Review: Earthly Pleasures

Summary: Welcome to Heaven. Use your Wishberry to hustle up whatever you want. Have an online chat with God. Visit the attractions such as Retail Rapture, Wrath of God miniature golf and Noctural Theater, where nightly dreams are translated to film.

Your greeter might just be Skye Sebring who advises her newly dead clients on what to expect now that they're expired. "Heaven is like a Corona Beer commercial" she assures her charges. "It's all about contentment."

So different than Earth where chaos reigns. Unfortunately for Skye, she's been chosen to live her first life. She's required to attend Earth 101 classes, which teach all the world's greatest philosophies through five Beatles songs.

Skye has no interest in Earthly pursuits, until lawyer Ryan Blaine briefly becomes her client after a motorcycle accident. Just as they are getting to know each other, he is revived and sent back to Earth.

She follows his life via the TV channel "Earthly Pleasures" but discovers he has a wife as well as a big secret. Why then does he call a show for the lovelorn to talk about the lost love of his life?

In Earthly Pleasures, great love can transcend the dimensions, narrowing the vast difference between Heaven and Earth. - Simon and Schuster press release

A few weeks ago, I received an e-mail from Karen Neches, author of EARTHLY PLEASURES asking if she could send me her latest book to read and review. I don't know about most of you, but I think of authors as celebrities (except way better.) I was so excited, flattered, thrilled, etc. that I celebrated by doing a little dance with my kids.

I had started to read a few things about the book in preparation for receiving it, and I thought it looked like an interesting concept for a book. There are many complementary reviews about it on Amazon as well as from various authors including Megan Crane and Melissa Senate. The book was even selected to be a Booksense Notable for the month of February. I was totally looking forward to reading it; and it's just the type of book I needed right now!

I thought EARTHLY PLEASURES was a very pleasurable read. I don't usually say the word "pleasurable," but reading this book just made feel good! I thought the images of heaven were very creative and at times very funny! I found myself clearly visualizing the author's concept for heaven because her descriptions were so vivid. I loved the overall messages that this book left with me -- love is so very important in our lives, we all have a little voice that can help us (if we just listen), we should always have hope. I think every reader could probably list a few more themes that resonated with them.

One thing that I really appreciated about the book was the Earth 101 classes where the teacher lectured that all of life's lessons can be learned from five Beatles songs -- With a Little Help From My Friends, Help, Do You Want to Know a Secret, Let it Be, and All You Need is Love. The author then creatively wove these lessons and songs throughout the lives of the characters on Earth. I thought it was such a cute theme - and it actually does make a heck of a lot of sense. I have always liked the Beatles, but now I think of them as great philosophers too!

While parts of the book may have been a little predictable, it didn't alter my enjoyment of the book in the slightest. I wanted the book to have a happy ending -- how could a book about heaven not end well? I found myself hoping that many of the characters, even the supporting ones, could find happiness and peace in their lives on Earth.

Karin Gillespie, who wrote this book under the name of Karen Neches, has authored quite a few books in recent years. She is a very active member of the blogging community and is the founder of the Southern author grog A Good Blog is Hard to Find as well as the virtual tour The Girlfriend Circuit. I think it's wonderful that a bunch of authors are coming together and supporting each other's books -- not to mention that their blogs are hilarious.

If you are looking for a light, "pleasurable" read, I suggest checking out EARTHLY PLEASURES!

Also reviewed at:
S.Krishna's Books