TEST
My bookshelf has a baker’s dozen of Rachel Gibson’s 2000s-era contemporaries, which are all lighthearted, sexy fluff. When her novels began to take a more chick-lit slant, I drifted on to other contemporary authors and the romantic suspense genre, and she fell off my radar. I was pumped to remedy that with her newest book, Drop Dead Gorgeous. I mean, it’s described as a fish-out-of-water tale and those are always so satisfying, plus the bright cover is so pretty! But I should’ve read the description more closely because the main character is a ghost, and this is a paranormal story. It just didn’t resonate with me. It wasn’t bad, it was just … not what I was expecting.
Modern cinema is dotted with these ‘dying and coming back in somebody else’s body’ tropes. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. Heaven Can Wait and Freaky? Both great. Heart Condition? Not so much.
Small town Texas girl Brittany Lynn Snider is breaking convention by heading for a Tinder hookup after singing in church. As a small-town southern gal, myself, I can say this is probably where Brittany’s karma zapped her, because nothing good ever comes from getting your freak on after getting your church on. LOL. A fatal car accident nips that date in the bud, and she soon finds herself in Limbo, where it’s just as laden with drama queens as real life. Queueing is not for the faint of heart, and it certainly isn’t the place to be nice, because Brittany soon finds herself left behind in the body of the bitchy, wealthy socialite (Edie) who snakd her spot in Heaven. Now Brittany must learn to live in this new body, as the women who departed it.
The balance of the story is Brittany’s learning to live in her new life, as Edie . Her lack of familiarity with everything is explained away as amnesia, when it’s obviously because Brittany doesn’t know anything about Edie’s life. She picks up with Edie’s former flame, Oliver, a nice guy who notices the change in her but would never imagine the real reason for it in a million years because who switches bodies, right?
I can get behind the fiction piece of transferring the brain’s consciousness from one person to another, and Gibson spends a good amount of time addressing many of the funny quirks of becoming someone else … but I wanted to see a little more development of Edie on her own, as opposed to the current life of Edie being a foil to the former life of Brittany.
Rachel Gibson is a bona fide good writer. I love her character development and her humor, and the sentence structure and pacing are smart and satisfying. It’s the story itself that left me feeling a little ambivalent this time. Perhaps it’s the time in which we’re living, what with COVID casting a shadow over any potential lightheartedness in a story dealing with death, but I didn’t get my typical Gibson happy tingles.
Buy it at Amazon, Audible or your local independent retailer
Visit our Amazon Storefront
Grade: B
Book Type: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 02/05/22
Publication Date: 04/2022
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
Related Reviews
I read it and felt the ending was unequal to the world building that Gibson spent 2/3 completing. The novel was funny in many spots plus the character development in the waiting room was very thorough which inspired some introspection and thoughtfulness. I don’t think I was able to buy into Oliver as a romantic partner who wanted to give her a second chance nor the cold parents suddenly warming up to a Texarkana version of their waspy overwrought Edie.
Based on these comments I’ll have to pick up her older romances . I have never read them!
Her Chinooks series is really good.
I read and LOVED her last one but I didn’t like this one and hated HATED the ending/resolution. Can’t just be me lol
This book simply did not grab me. In fact, I put it down before I finished it (highly unusual for me) and I don’t think that I will pick it up soon. I should have been more careful about reading the synopsis because I am not fond of plots that include people coming back in another person’s body. I have always loved Gibson’s romances and I hope that she writes another soon.
I’m not sure what I think about this premise. When I started reading romance Rachel Gibson, along with Susan Andersen, was a go-to author for me. I read everything. I even went back and read a few at the beginning of the lockdown and still thought they were cute. But this still sounds as much WF as romance and I guess I’m skeptical. At the same time, I’d LOVE to see more Gibson romances, so maybe this is the a sign she’s moving back that direction.
This isn’t a romance and if it’s supposed to be, it’s a poor imitation. Lol
They (Andersen and Gibson) were my first two go-to’s, too! I’m repeating your thought that this might signal a shift back in the romance direction out loud, so it’ll happen. :)
Her last two books have been women’s fiction and neither of them have rocked my boot the way her romances do. I do love her writing and think she’s got wonderful insights about family. But I just miss her love stories!
Have to agree. See Jane Score is still one of my favorite contemporary romances. But the last book (about an adult daughter dealing with an aging parent) just didn’t keep enough of my interest to finish it; and I almost always finish books – even the so-so ones.