For most people, death is the end, but, for Lucy McKenzie, it’s just the beginning. Known for her supernatural romance novels, author Jenna Levine explores life, love, and second chances in her latest book, “Love You to Death.”

The novel opens 135 years in the past with an unnamed man signing a contract with a mysterious agency, before immediately jumping to the present day. The protagonist, 28-year-old Lucy McKenzie, is at a work party, where the series of bad decisions that make up her life are all on display. There, she notices an incredibly handsome man carrying a card with her name, age, and that day’s date. Frightened, Lucy flees, inadvertently stepping in front of an oncoming bus and dying.

Waking up in the afterlife, Lucy learns the mysterious agency from the beginning of the book is in charge of escorting souls to their afterlife destinations, and the suspicious man from the party is Daniel, her assigned grim reaper. Lucy pleads for more time on earth, and Daniel, moved by her request, manages to secure a rare eight week extension of Lucy’s life, given that he observes her actions and reports them back to the Agency.

“Love You to Death” is like junk food for the brain. It’s an enjoyable read that offers a few hours of escapism but largely lacks substance. The book understands its role as light, spooky fun; nowhere does it claim to be a modern literary masterpiece. From the cover alone, which bears the sentence “He came for her soul. She left with his heart,” the reader is informed that they are in for a campy, entertaining read.

The story’s multifaceted plot allows readers to invest in both the supernatural romance between Lucy and Daniel as well as Lucy’s quest to further extend her time on earth. Levine uses Lucy’s close relationship with her sister Jess to provide a window into Lucy’s tumultuous early life that she spends the book looking to escape while also pushing Lucy to confront her growing feelings for Daniel. In romance novels, familial love depictions are often neglected in favor of showcasing the main couple’s relationship; it’s a welcome change that all types of love get their time to shine in “Love You to Death.”

At times, however, the characters and dialogue felt underdeveloped. The story is told with alternating view points between Daniel and Lucy. Theoretically, this should provide a better understanding of both of their perspectives, but it ultimately ends up making Daniel feel two-dimensional. For the first half of the novel, Daniel spends his chapters simply moping about his eternal existence as a reaper and rambling on about how incredible Lucy’s touch felt on his arm. Seeing Daniel’s name at the top of the chapter meant another ten pages of brooding. If Levine had instead provided more context to Daniel’s backstory as she did with Lucy, she could have made his chapters feel much more substantial.

Much of the focus in the early part of the novel is on Lucy’s ability to touch Daniel, as his role as a grim reaper normally causes people to subconsciously avoid him. As the book progresses, so does the physical connection between Lucy and Daniel. In the last third of the book, there are multiple graphic sexual encounters between the two protagonists. While intimate acts can be used to artfully illustrate the connection between characters, the scenes in this novel felt forced. Explicit sex scenes aren’t necessarily unexpected in romance books, but these hurt the pacing of the novel’s final act and pulled the reader out of the broader plot for several pages at a time.

“Love You to Death” is a three-star book and a worthwhile read for lovers of supernatural romance. Despite its underdeveloped characters and uneven pacing, it serves its purpose as a heartwarming distraction from reality.