Kirsty Greenwood is giving the second chance romance a whole new meaning in her brand new book. It probably should be no surprise since the author knows a thing or two about crafting the perfect romance and also making it totally her own. But this time with her upcoming release, The Love of My Afterlife, she's taking it to the next level as she takes her characters to the beyond and back as they figure out their lives after a chance encounter in none other than the waiting room in the afterlife.
Cosmopolitan has an exclusive look at The Love of My Afterlife, which is set to be released on July 2, 2024, which will no doubt leave you laughing and crying in the best way possible as a woman gets a second chance at life and love when she's sent back to earth and given 10 days to find the mysterious man that she met. Wanna learn more? Here's some more info from our friends at Berkley:
A recently deceased woman meets “the one” in the afterlife waiting room, scoring a second chance at life (and love!) if she can find him on earth before ten days are up
If she wasn’t dead already, Delphie would be dying of embarrassment. Not only did she just die by choking on a microwaveable burger, but now she’s standing in her ‘shine like a star’ nightie in front of the hottest man she’s ever seen. And he’s smiling at her.As they start to chat, everything else becomes background noise. That is until someone comes running out of a door, yelling something about a huge mistake, and sends the dreamy stranger back down to earth. And here Delphie was thinking her luck might be different in the afterlife.
When Delphie is offered a deal in which she can return to earth and reconnect with the mysterious man, she jumps at the opportunity to find her possible soulmate and a fresh start. But in a city of millions, Delphie is going to have to listen to her heart, learn to ask for help, and perhaps even see the magic in the life she’s leaving behind…
And we know that you're absolutely dying (see what we did there?) to get a sneak peek of this book, so thankfully, you can check out a special excerpt below. Just make sure to pre-order The Love of My Afterlife and also maybe pick up one of Kirsty previous books while you're at it too!
An Excerpt From The Love of my Afterlife
By Kirsty Greenwood
Chapter 4
I stare at the space where Jonah just was, blinking dumbly, my brain trying and failing to process what the hell just happened. “Well, well, well!” Merritt drawls, brushing off her hands.
She wiggles her eyebrows, a know-it-all smile on her face. “Even the mighty Nora Roberts herself would sell a kidney to get that kind of chemistry on the page.”
“That . . . that was . . . Who was that? He was . . . And now he’s . . .”
“He’s gone, sweet girl. Back in the land of the living once more. Admin glitch—it happens. Such a shame. You would have had a much nicer time at Evermore if he’d been hanging around. From what I saw on his file, he’s a genuinely great guy. I’m so sorry, Delphie. Hate to see it.”
I gasp and look directly into Merritt’s big green eyes. “Wait a minute . . . you just sent him back. Send me back too! You have the power to do it. I just saw it!”
Frantically, I grab her thumb and press it against my head. “Come on, just do it! Do that thumb thing! I really don’t want to be here. I can’t stay here! Mr. Yoon needs me. I . . . I have a job! You just sent Jonah back. Send me!”
Merritt snatches her thumb away from my head, holding it protectively to her chest.
“Anyone can send accidental unconscious visitors back to Earth—they’re just an admin error.” She shrugs as if it’s no big deal that she literally just disappeared a whole entire beautiful and interested-in-me human. “But for people who are actually supposed to be here? No can do.”
I sink down onto one of the plastic chairs.
“I’m sorry.” Merritt grimaces. “You two really did have some kind of spark, right? Were you holding hands? Even though you only just met? That’s bonkers. What a shame he had to go. For you, I mean. He’s a very popular man on Earth, so I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
I bury my head in my hands and let out a low groan. This is what eternity looks like? Stuck with this woman?
“Oh, wait a hot sec . . .” Merritt says thoughtfully. “What if I . . . ? Maybe I could . . . And then you would go back and . . . No . . . it wouldn’t work . . . Hmmmm, unless . . .”
I lift my head, ears pricked up like a dog’s. “What did you just say? Maybe I could go back what? What wouldn’t work? What are you thinking?”
Merritt plops down onto a chair opposite me and taps her beringed hands against her thighs. “Well, I guess there is the Franklin Bellamy Clause. Maybe that could work . . .”
