WITHIN REACH

True soul mates can’t be separated, even by death.

Xan is dead at 17, but he can still see and hear his beloved as her life plays out before him like some kind of after-death cinema. Lila, however, can’t see him. Lost in the depths of despair, she stops eating and finds scant comfort with her longtime friend Jason. Lila can’t see what Xan does, that Jason is far more sinister than he appears. Xan helplessly watches as his nemesis moves in on Lila. With the help of a supernatural guide, Xan learns that he and Lila have known each other much longer than just this lifetime and they have been given one final chance to prove that they are worthy of eternity together. Xan must find a way to make Lila sense his presence so that she will understand he is still with her. However, the rules shift frustratingly, and there are other dark forces at work trying to steal their divine glow and keep them apart. The drama gets befuddled as aspects of Christianity, Buddhism, and the occult combine to create a rather higgledy-piggledy cosmic view. In alternating chapters, the present-tense, frequently purple narrative of the vividly drawn Xan and Lila is urgent, keeping the intensity taught. All the principals are white.

An intense, at-times overwrought romance for genre fans.