The Return (I Died, Fortunately – Book 1)

I came back. And I came back with news.

You might have wondered what is it with the Quantum Publishers logo on my blog.  Well, time has come for you to know that it is a Romanian publishing house. And I became book reviewer for them.

I received my first books like three weeks ago. What did I receive?

Well there are three books: “The return” written by Theo Anghel, “Screaming in silence” by Marina Neagu and “Between earth and water” by Raluca Andreea Chiper.

I started reading the first book last Tuesday and, as I am pretty efficient when it comes to reading, I finished two of them until now. So I will start with the beginning: “The return”.

What can I say about this book? Honestly, after I read it, I find that words are worthless to describe my feelings towards this book. It twisted all of my senses and threw away all I knew until now about reading a book. It brought me much more than I was expecting.

I am ashamed to say that I haven’t read many Romanian authors. But Theo Anghel managed somehow to make me want to blow up this habit and start doing it.

But enough with that talking and let’s get back to business.

The book was published in 2016 at Quantum Publishers publishing house and it is part of a series called “I died, fortunately”. When you start to read you discover the sad story of a girl who dies in the day of her wedding. Yeah right? Sounds so sad. Who dies in the day of her wedding? But wait. There is more. The destiny of Oriana, the girl  I was talking about, isn’t that sad. Actually she comes back to the earth – also called Chaos for the Almighty world – as a soul saviour. This means that her job is to save people who are not destined to die yet. A difficult and annoying job at first, but which she starts to enjoy at some point.

The main problem with Oriana is that, from a spoiled girl used to always get her way and always have what she needs, she must reach to being a responsible woman who must take care of the others before thinking of her well being. Ironic enough, but seems to be her true destiny which she has to face.

The story makes you wonder in some way: what are we really capable of?

Oriana never had loved someone, although she was on the verge of getting married. She only discovers love after…dying. She tries to face the facts, and the decisions she makes will influence her final judgement when her life in the Chaos will come to an end. And that means that she has the freedom to choose how she will use the new chance she received. In order to be able to enter the new life, she has received two angels to stay be her side. One is good (Ama) and one is dark (Abel).

It is quite interesting how the names were chosen so that Ama sends to the Spanish word “amar”, meaning to love, and Abel sends to the biblical character, the sheppard killed by his brother, the son of Adam and Eve. Interesting how the name Cain was not used (I mean after all the angel is on the dark side). I don’t know if it was on purpose or not, but I liked it.

Also I can say that Abel is not such a bad character as it should be to correspond to his role. I mean yeah he tries to influence Oriana in making bad things, but he has moments in which is quite pleasing. He almost makes you fall in love with him. And maybe I would have if Marc wouldn’t have shadowed him with his mysterious character and deep eyes.  I fell in love with him in the very instance he decided to show up. How does one say? Love at first  sight. Yes it was.

The story overall captivated me in such a way that I didn’t wanted to let the book down. I read it anywhere and I even brought it with me in my Europe trip (so the book itself has seen four countries).

As I said before, the book is part of a series which consists of five volumes: “The return”, “The Chaos”, “On the other side”, “Purgatorium” and “Diabolic”.

After I finish the third book I received, I will definitely read the next volume. Can’t wait to see what the story has reserved for me.

© picnicontheshelf, June 8, 2018