Cally Taylor

My newly found love of chick lit has brought me to this one by Cally Taylor and I loved it so much! I think maybe I still have one foot in the 'Paranormal' camp though because I seem to be drawn to the one's that have something magical about them. 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 I think. 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 especailly 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!!… (plus d'informations)

I picked a handful of 'ghost stories' from the library catalogue, because I tend to read around particular subjects or genres, and the first to hand was Heaven Can Wait by Cally Taylor. Now, I don't mind chick lit every now and again, and I did find Lucy the dysfunctional (and dead) narrator very funny, but this isn't a ghost story. The supernatural premise actually makes no sense - Lucy, who dies on the eve of her wedding, goes to 'limbo' first, where she must choose between becoming a ghost or going to heaven. I would have thought that being trapped in limbo and haunting your past life were the same thing, but apparently not. Lucy, in the way of all chick lit chicks, can't live (or die, in this case) without a man, so she chooses to haunt her fiance, Dan, but first she must 'qualify' by completing an assigned task (to help someone meet their soulmate). There is absolutely no spiritual aspect to the story whatsoever, bar Lucy's housemates 'graduating', but I did enjoy what there was - humour, heart, and an endearing if clumsy heroine. The ending was overegging the pudding - Lucy finally makes what I thought was the right choice, then a very coincident accident ties all the loose ends up into a very pretty, but wholly unconvincing, bow.

All good fun, and a fast, entertaining read - what more can anyone ask? (Well, more ghosts, obviously, but apart from that ...)… (plus d'informations)