The Love of My Afterlife - Kirsty Greenwood

The Love of My Afterlife - Kirsty Greenwood - ★★★.½

- July 02, 2024

AUTHOR: Kirsty Greenwood

GENRE: Contemporary Fantasy-Romance.

PUBLICATION DATE: July 2, 2024

RATING: 3.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: Romcom with a small dash of magical realism and a hefty splash of serious themes. A great premise that started with a bang, then got repetitive, then again became interesting, and ended with a bang. I’d have liked this better in my younger days. Still, a fun entertainer if you don’t overthink the proceedings and don’t mind the FMC.

Plot Preview:

Twenty-seven-year-old Delphie, a loner who works in a pharmacy, has just begun dinner when she chokes to death on her cheap microwave burger. She ‘wakes up’ to find herself in ‘Evermore’, the place of the afterlife that seems more like it belongs on earth. Just as Delphie is being acquainted with the procedures of her new abode, she bumps into a young man named Jonah and has an instant connection with him. Sadly (for her, not for him), he isn’t dead and is sent back to earth. But a certain someone takes pity on the lonely young woman and gives her a second chance, albeit with a proviso: if she can find Jonah of the unknown last name back in London and get him to kiss her within ten days, she can get her life back. Will Delphie rise up to this challenge and locate ‘the love of her afterlife’?

The story comes to us in Delphie’s first person perspective.

Bookish Yays:

💐 This might be the first time I read about a main character choking to death in the very first chapter, and still didn’t feel any pain. I love the casual approach in which this scene was written. Had it been more traumatic, the mood would have been set incorrectly right at the beginning.

💐 The premise is unique enough to be a yay. Finding an insta-attraction as soon as you are dead and getting a chance to find your one true love? Lucky unlucky Delphie! Couldn’t blame her for grabbing onto any condition to return to earth in a bid to live more and love more!

💐 There are tongue-in-cheek appearances of romance tropes such as enemies to lovers, one bed, and insta connections. There are also several mentions of popular romance authors, books, and movies sprinkled throughout the book. This might go either way, but I liked the pop culture references: it added a dash of contemporary realism to the story.

💐 There are several secondary characters that are even more layered than the lead pair: Delphie’s work friend Leanne and her mother Jen, Delphie’s next-door neighbour the elderly Mr. Yoon, librarian Aled, and new friend Frida. Some of them are a bit over the top, but they suit the tone of the story. More importantly, they are likeable, and that helps when the FMC gives mixed vibes.

💐 I love how the story ended up more about finding oneself than about finding the one true love. A valuable lesson about living life to the fullest because we never know when it’s our time to kick the bucket.

💐 Though the story is mostly light-hearted, it tackles some serious themes such as bullying, loneliness, grief, childhood trauma, and parental abandonment. I appreciate the depiction of how everyone handles trauma differently and there’s no standard pattern.

💐 Many fun interactions and witty banter between the lead pair, and some heart-warming moments in the climax.

💐 I love the found family trope when it is done with enough heart, and in this book, though it takes time to get going, the concept is handled really well.

Bookish Mixed Bags:

🌷 Delphie is a tough character to root for at the start. Though she had her positives, her social skills are almost zero. Thankfully, she does redeem herself by the end. Her turnaround from a rude loner to an I’ll-do-everything-I-can-to-stay-alive is a bit too sudden to be convincing, but under such circumstances with only ten days between (after)life and permanent death, who is to say how we would have behaved in her place?

🌷 Downstairs neighbour Cooper, who is roped in to help Delphie locate Jonah, is an interesting character, fitting the mould of “enemy” perfectly. It is evident right from his first mention which pair the book is supporting. However, there was one red flag in his behaviour that is conveniently brushed aside: his womanising.

🌷 This is a genre-defying book. It starts off strongly as a fantasy, but the dominant genre almost throughout the story is romcom, with a little garnishing of magical realism. Great if you want a romcom. I wanted more magical realism, so this ends up as a mixed bag.

🌷 The afterlife and its events create a mixed impression. While I do love the unexpectedness of the location, I am still sad that it was what it was. (No woman will look at that place and think, “Yay! What a wonderful afterlife!” Sigh…) More than this, I am not sure how I feel about many of the *bodily functions* that continue in the afterlife. Who wants more of the same life even after death!

🌷 Once Delphie returns to earth with her ten-day challenge, the tempo slackens a lot and the events become repetitive. The last one-third or so saves the story to a great extent, though it zooms by at F1 speed compared to the rest of the book.

🌷 I love the resolution of all arcs. Though the destination is predictable, as it always is in romcoms, it was still interesting to see how it comes about. That said, a certain event towards the end is so farfetched that I had to put this in my Mixed Bags than under the Yays.

Bookish Nays:

🌵 Jonah’s arc is unbelievably unrealistic. I might have accepted his perfect portrayal had this been a romcom spoof. (I still am not sure if it is indeed a spoof!)

🌵 This is more of a ME problem than a BOOK problem. I don't vibe with the idea that “sex is the most fun you can have on earth.” (Misleading, false, and also inappropriate when there is more awareness these days of asexuality.) I found it ridiculous that anyone could find the idea of a twenty-seven-year-old virgin ridiculous. A person’s sex life is no one’s business, and the idea that Delphie had not lived to the fullest just because she died without having sex is, frankly speaking, idiotic. (As you might guess, the ten days on earth involve the tackling of this ‘problem.’ The proceedings aren’t that steamy, but they aren’t closed-door either.)

All in all, this definitely was an entertaining book, with the second half proving much stronger than the first half. If it had been more consistent in its tempo and slightly less repetitive in between, it could have been a bigger winner for me.

That said, I’m no longer an active romance reader as I have done my fill of swoony reading in my younger days. I had grabbed this novel mainly for the idea of the ‘afterlife.’ Unfortunately, most of the story is a typical romance, so my experience ended slightly mixed. This shouldn’t take away from the story as it will work better for romcom fans.

Recommended to avid romance readers who would enjoy a magical twist to typical romcoms.

3.5 stars, rounding up wherever applicable as much of the disconnect was due to my reading preferences.

My thanks to Random Things Tours, Random House UK, Cornerstone, author Kirsty Greenwood, and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of 'The Love of My Afterlife', and for allowing me to be a part of this blog tour. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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Blurb:

What if the end of her life was just beginning…

If she wasn’t dead already, Delphie would be dying of embarrassment. She’s entered the afterlife wearing the sort of pyjamas you don’t want anyone to see and finds herself face-to-face with the most handsome man she’s ever encountered. And he’s smiling at her.

As they start to chat, everything else becomes background noise – until someone comes running out of a door, yelling something about a huge mistake, and sends the dreamy stranger back down to earth.

In a twist of fate, Delphie is offered a deal in which she can return to her previous life and reconnect with the mysterious man she’s sure is her soulmate.

The challenge? She only has ten days to find him.

Ten days to make him fall for her.

Oh, and he has no recollection of them ever having met…

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Author Kirsty Greenwood:

Kirsty Greenwood is an internationally bestselling author of funny, fearless romantic comedies about extraordinary love. When she's not writing books she composes musicals and explores London where she lives with her husband.

Connect with her on:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kirsty_greenwood

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KirstyStories

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KirstyGreenwoodBooks

Website: https://www.kirstygreenwood.com/

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