Reviewed by Valerie
TITLE: All the Rules of Heaven
AUTHOR: Amy Lane
SERIES: All That Heaven Will Allow #1
PUBLISHER: DSP Publications
LENGTH: 317 pages
RELEASE DATE: November 3, 2020
BLURB:
When Tucker Henderson inherits Daisy Place, he’s pretty sure it’s not a windfall—everything in his life has come with strings attached. He’s prepared to do his bit to satisfy the supernatural forces in the old house, but he refuses to be all sweetness and light about it.
Angel was sort of hoping for sweetness and light.
Trapped at Daisy Place for over fifty years, Angel hasn’t always been kind to the humans who have helped him in his duty of guiding spirits to the beyond. When Tucker shows up, Angel vows to be more accommodating, but Tucker’s layers of cynicism and apparent selfishness don’t make it easy.
Can Tucker work with a gender-bending, shape-shifting irritant, and can Angel retain his divine intentions when his heart proves all too human?
REVIEW:
All the Rules of Heaven is an intriguing, whimsical, and sometimes dark story. I particularly enjoyed the development of the primary and secondary characters. Tucker Henderson’s parents died when he was a teenager, leaving him lost and alone with only one living relative, his aunt Ruth whom he rarely sees. What he does see are ghosts wandering around among living human beings. Tucker also has an unwanted psychic talent: he’s an empath who experiences episodes of physical discomfort in his gut that inexplicably pull him to a stranger’s bed. Sex somehow enables the strangers to reach epiphanies that help them with life decisions. Tucker has been saddled with having to be a sympathetic ear through sex, and now both empathy and sex have become a chore. He’s always being used, and it has made it impossible to sustain a relationship (who would be understanding of him running out to have sex with randoms?) and maintain a job.
When Ruth dies, Tucker inherits her home, Daisy Place, which turns out to be haunted. “By the time he arrived at Daisy Place, he was tired, old at thirty-five, exhausted by his karmic mission, and so, so lonely.” But his mission shifts once he moves into Daisy Place. As it was for Ruth before him, Tucker’s purpose is to work as a team with resident ghost, Angel, to exorcise the spirits trapped in the house. Angel is a gender-bending, shape-shifting ghost who has resided at Daisy Place for over fifty years. His job is to protect Tucker from hostile ghosts and listen to the stories the ghosts must tell before they can move on. Tucker and Angel are not too fond of each other initially and they communicate with amusing sarcasm and snark. Eventually their relationship develops to friendship and then lovers. Tucker can see and hear Angel, and at lucky times, feel him. Sex for Tucker has always been emotionless, without gentleness, or sweetness. “Nobody touches me like they know me.” But now, with Angel, Tucker has the opportunity to form a close bond and heal. It’s equally as precious for Angel who can touch someone lovingly for the first time. He has longed to be a sexual being.
I thoroughly enjoyed the character development and interaction, much more so than the plot involving the trapped spirits. It turned dark with off-page rape and incest that happened to ghosts in the past. Amy Lane has created a family of fantastic characters in the Greenaway family residing next door. Dad Josh becomes a good friend to Tucker; mom Rae and the four children have varying degrees of “witchiness”, some being able to see or hear Angel. They prove critical in providing Tucker with friendship, support, and even help with the ultimate conflict with the ghosts.
Ms. Lane effectively created vivid imagery of the congenial ghosts strolling around Daisy Place’s gardens in their period garb from various eras. It was a “macabre pageantry of souls on the lawn.” I had a more difficult time picturing the lynch mob of howling, dispossessed spirits at the climax of the plot. I got a little confused during this final battle scene, but admittedly, I’m the one always whispering questions to my husband during complicated movie plots I don’t understand.
I look forward to the next book in the series, with the next room they clear and the next ghosts they help on their mission. Tucker and Angel are enjoyable very likable characters, and the book concludes with their sweet relationship on a positive note, but this is definitely a “to be continued” storyline (not a cliffhanger, though). If you enjoy paranormal romances or are an Amy Lane fan, you should enjoy this book.
RATING: 
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