Wow, what a fab read. I was hooked from the first page, the whole concept of this book was really enjoyable, the perfect rom-com.

Delphie was such a great MC, I loved seeing her story develop and her character grow throughout the book. The support characters are all so good, I enjoyed each and every one of them, they were like perfect sub-stories, each one so gorgeously developed.

This really was such a fun read, it had me laughing in several places (is it bad that I laughed at the opening scene?), the emotions always felt so raw and real in this book. It was such a gorgeous take on life and death.

Thank you to Penguin, Random House UK, Cornerstone and NetGalley for a copy of this arc.

I loved this book so much! Funny, tender, warm-hearted and oh so romantic, I cackled and sobbed my way through it in one sitting. Kirsty Greenwood is a romcom queen!

Delphie meets the one in the afterlife, who then disappears, and is offered the chance to return to life if she finds him in ten days. She jumps at the chance to return to earth and find her soulmate but soon realises in a city of millions this will be harder than she anticipated.

I am going to start off by saying how much I loved this book! My favourite rom coms are uplifting, have great characters and have a quirky, unique premise and this had all of these in abundance. Having read a not so good romantic comedy recently it was so refreshing to read one done right. I felt a range of emotions while reading, laughing out loud at times while having tears in my eyes at other parts. The genre crossed over slightly into fantasy/sci fi and was done in a clever, very compelling way. I was drawn to the concept as soon as I read the synopsis.

The characters, main and lesser ones, were fantastic. I felt connected to them all and especially loved Delphie. I was desperately rooting for her and charmed by her personality and quirks. I also loved all the relatable references to things that I know and enjoy scattered within the story. It’s so rare that I read a book that is one of those ones that sit on my favourites shelf, that I always recall as special, but this will definitely be added and is my top of the year so far. This is the first Kirsty Greenwood book I have read but she is automatically one of my go to authors now and I’ll now be looking at her other novels. I can’t wait to get everyone buying this book. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this copy in return for an honest review.

We meet Delphie as she chokes on a microwave hamburger and dies... really! What follows is a heart-warming, funny tale of love and life, as Delphie, having met her dream man as he temporarily appears in the afterlife, returns to earth with just ten days to find him and kiss him, a la "Ariel and Eric".

I adored Delphie, and loved the relationships she develops with the host of quirky characters in the book. I also loved how the book unashamedly embraces all the classic tropes of a love/hate relationship, as she finds herself thrown together with her irritating (but dashingly handsome) downstairs neighbout. Therefore, while none of the twists are particularly “twisty”, it is a lot of fun and a super cute, easy read.

There is a lot of humour throughout, and I would certainly read more by this author.

My thanks to the author, NetGalley, and the publisher for the arc to review.

You know those books that, as soon as you finish you just want to pick straight back up again. You want to get that feeling back you had whilst reading, even knowing it will be impossible the second time around? That's how I felt after reading The Love of my Afterlife. It's a book that's laugh out loud funny, heartwarming and heartbreaking in equal measure and I absolutely adored it.

Delphie is someone I pretty much instantly empathised with. She's a bit of a loner, no real friends, family that lives in a different country, the person she has the most contact with is her elderly neighbour Mr Yoon. It's a solitary way to live, yet when she finds herself dead, Delphie has an overwhelming urge to return, she feels she isn't done yet and, thankfully, she is given the chance. 10 days, 10 days to find her so called 'soulmate' and get a kiss. That's all she has to do to ensure she doesn't end up back in the afterlife. But life's never that easy right? 10 days seems like such a long time, but when your soulmate seem's to disappear at every turn and people start turning up in your life, complicating it with friendship and feelings, Delphie will have to decide whether saving her life is worth ruining the connections she has just started to make.

