Overall Merit: I didn't like the story so much as I really liked the afterlife structure. I'm a huge fan of all things afterlife (the more twisted the better), but seldom do I find anything unique. This book relied heavily on the concepts of reincarnation and made Heaven seem very bureaucratic, which again was something I hadn't seen before. Bradshaw's writing is skilled and captivating--another plus for the book. However, both Jude and Samuel were moderately annoying characters and I didn't really care about them all that much. Score-7.5
Characters: I didn't find the supporting characters realistic--they were too 'cliched high school sitcom' I felt like I was in a scene from Mean Girls while Jude was still in the U.S. Jude annoyed me also because her character wasn't consistent. She's portrayed as this geeky, socially awkward girl, but then once she gets to the U.K. she's cool all of a sudden? I think in trying to make Jude unique, Bradshaw went overboard and made her kind of obnoxious and pathetic. Samuel is consistently self-described as a 'cad', but I didn't get that impression at all from him. This is a risk that writer run too often. If a character describes him/herself as being something they should be that something unless it is obvious that they are delusional about their self-image. Not the case for Samuel. I mean she sort of tried to throw it in in his flashbacks, but I really wasn't convinced. The characters weren't awful, but neither were they people who I would love to meet in real life. Score- 7
Blush Factor: Eh. That's all I can really say. Eh. I mean I guess it was sort of romantic with Samuel running around whining that he wanted to be with Jude. And I mean it was a decent attempt when Jude temporarily dated one of her friends, but to be honest the romance was weak--especially since you knew what was coming due to a poorly placed prologue. (I am not a fan of prologues at the best of times, but especially not when they're Twilight-esque and give away the ending before the damned story even starts.) I'm not going to lie I was bored and read the second book...Bradshaw needs to work on her romance. It's as if the characters go through the motions, but I DON'T FEEL THEIR BURNING, FIERY PASSION!!!! Score- 5
Structure: As stated earlier, I had gripes with the prologue, but then again also the ending. I felt like Bradshaw wrote the ending first and then manipulated the story so that it would culminate where she wanted it to. I don't like this approach for several reasons, the main one being that it locks the story in and doesn't allow nearly as much wiggle room as if it were left to flow to a more natural close. The technical writing was very good however, so I have to give some kudos for that. Score-7
Plot: Like I said, it was kind of like a bad high school rom-com with angels. The plot wasn't anything so innovative, and I know Bradshaw was hinting at some demonic activity, but I didn't see nearly enough of it to really consider it part of the plot. I felt like she made too much of an understatement with it and either she should have brought it to the forefront more or excluded it completely, rather than weakly hinting at it every now and then. Score-7
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