You Had Me At Halo

You Had Me at Halo failed to impress me on many levels. After reading her other novel, The Queen of Newbury High, I went expecting something more than what I got. Her humor in Newbury High did not appear in Halo; the character attachment I felt in Newbury High did not appear in Halo; the overall enjoyment was not in Halo as it was in Newbury High.

The plot was very original; it’s something I have yet to be seen done before or even after. Ashby’s representation of heaven is comical yet interesting. A word of advice: study psychology, it seems as though heaven needs a few shrinks. However, the positives almost end there.

I found Holly Evans annoying many time throughout the novel. Her single-minded thinking and her ability to never show more stay quiet or listen to directions irked me. I found Vincent Murphy to be perfect, and by perfect I mean a Gary Sue. He had no flaws: handsome, intelligent, pretty good dresser, and kind. The fact that his co-workers in the company dislike/avoid him because of his job—a technician—did not merit as a type of flaw, it just symbolizes the narrow-mindedness of his colleges. I honestly couldn’t fathom as to why he was so infatuated by Holly.

The ending leaves a lot to be desired. Everything rushes in the end.

Overall: I would definitely call this book a chick-lit novel. It was fast paced, charming during the rare times, but oh so very predictable. show less

Great book with lots of humour. Quirky heroine who has come back to earth in another body to sort out the issues of her death. She can't understand why the gorgeous male owner of the body won't just drop everything to help her. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves their romance with a dash of humour.

This just barely ranks a 3 (edit: actually, after giving it some thought, I'm changing it to a 2...really, it was just ok). I came close several times to putting it down and moving on to another, but I have this thing that if I start a book, I want to try my best to finish it. So I did, but without much enthusiasm.

FROM AMAZON: Holly Evans has just seen her own body laid to rest. Now she would like to move onto the afterlife. But apparently she has some mortal baggage to unload first, starting with the matter of how she died. Her heavenly shrink isn't buying that she didn't kill herself- and says she must return to earth to straighten things out. The thing is, she needs to borrow the body of computer geek Vince Murphy to do it. Oh, and although Vince was supposed to have vacated the premises, he apparently never got the memo.
Now, Holly has forty-eight hours to resolve her issues while sharing arms, legs, and...other things...with a guy she barely noticed while she was alive. But the real surprise is what life has to offer when you have only two show more days to live it. show less