The Love of my Afterlife is a story that really shows the importance of human connection. At the start we meet loner Delphie, more than happy in her own company, or so she thinks, but as the story progresses and, as she looks for her soulmate, she starts to find other people drawn into her life, her next door neighbour Mr Yoon, her colleagues at work, the man from her local library, a dog walker and her grumpy but sexy downstairs neighbour. Every one of these characters becomes important to Delphie and her character growth, whether she wants them too or not, and Greenwood uses them to throw plenty of spanners in the works, and also to add some tension, heartwarming scenes and a little heartbreak too. Mr Yoon wsa my absolute fave btw and I defy you all not to fall in love with him, but I also had a soft spot for Merrit, the person who first greets Delphie when she dies.

Is it a bit saccharine? Getting a second chance at life... literally... with new beginnings, new friendships and romance. Maybe, but it just works. Greenwoods humorous writing style and her quirky characters bring a fresh take and, even though it was predictable, she still manages to throw a few twists in (that one at the end broke me) to make us wonder whether Delphie will ever get her happy ending. I also loved the idea of an Afterlife therapist, someone there to make your journey from alive to dead that bit better... albeit Delphies didn't go quite to plan. I laughed, I cried, I winced at Delphies awkwardness more times than I would like to count, but it really was just a fun story and I found myself so invested in Delphies second chance that I polished it off within a matter of hours.

Now for the juicy bit, the romance. We know pretty early on who Delphie is going to end up with, but that doesn't stop Greenwood from giving us the best slow burn, enemies to lovers vibes, and once the romance kicks off boy does it get steamy quickly. Greenwood adds plenty of tension, as well as some humour in parts all thanks to Delphie only having 10 days to save herself, and I really enjoyed seeing these two people who struggle with human connection, albeit for vastly different reasons, find their person. I also just adored all the different connections Delphie makes in her last 10 days. How she goes from being almost a family of one, to being surrounded by people who care about her. It really does just warm your heart to read, and certainly adds to the drama surrounding Delphies time frame.

If you love romance's that will grip you from page one, unique stories that wont always follow the path you're thinking and one's filled with a bunch of quirky characters you will absolutely fall in love with, I can't recommend this one enough. Greenwood has become an author I will absolutely be keeping my eye on, and I can't wait to see what she has in store for us next.

Kirsty Greenwood is a new author for me, so I went into this book with no expectations. The Love of My Afterlife is an easy going and quirky story about Delphie, who dies eating a microwave burger only to meet her soulmate, Jonah, in the Afterlife waiting room. Subsequently, after making a deal with her Afterlife Therapist, Merritt, she is returned to Earth in order to find and receive a kiss from Jonah. If she fails – she will cross over as intended.

And so ensues a somewhat comical, at times cringeworthy, race against time. I think this story was quite obvious in which direction it was going to go but it didn’t make the reading of it any less enjoyable. My one bug bear was that the story seemed to lose pace somewhere in the middle, and I felt it was being unnecessarily dragged out but then the ending felt a little rushed.

All in all a fun and different , well written read. Perfect for the sun lounger this summer!

Ok - if I'm honest I though thisbook would be perfectly fine but nothing to really shout about. Perfectly enjoyable easy reading rom-com. How wrong was I! I loved it. There was so much more to it than that - it was clever, funny and really emotive. 100% recommend. To use a phrase I totally despise - it really did give me all the feels!

The most charming romcom I have read in a long time, I completely ate this up 100% recommend! I went through the emotions whilst reading this it made me laugh and also cry. I loved it so much.

Going into this I didnt expect to love it as much as I have.
This reminded me of Rom com movies I love to watch. In fact I would watch an adaptation of this.
I loved seeing the relationship develop between Cooper and Delphie grow. While also seeing Delphie step out of her comfort zone and learn to really live life. Not just existing.

I don’t know what I expected when I requested this ARC from Netgalley, however, it certainly delivered!

How to describe this book - well, it probably fits best within the romcom genre, however, with a twist. Our heroine, Delphie, leads a really boring, non-descript life. No friends, no family, when not at work she spends her time at home, alone. But then there is an unfortunate accident which results in her death. In the afterlife waiting room, Delphie is made an offer to return to her life, but there is a catch.

