Review: Good characters, uplifting story
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 4, 2012
I enjoyed this for a light Christmas read.  The situation was compelling - love and loss and guilt over being left behind, and the characters were interesting and well-developed.I wish the author would have allowed the living characters and the situation to develop without the plot gimic of the conflicted corporeal spirit.  The story was compelling without Larry's physical presence.  Emma, as a young widow trying to keep going for the sake of her children but not feeling like there was any love left for her in the world, and Jake, keeping his promise to watch over his buddy's family but struggling with his feelings for Emma and his 'betrayal' of Larry's trust, could have carried the story just fine.  Perhaps we could have had a prologue with Jake and Larry that would have given us most of what was needed for that backstory (although I still don't know why Jake didn't share or Emma didn't know that Jake was in Larry's unit...) so that Larry's presence isn't needed to move the story along.