Published By: Lake Union
Pages: 315
Released On: 08/09/2026
On the eve of his sixtieth birthday, mechanic Rusty Wilson takes a bullet to save the patrons of a small-town Colorado diner—and awakens to a strange realm between life and death.
However, he finds that this limbo is not the end. There are still choices to be made and a lifetime to review. Paths open for a man who believes the life he did live was one of disappointments, grief, and devastating family estrangements. Given a chance to experience an alternate reality, Rusty is visited by figures from his past and present, sees what could have been if he had pursued a woman he loved from afar, and confronts a family secret that shaped everything. Now it’s Rusty’s choice: accept the imperfect existence he knew, or the what-if that could still be his.
At the heart of this poignant exploration of mortality, memory, and second chances is the profoundly simple question: What makes a life truly meaningful?
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I have read Melissa’s book The Night of Many Endings, which I enjoyed but it did have a few flaws, for me. So I had a sort of idea what to expect.
This has 50 chapters, which makes roughly 6 pages a chapter. I prefer short, snappy chapters so this appealed to me
This had great promise. It reminded me of the books by Becky Hunter and Kirsty Greenwood (authors I love) – this idea of there being something after death, in some sort of magical way.
It didn’t quite have the depth of emotion I wanted, like some of it felt very surface level.
Did I connect to Rusty? I’m not sure. I didn’t dislike him but equally I wasn’t completely taken with him but he was interesting to read. I liked him more as we went along and you saw his survivor’s guilt (no spoilers here) and his desire to help others and the love he has.
There is this turtle, sort of, sidekick, which was rather strange and I couldn’t decide if it was funny and whimsical or distracting.
It starts off strong and I think the ending is good, but it does slow down towards the halfway point and you end up rushing through to try and find the excitement of the start. Yet, having said that, it doesn’t actually slow it down too much, so the pacing overall wasn’t too bad.
It flits between the “now” which is actually the “in-between” stage, the time leading up to the event, and Rusty’s childhood. Now, I like multiple timeline stories but I know some people can struggle, but I think it worked here.
It’s a good book and gives you something to think about. Most of us will at some point wonder if we’re doing the right thing, if your life would be better or worse if you had made a different decision at any point.
I also liked this exploration of how your life doesn’t just affect your life. That you may find yourself ordinary but you might be the most important person in so many other’s peoples lives.
It’s a story of loss and grief, fear and love, second changes and regrets and desires, forgiveness and dreams. It was a lovely book to lose myself in.
It’s a quick book to read, an easy book to read and enjoyable. But it was lacking the emotional depth I thought it would have given the premise.
It had everything I wanted from it…just at a lesser extent to what I needed.
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