This book has every trope imaginable from fake dating to only one bed at the inn during a storm; it was chaotic and messy but absolutely delightful. I went from cringing with second-hand embarrassment at the FMC's utter lack of filter, to tearing up at her not hesitating to help her elderly neighbor with his hygiene tasks.

Delphie is recently deceased after choking on a microwave hamburger; she finds herself in an afterlife waiting room alongside the most attractive man she's ever seen. When he is returned to the land of the living on a technicality, Delphie is offered a deal of ten days back on Earth during which she must convince her potential soulmate to kiss her, willingly. Did I mention that Delphie has never dated in her twenty-seven years of life? She was bullied and traumatized as a girl and is now utterly alone in the world, aside from looking after her elderly neighbor Mr. Yoon. She has no idea what the stranger's last name is or where he lives; she will need to connect with people in her community and ask for help her for the first time in her life.

This book seemed more about found family and personal growth than the actual romance, about taking chances to be alive. I loved the peripheral characters who were so open to friendship with Delphie and saw through her grumpy self-protective walls. At times Delphie's actions were so cringe I literally closed the book and said 'noooo' out loud, but then she would go and do something so caring that I loved her in spite of everything.

Thank you so much to Berkley and Netgalley for this ARC!

Thank you #partner @berkleyromance for my #gifted copies. 💕 #berkleyromancepartner #berkleyig #penguinrandomhousepartner

The Love of My Afterlife
Kirsty Greenwood
Available 7/2

📖 A recently deceased woman meets “the one” in the afterlife waiting room, scoring a second chance at life (and love!) if she can find him on earth before ten days are up…

💭 This dazzling British romp begs to be turned into a romantic comedy film! It's fresh, fun, and wholly unexpected. It's not often a romance novel takes me by surprise, but this one sure did! The highlight for me here, aside from the swoony romance, was Delphie's incredible character growth. I adored this, and I think you will too! (4.5 ⭐ rounded up)

Delphine doesn’t die of embarrassment but she is quiet embarrassed when she does die; in a silly nightie after choking on a microwave burger. She meets her dream man in the afterlife, only for him to be sent back to Earth. Devastated, Delphine is given a deal to go back to find him and connect.

A new favorite of mine! This book was so smart, unexpected, and fun. I love a magical realism twist within a serious plot. The two main characters are hilarious. Their banter is biting and clever. The plot is a little out there but I loved every second of it. There’s a touch of many romance tropes in it, as romantic fiction plays into the story as well.

“Here lies Delphine Denise Bookham. She died just as she lived: alone, perplexed,
and wearing something a bit shit.”

The Love of My Afterlife comes out 7/2.

The story begins with Delphie in the waiting room of the afterlife. She is 27 and still a virgin (not that there's anything wrong with that). While there she literally bumps into a hot stranger and there is a connection and spark. They are interrupted when her hot guy Jonah is whisked away because his appearance was premature. Through a loophole Delphie is offered the chance to return to earth for ten days. If she can find Jonah, a potential soulmate, and get him to kiss her willingly, she can stay on earth.

The quest isn’t as easy as it sounds as it takes quite a while for her to find a Jonah T. that lives in London. In the meantime Delphie is living her life, helping care for her elderly neighbor Mr. Yoon and getting help from grumpy neighbor Cooper. There are some funny moments and Delphie is very quirky. Some of the story is predictable but that doesn’t make it less enjoyable. For me this is more general fiction than romance because so much of the story is spent on trying to find Jonah even though there is a romance and HEA. It is a subtle difference.

This is a light fantasy and a fun read. Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for the ARC and I am leaving a voluntary review.

i want to give this more than five stars. it deserves so many stars. all of the stars. it was funny and heart wrenching and frustrating and perfect. i have never highlighted a book more. there was just so much to love here. i want to reread it again and again and recommend it to everyone i know. it was every romance trope rolled into one perfectly. it was the dead romantics meets the good place, just as described but somehow better and completely it's own thing. i am in love with this book.

I flipping loved this book!

You have Delphie who just died from choking on a microwave hamburger. When she dies she goes to this placed called Evermore. She meets her Afterlife therapist and some hot guy that she feels a spark with. Turns out he is not really dead. Just close. So back to earth he goes.
Her Therapist lovvvves romance and decides to bend the rules and give Delphie ten days to find that guy and get him to kiss her.

The things is Delphie hates being around people. She only interacts with her neighbor Mr. Yoon but he does not talk...so there is that.

This book was fun then the damned thing even made me cry. I wasn't expecting much so I was sooooo pleasantly surprised to find it! (You know how it is when you pick up a book you expect nothing but fluff)

Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.

