The Color of Heaven

As the year comes to a close, I'm looking for things to distract me and put me in a good mood. This book that was lying around in my e-reader served its purpose very well.

Summary

For a few years, Sophie was perfectly happy. She was in a relationship with a sexy hipster lawyer (because sexy men are always rich, right?) and gave birth to an adorable baby girl. She was swimming in peace and joy.

Until the worst happens. Her little girl gets seriously ill, and her husband starts cheating on her with a younger blond girl. Her daughter dies, and her husband leaves her. Her world falls apart. Then comes a strange near-death experience where her dead daughter tells her what to do, and she goes to her mother whom she hasn't spoken to in years to ask her why she abandoned her when she was young. And what she learns changes her life.

Impressions

There is nothing extraordinary about this book. Julianne MacLean is a prolific bestselling author: she knows how to craft a gripping story without wracking your brains. The story was rather predictable, the romance was dramatic as hell and all the characters were beautiful and rich. The translation was pretty poorly done and there were several typos, as if they had to rush to get this to market.

But I have to admit that these types of books tend to work for me. I like to turn my brain off and let myself go. Each chapter ended with a little suspense, and I got caught up in it: I read it pretty much in one sitting. There was a love triangle, and I clearly had a favorite guy. Sadness, excitement, compassion, frustration, melancholy: I went through all the right emotions. I laughed too, because I'm not going to take it at face value.

There are better books than that on the planet. But sometimes it's nice to lower our expectations and then be pleasantly surprised.