After the intense Ask,Tell; the singular Alone and
the character driven romantic Gold,
E. J. Noyes shakes it all up (including our expectations) with this paranormal
romcom.
Morgan Ashworth owns a very successful data storage and
security company and Jane Smith heads the technology side of the business.
Both the women have been silently lusting after each other for years but stick
to safe boss-employee zone convinced that the other cannot be similarly
interested. Well, at least that is Jane's feeling. For Morgan it is a little
more complicated. She is Death's Head Minion which means she is in charge of
all other Minions and of late, she also has to tak care of the Americas since
the Minion in charge of that geography has left (yes, the Minions have a
choice).
The job of th Minions is to administer afterlife packages
which are essentially a long list of questions so that each person is assigned
an afterlife as per their personality. Receiving an afterlife package to fill
doesn't mean that the human's days are numbered, though. They could have days,
weeks, months or even years ahead of them.
Morgan is assigned to administer an afterlife package to
Jane. Getting this one done would mean that Morgan would still be eligible for
the Minion of the Year award -- an award she's won consistently over years and
just may lose this year. Except that Jane cottons on to how important it is to
Morgan that Jane completes her package and bargains for fulfilment of her
bucket list before signing that package.
Cici (Death), Morgan's boss encourages Morgan to not only
accept Jane's terms but also accompany Jane around the world as the bucket list
items get ticked off.
The circumstances and the context of the story are
fabulously implausible and Noyes balances that implausibility superbly with
very empathiseable characters. As soon as #12 of the bucket list (Sleep with
the boss) appears, both women are quite open about their attraction to each
other.
However, as their feelings deepen, Morgan started getting on
our nerves with her feinting, blowing hot blowing cold, flirt and flight, and
the most unforgivable of all -- complete lack of communication about her
feelings for Jane or sharing of her fears. By around the 75% mark we couldn't
stand Morgan anymore. Her behaviour of running away but making certain gestures
and just giving enough to keep Jane hooked to her is a kind or psychological
problem (we think it's a kind of dysfunctional behaviour displayed by
narcissistic personalities).
By the time we reached the point where Cici offers to 'save'
Jane (i.e. give Jane many more years of life -- which seemed like at least
50 to 60 additional years) or make Jane the Minion for Americas thus granting
the couple (Morgan and Jane) an eternity together -- and Morgan rejects both
possibilities unilaterally, we were completely done with her and her self pity
and self-preservation. We lost what little understanding we had held on for her
up to this point.
Cici and Jane are lovely, very lovely, ladies, though.
While our extreme frustration with Morgan doesn't allow us
to give this one an unmixed, ringing endorsement and recommendation, it is
still well written plus it is a paranormal fantasy romcom by Noyes, so maybe
worth a shot.
⭐⭐⭐
