With lots of fun banter and quippy dialogue, Ghosting: A Love Story is for readers looking for the wit and heart of Mhairi McFarlane and Sophie Kinsella with the romance of You’ve Got Mail plus a savvy digital take on modern love a la Alisha Rai. “A sweet, genuinely funny, banter-filled delight of a rom-com.”—Kerry Winfrey, author of Waiting for Tom HanksOnline Dating Ghostwriting Rules to Live … Waiting for Tom Hanks
Online Dating Ghostwriting Rules to Live by:
· Do not present a “perfect” image. No one will trust it. Nor should they.
· Think of your quirks—such as cosplaying B-movies from the 1980s—as a “Future Honesty.” Save these as a reward only for those who prove worthy.
· Never remind the client you’re their voice. Once you’ve attracted a good match, let the client take over ASAP.
Dumped by his fiancée, not only is Miles couch-surfing across New York City, but downsizing has forced him to set up shop at a local café. Also, he no longer believes in love. Not a good look in his line of work…helping people find love as a ghostwriter for a failing dating site.
Zoey’s eccentric L.A. boss sent her packing to New York to “grow.” But beneath her chill Cali demeanor, Zoey’s anxiety makes her terrified to venture beyond the café across the street into the big city…
Finding themselves competing for space at Café Crudite, the only thing Miles and Zoey think they share is their daily battle for last day-old biscotti and a mutual dislike of each other. They don’t know they’re both writers, creating “authentic” profiles for rival online dating services. They think they have absolutely nothing in common. . . . until they meet anonymously online while pretending to be their clients and sparks fly.
As they become more deeply connected online, their mistaken identities get more complicated when their clients experience a dating disaster IRL. Once they find out their lives have crossed in more ways than one, will their online connection be the real thing—or vanish into the ether?
“Skilton puts a multicultural millennial spin on You’ve Got Mail in this laugh-out-loud romance. Solid laughs…rom-com fans will find this one well worth their time.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A light, hip, and humorous romance, perfect for stressful times.”
—Booklist
“Skilton puts a multicultural millennial spin on You’ve Got Mail in this laugh-out-loud romance.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Sweet and funny.”
—Shelf Awareness
“Cyrano de Bergerac meets classic rom-com banter…An energetic romance that would make Nora Ephron proud.”
—Kirkus Reviews
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Oh gosh but this rom com was SO CUTE. It felt like a mash up between “Hitch” and “You’ve Got Mail.” The main characters were darkly funny, rather anti-social and fighting over the same coffee table in their favorite NYC coffee bar where they both wanted to sit during the day and pretend to be other people for work as ghostwriters who worked on dating sites chatting and making profiles for people who aren’t good at small talk.
The dialogue is SO FUNNY. And the scenes where these two literally melt down over three-day old free biscotti and can’t seem to pull themselves together and be the adult in the situation (either of them) are so comedic and perfectly timed. I loved the barista! When Miles and Zoey are both assigned to ghostwrite profiles (basically chat with each other pretending to be the other’s matches), things get hilarious. Their clients may be slow to warm to each other at first, requiring some even more intense pseudo-flirting, but between date stakeouts, some YUMMY food descriptions and a lot of I hate you but really I don’t, these two were completely cute together. Will definitely be waiting to see what this author duo pens next.
This book started a little slow for me, but picked up pretty quickly. I did figure out right away what was happening with the ghostwriters, but it did not take away from the fun of the book. The silly banter between Miles and Zoey is great right from the beginning. The dialog and banter in the café when they fight over day old biscotti is my favorite. You will find that even though these two have conflict, at the same time you feel there may be some chemistry there. This book is worth a ready if you want a fun rom-com.
I liked the characters and it has a cute set-up but the story dragged in the middle. When Zoey mentioned there are only 7 stories, I feel it. I’ve always been an avid reader but more so now that I’m working from home. I prefer to be engrossed in the story and characters and finish within 1 to 2 days. This story took me over a week. I’m giving it 4 stars maybe it is me and not the story.
Ghosting: A Love Story by Tash Stilton is a delightful, charming easy rom com read. The storyline is a kind of modern day take on You’ve Got Mail that is centered around two charming characters, Miles & Zoey. Only slight confusion for me was having to bounce back and forth between Miles and Zoey. Without giving away any spoilers, the author did a great job creating the relatable and likable characters. I could easily see this growing into a series. It’s one of those books you can’t put down until you’ve read the very last page. For me personally, I thought it deserved a five.
I’ve never done online dating, nor do I personally know anyone who has, but I suspect it’s very much like described in this novel. Fun, likeable characters – exceptionally witty and cute dialogue. A novel to become absorbed in, but at the same time a fun two to three day read. Highly recommend for a “feel-good” distraction read.
A sweet, genuinely funny, banter-filled delight of a rom-com.
This was cute.
It definitely had character careers that I hadn’t read before (online dating profile ghostwriters!) which I enjoyed and I enjoyed the banter between Zoey and Miles and Mary (what a crazy yet fun character!)
