Lawless

Allison
Merritt
Genre: 
Paranormal

HISTORICAL:  The afterlife will never be the same after Clayton Wilder enters Windfall, a Purgatory-type town that determines if you go to Heaven or Hell.  Joanna Casimir is the judge in charge of getting the good selfless Clayton to take root and change from the outlaw that she sees before her.  Clayton is an outlaw and has been since early in his life, and he is ready to throw all that out the window.  Joanna’s advice and lessons to help him change are thrown right back at her.  He bucks the afterlife laws as much as he did the laws of the living.  

 

This has a different perspective as far as afterlife books go.  The main characters are opposite through most of the story which leads to a love/hate relationship.  The tender moments get overshadowed at times with the harsh reality of reliving every bad moment in order to learn from it and make amends.  The story adds elements that were a bit of a stretch to believe in how they were represented, like the Revenants, who hunt down the Purgatories and destroy all the souls there. It is a tried and true storyline: the good girl changing the bad boy through love - the refreshing aspect of this book is that it is done when Clayton and JoAnna return from the dead. It takes halfway through the book before the story gains momentum and interest. The story is a good read - a little on the heavy side of the afterlife but there is hope spread throughout.

 

Laura Dinsdale