot of readers) was Alex Thorne. In fact, he made that good an impression, I nearly cried near the end and I sort of wished he was the one who was alive, because who wouldn't want to be with Alex Thorne? He's the best! So selfless and giving. Sigh. What a shame he was dead.

I loved that Ruth didn't just have ghost Alex in the novel. There was way more than that! Though I liked that it was only a select few we got to meet (Aamon being the best one, by far, except for Alex, obviously) although I was quite curious that Cleo's mother wasn't among the ghosts we got to meet. I really, really loved Dead Romantic. It was sweet, and fun, and quirky, and I will always love loveable dead ghosts who want people to find happiness. It's so lovely of them, though where's my ghost, eh???? Where's my Alex and my Rafe, EH EH EH? Ruth Saberton doesn't half get my hopes up. Sigh. It's definitely not your regular Chick Lit novel, but it's super interesting. And it made me angry, the whole Simon plot had me STEAMING!!!!!!! And going YAY GHOSTS!!!! But mostly STEAMING!!!!! I can't wait for Escape For Christmas, because I'm very disappointed Dead Romantic is now over for me! Go buy it, and love it, but be warned, you will fall for Alex Thorne! (Or maybe it's just me who's obsessed with dead, cupid playing ghosts?!)This review was originally posted on Girls Love To Read