This book is so good! And I was a little worried about the audiobook since it's narrated by the author, but I can't imagine anyone as a better Pearly! Pearly is definitely a love her or not character, but I would urge people to get through the selfishness she shows in the first couple chapters. This is about her growth and becoming a better version of herself. This book is full of wonderful found family vibes and really makes you think about identity and who you truly are. I LOVED that the afterlife was queer normative and that gender was very fluid. It was just wonderful representation on top of a great story.

This was delightful! Cosy, funny, poignant. Kind of reminded me of Dalergut's Dream Department Store (which is another favourite!) but queer. I loved the cast of characters, the way they grew throughout the novel, and the themes of community. To the very end, I wasn't sure how the ending will tie up everything together, but it did, and it did it with flourish. A really good time.

This book was the essence of a drag queen, over the top, vivid, and at times campy. Pearly Gates served no surprises for me in this story, dressing up tropes in a new costume. Of course the costume was full of sequins and glitter, making it entertaining and enjoyable to read.

Pearly, unhappy with her afterlife job and lost after a breakup, makes a deal with an overworked spirit guide. Pearly takes over his three charges in order to prove herself worthy of the job and her soulmate.

I quite enjoyed seeing Pearly stumble in realistic and understandable ways. Seeing her work through the difficulties of human connection while juggling her own flaws showed a depth of character I was happy to see.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

Very good, very gay!
Love the way the author plays with the concept of gender, especially saying its a very earth-bound, sometimes fluid, very culturally connected concept. I love that because Pearly is a drag queen, the character is constantly referred to as "she". Not everything from this book was for me, per se, but I can see why many folks would love it.

This was a fun, cozy, feel-good story involving a 'guardian angel' type drag queen spirit who has to help various people move on from grief and other things that have them stuck in their lives. Full of a diverse cast of queer characters, there was great found family vibes, memorable characters and a unique story that will stick with me after I finished. It was also good on audio too! Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

This one sounded amazing and the sort of book we need in today's world. A drag queen spirit guide in the afterlife. However, I ended up being disappointed and DNFing.

The humor wasn't my style at all and didn't land for me, and I found Pearly to be incredibly annoying. She's selfish, she doesn't learn from her many mistakes, and her personality is just grating. She feels more like a caricature than a real person.

I listened to the ALC and found the narrator sounded monotone, muffled, and hard to hear. The voices all sounded the same so it was hard to follow the dialogue -- and there's a lot of dialogue.

*Thanks to Bonsol Press for providing an early copy for review.

What a delightful read and a lovely audiobook!
Pearly Gates invites you to consider: what lesson does your own soul need to learn?

Pearly herself has many lessons to learn. And she ends up doing so while trying to guide other souls through their human lives, sometimes with bright success, sometimes failing dramatically. And by bringing them all together in a lovely chosen family.

The characters were very endearing, their queerness treated with the utmost respect, and I very much enjoyed seeing them overcome their struggles and strive. I felt in very safe hands. The set up at the beginning was maybe the weakest part of the book - there was a lot of world building to go through until we could get to the fun part. But the pay off was definitely worth it.

The audiobook was read by the author herself, which added a lovely touch. She didn't do special voices or accents for the different characters, which for me is a big plus as I can find that rather annoying. Instead, she had a simple and efficient delivery. It sounded perfectly professional and made for a very enjoyable listening experience.

All in all, this was a very cosy and hopeful read and I'll be looking forward to the next instalments!

[Copy obtained through NetGalley]

Pearly Gates is living her best afterlife with her incredible soul mate, and even if she's a sanitation worker cleaning up spills of negative energy, at least she comes home to the best guy around. And then after a disaster, he tells her he wants someone capable of spiritual growth and up and leaves her. Pearly sets out on a mission to prove that she is worth it, and makes a potentially very dangerous deal with a spirit guide, taking his caseload for a while so he can take a vacation and she can maybe finally get a promotion. Her three cases are all conveniently located near each other, and Pearly nearly immediately messes up on the not getting directly involved front, but she can do this. Hannah is a young widow struggling to move on still, years later. Sam is a recent college grad who should have the rest of his life ahead of him, but has instead received a terminal cancer diagnosis. And Danielle is a young trans woman trying to find her way in life. Thankfully, Pearly finds a conveniently located cafe that becomes a hub for all of them; unfortunately, it turns out that her soul mate's latest reincarnation is the owner of the cafe, and even worse, a romance seems to be brewing between a client and her soul mate. With some luck and a lot of hard work, maybe, just maybe, Pearly will be able to pull this all off.
I have a lot of mixed feelings on this book. It's a really creative book about the afterlife, a take I've never heard, and it really is cozy and nice. On the other hand, Pearly feels like a mockery of drag queens, she's so over the top. There were just some aspects of this book that were a little uncomfortable. Also, knowing that there are going to be two more books makes it harder to even want to get invested, at least to me.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first started Pearly Gates, but I’m so glad I stuck with it — I ended up loving it. It’s heartwarming, beautifully written, and I’ll definitely be reading it again. I’d place it alongside For Whom the Belle Tolls and The Library of the Unwritten on my bookshelf. I caught myself smiling more than once while reading. It’s a moving story about a soul, community, growth, and love. Highly recommend.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Pearly Gates is the funniest cozy urban fantasy I’ve read in a long time. Despite dealing with literal souls and cosmic consequences, this story offers far more comfort than thrill. Bonnie Solomon creates a world where even death comes with glitter, awkward crushes, and second chances. Pearly herself isn’t just a lovable mess, she’s someone I genuinely wish I could add to my own friend group. Her chaotic charm and deadpan humour had me laughing constantly, but beneath the jokes, she’s deeply human in a way that sticks.

