Rating: 4.25 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | All Romance
Length: Novella
At nineteen, Brian Matheson lost his life tragically in a car crash. Facing final judgment, Brian finds himself in Limbo with only a short amount of time to prove that he’s worthy of Heaven. His mission is to save the life of an innocent. A specific innocent. Kevin is Brian’s best friend’s roommate and from day one, Brian made fun of the clearly gay boy. Brian is certain his mission is to save Kevin.
Kevin is no stranger to bullying, but he was hoping to have left that behind in high school. Unfortunately, his roommate Chuck’s friends didn’t get the memo. Determined to wait it out until the end of the year, Kevin suffers through the taunts from Chuck’s friends. He avoids looking too long at his roommate for fear of what might be said about it. And he does his best to avoid his room when Chuck’s friends are around.
Brian is sure that if he can hook Kevin up with a guy they spied in the coffee shop, he’ll complete his mission. And while he’s at it, maybe his good deed for the decade will earn him bonus points if he can hook Chuck up with Rachael, Brian’s ex-girlfriend. But when that backfires, Chuck ends up injured and bound to his room for the last few weeks of school, with only Kevin to help.
Chuck has spent years grooming his straight boy, tough-guy image, but in the end he is what he is and the fact that he was paired with a pretty boy for a roommate tempts him more than ever. Especially after he’s hurt. When his friends abandon him, Kevin is all he has. Everything about his roommate calls out to him, and Chuck is forced to choose to either be himself or the man everyone expects him to be.
Heaven Can’t Wait by Eli Easton is part of Dreamspinner’s Daily Dose 2014: Mended.
This is the first story I’ve read by this author and I really liked it. The premise is so good. When I started this story, I had no idea where it was going. I mean, this story starts off with the death of the main character. It’s different and I was worried that the story would be a second chance tale where the MC comes back and has another chance to do whatever and falls in love. Rest assured, this is not that story. It’s so much better.
Brian, although a central character to this story, is not the main subject. He’s a catalyst to the relationship between Kevin and Chuck, even though he doesn’t know that’s what he’s doing. And even though he’s not the focus, I like his eye-opening journey in this story. He starts out as such a self-serving jerk, but turns out to be a really good friend.
Kevin. My heart breaks for this kid. We meet Kevin in a bit of an awkward and sad situation. He hears Chuck’s friends making fun of him while he stands outside the door. What I like most about Kevin is his heart. At first, it’s easy to think that Kevin is a broken kid, hurt by the bullies, and alone. But we soon find out that he is stronger than he looks, braver, and has a heart of gold. Even though Chuck never stands up for him when Kevin’s the subject of his friend’s bullying, Kevin still offers to help Chuck. And Chuck, he’s the stereotypical closeted jock. And in case you don’t know, I have a thing for stereotypical closeted jocks. I wish there would have been more development to his character though. We meet Chuck at the same time we meet Kevin, except he’s on the other side of that door. Chuck is conflicted, pretending to be something he’s not. There’s one, maybe two, scenes in Chuck’s POV, so what we learn of him and his past is mostly though Brian and Kevin’s eyes. I think I would have liked to get to know his inner turmoil better. I could have definitely used more of his POV. But from what I got from the other guys, I liked Chuck.
This story is not the typical romance. There are several facets and twists to the world that Easton has created. It’s a sweet and funny story with a side hope and silliness. The ending was different, in a good way. I like this author’s ability to draw me in with a new and different sort of story and hold my attention with awkward conflict.
A not so secret: I’m not much of reader of angels and demons or heaven and hell stories. It’s just not one of my things. But this story is so atypical of any of that. I really enjoyed these characters and the setup of this book. Like I said earlier, this is the first Eli Easton book I’ve read, but it won’t be the last. I definitely recommend Heaven Can’t Wait by Eli Easton.
A review copy of this book was provided by Dreamspinner Press.
