The Dead Romantics

Florence Day is the protagonist of the novel, and the story is told through her first-person point of view. She is a young woman of about 28, blonde and brown-eyed, fair-skinned, and freckled. Florence has been a writer since she was young, but just as she hid her fanfiction and other stories beneath the floorboards in the parlor of the funeral home, she now must hide that she writes for romance author Ann Nichols. The ghostwriting job gives Florence hope when her own debut novel didn’t create much of a stir.

Florence has the ability to see and communicate with ghosts, an ability shared by her father, who ran the Days Gone Funeral Home in her hometown of Mairmont. Because of this ability and the family business, Florence was never frightened or repelled by death; rather, she was drawn by the stories that ghosts wanted to tell her. However, when this ability led to unwanted attention that hurt and humiliated her, Florence tried to distance herself both from Mairmont, her hometown, and from her gift. She attended college in New York City and stayed there to work. While she maintains an affectionate relationship with most of her family, who come to visit her in the city, the separation has caused a rift between Florence and her sister, Alice, who was once very protective of Florence but felt abandoned when she left.