The Next

From the first scene of this book, I was hooked; long before I understood what the book was about I could not stop reading. I got a tiny peek into the book and then hoped I could somehow get an ARC, which I did, many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. So, what got my interest so completely? A woman is dying of cancer, she is at home with her two adult daughters, and she is rapidly approaching the end of her life. But she is consumed with her smart phone and the images she finds there, or surfs and finds, of a former boyfriend and his new life writ large. He was the love of her life and he left to pick up some groceries and never came back. The next thing she knows he is an Internet sensation with a rich new girlfriend and a baby on the way. And she is filled with rage that he never, at the very least, said good-bye. As she sinks into a morphine haze and then death, this rage gets more intense and follows her. It animates her post-death and then the story gets interesting as revenge, remorse and some attempt at restitution must all occur before this story is complete. This is an amazingly wonderful tale, neither too maudlin nor too rage-filled. It is just right on every front. I loved it

Joanna is dying. She hasn’t got much time left, so she should really be concentrating on her daughters and her beloved dog, but instead Joanna is bent on revenge. Her ex, Ned McGowan, a younger man, ditched her in her time of need and now he’s living it up with a new woman while she lies dying. She dreams of revenge, of making him sorry. Unfortunately, she runs out of time. But instead of going towards “the light”, Joanna finds herself trapped in a sort of misty gray purgatory, where she will remain forever…..unless. Unless she returns and finishes what she started – making Ned pay. A funny, snarky, bittersweet story about how we live (and die) when the going gets tough

From the moment I start reading I was hooked!The Next is unique and quirky. It's entertaining and fun and sad.Not only a a it well written but I could also connected to the characters on a personal level and this is what makes it a great story.

When I started reading this book, I didn't realise the turn it would take. The afterlife is not something I tend to read books on and wasn't sure if I would want to continue the book.

However, the author peaked my interest and I could not put the book down as I wanted to know what was going to happen next and how things would turn out for the characters involved. I became invested in their outcome and had to finish the book.

I enjoyed the book and liked the author's style and would read another one of hers.

I got this book as an advanced reader's copy with the understanding that I would review it once I was done.

Wow. I wound up liking this book a lot more than I expected. I originally picked it up because the theme of revenge matched a task on a reading challenge I participate in every year. But this book was so much more than I thought it would be.

The book is about revenge, true, but it's also about love and forgiveness and families. The story shifts between many characters: Joanna, who is dying of cancer and succumbs to her disease while harboring a great deal of anger towards Doc/Ned, her one-time boyfriend who went out one day and never came home; Ned, whose self-absorption feels one-sided until his true self is revealed; and Jo's two daughters, Anna and Elena/Laney, who are struggling to figure out who they are and what they want in the aftermath of their mother's death.

Powerful and heart wrenching, righteous and forgiving....a good read.

Well this was different! And I mean that in the completely good way. A tremendously written story that is really suitable for anyone that has been done wrong in a relationship. I loved this book!!!

The feelings and process expressed in this book are so honest and real that it was sometimes an uncomfortable read. Wonderful and thought-provoking, and very satisfying.

Gorgeous. Gorgeous. Gorgeous.

Love, Loyalty, and Letting Go

Come and taste the rainbow of traits glistening in this beautiful tale of love and loss and how neither, once created, can be destroyed.

Joanna DeAngelis spends her final days of life obsessed and cyber stalking her ex Ned, the much younger love of her life who suddenly left her with no explanation, moving on to a new life with another woman.

Ghosting a terminally ill woman has got to be some kind of crime.

Not to worry because Joanna may be gone but she is definitely not forgotten. Nor will Ned get the chance to forget her. As Joanna’s two grown daughters are left to pick up the pieces after their mother’s death and while still mourning her loss, Joanna gets her revenge on Ned a la after life style.

Beautifully told with magical insights woven like tapestry throughout, this is not a story of revenge but of life and love in all its forms, beautiful and ugly. The soul saving loyalty of a dog figures prominently and acts first as a bridge connecting the physical world to those we cannot see and then as a beacon, guiding the way home.

I loved it.

BRB Rating: Read It