Review: Heavenly (Heavenly #1) by Jennifer Laurens

---

Book Blurb

I met someone who changed everything. Matthias. My autistic sister's guardian angel. Honest. Inspiring. Funny. Hot. And immortal. That was the problem. What could I do? I did what any other girl would do-I fell in love with him. Zoe's sister darts in front of cars. Her brother's a pothead. Her parents are so overwhelmed; they don't see Zoe lost in her broken life. Zoe escapes the only way she knows how: partying. Matthias, a guardian sent from Heaven, watches over Zoe's autistic sister. After Zoe is convinced he's legit, angel and lost girl come together in a love that changes destiny. But Heaven on Earth can't last forever.

Buy Links

Amazon

Goodreads

---

Toot's Review by Stacy Sabala

Zoe lives with her parents, younger brother, Luke and sister Abria.  Abria has autism and is a challenge.  The family is slowly falling apart.  Luke is turning to drugs and Zoe has been partying a lot.  She drinks her problems away.  One day while Zoe is watching Abria at the park, Abria disappears.  Zoe looks for her in a panic and finds her with a strange man.  He introduces himself as Matthias.  Zoe’s life will be forever changed in this moment.  Matthias is Abria’s guardian and Zoe is special in her own way since she is able to see him.

She struggles with her feelings about Abria, her brother and her parents.  Her life isn’t what she pictured, even her social life.  Matthias helps her realize what she needs to do.  Unfortunately, her heart gets involved.  She starts to evolve into another person and her friendship with Britt isn’t what she thought it was.   Just when she gets things moving in the right direction, everything changes again.  The storyline was interesting.  I like the guardian angel direction the author chose.  I also liked how she centered around high school students.  Zoe feels her life is so damaged because of Abria’s autism.  I love how she changes her perspective as the book evolves.  The reader sees her realizations and change.  There are definitely some underlying messages to the story.

I also think the author did a great job touching on the difficulties families face when a child is diagnosed with autism.  There are so many emotions swirling throughout the storyline.  There is forbidden love, broken trust, unamendable friendships, heartbreak and self-awareness.  The characters of this book have a tough journey.  It was a good read.  A different perspective and idea about heavenly help.  The ending was a little surprising but I wasn’t too disappointed.  I give it a 4 out of 5.

---