Review: Heaven Help Me - 4.5 stars
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 16, 2012
I volunteered to read this and supply an honest review. I'd previously read CONNECTED and A MODERN LOVE STORY by the same author and had high hopes... I was delighted to say my hopes were not only met, but exceeded.To say that Kassie is having a bad day, would be an understatement. Everything from tripping over the cat to being accosted on the way to work, seems set to ruin her day.<< I'm waiting for the day when he flashes open his coat and I see more than hot jewelry. And when that day comes, I'm going to scrub my eyeballs out with Lysol. And then set them on fire. >>Work sucks, as it does most days, especially when she has to fend off her boss, a man who makes wandering-hands seem tame. Eventually she's home and repeating her mantra in bed.<< Before I fall asleep, I almost ask out loud `What the hell else could happen?', but I know better than to tempt the fates, and instead mutter, "Heaven help me, or Hell have me." And then mentally amend it to **** Heaven, Hell take me.I think it just this once, `cause I'm mad enough to go there.>>Strangely, the day after is almost the complete opposite - especially when she's told her boss is being investigated for harassment. At last! She goes home happy for once... and then things take a bizarre turn. There's a ghost in her apartment. A rather hunky and gorgeous ghost.<< I shoo at him like a fly. Only instead of my hand passing through his, I smack right into him. I looked right at him with wide eyes. I couldn't help it! I just smacked a ghost for crying out loud! >>Not only can she see - and touch him - they can speak to each other. He seems surprised when she assumes he's a ghost, and that's when she begins to wonder just what he really is.<< "The other day," he prompts. "Do you remember what you said?"I think back - oh, that day - and scowl. "I'm pretty sure I said a lot of choice words on that particular day.""Yes, but one thing in particular put you in the spotlight." >>Her mantra - Hell Have Me - suddenly takes on a whole new meaning.<< He studies me half a tick and nods. "Hell.""Hell?" I whisper. And then I do something I didn't even think was possible, something I always thought was just a figure of speech. I gulp."You're worried?"I nod."Good," he says, leaning in. "You should be." >>At this point I dragged my eyes away from the story to look at the % read counter - 66 %. Noooo, I muttered... I know this can't all be nicely wrapped up and resolved in 34%, which means..... Yes. I have to wait for the next in the series.Let me get a couple of caveats out there.- This is written present tense. Normally I hate that, but Kassie's voice is so vibrant that it makes this come alive.- It's short, woefully short. It is only a novelette, and so it serves as a deliciously tangy taster to Jolyn Palliata's new series. A hell of a lot is packed in (tee hee, excuse the pun), but I still wish it was longer as I'm not very good at waiting.Having said all that, it's a fab quick read, and I loved it.*****Dear Ms Palliata, if you read this review, please hurry up and release the next in the series. Yours sincerely, Impatient Reader :-)4.5 out of 5 (only because I desperately wanted there to be more!!