cover image You Had Me at Halo

You Had Me at Halo

Amanda Ashby. New American Library, $12.95 (288pp) ISBN 978-0-451-22135-3

It's The Lovely Bones meets Bridget Jones in this fluffy take on what happens after death. Holly Evans, an airy 22-year-old recently deceased by supposed suicide, lingers in Heaven's ""Level One, having to put up with all of the horrid rejects while people like her parents were up on Level Three probably wearing lovely white togas and bathing in chocolate."" Luckily, her afterlife ""spiritual realigner"" (think: shrink) sends her back to Earth for two days to purge her soul, clear up the circumstances surrounded her alleged suicide and confess to her boyfriend Todd that she wants to marry him. The catch? Her vessel is Vince Murphy, a guy from the IT department. As the clock ticks, Vince and Holly psychically chat in Vince's head while ticking off the items on Holly's to-do list. The peachy conclusion isn't unexpected, but it's not quite expected either. It's a fun, witty traipse through the afterlife.