This was a very sweet short book. The author shares personal anecdotes about connecting with her deceased husband. If you believe in the supernatural, you will probably love this. Even if you don't, it's still very sweet. Anything can be said to have been imagined or not real, and maybe these stories could as well, but regardless of whether they're real or not - you can see the author's love for her husband in the pages. And it is a lovely, heartening story.

I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.

So grateful for a copy of this book.
I lost my dad last year and grief and death is such a lonely and taboo place - subject.
There are books but a lot are quite formal and prescriptive.
This is like a breath of fresh air. It calms, it soothes and it really makes you feel understood and not alone.
Forever grateful for my copy. Thank you so much

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is very special to me as I lost my 18-year-old granddaughter last September. A very special and helpful book.

Such a fantastic read! Signs are truly everywhere and I loved reading the author’s own wonderful experiences.

Having read and loved Sam Neumann's novel "Emails from Heaven," I was ready for this real-life story by a woman whose mysterious WhatsApp messages could "only" have come from her husband. I needed this message:

"I want people to know that consciousness, spirit, the soul, call it what you will, survives bodily death, because it is such a wonderful solace," Louise Hamlin writes. "This is not tied up with any religion. It just is as it is. This knowledge has totally changed my view of life and the world, and it has given me an inner security that I cherish. I wish the same for anyone who is bereaved."

She's convinced of it. Will she convince you?

Hamlin beautifully captures the desolation and darkness that follow the loss of a loved one. If they live on after death, we need to know this. We want some reassurance of it. Without physical bodies, how can our loved ones communicate with us from the other side?

For thousands of years, people have cherished the idea of things with wings serving as a sign that a loved one is visiting us: "Butterflies hover and feathers appear whenever lost loved ones and angels are near." It may be hard to imagine a cardinal outside your window is serving as a portal for your dear, departed grandma or your son who never came home from war, but anecdotes about birds and butterflies abound.

Now, in this electronic age, spirits may have access to a new way to reach us. Our gadgets! It kinda makes sense. I'd been exploring the idea myself last fall and found one affirmation: "Angels are simple and do not necessarily make grand gestures when sending messages; they simply use what's available and part of our daily lives," says the computerized narrator of a Just Bible Verses studio video on you-tube. Feathers, scents, songs on the radio, pretty much all the classic signs Hamlin cites are delineated in this video, "6 Signs You’re Being Visited by Your Guardian Angel - Signs Of An Angel Watching Over You."

Hamlin used to believe our thoughts could not survive death of the body, but she takes us page by page to the point where she is now certain that "when the brain dies, the spirit, the consciousness, that was being transmitted is still there, just not functioning through a body." She sees "a mass of evidence available to prove that life after death exists, that reincarnation happens, and that near-death experiences are not merely hallucinations caused by a malfunctioning brain."

Even if you cannot believe it yourself, you can appreciate Hamlin's struggle to make sense of a senseless death. Her husband 'had been so strong and so vigorous, and he still had so much to give. It seems absurd that he had contracted cancer and died. I felt totally floored by the randomness of it.all." So did I, when cancer took my sister, a marathon runner, a fitness fanatic, a fantastic school teacher. Her horrible demise is so recent, so raw, I may never do what Hamlin did so well: write a book about it.

Only months before cancer consumed Kelly, we had buried our sister Lori. My youngest sister sees signs all over: words on a passing truck, lyrics on the radio, a white squirrel, a yellow bird, the list is endless and weirdly specific. She must be more observant, intuitive, and open to belief. But I did get a sign very similar to what Hamlin writes of with WhatsApps from her husband. Mine was a text message in a special font I'd never seen and wouldn't know how to generate myself--a large, bold, handwriting font I was unable to call up without going online in search of instructions on how to achieve this look of a handwritten message. "It's a sign!" my little sister insists. "It could ONLY be Lori doing this!"

But our son studies coding, stuff that involves algorithms and AIs, and I too am a skeptic, so I cannot share Louise Hamlin's conviction that the "only" explanation for these mysterious phone messages is that a lost loved one is using whatever means is available to reach us. Oh, I wanna believe! But I was astonished at what AIs and algorithms could do in Sims II gaming; characters in the game took on a will of their own, dressing themselves, walking across town, saying and doing things their human creator didn't program thjem to say and do. Computers can generate messages and search our histories and target us with things that nobody else would know. So, yeah, I'm still a skeptic, but also a wannabeliever. I want to believe! Yes, yes, our loved ones DO live on, and they want us to know they do, and they want us to feel the love and keep on living until we can meet again in a next life.

So, is this book just another desperate attempt to believe? Hamlin sounds 100 percent sincere. What troubled me most is that Hamlin, despite being a skeptic, contacted mediums. A couple of the mediums seemed ineffectual (if not fraudulent), while others seemed to "know" things they supposedly couldn't have found out any other way. I always think of Sherlock Holmes (his keen powers of observation and the astonishingly exact, detailed conclusions he'd draw) and that TV show "The Mentalist." Most of the weirdly specific things a medium "knows' are based on observation. Or sneaky behind-the-scenes research. Think of the old carnival huckster with the crystal ball in "Wizard of Oz" who sees a careworn woman after stealing a peek into Dorothy's basket and seeing a photo of her Aunt Em. In short, I don't trust mediums or psychics any more than I trust astrologers. Least of all if their services are for hire.

Hamlin also mentions reincarnation, citing a two-year-old who "remembers" flying warbirds in WWII. I can believe in life after death, but reincarnation, no. A more likely explanation, to me, is that the boy somehow received memories from the soldier who did those things, whether by subconsciously "downloading" like some human version of a computer, or: telepathically--however such knowledge can be relayed. For the boy to somehow have access to the man's memories and knowledge is truly remarkable, and mysterious, if not miraculous.--but to me, it doesn't mean that pilot's soul was reincarnated in this little boy. It does give me hope that some part of us lives on after death and sometimes, someone can access the memories of others, perhaps in the way the nine Muses were said to inspire poets, writers, composers, and artists.

I love the page on quantum mechanics. Love the idea of our souls being sentient and able to live on after separating from our bodies. I totally identify with Louise Hamlin and would never try to convince her that the signs she saw were from anyone or anything but her beloved husband.

This is a moving, thoughtful, compelling book, one I'd buy for others, even though I may never be as certain as Louise Hamlin is that our loved ones live on and try to message us by whatever means they can.

A quick, easy and very comforting book! I would definitely recommend for anyone who is grieving and questioning life after death. Lots of signs and personal proof of the afterlife. A very soothing read.

WhatsApps from Heaven is a fun and delightful read about the signs after the death of a loved one. I found comfort in reading it and learning about my own signs I have experienced. Five stars.

Extremely Personal Account..
Bereavement and grief and experiences of extraordinary happenings following the death of a loved one. The author bravely provides her extremely personal account. How certain things have given her comfort and strength and taught her that there may well be more. The benefits of always having an open mind.

This book was interesting but with a huge focus on WhatsApps as a means of communicating after death - not surprising given the title but I had expected perhaps a broader study of different signs from beyond than this! I am not sure I would recommend this book.