The cover, title and premise of this book had me so excited to read it. I loved the concept but I struggled with the style of writing which made it hard to really get into the story. It is a shame because I feel like this could have been so much better if you were able to really immerse yourself in the story.

This book was not what I was expecting at all. From reading what I thought were similar books I assumed that Molly would be working alongside the Angel of Death in some sort of urban fantasy type story and then they would fall for each other. What I definitely wasn't expecting was just a bizarre romance!!
There were some cute parts but I think where I really struggled was that both characters were quite emotionless and I struggled to connect with them. The weird language and the way that the Powers That Be speak gets a bit annoying and i found myself skim reading those bits after a while.
Overall an average read unfortunately.

Thank you for this advanced reader copy.
Molly Molloy and the Angel of Death is different to recent releases of "Death romances" e.g. Belladonna as Death isn't the morally grey character we're used to.

It was a decent read with some cute parts.

I absolutely loved this, I do loves about Death as a character, Ithink Terry Pritchett started this off for me, but there you go. This was one of my favourites I’ve read so far and I’ve read a lot. The character of Death is so awkward, but realistically so as what would Death know about human day today life, but he’s so out of his league and inept , but you fall in love with his joy and delight in the learning. Molly Molloy is such a character herself and I adored her almost as much as Death, realistic with from stretch marks and all , iso loved that, as much as I loved her strength, her history and how she gets through it all. I can’t say much more on the story without spoilers but you’ll love it and you need to read it

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

You might be thinking, "Taylor, you were at a funeral this week, why did you think this was a good time to read a book about the personification of death falling in love with a human woman?" And to that, I have no answer, but it was the perfect distraction, and easy to pick up and put down without getting confused about where in the story I was. This book is bizarre, and you'll probably be able to tell pretty quickly if it's your type of weird.

Death is in charge of collecting souls from dying humans, and he's just eaten one of the powdered donuts his last collection had just bought when he meets Molly Molloy eating atomic hot wings in her grandmother's hospital room. He's a little distracted by the powdered sugar on his coat, and caught off guard by the fact that Molly can see him. Reflexively patting Molly on the back when she choked on a chicken wing ends up getting Death on Heaven's sh*t list, as it turns out he was meant to collect HER soul, not her grandmother's. Oops.

Molly is 25 and splitting her time between EMT training and waiting tables at an NYC "breastaraunt", which is exactly what it sounds like. Everyone she's ever loved has died, so needless to say, she's not too thrilled when Death starts popping up again to try and remedy his mistake. That mistake being leaving Molly alive.

The interactions between Death and Molly as they both learn the other's perspective on mortality are both hilarious and heartwarming. If you've had the thought "I wish I could learn what Death thinks about condoms and Star Wars" but also "What is the meaning of life", this might be the book for you. I both laughed hysterically and also got choked up, all in less than 300 pages---if you like weird humor and are looking for a bit of a palette cleanser between larger books or more dense or heavy topics, this might be the perfect choice!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, & the author for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review of “Molly Molloy and the Angel of Death”.

I just finished reading Molly Molloy and the Angel of Death.
Whilst I was really excited about the premise of this book I found the execution (no pun intended) wasn’t quite to my tastes. I found the writing style distracting and it did not allow me to get drawn into the story as I would have liked to.
This book has a complex use of language which overshadowed the storyline for me

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy of molly molloy and the angel of death. this was pretty cool scifi and womens fiction. on what would happen if death messed up royally and saved someone instead of taking their soul. the conflict she brings to his doorstep was great, the banter as well was quite good, worth the read.

I received an e-ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review. Review can also be found on *Milky Way of Books*

It is no secret that I loved Maria Vale's books. Her series Legends of all Wolves is a must-read that brings together our love for the paranormal but with the sensitivity and deep love for nature as also romance.

This book gave me great vibes of "Meet Joe Black" and "The Ghost".
Molly Molloy and the Angel of Death was quite the wild ride. I knew that I just wanted to read it, despite the premise which always makes me cry because anything metaphysical always hits that spot in my heart that knows....that we don't know anything about the after.

Death is...not exactly an angel but a being beyond time and creation itself who has been demoted into gathering the souls of mortals...which he so drily pulls from the bodies he calls Rags, and sends them...Upstairs. I loved the sarcastic way he does the job? Like a public sector worker who just does the routine and finds no satisfaction in anything anymore.

And then when he goes to pull the soul of a Molloy, he realizes that he can be seen and that the woman whom he should he taken the soul is still alive.
Molly Molloy lives her life, without actually living, filled with grief and a dry sense of humor which was born of circumstances of pain and loss. When she realizes who and what Death is, a strange companionship will bloom between them, one that will defy the powers of...Upstairs.

