Heaven Can Wait by Cally Taylor

Heaven Can Wait

by Cally Taylor

A fabulously warm, funny and romantic novel that will have you laughing and crying in equal measure.

'What would I do without you, Lucy Brown?' he said, and kissed me softly. I held his face in my hands and kissed him back. I felt that life just couldn't get any more perfect. And I was right, it wouldn't.
By the end of the next day, I'd be dead.

Lucy is about to marry the man of her dreams - kind, handsome, funny Dan - when she breaks her neck the night before their wedding. Unable to accept a lifetime's separation from her soulmate, Lucy decides to become a ghost rather than go to heaven and be parted from Dan. But it turns out things aren't quite as easy as that. When Lucy discovers that Limbo is a grotty student-style house in North London she's less than thrilled. Especially after meeting her new flatmates: grumpy, cider-swilling EMO-kid Claire; and Brian, a train-spotter with a Thomas the Tank Engine duvet and a big BO problem. But Lucy has a more major problem on her hands - if she wants to become a ghost and be with Dan she has to complete an almost impossible task.

How the hell does a girl like Lucy find a girlfriend for the dorkiest man in England? IT geek Archie's only passions are multi-player computer games and his Grandma. But Lucy only has twenty-one days to find him love. And when she discovers that her so-called friend Anna is determined to make a move on the heart-broken, vulnerable Dan, the pressure is really on...

Reviewed by SilverThistle on

5 of 5 stars

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I loved it so much! Chick Lit-esque, this one has ghostly going's on and despite the fact that the leading lady dies within the first few pages it's really funny. I especially loved the other characters. Stinky Brian was my favourite. Bless. He's got a rug in his room that smells like boiled cabbage and a Thomas the Tank engine duvet cover. Loved him!

Anyway, as mentioned Tess dies (on the eve of her wedding) and is given a choice - go straight to heaven or go back down to earth and become a ghost so she can hang around her husband-to-be Dan. She chooses to become a ghost so needs to pass her 'task' first and she's got 21 days to do it in. She shares a grotty bedsit in London with a couple of other Wannabe ghosts who also have their own 'tasks' to complete and it's impossible to not get dragged in to their respective dilemma's and feel for them. The characters are so well written that I pictured them clearly in my mind and couldn't put the book down until I knew how their stories ended. I really felt like I knew them.

Trainspotter Brian has his work cut out for him with his task and has some fantastically funny moments trying to solve it. Damaged Claire's has attitude and has erected a shield of bitchiness around herself to mask how vulnerable she really is (I felt really sorry for her). The IT guys are suitably geeky and it's like watching an episode of 'The IT crowd' when they get going (the boss especially reminds me of the IT crowd boss). Even the secondary characters are fleshed out and Sandwich Sally is like a little powerpuff girl - cuteness and sass all rolled into one. Love them all.

The only bit I wasn't overly fond of was the last chapter. I didn't care for how it ended. Really, given that this is chick lit it was the only way it could have ended but that doesn't mean I like it. The options were probably limited and another ending would have given a whole different feel to the book but I still wasn't keen on that last chapter.

That said though, I wish this was a series so that I could read more about other wannabe ghosts. I'd auto buy all the others if it was. I might even go back to this one for a re-read some time. I'd definitely LOVE to see this made into a movie!!

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 4 September, 2012: Finished reading
  • 4 September, 2012: Reviewed