Heaven In Your Eyes

Author: Judi McCoy

(Re-posted from my old blogger)

Anne McAllister is married to an uptight controlling jerk. They met in college, where Annie was a criminal justice major with plans of joining law enforcement. All that went out the window when she married Tom. She became his living Barbie doll. Wore her hair the way he wanted, wore the clothes he chose, ate what he ordered for her and basically lived her life to please him. Just as Anne is getting fed up and ready to shake things up Tom dies. Tom somehow manages not to go to Hell or Purgatory, but gets a chance to redeem himself by helping Annie find true love. You see, Annie was supposed to go on to law enforcement training, where she would have met her soul mate, Andrew Falcone, and had a HEA ... only that didn't happen because she met and married Tom before she ever made it that far. So Tom will have to hop into another body, a la Heaven Can Wait, and help Annie find the perfect man for her.

Fast forward six years after Tom's death and Annie's is now a U.S. Marshal and working her first Assignment with the Witness Protection Program. Her charge is one Dominic Viglioni, a mob guy turned informant, who doesn't have long to live. After putting the moves on Annie, during a one-on-one game of hoops, Viglioni is shot by rogue marshals and Tom moves in. They go on the run and soon after Annie, and Tom, figure out that Dominic Viglioni is no snitch. He's an undercover agent trying to draw out dirty marshals and his real name? Yup, you guessed it! Andrew Falcone. So now Tom, who's got pieces of Falcone's personality and memories floating around in his head, is trying to protect Annie until they catch the bad guys. Unfortunately, spending so much time together is proving a hard temptation for Tom to fight. He's finding he likes this new Annie a lot better than the one he tried to make her into. How can he find her a husband when he's falling in love with her all over again? Meanwhile, Annie's terribly attracted to Flacone and a little weirded out by some of his familiar habits. Will she find happiness with her ex in her soul mates body or will the bad guys kill them before she has a chance to find out?

I dunno, I really enjoyed Judi McCoy's Wanted books and the Goddess series was a fun read, but I just can't like Tom enough to want to see him happy with Annie ... and I'm feeling really bad for Andrew Falcone. Yeah, he was a good guy and went to heaven when he died, but come on! Because Tom's guiding angel didn't do her job Falcone got cheated out of connecting with his soul mate, a loving marriage, kids and the many more years of life he would have lived had he been married and not taken that fatal assignment! WTH?! I hate to bring my spiritual beliefs in to it, but I think soul mates are connected beyond death and that they will find eachother again. So the fact that Falcone's soul mate is now in love with some guy who seems to have taken on some of his characteristics, just sucks bananas. He deserved better. Tom? Yeah, his parents sucked. I get that. It still doesn't change the fact that he made his wife miserable for years. Many people have crappy childhoods without making other people's lives hell because of it. So this guy is a miserable prick and treats his wife like crap and the consequences of that are what? A hot new body, many years of life after his expiration date, and a second chance at the marriage he screwed up the first time around? Hello?! Does no one else have a problem with this? And, Annie? Why the hell would she even consider hooking up with a guy that reminds her so much of a man that made her life miserable? She wasted so much of her life on this man who treated her horribly before getting the nerve up to make a change. So now she's going to go for a man that exhibits some of the same traits/habits? Seriously?

The writing was there, and there were some good scenes, but I just couldn't get past my issue with the characters to really enjoy the book.