There is a lot of emotion to unpack here. From the way, Molly slowly and surely integrates Death into human life to Death's understanding of how precious life is, despite being short for humans. It's almost comely how often he acts like a child or a teenager with his behavior and Molly is the one being the adult in the relationship. Additionally, I found the description of how Upstairs looks like quite hilarious, the combination of Latin for their rules and the idea that souls are connected to the human body through the omphalos (greek word for bellybutton-also an ancient mythological belief-) was a nice touch.

The ending had me crying but as Death adjusts to change, you slowly realize that his story never ends, and love can come and find him again through endless time.

This was one of the best books of 2023 for me and I totally recommend it.

Super unique and captivating! I don’t even know how to accurately describe Molly Molloy and the Angel of Death but it was a heck of a ride! Full of dark humor, love, loss and everything in-between this is a story that will stay with me for awhile!

Thank you to NetGalley & Wild & Ashe, LLC for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

Molly Molloy and the Angel of Death is a love story with a dash of humor.

The Angel of Death accidently saves the life of the person he was to collect. Thus the beginning of this love story. The whole atmosphere of the story makes great spring time reading. The characters are adorable and the love is charming.

ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

#MolllyMolloyandtheAngelofDeath #NetGalley

My thanks to NetGalley and Wild & Ashe for an ARC of this book. Opinions on my own. I have read and enjoyed Maria Vale's other works, so I was excited to be approved for this book and predisposed to like it.

This book follows Death, an immortal being living among humans for all time yet knowing and understanding little of humanity. He accidentally saves a young woman, Molly, and in the process of trying to undo his mistake, falls for her. Molly is a resilient woman who's life has been upturned by Death several times. She focuses on her goals and dreams, and inso doing, inspires Death to consider life.

The pace of the story is somewhat slow to start, and a little rushed at the end. Death as a human is kinda ridiculous but his abiding love for Molly and the family they create is endearing.

I was looking forward to reading Molly Molloy and the Angel of Death. Unfortunately, it just wasn't the book for me. It had some interesting and also funny elements, but ultimately I found myself struggling to fully connect with the story and characters. The pace was slow and the writing style was challenging for me as a non-native English speaker. I had to frequently re-read passages and look up words that I wasn't familiar with to make sure i understood everything.

2.5 Stars

The blurb of this book is what drew me in to read it but unfortunately I felt that it fell a little flat in the delivery.
I felt that the plot was really slow to start with and that the pace was just off as well.
I felt that the writing just did not flow well unfortunately and at points it got confusing.
I did enjoy the characters especially how Death was portrayed.
I think with a little tweaking with the writing that this could potentially be a great read.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Wild & Ashe for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was interesting to say the least and when I picked this up there were some parts of it that I was not expecting. For the first ⅓ of the book I didn’t really know what was going on and was lost in the whole plot. However, the characters were likeable and they were 3-dimensional. If I were to describe this book as one word, I would say ‘obscure’. It’s not a bad book, just not my style.

The writing was a bit confusing sometimes and it took me a bit too long to figure out the tone of the book. Honestly, I picked this book because I love reading books about death personified but this death was very cringy and I wasn’t prepared for that. I think if I had known that the tone of this book was more zany/silly I would’ve known this wasn’t the book for me. I also had a hard time understanding Molly’s motivations if I’m honest. I did enjoy the sex scenes and some of the world building was interesting and fun to read. I think when marketing this book it needs to be made clear that this is not going to have vibes like more recent popular death personification books such as Belladonna or The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. That’s what I was expecting from the title and honestly also the blurb didn’t help much either. This is a bonkers almost slapstick look at Death not really a clever morally gray Death like I’m used to.

In a Nutshell: The premise had potential, but something went wrong in the execution. I am still trying to figure out what it was!

Story synopsis:
Azrael, or Death as he is now known in the human world, made a mistake. When he had to take Molly Molloy’s soul, (she was supposed to choke over a chicken wing, you see?), he ended up patting her back and thus saving her life.
Mistake no. 2: Because of this near-death experience, Molly can now see him, talk to him, hit him. So even if he wants to set his mistake right (or rather, he has to do so as per his boss’s instructions), he can’t because she is always ready for him. And fed up of his interference.
Mistake no. 3: Death ends up falling in love with Molly. Now he doesn’t want her to die. Yikes! Talk about conflict of interest!
What will happen next?

