The Love of My Afterlife by Kristy Greenwood

A recently deceased woman meets “the one” in the afterlife waiting room, scoring a second chance at life (and love!) if she can find him on earth before ten days are up…
 

If she wasn’t dead already, Delphie would be dying of embarrassment. Not only did she just die by choking on a microwaveable burger, but now she’s standing in her ‘shine like a star’ nightie in front of the hottest man she’s ever seen. And he’s smiling at her.
 

As they start to chat, everything else becomes background noise. That is until someone comes running out of a door, yelling something about a huge mistake, and sends the dreamy stranger back down to earth. And here Delphie was thinking her luck might be different in the afterlife.
 

When Delphie is offered a deal in which she can return to earth and reconnect with the mysterious man, she jumps at the opportunity to find her possible soulmate and a fresh start. But in a city of millions, Delphie is going to have to listen to her heart, learn to ask for help, and perhaps even see the magic in the life she’s leaving behind…

Light-hearted, good-natured, and comfortably predictable, Kristy Greenwood’s The Love of My Afterlife is a perfect example of understanding the assignment and hitting all the bullet points to get the job done, nothing more nothing less. This book is a casual read that’s catered directly to fans of cozy chick lit rom-com novels looking for an easy and pleasant time. Devoid of anything that could be remotely triggering or controversial and full of the genre’s expected hijinks and romance tropes, it’s a competently written book that doesn’t really have any glaring weaknesses. On the flip side, it also takes zero risks and feels complacently good but not great. For me personally, I found The Love Of My Afterlife to be a bit underwhelming although I thought its overall tone and plot were great.

I picked this book up purely based on the intriguing premise (before it started trending on booktok I might add) fully knowing it probably wasn’t going to be to my taste, but I was surprised by how pleasant and quick it was to read. Unlike other romance novels with magical realism elements that skirt or cheapen their gimmick, The Love of My Afterlife sticks pretty close to its premise all the way through (can you tell I’ve been burned too many times this year?). Although it was completely predictable and nothing took me by surprise, I found the plot to be well-crafted and consistently paced. Most of the book revolves around Delphie reacting comically in unfamiliar and adventurous situations, each event contributing towards the ultimate goal of “seeing the magic in the life she’s leaving behind”. I highlighted this part of the synopsis as the majority of the book was focused on Delphie discovering new things about herself and her life, rather than on the character romance specifically. Most of the negative reviews I’ve read criticized the book for being boring, lacking romantic development, or feeling like Delphie was just running around frantically on a wild goose chase. To avoid misplaced expectations, this book is all about Delphie’s journey finding her perceived soulmate and excitement in life, not about her falling in love with her love interest. There is romance and it’s fine (solid with a touch of spice, though again nothing to write home about), but it’s not the main selling point which is instead more of a second-chance at life narrative.

I’ve read similar novels that tackled depressed or socially withdrawn characters whose lives have passed them by, this one is definitely one of the more upbeat ones that doesn’t take its mortal situation too seriously. There were some attempts made for deeper themes including a neglected childhood, bullying, not quite depression but anhedonia, and loss, but they ultimately felt surface-level and comfy takes on the subjects. The same could be said about Delphie’s perceived character growth which felt very simplistic and covered well-trodden territory. I constantly felt like the book was trying to be silly and slapstick, purposely avoiding any serious conversations and skimming over anything that might disrupt the casual tone. That casual take also carried over to the story that always felt like regardless of what happened, a perfect happily ever after was always waiting around the corner or at the end of the book. There are a few plot twists and surprises in regards to the deal made to send Delphie back to life, but they were all quite predictable. In fact, I could predict the entire plot of the book from about ¼ of the way in. That’s not necessarily a bad thing depending on the type of read you’re looking for, but don’t expect any deep reflection about life or dramatic romance here (you’ll only get some dramatically silly reactions from Delphie).

Besides having a predictable plot, the recurring theme of being just enough continued with the characters. While I found Delphie to be quite likable as a FMC, I felt like Greenwood was trying hard to make her come off as quirky yet relatable, sometimes successfully, sometimes eye-rollingly cringy. Outside of Delphie however, the supporting characters and love interests felt like cookie-cutter tropes and were all just sort of there to fill necessary spots in the plot. In general, most characters’ personalities and backstories felt thinly constructed and standard expected material for the genre. The best characters were Delphie’s grouchy and snarky neighbor Cooper and the elderly Mr. Yoon who Delphie checks in on twice a day. Despite having some good one-liners and being charming enough, Cooper felt quite similar to just about every other grumpy yet attractive male character in every rom com book I’ve read, plot twist about his career included. The elderly, frail and solitary Mr. Yoon fared better, but I’ve read other books that incorporated and developed this pseudo young/elderly non-familial dynamic to greater success and emotional depth (Gareth Brown’s The Book of Doors immediately comes to mind). Despite loving the comedic banter initially, I also felt like the camaraderie between Delphie and her afterlife therapist Merrit grew repetitive and stale about halfway through the book and really didn’t go anywhere despite the Merrit’s crucial part of the plot.

Like the plot and characters, I found the writing style to be easy and casual to read, but very much average. I’d read quite a few second chances at life stories this year that often had insightful reflective moments that I felt would have benefited this book to take it from good to great. Despite normally loving British humor and writing styles, I found Greenwood’s attempts at comedy to be decent, but ultimately lacking. A lot of the humor relied on zany situations and the common trope of “everything that can go wrong will go wrong”, but the book didn’t have the comedic timing or the edgy snark do much for me. It largely felt like light and silly chuckles, but never laugh out loud funny nor sarcastically/smartly funny.

I struggled with the rating for this one as it’s technically a well-rounded, above average, mainstream appealing book that doesn’t really have any major weaknesses. It’s also a cozy read where you can tell what’s going to happen ahead of time, so there’s no unexpected or unpleasant plot developments that could turn off certain readers; frankly there’s nothing unpleasant in it at all. Yet that’s one of the very things that held me back from enjoying it further. Because the tone is so light-heartedly silly and the plot predictable, for me there was a lack of urgency to the story despite the premise and 10 day limit for Delphie to reconnect with her soulmate love. I think this story would actually lend itself better to a live-action adaptation where its zany scenes might work better, but it was missing some type of excitement in book form. It feels weird to rate it a 3-stars as it’s definitely an above-average book, but rating it 4-stars feels too high for my reading tastes personally (saying it agin, Goodreads needs half star ratings if only they didn’t have to match Amazon’s platform rating system). This is a great recommendation for readers looking for a light rom-com book with an after life twist, but I probably wouldn’t recommend it for non chick lit fans or those looking for a more dramedy genre read.