The following review is part of my being in the author’s review team, which ensures that you can read it before the book comes out.
Beware of what you wish for.
It rarely comes true.
– Daisy
To this, I will contradict Daisy a little and will add: unless it’s a Robyn Peterman novel. Then you can wish away, especially if you wish for a good book and loads of laughs. But don’t wish for no tears, especially when it comes to My Midlife Crisis, My Rules, the fourth instalment of Robyn’s Good to the Last Death series, which comes out on the 25th of January.
For if I were to use only one word to describe this book, it would be “emotion”. From many laughs to almost just as many tears (of sheer emotion), from surprise to suspense, and sometimes to a little bit of disgusted gagging, this story is a highly emotional one, where you feel, not only for Daisy, but also for many of the other protagonists.
What the book is about
As is Robyn Peterman’s custom, My Midlife Crisis, My Rules picks up in the middle of A Most Wonderful Midlife Crisis‘s last chapter, when Missy discovers what she really is and helps Daisy recover one of the dearest parts of herself, with dire consequences for Gram, thus prompting the Death Counsellor to vow that she will do all that is in her (ever growing) power to bring the unhinged Angel of Mercy (aka Clarissa) to the end that she deserves for all the wrong that she has done.
Add to that the most heartbreaking visitors/squatters, the help of the usual suspects, a surprisingly welcome help, a book that is all sorts of awesome, and more proof that angels are the evil to the demons’ goodness, and you’re in for quite an adventure, again.
Peeling some layers
There’s a fucking reason for most things in life.
– Candy Vargo aka Karma
Candy Vargo might speak fluent sailor, and maybe she loves violence a little too much (ask the Angels – but what did she do to them for them to fear her so?). However, the more we go along in the series, the more we see an extremely layered character, one who hides a lot from those around her, only to have those parts of her character jump at us in the most unexpected moments, often in an extremely touching way. That is what we get to see even more in My Midlife Crisis, My Rules, much to our enjoyment, must I say.
Another surprising character is Jennifer, until then known as a superficial, botoxicated, heavily drinking 65-year-old. But who knew she is an avid paranormal reader and a huge Twilight fan? She is also a sleuth fanatic. In other words, she is like a lot of us, readers, and this comes with its load of surprises.
Deconstructing the myths
One thing I particularly like about Robyn Peterman’s books is that she loves deconstructing the myths. Be it, for instance, Satan the Journey lover or Mother Nature the pole dancer in the Hot Damned series, nothing is beyond her imagination.
In Good to the Last Death, Robyn deconstructs the angels and demons myths in a compelling and always amazing way. Those who read the series from the beginning (and I cannot recommend enough that you do) know that those you cannot trust are the angels, and that the demons will always have your back.
And she continues, with My Midlife Crisis, My Rules, to deconstruct those myths in a perfectly brilliant way.
It takes sads to make the happies better
Mommy says you can’t be happy if you don’t feel sad sometimes. It’s okay to be sad and cry. You need to have your feelings, or they will have you. Daddy says that.
– A very wise little girl
To say I fell in love with this wise little girl and her sister is an understatement. Yes, their story broke my heart in many, many pieces, but as they say: the sads make the happies even better, and this is exactly what happens.
This book, like the rest of the series, is all full of happies and sads, and angries and unfairs, too, thus making the story one that I will not soon forget, whether I reread it or not (and I definitely will, until the end’s cliffhanger).
My verdict
Yes, the book ends in a cliffhanger. No, I don’t mind. I just wish that it would be less than four months until You Light Up My Midlife Crisis, which is scheduled to come out on 24th May. I won’t link to the order page, so you don’t get spoilers reading the blurb.
Then again, just like the rest of the series, I cannot recommend My Midlife Crisis, My Rules enough. You will not regret the read.
Five stars full of surprises! ✰✰✰✰✰
Caro's Reads 
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