“The Franklin Bellamy Clause? What’s the Franklin Bellamy Clause?”
Merritt pushes her glasses up her nose and sits forward in her seat. “So. There’s a clause in the Evermore handbook, written by this higher-up called Franklin Bellamy. It was back in the nineteen nineties, I think. He introduced a rule stating that within three hours of arrival—providing they’re not yet known to be deceased—a Dead can be sent back to Earth by an Afterlife Therapist. Under certain conditions, of course.”
“What conditions?”
“They can return to carry out an important favour for a staff member. If they do it, the Dead gets to remain on Earth.”
“They get to stay alive?”
“If they successfully complete the given task, yes. Franklin Bellamy created the clause so that he could have someone return to Earth and tell the woman set to cure IBS in 2028 that she had a carbon monoxide leak in her apartment. He prevented her death, and in 2028, the world will become a happier and more comfortable place for many.”
“Why didn’t he just go back himself? If he had that kind of power? Why did he need to send someone else to go?”
Merritt rolls her eyes. “Did you not hear me, babe? There has to be a provision of the returning Dead not yet being recognised as deceased. Can you imagine? Me rocking up on Earth after being gone for five years? As careful as I might be, there’s always the chance that someone who knew me might see me wandering about. It would be a potential disaster in the very fabric of space and time, not to mention highly embarrassing.” She shudders at the thought.
“So you can only get new Deads . . . I mean . . . arrivals to do the ‘favour.’”
“Yeah. The rules are that it can only be done once, it needs to be for something important, and it can never directly involve someone you knew on Earth.”
“Why not?”
Merritt’s eyes widen. “Oh, if we were able to manipulate the outcomes of those we knew and loved on Earth, it would send us crazy. Everyone would break the rules and risk revealing the existence of Evermore. Nightmare!”
“Do you still have your send-back?” I ask, almost breathless. Merritt nods. “Yeah, I’ve been saving it.”
“For what?”
“For bargaining power, what else?” She raises an eyebrow. “We can gift our send-backs to other staff members, trade them for promotions or perks. As long as I hold on to mine, then I have a little something in my back pocket, should I ever need it.” I stand up. “Don’t save your send-back! Use it on me!” I glance at a pink digital clock on the wall. “I’ve only been here about two hours, right? There’s still time for me to go back! You must be able to think of a favour I can do for you! Anything. I want to live! I’ll do anything at all!”
Merritt bunches her mouth up for a moment and then lifts her chin, her eyes lit up. “You’ll do anything?”
“Yes,” I shout. “Anything you want!”
Merritt glances towards another door before scooching right to the edge of her chair, her face close enough that I can smell the cookie on her breath.
“Okay, I might have a little idea but . . .” She trails off and lowers her voice. “But the other therapists would not like it . . .” “I thought you said you could run rings around those old guys?”
Merritt nods quickly, her curls bouncing in time. She presses her teeth over her bottom lip. “I did. I did say that. And I totally can. Evermore is very much like Earth: a bunch of old men in charge, all so stuck in their ways. Heaven help anyone who actually tries to innovate, to bring a little modernity to this place.”
“Tell me your idea.”
“Ah yes, my idea. It sounds nuts but . . . I think, Delphie, that Jonah might have been your soulmate.” She grabs my hands in hers. “I mean, technically humans have five soulmates wandering the earth at any one time, but I think Jonah might be one of yours . . . The way you were looking at each other.” She sighs dreamily. “Like Laurie and Jack in Josie Silver’s One Day in December. Like all you wanted to do was touch each other. I mean, what are the chances that this guy accidentally turns up here at the same time as you? In my lobby, no less.” She gasps, jumping up from the chair and pacing around the room. “What if it was fate, and I just have to, you know, give it a little nudge?”
I blink. A soulmate. Soulmates are real? I get a sudden vision of walking hand in hand with Jonah down a snowy Oxford Street. Which is mad because I despise the busyness of Oxford Street and I usually avoid the snow whenever possible. In the fantasy Jonah and I are wearing matching mittens and giggling. And I don’t feel irritated or scared or sad. I don’t feel like me at all. It’s funny, I’ve never even pondered the possibility of a soulmate before . . . But what if this is real and Merritt is right and Jonah was it? What if I actually have a way to feel something better than everything I’ve been feeling up until now?