Words can’t begin to describe how much I loved this-one of those “stay up half the night just to finish it” books.
After a very embarrassing way to die, Delphie wakes up in an afterlife waiting room, where she finds an immediate spark with another new arrival…her soulmate…only to realize he was there temporarily. She’s offered a deal to return to earth and have another chance at life, but with a catch: she must find that same soulmate who will have no memory of them meeting, and within 10 days get him to kiss her of his own free will, otherwise it’s back to the afterlife. But for what had been a sad, lonely life before, this second chance also gives her the opportunity to realize just what an incredible community is in her corner and life doesn’t have to be so lonely.
I laughed, cried, and couldn’t stop smiling. Such a cute story with some big twists. I was drawn in by the immediate humor (choking on a microwave burger?!) and as it progressed, I just couldn’t put the book down until the end, invested in every character from Delphie and Cooper to Mr Yoon and Deli Dan. This was my first of Greenwood’s books and I can’t wait to read her others now.
Thank you to Berkley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I've just hit the opposite of a reading slump. In the past month of the 26 books I have read, I rated 11 as five stars. This is an amazing lucky streak of books that I absolutely love and will want to recommend over and over again.

Delphine lives, or lived, a lonely existence. But she really wasn't ready to die. Especially not dressed as she was, choking on a hamburger bun, in her apartment, only in her twenties and still a virgin. She's met by an afterlife therapist and through an extraordinary turn of events is given 10 days back on earth. If she can convince her "soulmate" Jonah to kiss her, she can remain on earth. Only thing all she knows his first name and that he lives in London.

Searching for Jonah leaves Delphine open to new experiences, asking for help and returning favors. Along the way she amasses the quintessential found family. This book will make you laugh and squeeze your heart at the same time.

I read Kirsty Greenwood's The Vintage Guide to Love and Romance years ago and loved it! When I saw this on Netgalley I knew I had to read it, I am loving all of these contemporary paranormal ghosty romances like Dead Romantics! This isn't actually a ghost romance, Delphie dies but then is pretty much immediately brought back to earth for a second chance at life if she can convince her soulmate to kiss her of his own free will in 7 days! Delphie is a loner who's only friend is her little, old, mute neighbor, Mr. Yoon. Her “AfterLife therapist” Merritt was such a frigging hoot and when she sends her back to life, the parts I enjoyed most were Delphie learning to open up and creating a found family type of group which was so sweet! I don't wanna spoil the romanctical parts of the story because they took my off guard in the best way possible. I was delighted by our hero and he truly brought out the best in Delphie and helped her expand her point of view! The ending is surprising and beautiful, 10/10 recommend!!

Delphie Bookham is a 27-year-old woman who's never had a romantic relationship or the *perks* that come with one. After years of bullying in high school and basically being abandoned by her parents, she’s sworn off getting close to others, apart from her elderly neighbor Mr. Yoon. Unfortunately, this means she’s alone when a bite of burger gets stuck in her throat!

Next thing she knows, she finds herself in Evermore where she’s greeted by an outgoing, ambitious, romance-loving Afterlife Therapist named Merritt who’s getting a little bored upstairs. When Merritt notices sparks fly between Delphie and another incoming “Dead” named Jonah who gets whisked back to earth because it’s not his time yet, she decides to have some fun. She’ll bend a rule to allow Sophie to return to her life IF she can find Jonah and get him to kiss her within ten days. If not, Delphie gets a one-way ticket back to Evermore!

Can Delphie find her soulmate Jonah and get that kiss in time?

It’s a delightful premise and the beginning hooked me right away, but it’s the unexpected story AFTER Delphie gets sent back that truly won my heart!

This is a love story about LOVE STORIES! The frequent nods to familiar authors and books, the meta references to popular romance tropes, the heartwarming threads of found family and magical realism, and the overarching theme of living the life you’ve been given to its fullest ALL make for one of the sweetest, most life-affirming stories I’ve read this year. I went into the story thinking I knew where it was going, but I was so wrong and I couldn’t be happier that I was!

Delphie’s journey isn’t just about finding love and pursuing her ‘happily ever after’, it’s also about discovering her love for life itself and all the joys that come with letting people in. Yes, I wanted to shake her for a good half or so of the book and tell her to stop being so darn grumpy, but she wasn’t that way without reason, and seeing her evolution as a character was worth the patience.

If you enjoy a funny, heartwarming enemies to lovers story with a brilliant cast of side characters, great chemistry, a satisfying story arc and a decent amount of emotional depth involving grief, bullying, loneliness, caring for the elderly, and setting healthy boundaries, this is well worth a look! I’ll be keeping an eye out for more from Kirsty Greenwood!

My thanks for the ARC goes to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing. I'm voluntarily leaving a review.

Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romcom, Paranormal Romance, Magical Realism
Spice Level: Pretty hot
Language: Pretty bad (as in a lot of swearing)

This is the book for you if, you love:

- found family
- fake dating
- love triangle
- forced proximity
- one bed
- enemies to lovers
- love after death
- irreverent take on the afterlife
- god-like deals for love (reminds me of the impossible situation of The Little Mermaid, Disney version with Ursula)

This is a breezy book; a beach read. I was really looking for a sweet romance without swearing, and this book didn't work out for that reason. I think other romance readers will love it when looking for a light-hearted read.

Happy reading!

Thanks for the free book @berkleyromance @netgalley #berkleypartner #berkleybooks !!

@kirsty_greenwood is a new-to-me author and again I feel as if I’ve been hiding under a rock for having missed her previous books. This book was the contemporary romance plus a bit of the spooky that I was looking for - a romp, if you will, featuring a grumpy girl protagonist falling for her brooding, snarky, curly haired neighbor.

Delphie is a 27 year old recluse by choice. She’s got an absentee mother, was horrifically bullied at school by an ex-best friend, and does not want to let anybody in except for her 86-year-old neighbor Mr. Yoon, who she cares for (she’s a secret softie, of course). Her colleagues at the pharmacy where she’s a pharmacist are afraid of her because she’s a stone cold bitch. Forget about Cooper, the hot Lothario downstairs with his noise and endless parade of women, she *hates* him (you know where I’m going with this, right?) Anyway, Delphie dies when she chokes on a piece of microwaved bodega beef burger (idk what the stores are called in London, my bad).

She meets her afterlife therapist, Merritt, an extrovert to the extreme, and Merritt an obsession with romance novels. When Jonah T appears in the afterlife because he’s too high on dental drugs, he and Delphie have a moment. As a result, Merritt and Delphie strike up a side contract where Delphie can remain alive if she can get Jonah to kiss her in 10 days or less.

Back to her body Delphie goes, but she’s such a recluse that it’s going to be a Herculean task to meet Jonah. She doesn’t have much help — maybe Cooper can prove himself to be useful for once?

Mad Shenanigans ensue as Delphie realizes there’s a whole life out there waiting for her, and as she chases after the elusive and seemingly perfect Jonah, I really wanted Cooper to win.

This book is really great, and I really don’t want to spoil the end for you guys, but needless to say it’s wacky, it’s a little deus ex machina, but aren’t the best stories when the win comes out of nowhere when you think it’s lost? Anyway, throw this on your TBR, you don’t wanna miss it, I promise.

In the best way, this was not what I expected. Magical and delightfully charming, it's a story that embraces its weirdness from page one. I enjoyed it so much!

After her sudden death, Delphie unexpectedly finds her soulmate in the afterlife. Guided by her hilarious, exuberant Afterlife Therapist, Merritt, Delphie is granted a chance to return to Earth and find Jonah within ten days.

I absolutely adored Delphie. A little lonely with a pure heart, I loved seeing her mission lead to something even greater. Her compassion for those around her (especially Mr. Yoon) was so touching. The romance was great, too! Predictable in its detour, but very much welcomed. And that's all I will say.

Underneath the quirkiness is a really heartwarming story about finding your people and embracing the joys of life. If you're a fan of "The Good Place", I think you'll enjoy this one!

Delphie, Mr. Yoon, Cooper, and everyone else made this book. It's a character led story, if that makes sense? Delphie's quirkiness and solitary self branching out was fun to watch. Cooper coming back to himself had me trying to figure out what would happen next. Mr. Yoon was a lovely old man that I just adored. Merritt was the fun spin, the afterlife therapist that cracked me up.

Delphie dies choking on a hamburger at home. She ends up in a waiting room, with an enthusiastic afterlife therapist named Merrin. When she has a moment with a very good-looking guy who ends up being whipped back to his life, she convinces Merrin to send her back too, on the proviso that she finds the guy – who she only knows as Jonah T – and gets him to voluntarily kiss her within 10 days.
And so begins Delphie’s mission to track down her soulmate and keep herself alive.
Delphie makes for a highly entertaining narrator – she’s a bit of a reclusive who was bullied by her former best friend and has never dated. Her main social contact is caring for the elderly, mute Mr Yoon and fielding complaints about packages being delivered to the wrong address from her caustic neighbour Cooper.
Witty, with all the right feels, it's without doubt one of the best books of 2024. Long live the rom-com.

4 ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ ⭑

Kirsty just blessed me with one of the best rom-coms of the year. This book has RANGE. I laughed. I cried (a lot). I swooned.

Starting off, the whole concept of meeting the love of your life after death & all of the drama that ensues afterwords is…. spectacular. Such an amazing storyline just from that idea alone. But coupled with Kirsty’s humor and ability to write a heart wrenching and real love story, this novel is next level.

The characters in this story are just so REAL and relatable, especially as someone who has a little bit of social anxiety herself. Kirsty talks about the struggle of navigating both romantic and platonic relationships without dragging the rest of the story down or it feeling out of place. In fact, she highlights SO MANY real fears about death and feeling alive and what that means as a young adult in todays society.

