I love a little dash of magical realism in my romantic comedies. As long as it doesn’t cross the bridge into sci fi, I think a bit of magical realism can make some of the tropes of the romantic comedy feel new and fresh, and I’ll take a 13 GOING ON 30 any day of the week. As long as they are one buy-in, grounded rules, they have the potential to explore romance in a new way and keep the heroine on her toes. Sophie Cousens THE GOOD PART comes to mind as a recent and excellent example of this.
LOVE OF MY AFTERLIFE is delightful and is successful with this type of magical realism. In it, our main character Delphie chokes in the opening scene most embarrassingly on a microwave hamburger while in her apartment alone. With no one there to save her despite trying to do the Heimlich on herself like she saw Miranda do on SEX AND THE CITY, she soon finds herself in the waiting room for the afterlife where she meets her kooky afterlife coach, Merritt, and another swoony fellow traveler, Jonah, who Delphie immediately sparks with. Jonah, it turns out, is only a temporary passenger (he’s in a coma), and is sent back down to Earth. Delphie has lived the most closed off of lives on Earth and so is extremely disappointed to finally have met her soulmate and have him sent back to the land of the living. She makes a bargain with Merritt—if Merritt sends her back and she finds Jonah and can get him to kiss her within 10 days, she’ll get another chance at her life. Merritt agrees and sends Delphie back with no information on how to find Jonah including his last name. As she starts her search, Delphie finds herself interacting with and opening up to the people in her life like her downstairs neighbor Cooper, the mother and daughter who work with her at the local pharmacy, an older neighbor Mr. Yoon who needs her help, and other members of the community.
This romantic comedy is really fun for savvy romantic comedy readers because the second chance at life device allows the story to keep morphing between romantic comedy expectations. Was this going to be a story that really wanted to embrace magical realism and bring magic into the every day? Not entirely as the afterlife is mostly cut off from Delphie during her journey back on Earth. Then it starts twisting and becomes a romance about soulmates, an enemies to lovers story, a love triangle tale. And most comedically, Merritt, who is a lover of romance novels, gives a nod to the audience that this is her experience of the story as well—a sort of twisting confection of romance tropes. I thought that blend was really unique and made me embrace the book even when there were times that Delphie started stretching credulity in her self imposed personal isolation and other times I didn’t entirely buy the spark between her and her love interest. The device here lifts the material as a whole and makes it feel both funnier and more emotional than it would feel without. I love that the author too seems aware of how savvy her readers can be and is constantly giving little nods to other romance authors and books—so fun. It’s also interesting that the book acknowledges the potential for as many as five soulmates out there for any one person—kind of a romance no-no that opens the door for hijinx in the storytelling. I’d recommend this book to romantic comedy lovers because more than anything, this one is pure fun and really delivers.
4 stars
Synopsis:
A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK
AN INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER!
“This book has it all. Humor, heart, and a heroine I was desperately rooting for. Kirsty Greenwood has a new fan!”
—Colleen Hoover, New York Times bestselling author
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…
