Greetings from the Flipside by Rene Gutteridge & Cheryl McKay

Greetings from the Flipside by Rene Gutteridge & Cheryl McKay. B&H Books, 2013. 320 p. (9781433676895)

This was a very interesting and odd story and not what I was expecting. Rather confusing too until I read a bit further and could figure out what was going on. I understand why the authors told the story the way they did and they did a great job, but I wish they'd given a few more clues and that the summary didn't make you expect something else.

Actually the summary does the reader a big disservice in that it completely misleads your expectations. Though I think I understand why the publisher, agent, whoever it is who writes book summaries went this route.

Goodreads Summary:

Hope Landon has been rewriting other people’s greeting cards since she was six years old. There’s always a funnier caption in there somewhere. She’s ready to chase her creative dreams in New York City with her fiancé—until he leaves Hope at the altar.

That may give her something to write about . . .

Hope disappears for the time that would have been the couple’s month-long honeymoon, and upon returning learns of her own funeral. Everyone concluded Hope must have killed herself after being jilted. Needing a fresh start more than ever, she heads for the Big Apple only to discover it isn’t easy to rent a place when you’ve been declared dead.

Taking shelter at the YMCA, Hope lands a job at an inspirational greeting card company assisting Jake, the guy who shut down his organization’s humor department. She has lost her faith in love; he needs to find something or someone that will make him laugh again.

Fun and faithful, Greetings from the Flipside will keep turning over in your mind.

My Review:

The summary is correct in that what it describes does happen. Except that it doesn’t. Those events take place in Hope imagination as she lies comatose in the hospital. Yep, the story is about a woman in a coma and the man who sits by her bedside willing her to wake up. (And mentioning that in a blurb probably isn’t a great marketing idea. Maybe?)

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I’ve always thought that people in a coma are somewhat aware of what’s happening around them and can hear too. So I found it fascinating to read a story of a character who absorbed bits and pieces of who was around her and what they were saying while she was in a coma.

Both story lines were engaging and the characters were interesting. I really liked Mikaela and her straightforwardness in the coma world. And Jake was a great hero. Sweet on Hope since childhood he never was bold enough to approach her after she bluntly critiqued his card in first grade (or was it kindergarten?), but now that he was there when the accident happened and she’s lying there comatose…well, he can’t stay away.

Now that you’ve been warned about the very out of the ordinary plot and aren’t expecting a “normal” romance where the couple heals each other’s past hurts and find their hearts restored to love. Except that’s exactly what happens. Just not in the way you’d expect. Now that you've been warned, go read this book if you enjoy unique contemporary romance stories, or stories about coma patients.

Go read it! Find it at a library near you; Buy it from Amazon; Buy it from ChristianBooks.com; Buy it from Barnes and Noble

Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission.

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