It's A Wonderful Death by Sarah J. Schmitt

It's A Wonderful Death

by Sarah J. Schmitt

When RJ's soul is accidentally collected by a distracted Grim Reaper, somebody in the afterlife better figure out a way to send her back from the dead or heads will roll. Eventually RJ is presented with two options: she can remain in the Lobby, where souls wait to be processed, until her original lifeline expires; or replay three moments in her life in an effort to make choices that will produce a future deemed worthy of being saved. It sounds like a no brainer. She'll take the walk down memory lane. How hard can changing her future be? But with each moment, RJ's life begins to unravel. Will she ever find redemption and walk amongst the living again?

Reviewed by Silvara on

3 of 5 stars

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This was such a fun book! RJ starts out as the kind of self-absorbed popular girl we all hate. But by the end of the book she had become the best version of herself.

It was full of snarky humor, which I adore. As well as just fun things in general. Like, Death Himself (yes, it's always capitalized like that!) wears tacky Hawaiian shirts and is a bit of a surfer dude. We also get to meet a number of angels, as well as Cerberus (and his handler). I loved all the characters in this book, even the ones we might not be supposed to love. They all had such distinct personalities, and it was fun seeing how RJ reacted to them, and how they reacted to RJ!

The Trials she faced to change the course of her life, were supposed to be difficult. But while they were in a way, they also weren't. RJ chose selfishly in her original life. And that's what got her in trouble in her afterlife. But in choosing a new option, she was ultimately still being selfish. She was doing it to get back to her life. And the only way to do that, was to be a better person. So she picked the nicer person options.

Granted, those were the harder choices. Not the easy path she had gone along before. But we didn't really see how it changed her character until after she had passed the Trials. We saw little bits here and there, but since the new memories stemming from her choices didn't all fall into place immediately, she was still a bit of a brat. With some small glimpses of the better her scattered around.

The ending left me sitting there going seriously? Did you seriously just do that? It wasn't a horrible, "I'll never read this author again" ending. It was actually kind of funny once it sank in. I just wasn't expecting it AT ALL.

This review was originally posted on Fantasy of the Silver Dragon

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 23 December, 2015: Finished reading
  • 10 February, 2016: Reviewed
  • Started reading
  • Finished reading
  • 10 February, 2016: Reviewed