“I’ll give you ten days,” Merritt says decisively. “Ten days?”
“Ten days back on Earth to find Jonah. If he kisses you, then you can stay.”
“I can stay alive? Like this never even happened? Like I’d never choked at all?”
“Yeah. But he has to kiss you. Of his own free will.” I narrow my eyes. “Why only ten days?”
Merritt folds her arms. “Those therapists I told you about? The ones who keep stealing new Deads away from me, who don’t think I’ve got what it takes to make a difference round here? Those two rodent droppings are on holiday for the next ten days. So we could get this all done and dusted before they return . . . and no-one would ever have to know!”
“Wait . . . you’re not actually allowed to do this?”
Merritt shakes her head quickly. “Of course I am! I would never break the rules of Evermore.” She tuts. “It would just be better to, you know, keep this between us. Jeez. Anyone would think you haven’t just been offered the chance of a lifetime.”
I screw up my face. “How would this be a ‘favour’ to you?”
Merritt laughs and wiggles her eyebrows slightly. “Well, I would get to watch it all play out.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Look, you don’t even know this man’s full name. You don’t know where the hell in London he is. You have a ticking time clock provided by moi, and god knows how many obstacles keeping you apart. It’s like a real-life romance novel! That I get to watch unfold in real time! The dream.” She claps her hands together, bouncing on her heels.
“You won’t even tell me his full name?” I goggle.
“Where’s the fun in that? Ooh, and his memory will have been wiped too so he won’t remember your little dalliance here today.” Merritt wanders over to the framed picture of herself and straightens it tenderly. “I want to see fate in action. See if you can pull it off. Like I said, Deads are being stolen away from me left, right, and centre. A girl needs to get her kicks somewhere.”
I stand up and start to pace the room. “What if I can’t find him? What if he doesn’t kiss me? Do I have to come back here? ’Cos I really, really don’t want to.”
Merritt rubs her hands together and stares into the distance for a moment. Then a huge smile spreads across her face.
“Yes. You have to come back here and work with me on the dating service I’m setting up. Eternity 4U. We need guinea pigs. Volunteers to go on test dates and give feedback about how they can be improved. You would have to agree to be a guinea pig for as long as I need you . . . Also you have to sign this contract agreeing to my terms.” Seemingly from nowhere she whips out a piece of paper and places it on my lap. Then she reaches into her dungaree pocket and takes out a gold pen topped with a burgundy feather.
Being a date tester for a load of people I’ve never met before sounds like my actual nightmare. I’ve never even talked to the shopkeeper of the corner shop even though I see her almost every day. I don’t do people. But . . . then I think of how Jonah just looked at me. Like he would definitely kiss me of his own free will. In a heartbeat, in fact. All I’d have to do is find him. I already know he lives in London. And that his first name is Jonah, second name something beginning with the letter T. How many Jonah Ts can there be in one city?
I picture my cosy flat with my new stripy rug. All the TV series I’ve yet to finish. Old Mr. Yoon, who has been getting more forgetful of late and has no-one else but me to check in on him. This would be a chance to make sure he’s okay, to make sure he has everything he needs in case I do end up snuffing it for good. My heart starts to beat desperately with the innate human instinct to save one’s own life. To keep breathing and living and being, no matter what it takes.
Before I can second-guess myself, I grab the pen from Merritt and scribble my signature across the bottom of the paper. The wet ink is purple, shimmering like oil in a puddle.
“Ten days,” Merritt repeats. “And he has to kiss you.” “But what about if—“
I don’t get to finish my question, because Merritt snatches the paper out of my hand and then, with a manic laugh, reaches out her thumb, pressing it resolutely onto my forehead.
I gasp and look down at my arms as they turn iridescent and then into a silver sort of liquid and then . . .
Excerpted from The Love of My Afterlife by Kirsty Greenwood. Copyright © 2024 by Kirsty Greenwood. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
The Love of My Afterlife, by Kirsty Greenwood, will be released on July 2, 2024. To preorder the book, click on the retailer of your choice:
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2024-06-24 17:00:00Z
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