Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite

Nicholas is a rather tragic figure. He works for his father, a job he detests, but he doesn’t have the guts to stand up to his father and quit. He may hate his job, but he’s filthy rich, handsome and has all the girls he wants at his fingertips. Still, it isn’t enough. It’s a very shallow existence. He really doesn’t know what he wants. In a fit of desperation, he shoots himself. Dead by suicide, he believes he’ll end up in hell. That’s what all the religious teaching of his childhood taught him. Instead, he finds himself un-dead. Another chance? At what? And, is it worth it? And then there are the women from Nicholas’s first life. Will he reconnect with them? All of them? Or is there just one with whom he wants to reconnect?

Ana Maria Valentina Mihale’s romantic novella, Brought to Life, provides a second-chance scenario of a man who, while reflecting on his past, finds meaning for a future life. Nicholas is a protagonist the reader might want to despise, a Scrooge of his own making, a shallow, lifeless human being. He loves and flirts with a lot of women and leads a very shallow life, but there is one love in his life, the one who got away. The story is a journey, a reflection of one man’s past. It is mostly told through narrative and, although it tends to jump around at times, there is a plausible plot. Brought to Life was an interesting read, overall.