Forever More: A Love Story from the Edge of Eternity

Book Review by Steve Freier

I never thought I’d be reviewing a work of fiction, much less read one! Then along came, Forever More: A Love Story from the Edge of Eternity by Michele DeLuca. It’s a “Mystical Adventure!”

I hardly ever read nonfiction books, however this book turned out to be a fortunate exception. I am a member of an online monthly book discussion group and last month the group leader selected this book for all of us to read and then later discuss. I was honestly not too thrilled when I discovered his suggestion was a work of fiction, however once I had heard more about it from one of the group members I decided it might be worth my time to read.

This is a metaphysical book based on the core concept of mediumship. However, the author takes it to the extreme as you'll find out. The book is very well written by author, Michele DeLuca, who is a retired journalist who regularly wrote feature articles for the Niagara Gazette. Michele is obviously steeped in all of the concepts concerning mediumship and the afterlife and she expertly weaves these ideas into her story. Most of the action is based at the well-known spiritualist community called the Lily Dale Assembly which is in Western New York State near Buffalo and Niagara Falls.

The subject of the book is a 52-year-old woman who has a childhood connection to Lily Dale. As the story begins her marriage is faltering and therefor she decides to take a break in order to reconsider her situation. She then takes a one month vacation there and during that time she has a ‘mystical adventure’ which includes a love affair with a spirit who she sensed had been following her lately. Eventually the spirit finds a way to manifest himself in the physical! Since this idea is at the core of the story I don't want to ruin it with too many details!

It seems that the male spirit has some unfinished business on the Earth plane which requires the assistance of our heroine in order to carry it out. So that becomes the thread of the story along with an alluring Harlequin style romance thrown in for a good measure! You need a romance in every good adventure story, right? And I might add that the romance plot line is quite titillating as well! There is no other way to describe it! To be honest, I have never read a romance novel, but I get the feeling that the author has and has deftly worked a romantic storyline into this story!

The big downside, if there is one is this: I'm not sure who the author intended this book to appeal to because it involves a lot of metaphysical ideas and concepts which I imagine the average woman (or man?) may not be familiar with. And so it might be shocking to the average reader unfamiliar with these concepts.

In our book discussion group we actually had an opportunity to interact with the author herself. I found her to be quite intelligent and charming as well. Coincidentally she seemed to fit the profile of the heroine in the story so I can't help but think that she may have been fantasizing or projecting this story from her own inner self! So even though this is a work of fiction, I couldn't help but think that some of the story ideas might be based upon some of the author’s own experiences in real life. At least that's the way it seems, except for the fact that the story seems to stretch some of the concepts to the maximum. To ‘get real,’ from everything I know about metaphysics and the afterlife, what occurs in this tale seems highly implausible to me although exciting to consider as a possibility!

As I was reading this story, I kept thinking that this would be a great storyline for a movie. It certainly would be interesting to see it enacted on the big screen. Meryl Streep comes to mind of course! The movie, What Dreams May Come, may serve as an example.

Michele’s Amazon bio states the following: Michele DeLuca is an award-winning veteran journalist with a fascination for all matters of life and death. Her first novel, "Forever More: A Love Story from the Edge of Eternity," examines the topic of living beyond this existence in a manner that is unimaginably love-filled and joyful. Michele is a good writer and serves up plenty of interesting drama with plot twists at every turn!

So if you're looking for an interesting metaphysical love story, this book may be for you! Get it here on Amazon.