I normally hate anything to do with angels. (Except for Demon Angel, apparently.) So if this had been written by anyone but Lani Diane Rich, I probably would have put it down. But...it was Lani. And thankfully, this is not remotely twee just because the A-word is dropped in the plot.
Emmy "EJ" James has spent the last six years of her life roaming about in an Airstream trailer, working menial jobs, and steadfastly avoiding the family and friends she left behind. But when she's working her Quik-E-Mart job one night, a customer pesters her to go help a girl whose car just broke down. Said girl, a chick named Jess, claims to be an angel that specializes in cosmic relationship mending, and she figures her car broke down for a reason, so EJ must be in need.
Sure enough, the next day EJ is tracked down by old family friend Digs, the brother of her ex, Luke. He's got some news... his father and EJ's mother are getting married, and her dad wants her at the wedding. Period.
EJ's mother is a former child star actress who, before Luke and Digs's dad, had been married seven times. She made no secret of not being into parenting. The story is interspersed with quotes from Lilly that will make your mouth drop open in sheer horror at the nasty narcissism this woman has going on. And by the time you finally meet Lilly in person... she's become drastically different. Sure, she's still got a few of her old traits, like not eating and still being really ticked off at Shelley Fabares, but this woman cooks. She has hobbies. She's not nearly the nasty bitch she used to be. And at the very least, she'd like to make up with her daughter before the wedding. But Emmy's got a lot of past history to try to get over before that can be done.
And then there's Luke, the fellow she ran out on. Will he ever want to deal with her again after what she did? Can big fat horrible mistakes be remedied after so long? This book does a good job of answering that question. And as for Jess the angel, I liked how she was handled, especially the surprise revelation towards the end.
My only quibble with the book: Too short!
Four stars from me.
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