Is it a little slow? Yes, but it’s a slow burn romance between two people who have no idea they are actually romancing each other while they have this semi hate/petty competitiveness going on over a coffee shop table (and don’t tell me that you don’t know what table is the best in your coffee shop, cause I bet you do, lol!) Zoey came off a little reclusive and although we eventually find out what her story is, I felt like that part of her personality was drug out a little bit, but it worked! It helped paint Miles as this native New Yorker who could show her his passion and love for the city while making her comfortable. I personally would have liked the reasons behind her fears revealed a bit earlier though to make her more relate-able. Overall, I enjoyed it!
Ghosting had a really interesting premise. Our two characters Zoey and Miles are both ghostwriters, but as a dating service? Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve never internet dated, but I was blissfully naive about all these dating apps. I never would have guessed or thought that someone would hire a ghostwriter to help write your Tinder bio or help slide into someone’s DMs.
Youths…
Our Hero Miles has been dumped recently and is living on his best friend’s couch, so when his job goes fully remote, he resorts to staking out the coffee shop and poaching their wifi. That is where he meets our Heroine Zoey. A recent transplant from California, Zoey is finding NYC overwhelming and the nearby coffee shop is becoming her newest workspace.
This is where the war for “the table” begins. The competition is fierce. Additionally, their ghostwriting clients match so Miles and Zoey start catching feelings for each other…without realizing it. Ghosting is a super slow burn, and the story is over halfway done before their romance starts to flourish.
My main criticism is that the story was a bit overly wordy and slow. Also Miles started off as a bit of a dick, and he really didn’t redeem himself by the end. But Zoey and her fairy godmother Mary? Both hundo percent amazing. In fact, Mary stole the show and my heart. What a wonderful character.
This book was definitely a mixed bag for me. First, I enjoyed the setup. Having both Miles and Zoey work as ghostwriters for rival dating sites, sprucing up client profiles and stepping in to carry on the initial text/email communication between clients was a pretty unique idea. When they are assigned by their respective companies to work for clients who end up connecting with each other, they start a fun, flirty relationship with neither of them having any idea that they are texting with each other rather than with their client’s potential love interest.
Unfortunately, as the book continued on, I found myself more invested in the relationship between the two clients, Bree and Jude, who were managing to make a real connection in spite of how badly Miles and Zoey were performing their jobs, then I was with the primary relationship between Miles and Zoey. The middle of the book kind of dragged on and I kept wondering when their mutual deception would finally be revealed. In real life, Zoey and Miles had in fact already met and had taken a real dislike to each other. I’m not a fan of the enemies to lovers trope, so I found this part of the book pretty slow going.
Finally, in the final fourth or so of the book, Zoey and Miles started to recognize their attraction to each other IRL and the book became fun again and had a great ending. Normally, I like a slow burn, but this was just a bit too slow for me. I also had some problems with the book formatting which I really hope are corrected in the final copy. Specifically, there were no formatting tags to indicate when the characters were texting with each other. Since a fair amount of the book was conducted through text, I found this very confusing and it definitely affected my enjoyment of the book. Overall, I liked it but didn’t love it.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Zoey is recently moved to New York, in order for her to work on her script. But she has to take a job as a ghost writer for a company that helps people with their dating profiles.
Miles works for a rival company. He’s recently had his heart broken, and has given up on love.
When Zoey and Miles are given clients, they begin to write to each other. It seems to them that their clients are not a match. But when they meet at a coffee shop, they instantly dislike each other.
I really enjoyed this story. It was funny, and sweet. And the characters were well written, and you could feel what they were feeling. This story had me hooked from page one. It was written wonderfully and keeps you interested. I definitely recommend this story.
This was an interesting contemporary romance. While not my usual genre to read, with some adult language and situations, I enjoyed the story. Watching Zoey and Miles compete for the ‘big table’ at the cafe and a number of other humorous situations kept my interest. Zoey and Miles both have challenging pasts to deal with and their jobs are not secure. They each are ghosting for rival online dating services and as things progress with their clients, they realize things aren’t quite what they thought. Readers who enjoy quirky rom com will not want to miss this one. I was given a complimentary copy of the book by KensingtonBooks and was not required to write a review. The opinions are my own.
I received this ARC from Kensington. This book was definitely not from my generation – we did not have computers when I was in college and an electric typwriter was a real luxury for me. That may be why it took me a while to get into this book where the two main characters are ghostwriting for singles who are online dating. Miles and Zoey work for competing companies that ghostwrite for singles shopping for love on a variety of online sights. Zoey is a transplant from California and is having problems adjusting to New York City. She lives in a tiny apartment across the street from a cafe where she likes to work. Miles is recovering from a breakup and likes to work at the same cafe. They end up competing for the same table everyday. Somehow they end up ghostwriting for the same couple – Miles for Jude and Zoey for Bree and they fall in love with their clients online personas who they are creating. What a crazy love story this is. It is definitely for this dating era.