If you're confused about what happens when you die, you're not alone. Even Mavis, the main character... And she'd been through it several times before--she'd always been placed with a poor family in the past and this, time, she was going to ask to be born into a rich family... 

But that plan, that is already written in the book, according to the angel who was greeting her at the gates, indicated that she was going back... she should have married a second time, to James Windsor, after her first husband, Charlie, had died. Instead she had lived to the age of 88 and had once again said goodbye to the living... 

In creating her fantasy, Plaisance has taken considerable liberty in exactly what happens upon death...Basically, heaven is the place where you go, either to stay, or to get reincarnated. In Mavis' case, however, her life plan had been unfulfilled as Mavis. In fact, as soon as Mavis had died, she had donned a wedding dress, appeared as a young woman about 25, and Danson, the angel, was explaining to Mavis that she needed to go back as a ghost and search out the man she was to have married... A guiding angel would help her during this time period and, once James would be found, Anna would handle the details at that time... 

And the mystery begins...  

Mavis awakes as the wife of James, married for a year, and we pick up the happily married couple at that time. 

James has just become a full professor and Mavis is enrolled in business classes. Readers peek in on their lives which is still in the honeymoon stage... 

Until one day Mavis mentions having a child... James adamantly refuses to consider becoming a father. 

I draw your attention to the strangely intriguing book cover at this point... We were told that Mavis had the wedding gown on when she returned to heaven, but who was the little girl off to the side behind the bride? With a bit of serendipity, I had to look twice...and...more... at the picture... You see, she looks very much like me when I was young! Of course, I was immediately curious to find out more! Who is the little girl who appears throughout the book? First in a picture that Mavis carried. Next inside a haunted mirror at an antique store. Then in a family picture... And then in person... 

She is Sophia and is waiting... 

I was enchanted by the beautiful cover... I was amused at the confusion Mavis faced at 88 and arrives at heaven's gate in a wedding dress... And I was hooked as Mavis, without any knowledge, except intuition, works to solve the mystery of the little girl, who we learn is called Sophia... Even with clues along the way, I really was not prepared for what could be called a major traumatic ending... 

This was my first book written by Mary Lynn Plaisance and my emotional responses were moving up and down continuously. Plaisance is a writer that is not afraid to fly her wings in her fantasies... In this book she's tackled death...and life... and gave her readers much to think about. Surely each of us has considered what we might believe happens, but this author pops up with options that are fun to watch as they happen, forces us to wonder about predestination, and in the end gives us a possible reality if there is a book of life for each of us... I found it intriguing, not quite believable, but a rare challenge to each of us as we look forward to where and how we might spend eternity... 

Me? I was left wondering if Sophia was my great-great-grandmother! That's part of the options at death, to come back in the same family... LOL! Cool premise for a plot and the author carried the storyline through in a consistent, suspenseful manner that keeps readers interested... If you are open to exploring death and the hereafter, this is a fun read that I highly recommend. 

GABixlerReviews 
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