Book review : Heaven Can Wait by Cally Taylor

I bought this book by Cally Taylor quite recently as a book review site I read rated this as 10/10 - their only 10/10 book to date. I read it recently when I was poorly sick, so thought I'd let you know what I think of it.

 

Heaven Can Wait is about 28 year old Lucy Brown who dies the night before her wedding to her soulmate, Dan. It sounds quite morbid and depressing, I know, but stick with me. So, after she dies she goes to limbo, where she has to decide whether she wants to go to heaven for her afterlife, or go back to Earth as a ghost. The last time she saw Dan was when they were saying goodbye before the wedding. They had a little argument and she didn't tell him she loved him back - she just shut the door in his face. Feeling desperate to let him know she does love him and she's sorry for the row, she chooses to be a ghost and stay with her fiancé for as long as he lives. However, in order to become a ghost she has to pass a task. Her task is to find a soulmate for a stranger, and the book basically follows her and the hurdles she faces during the task.

I read the first chapter of this on Amazon, and I really enjoyed it. It was quite fun and witty, and I liked Cally Taylor's writing style. The 10/10 rating combined with my thumbs up for writing style, a different storyline, and a fun and witty first chapter gave me really high expectations for the book.

Lucy Brown was an adorable character. She's quite possibly one of my favourites to date. She's just a completely normal girl that many people, me included, could relate to, and from the start of her task I was rooting for her success. I also loved the little glimpses into her relationship with Dan - you could tell that they were truly soulmates and it was quite a sweet relationship. Some of Lucy's moments, particularly in the early days of dating Dan, were so cringeworthy yet utterly brilliant, and had me laughing out loud on many occasions. I want to be Lucy's best friend when if I go to heaven!

The secondary characters were great too. I loved bad-ass Emo Claire and I couldn't help but feel sorry for Weird Brian. There was a good variety of characters, but not so many that you couldn't keep up.

Some of the sub-plots were predictable, and where I guessed what the outcome would be fairly early on in the story, it seemed to take a long time to get to those points. But, just as I was about to tar this book with the 'predictable' brush, the author smacked me between the eyes with the end plot-twist. Honestly, I didn't see that coming and I literally gasped. That said, it kind of happened, then bam, 2 pages - the book was finished. Although it was a satisfying ending that made me a bit teary, I think I'd have liked a little bit more.

Despite the few flaws, this was quite a good debut from Cally Taylor. It didn't quite live up to the hype, and it's definitely not deserving of a 10/10, but it was an enjoyable read nonetheless. She managed to turn quite a sad and depressing story into one packed with humour, and I'm looking forward to reading more from her. 

Rating : 7.5/10 - Great book and easy to get swept along with and believe in it.

Have you read this book? What did you think?

xoxo