The writing & pacing of this novel is perfect. I laughed out loud so many times while reading it. It also goes by so, so fast. I read it in about 7 hours (one sitting, it was that good).

But let’s be real the reason we are here is because we want to know about the romance. WONDERFUL. BEAUTIFUL. EVERY GREAT ADJECTIVE I CAN THINK OF, I WANT TO THROW AT THIS BOOK. Whatever you think is going to happen in this book, just know you’re in for something 10x better.

Pro tip: imagine the MMC as young Bradley Cooper & you’re golden xoxoxo.

Delphie leads a simple life and keeps to herself. She works at the local pharmacy, shops at the local stores, and then heads home, never leaving her neighborhood. In her apartment building she's enemies with the man downstairs who has a different woman over every night, but she takes care of the elderly man on her floor, making sure he has groceries and companionship. Then it happens - age 27 - she chokes and lands at the waiting room of heaven where she meets Merritt, her crossing-over assistant with an over-the-top personality. A few moments later there is another arrival and Delphie experiences a connection in heaven like she's never felt on earth. But her new crush is gone in a heartbeat, headed back to the living world... is it too late for Delphie? Using a loophole, Merritt, biggest romance fan in both the land of the living and the dead, give Delphie 10 days to find the man and kiss him - if she does, she gets to keep living. If not, she's doomed with death. There is every romance trope rolled into this laugh out loud story of self-discovery and falling in love. So good.

I have a lot of luck with quirky romances that don’t really fit into a specific genre. When I read the blurb for The Love of My Afterlife, I thought that it seemed like something that would be right up my alley.

This book starts out when Delphie chokes on a burger and wakes up to find herself in a processing center for the afterlife. There she meets Merritt, her afterlife therapist in Evermore. The two couldn’t be more different and Delphie can’t believe this is who is supposed to help her find her way after death. Then suddenly a man appears in the processing center, and there is an instant connection–but he’s not really supposed to be there, so he’s sent back. Merritt gives her a chance to find this man, who is one of her soulmates, by sending her back and giving her ten days to find him and elicit a kiss.

This was a sweet romance. I would compare it to the Dead Romantics, but without the heart wrenching grief subplot and more of a found family aspect. Delphie is a lonely figure. Her only friend an elderly neighbor, Mr. Yoon, but she likes it that way. She doesn’t venture too far from her hometown, and she doesn’t often veer off her normal schedule. But now she has ten days to find the mystery man she met in the afterlife, with only a first name and last initial to go by, which means stepping out of her comfort zone and asking for help.

Yes, this is a romance, but it’s also centered around Delphie breaking out of the shell she’s built for herself, forming friendships and getting to know herself and her community. The romance is quiet but features quite a few beloved romance tropes that are sure to make readers happy- enemies to lovers, only one bed, and fake relationship to name a few.

As Delphie goes on her quest, she manages to acquire a huge group of friends, and find love. The ending is a bit unexpected, but I quite enjoyed it. That’s all I’m going to say about that. I don’t really want to spoil the plot as the journey is well worth going in blind.

All in all, an enjoyable read. I’m kind of hoping to read Merritt’s story in the near future.

Grade- B

Content warnings- death of a sibling, parental estrangement, bullying

Thanks to the publisher for inviting me to read this early via NetGalley!

I feel mostly neutral about this title--nothing about it really stood out to me in a good way. Our main character, Delphie, was just like ... mean. Her entire thing was being a a loner who doesn't need or want friends and she was so unpleasant to most of the characters that she encountered, so I can't fathom why any of them were so insistent on pursuing a friendship with her. I understand having trauma and being avoidant because of it, but it's not a pass to be rude to everyone you come in contact with.

The trope-ification of romance books makes me a little crazy, so I already probably wasn't an ideal candidate to read and review this since it leans heavily on tropes within the story. They're focal to the plot. Because of that I'm confident that a ton of people will LOVE this book! This is another title that I think will be aged by the amount of references in it--to music, movies, whatever. The little shoutouts to fellow romance authors is fun but don't personally think that'll hold up super well.

Overall fine, but not for me ultimately. Others seem to love it though so I'm sure that's a me problem!

Who doesn’t love a lil’ magical realism in their romances??

Delphie is a recluse who finds herself choking to death on a microwavable burger. When she meets her soulmate in the afterlife, she gets sent back to the world of the living to find him in ten days.

This is the perfect set up, Delphie is an absolute joy. She’s resolute, endearing and so genuine. Not to mention all the side characters are so lovably quirky. I actually found myself laughing out loud while reading this book! There’s so much heart, and you can’t help but root for the romance. It’s about choosing happiness and choosing yourself. Loved it!

So glad I picked this up! Your summer TBR needs this book!!