I enjoyed the humour, the light-heartedness of this book. The daft things that Delphie goes through to reach her goal, results in her making friends and a life along the way. Of course, there is the obligatory brooding love interest, but the characters she meets along the way all fill her life in different ways, and you see Delphie growing as a person throughout the book.

Charming, adorable, quirky, all words I would use to describe this book. A perfect light read or, with the nicer weather coming up, holiday read!

I have been sooooooooo excited about this book!! It's my first Kirsty Greenwood book but I will definitely be checking out her others.

It is instantly glorious. So uplifting (regardless of the subject matter); it's fun, funny, mesmerising, and just absolutely beautiful.

Delphie is a fabulous main character, and I felt so much of me in her from the get-go. She's so normal and everyday, we could be er or we know her. She's a bit of all of us I think. We also have Merritt, Delphie's afterlife therapist. She's dialled up to 100mph, is a bit tactless, over the top, almost a caricature, but she is unforgettable. And then Jonah, the handsome stranger who seems to be too good to be true at first, but he makes for an interesting adventure for Delphie.

Other characters include Cooper, her quite rude but mysterious neighbour, Mr. Yoon, another neighbour who she helps care for, and new friends Frida and Aled. They're all fantastic. In my experience, you normally get at least one character in a book who is surplus, or not as developed as the others, almost as an afterthought, but Kirsty has clearly spent time building up these people and making them the stars of their own story.

Merritt I loved; she is obsessed with love stories, which is sort of the catalyst for the whole story I suppose, and whilst I like a good rom-com, I'm not obsessed. But let me tell you, I was OBSESSED with this one. I was rooting for Delphie throughout and would have done anything to make this a happy ending.

It is a very original (at least to me) synopsis. At first I thought it would be similar to Becky Hunter's recent book, Meet Me When My Heart Stops, in terms of falling in love with someone after death, but that's the smallest of connections.

It isn't a spoiler to say that the main character dies early on - I mean, without that there'd be no story. I will say though that the way Kirsty first describes the afterlife, it sounds so calming and fun that I actually really hope that's what's waiting for us.

I read it in less than a day, it is so addictive. It does bring tears to your eyes, it's so beautiful. It has to be one of the most uplifting, gloriously life-affirming books I've read in a very long time and I can't wait to recommend it to everyone!

The Plot: 5/5 The Characters: 5/5 The Setting: 5/5 The Writing: 5/5

Thoughts:

Thank you Random House + NetGalley for this pre-release copy 😊😊

Ummm the easiest 5 star read for me. I polished off these 400 pages in under 4 hours!!

For my first impression, I noticed a parallel between the portrayal of the afterlife in the Netflix series "The Good Place," (one of my favs), and the depiction within this story. I love how the afterlife was interpreted through humour and comfort, perfectly wrapping up the end of the story with the MC’s ☁️

The scenes that are meant to be funny in most books usually make me cringe, BUT THIS had me giggling!! Maybe it was the British humour? The bluntness of Delphie and lack of filter that she has made encounters much more entertaining. I laughed & cried through this book <3

The characters had so much depth, the London location made me miss living there & the plot/ writing was honestly SO GOOD!!

Cooper and Delphie are perfect. I’m sorry but Mr Yoon??! How adorable is that man 🥹 the VOCA machine 😭 the found family in this story was making me sob.

Kirsty Greenwood is an author I haven’t read from before, but I’m already picking out some of her previous books to put on my TBR. I’m so impressed with this one that I’m not sure if it’s possible to top though 😹

Tropes:

Forced Proximity
Fake Dating
Taming the Womaniser
Sharing a Bed
Found Family
Enemies to Lovers

Pro's + Con's:

Pro's: Totally deserves all the 5 star reviews so far, there are MANY pro’s to this book 🪽

Con's: Still thinking of one

Delphie a pharmacy assistant chokes to death at 27. She finds herself in a laundrette waiting room with an afterlife therapist. A chance encounter with Jonah... she has 10 days back on earth to find him!

