[Review] The Man You Meet in Heaven - Debbie Viggiano

Summary: When Hattie Green pops to the shop one afternoon, she never expects her life to flash before her eyes between the tins of baked beans and a special offer on sliced white. One minute she’s loading her trolley and thinking about what to give her son for dinner, and the next she’s speaking to a gorgeous man in a glowing white suit about what her life could have been…

If you had the chance to go back and relive it all, what would you do differently? Go on that date, take that promotion… eat that second biscuit? Hattie is about to discover where she went wrong, but will her mystery second chance reveal some STONKING secrets in her past that probably should have stayed hidden? (Pub Date: Sep 25th, 2018)

This started well then lost steam.

2.5, but rounding up because it did leave me feeling good.

Hattie has bee divorced for 2 years and has sworn men off her life when she faints at a Tesco and ends up in the Halfway Lounge. She's lost her way somewhere and, with a very sexy help, she needs to review key events in her life so she can forgive, trust and find love again. 

I went for chick-lit knowing it would soon be turned into cheesy romance, but it actually didn't. No, it was worse, this turned into self help. Even though the narration is uplift, there isn't much there to call comedy, either. It does become cheesy sometimes but at least not too much. It was the self-help tone that put me off. I wonder if this would work better in a movie, it probably would. But as a book, it lacked action and it overflew with fillers to a point I sometimes had to avert my eyes.

But putting it like that sound like I hated the book, and that's the thing. I didn't. I think Hattie's journey did lead somewhere, and her story wasn't a big cliché, either. It all had very important points that would be great for a group discussion like in a book club.

Additionally, even though there were some unnecessary scenes to show how magical the Halfway Lounge was, the book itself was well written. It's far above the cheesy romance I feared it could become, like most self-proclaimed click lit books do.

So this can be a pleasing read if you don't mind some over-the-top scenes. The main story is actually nice, though a little sad too; and there were important lessons to learn. 

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.


Rating: 3 out of 5.