Bookish Yays:
✔ The cover, the title and the blurb: 100% marks for each. I wouldn’t have picked up this book had all three not been so attractive!
✔ Great premise. I loved the promise of the blurb. It had so much potential, especially for comic and endearing moments. (It meets only a part of this, unfortunately.)
✔ Death as the lead character is interesting. This isn’t the first book I have read having a personified version of Death (My favourite is Death from the Sandman series, with Death from ‘The Book Thief’ coming a close second.) But this is the most humanised Death of the ones I have read. (Yup, I know it is an oxymoron.) Death here is an eccentric but loveable simpleton who adores Molly. (God knows why!)
✔ I also enjoyed the language and vocabulary. (This also makes me an odd one out because most reviewers seem to have hated the language!) The book has a nice mix of Latin and English, with Death’s grasp of English being quite questionable at times. Moreover, Death and his fellow Custodes from the upper realm have an eccentric way of speaking and of evaluating time. It adds a layer of fun to the story.
✔ There are plenty of humorous moments, courtesy Death and his poor knowledge of the human world.
✔ There are some thought-provoking points about mortality.


Bookish Nays:
❌ Despite the great beginning, the book gets quite weird very soon. I know that this is a fantasy, but surely fantasy also has some limits to what is logically possible. The ending is just bonkers!
❌ The writing feels quite flat. It’s as if we can see the characters but we can’t feel the characters. This is especially true for Molly. We know that she is a strong woman and has endured a lot, but I still couldn’t feel sorry for her because of the way she is written.
❌ There are random shifts in the point of view, with the narrative baton being handed over to a minor character for a few paragraphs. This breaks the flow of the story.
❌ Death’s portrayal is not consistent. He seems to be hyper-aware of a few human activities and totally in the blank about other things. Could he really be so naïve considering how long he has supposedly been in existence?
❌ I could not see the connect between Molly and Death. Molly’s ‘relationship” with Death felt more like Stockholm Syndrome. There’s no justification as to how she was fed up with him in one scene and romantically involved with him in the next.
❌ Molly meets people at two jobs, and yet we see her interacting only with Death. Surprisingly, it is Death who has more friends than her. Human interactions would have added some genuineness and balance to the plot.
❌ The final quarter strives to pack in as much as possible. The first three-fourth focusses even on moments (because Death is free only for moments), but the final quarter zooms by months and years like no one’s business.
❌ The humour feels very forced at times, almost like a standup comedian laughing first at their own joke in a bid to get the audience to crack a smile.
❌ <spoiler>The pregnancy and everything connected to it, right from conception to delivery. Don’t get me started on that! Without it, the book might have been a 3-star for me. But once this trope came in, there was no saving the story for me. </spoiler>

I ought to have loved the story for the quirky romance, but it just bored me after the first few chapters. I don’t DNF books easily, but I came very close to giving up on this one. I might have been a bit lax had it been by a debut author. (In fact, the writing style made me assume that it was a debut work!) But from an experienced writer, I expect more finesse.

The author describes this work as ‘an odd little book that fit nowhere.’ I agree. It attempts to be a mash of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett but ends up doing justice to neither. So I don’t know whom to recommend this novel to, or even if I should recommend it at all. Then again, we all do have different tastes. So it just might click better with you if you are a more patient and forgiving soul. Do check out the other reviews and take a call. But yes, if you are expecting a light paranormal romance because of that premise, this isnt the book for you.

2.25 stars.

My thanks to Wild & Ashe, LLC and NetGalley for the DRC of “Molly Molloy and the Angel of Death”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

This story is special. It's simultaneously funny and deeply poignant. I was laughing in the first half while being absolutely certain it was going to wreck me in the end. Friends, it did. In the best way.

The angel of death, Azrael, exists mostly out of time, only remembering the dead. Molly has lived her life just trying to make, even as those she cares about die. But Azrael notices Molly. And, stranger still, Molly notices Azrael (that's not supposed to happen!). And they just keep noticing.

Vale will tell you it's not a romance - how can there be an HEA if one half of the duo is immortal? - but it is very much a love story. And a duck out of water story. And a completely fascinating vision of the forces outside the mortal world.

It's sweet and strange and worth your time.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Included as a top pick in bimonthly April New Releases post, which highlights and promotes upcoming releases of the month (link attached)

The premise of this book was fun and exciting which really drew me in. I think the execution was lacking for me. It was written in a way that was hard to understand, and there were jumps in time that made me confused throughout. The romance was quite sudden as well.
I did enjoy the characterisation of Death, I thought it was fresh and exciting.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wild & Ashe, LLC for the eARC.

The synopsis of this novel held such promise.
And Molly herself was fun, but I just struggled with this book. The language felt off and confusing and I couldn’t navigate the world building. It had potential and unique premise but just wasn’t for me.