Ghostly Goings-On

Today over at Brief Encounters I've reviewed a story called Cemeteries by Lynn Lorenz. The author is someone whose books I've liked before and I was keen to read. However, there was a little cloud over my anticipation because I knew that it was a ghost romance. You see, I have this thing about romances with ghosts in them: They just don't really work for me.

Why is this? You may ask. Well a couple of reasons really:

1. I'm not sure I actually believe in ghosts.
I'm sure there are plenty of you out there with ghostly tales to tell and who do genuinely believe that ghosts exist. I have to admit, I'm not convinced of that fact and this scepticism bleeds into my enjoyment of ghost romance. I know what I ought to do, I ought to just treat it as fantasy or a paranormal. After all, elves and vampires don't exist either but I have no problem reading those types of books.

2. The stories are often difficult to resolve satisfactorily.
Ghost romances have to end one of two ways: Either the ghost somehow becomes alive again, or the hero dies and becomes a ghost himself. The former resolution can sometimes stretch realism and believability, especially when set in a contemporary setting, and the latter resolution just taps into the whole scepticism from the point above. How can it be a happy ending if the hero dies, especially when I don't really believe the ghost thing?

Having thought about it, I think it's the fact that there's always some pat answer about what happens after death that kills the romance for me. Despite my own beliefs, death is still a huge question mark in my mind and romances which try to convince me that love overcomes even the big D are, well, unconvincing to me. I know that some readers love the romance behind the idea that death is not the end of earthly love, and good for you if that's how you feel.  It just doesn't work for me though and as I result I just avoid those romances which have ghosts in them. I'd rather focus my paranormal reading on the undead vampires, than the very dead ghosts. Unless of course I get a surprise ghost romance (V and Jane, anyone?) in which case I'm likely to get rather miffed.

That doesn't mean to say that all ghost romances don't work. I can think of one story, Muse by Clare London, that did work for me. On the whole though most of the other ghost romances I've read have left me feeling a little flat, or sometimes downright incredulous.

So what about you, dear readers of this blog? Do you like ghost romances? If not, is it for the same reasons I've given above or do you have your own reasons? In which case, do share.