Perfect for those who enjoy:
- Frantically trying to get to the ending
- Flashback comical fiction
- Ultimatums and the chance of a lifetime stories
- Impossible tasks
- Tugs at the heart strings book

With thanks to Random House UK, Cornerstone, Penguin and Netgalley for an ARC copy in return for an honest review.

Delphie is living the quietest of lives until she is unceremoniously dumped into the afterlife. Immediately encountering the most handsome man she has ever seen, Delphie is given the chance to return to life on completing a challenge.
This is a quirky, romantic book filled with great characters and an unusual take on happy ever after.

||: Absolutely mortified, I back away from Frida before turning and immediately jogging off down the path towards home, hands placed firmly over my private parts.
“I'll meet you there at seven twenty-five tomorrow!” Frida calls after me. “Because you're now running away without telling me your phone number!”
“Yeah okay!” I call back, running back past the fountains, and out onto Bayswater Road. I run as fast as I possibly can because if I stop, the business I was telling everyone to keep their eyes off will be on full display for anyone who wants to have a gander. :||

Merrit is an afterlife therapist and when she gets a new ‘dead’ client who is her first one in a long while she sees her opportunity to prove to the ‘upper’ bosses, how good of an afterlife therapist she can actually be.

Not so good for Delphine who is the unlucky client. But thanks to Merrit’s love of romance stories she is given a second chance, however in order to keep that second chance she must do the impossible.
Her soul mate must kiss her within seven days. Chasing fate is not as easy as it sounds. Will she be able to make it in time?

I laughed-cried at this at times. It was hilariously clever and I so related to Delphie way more that I thought I would. I'm going to be honest when I first started it.. I was like.. oh no what have I signed up for.
But it was so good. Not your average romcom. It was sprinkled with all sorts of gems and I'm so glad I got to read it.

Thank you so much to Kirsty Greenwood, Random House UK, Cornerstone publishers and Netgalley for allowing me to read this brilliant book!

When you die you enter the afterlife and a chance to return. The only catch is you have to meet and get a set person to kiss you of their own free will.
Delphine starts to engage with neighbours, co workers and other characters to make this happen.
Finally she is living instead of existing.
Can she live and not return to the afterlife?
S heart warming story that will you smile and realise we all should engage with others.

Absolutely adored this! Started out a bit *eyeroll* because I wasn’t into the idea that she had to chase a stranger and convince him to love her but MANNNN DOES IT GET GOOD. It was so enjoyable and heartwarming to watch Delphie come to life and learn that there’s more to life than just protecting yourself and hiding yourself away 24/7. I can’t say more for fear of spoiling but PLEASE READ.

Thank you Netgalley for sending me an eARC of The Love of My Afterlife!

4.5 stars!

I would be lying if I said I wasn't skeptical about reading this, as I'm not a big contemporary romance or just romance reader in general. However, I do believe Kirsty Greenwood has converted me! Watching Delphie blossom into a completely new person after realising she is on 10 days of borrowed time, really reminded me to live life to the fullest every day. You never know what day will be your last. Had so many tropes from enemies to lovers, forced proximity and grumpy/sunshine! I loved all 400 pages of this book and will definitely look into more of Kirsty's work!

I absolutely loved this laugh-out-loud romance. Very different from usual reads, but I enjoyed every moment. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this advance copy.

Coming out of a reading slump this book was everything I needed. If I wasn't already sold by 'contemporary fiction, with a side of fantasy, and romance', the witty writing got me HOOKED. I laughed, I cried, I blushed... who could want more. The short chapters, and constant twists to the plot, made this a fast read that was difficult to put down. Did I figure out some of the twists before they happened? Well... yes, but that didn't stop me from wanting to read more. Delphie was such a fun and interesting character, who was easy to relate to, and I was rooting for her the whole time. This book is not to be taken seriously, but if you're in the mood for a fun read then this is a book for you.