When Jess is knocked off her bicycle she finds her self at the gates of Heaven early - before her actual death date. Striking a deal with the angel on duty she is allowed to return to earth to visit her friends and family in invisible ghost form, until she's due back to the Pearly gates. But Jess soon learns more about her friends and family than she ever realised and ultimately she is faced with a real life or death dilemma.
When I spotted this in the library, I had no idea if it would be my cup of tea but the super pretty cover, and enticing synopsis had me hooked. I LOVE books about the afterlife or that feature ghosts/angels etc, and this is the first one I've found to be a younger read (if you want an older read with ghosts, try Heaven Can Wait, Twenties Girl or The Dead Wife's Handbook), and it's very much aimed at young teenagers, but can obviously be read by anyone, and considering the fact I was in TEARS at the end, it was obviously a super emotional read. It was also super cute, I really loved Jess. Jess was SO, so likeable, so easy to relate to, and that fear of knowing she was going to die was just intense. Can you imagine knowing you are five days away from death and have to deal with that at 14? How Jess didn't have the most insane meltdown ever I'll never know. I would have and I'm in my twenties.
Seeing Jess go and visit her friends was both awful and amazing at the same time. Awful because, again with the whole death thing, but it was so nice as well that she actually got that opportunity to go and say (a silent) goodbye. It was even bizarre to see Jess become friends with Darren, the angel trying to get her into heaven. That was amazing. I've never met a more polite, lovely death maker. (I mean duh of course I haven't, but you know what I mean. He actually cared).
This book had me in tears. I should have known, I should have prepared myself. It just made me well up so many times and by the end my face was wet and covered in tears. But it was such a good read, so intriguing to see how a fourteen-year-old handles the reality of death and Jess was one of the bravest main characters I've ever come across. SO BRAVE. I wouldn't be that brave. She had the most awesome friends, and a pretty decent family, too and Darren kinda stole the show as well, for me. I actually genuinely loved him. This was such a good read and I can't wait to read Alex's other books!
