Review: A truly fascinating story about a young man working hard to save his SOUL!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 25, 2014
One somewhat raucous college guy, Brian Scott Matheson, meets a rather untimely end to his life when driving while intoxicated. However, he then finds himself in an intermediate heavenly court and is given two weeks to save his eternal soul from fire, damnation, and brimstone. Oh my goodness...how divine! This is a very fascinating twist on a theme and I was entranced even though I didn't give this fellow much of a chance to protect his soul from hell. The entire story takes place on his college campus. I clearly definitely wanted to find out how he fared!Kevin who is on a work study and hardship scholarship didn't have much oomph when he tried to get himself moved from his campus room assignment in Cole Hall because he was convinced his roommate was a belligerent gay-basher. Plus his roommate's friends were certifiably crass and belittled him unmercifully. Kevin was utterly ingenious, however, in how he managed to be out for considerable lengths of time accomplishing most everything that would normally be done in his dorm room. Brian is convinced that Kevin is his assignment and he has to keep him from killing himself. Kevin surely did look like a candidate for doing himself in, so I definitely agreed with Brian. Oh my goodness!Chuck is Kevin's roommate. Chuck was also a good friend of Brian's. This appears to be a formula for some relatively nasty stuff to happen. However, nothing proceeded the way I expected and I think Brian got his eyes opened as much as I did. At one point Chuck takes an unusual and nasty fall down some stairs during one of Brian's manipulations. That did open up an interesting set of interactions between Chuck and Kevin. However, hardly anything happened the way Brian wanted and he is finally down to his last day before final judgment is proclaimed. Brian is witness, in his invisible modality, to many amazing things about Chuck. Chuck is actually quite an uncommon and even-tempered guy as Kevin becomes a constant companion and helper for Chuck in his post broken leg days. Chuck was simply a real charmer!This was a genuinely funny, eye-opening story, and a bit of a coming of age tale although we are dealing with college men. There are some delicious story twists that certainly kept me glued right up until the really amusing, but unexpected ending. This book masterfully while amusingly handled the out-of-this-world elements along with the truly gritty college trials, tribulations, and love in its first moments. This was distinctly entertaining and should not be missed!NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review on <a href="[...]">Rainbow Book Reviews</a>.