cover image The Love of My Afterlife

The Love of My Afterlife

Kirsty Greenwood. Berkley, $19 trade paper (384p) ISBN 978-0-593-81613-4

Greenwood (He Will Be Mine) brings larger-than-life characters to a boisterous death-defying rom-com. Delphie wasn’t supposed to die at 27, unfulfilled and lonely, but at least when she wakes up in the afterlife, she immediately runs smack into Jonah, the man of her dreams. Unfortunately, it turns out he’s only visiting on a dental-anaesthetic trip, so Delphie makes an impulsive deal with her romance-obsessed afterlife therapist, Merritt: Delphie gets 10 days to return to life and find Jonah, who may be one of her five soulmates. If she fails, she’ll spend eternity as the guinea pig for Merritt’s afterlife dating agency. With a chance at true love on the line, Delphie is ready to try anything, including talking to her grouchy neighbor Cooper, who agrees to help locate Jonah if Delphie will pretend to be his girlfriend at a family dinner. Soon she’s seeing a whole new side to Cooper and her increasingly wild schemes to find Jonah bring her completely out of her shell, showing her for the first time what it is to live to the fullest. Greenwood is working at a large scale: the emotions are sweeping, the humor feels straight out of a network sitcom, and the characters are bold, if sometimes broad. Fans of The Good Place should snap this up. Agent: Hannah Todd, Madeleine Milburn Literary. (July)