The Things We Learn When We're Dead by Charlie Laidlaw @claidlawauthor #Review

On the way home from a dinner party she didn't want to attend, Lorna Love steps into the path of an oncoming car. When she wakes up she is in what appears to be a hospital – but a hospital in which her nurse looks like a young Sean Connery, she is served wine for supper, and everyone avoids her questions.

It soon transpires that she is in Heaven, or on HVN. Because HVN is a lost, dysfunctional spaceship, and God the aging hippy captain. She seems to be there by accident. Or does God have a higher purpose after all?

At first Lorna can remember nothing. As her memories return – some good, some bad – she realises that she has decisions to make and that she needs to find a way home…

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This is such an interesting book and I found myself pulled into the story pretty easily as we meet Lorna and what follows is an intriguing plot. There is a slight sci-fi/fantasy element and even though I don't regularly read this genre I really enjoyed the characters that pop up in this story. However this is such a small part of the story with so many other layers just waiting to be revealed.

The pace is pretty steady and even though it isn't a short story my attention was kept throughout. There is a fun and quirky side to this book with the addition of humour that makes it an even more enjoyable read.

Lorna goes on quite a journey as she recalls her memories and Charlie Laidlaw writes with a rich detail that really helps to make everything come to life. It is a story that will make you think or at least that is what I experienced. Seeing life with all the ups and downs but with a hopeful feeling which I really appreciated.

Four stars from me!

With thanks to Charlie Laidlaw for my copy.