What makes the book stand out is how effortlessly queer representation flows through the narrative. Nothing feels forced or written to prove a point. It simply feels like Solomon wrote from her own life, her own community, and her own point of view. The characters aren’t there to teach a lesson, they’re just people (or spirits) trying to figure themselves out, like anyone else.

While the stakes are high, you know souls, redemption, and literal cosmic order, the tone stays grounded. Big questions about love, belonging, and what makes someone “worthy” are explored gently. Instead of the plot pushing forward breathlessly, Solomon gives us space to settle in: with cups of coffee, quiet grief, and awkward flirtations, all under the glow of small-town lights.

Narrated by the author herself, the audiobook adds an extra layer of intimacy. Oddly, Solomon’s voice sounds exactly like how I imagined Pearly: soft, slightly chaotic, but with an undertone of real strength and ... hummm glitery purple. It’s a small touch that made the story feel personal.

In the end, Pearly Gates is more than a funny fantasy. It’s a story about rest, finding family in unexpected places, and the quiet bravery it takes to believe you’re worth saving ... even after death.

In a Nutshell: A fantasy spanning life and afterlife featuring a drag queen at the helm. Creative plot, great found-family vibes, vibrant characters but tough-to-like main character and a bit OTT in language and behaviour. Recommended but not to all.


Plot Preview:
Pearly Gates, a cosmic entity who was a drag queen in her earlier life, is facing two major issues: 1. Her job as cosmic sanitation worker is in the dumps. (Pun intended.); 2. Her soulmate Thunder has just ditched her for being emotionally backward. So when a burnt-out spirit guide hands over to Pearly his pending caseload of three struggling humans, she hopes to solve both the issues by helping the humans get their act together, and thus get a more fulfilling career and win Thunder back. Unfortunately, things are much more complicated than they initially appear, and Pearly finds herself battling a dilemma that she can resolve only by understanding her true priorities.
The story comes to us in Pearly's third-person perspective.


Bookish Yays:
💃 The plot idea, with the spirit world showing the interconnections between us, the varied jobs in the afterlife that take care of deceased humans, and a bumbling spirit guide trying to figure things out while on the job. Great concept!

💃 The secondary characters, whether living, dead or ageless. Most are intriguing, and not all are goody-goody. Pearly’s three human charges – Hannah, a widow unable to move beyond her grief; Sam a terminally-ill young man confronting his mortality; and Danielle a trans woman struggling to find acceptance after coming out – are so well written! Their interactions create a nice found-family vibe. I also loved Seraphina (IYKYK) in her limited appearance.

💃 The coming-of-age feel, despite the characters being far beyond the formative age and some even being ageless. Of course, some characters are yet to grow even until the end of the book (Looking at you, Pearly!) but at least they have started on the journey towards self-improvement.

💃 The flashbacks depicting Pearly’s earlier lives with Thunder – a creative way of seeing their dynamic across their various human lives.

💃 The LGBTQIA+ inclusivity – spot on! While there are many gender identities and exploration related to issues faced by gender minority (societal acceptance of gender identity, dysmorphia, gender transitioning,…), nothing feels forced into the plot, and it never seems like the story is ticking off a checklist.

💃 The humour, mostly created by Pearly’s ignorant shenanigans. Quite fun.

💃 The descriptions of the various places, whether in the cosmic world or the human one. The ambience feels very real even when surreal.

Bookish Mixed Bags:
🌈 Pearly Gates. (What a fabulous name!) I love the idea of a drag queen character in the lead. However, some parts of Pearly’s behaviour feels a bit too stereotypical and OTT. This, combined with her atrocious self-centred behaviour in the initial chapters, made it slightly tough for me to root for her wholeheartedly despite wanting to. Plus, she doesn’t receive just comeuppance for the times she behaves inappropriately; rather, she seems to be rewarded for it. Not fair! (Some part of the drag content reminded me of Dominic Lim’s Karaoke Queen, which featured a human drag queen whose character was better handled.)

🌈 The ending. With so many characters, there are of course multiple ending arcs. Some of them break the genre norm, which I truly appreciate. The rest feel a bit too contrived. But it is a cozy book after all, so… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Bookish Nays:
🌧️ This would have been a great cozy fantasy had it refrained from foul language. There is not just an abundance of cuss words but also religious blasphemy. This point might not bother all readers, but I do not prefer so many vulgarities in fiction, especially when the book is supposed to be a cozy read. Such language takes me out of complete immersion into the narrative. (This was worsened by the fact that I heard the book on audio, so I couldn’t even jump over the f-bombs.)

🌧️ Never a fan of ‘dumb’ and ‘spastic’ being used offensively.

🌧️ Not a fan of the entire subplot connected to the “dumb” character.


🎧 The Audiobook Experience:
The audiobook, clocking at 9 hrs 47 min, is narrated by the author herself. I am wary of picking up books narrated by authors as my experience so far has been quite mixed. However, this author has a lovely voice that is perfect for reading. I mostly enjoyed her performance. I just wish there had been greater variation across the character voices. For a book with so many spoken interactions between the characters, it sometimes became confusing to keep track of who was speaking. Regardless, the audio version is a great way of experiencing this story.


All in all, I did enjoy a major chunk of this indie offering. If the profanity and the offensive subplots had been chucked out, this would have been an even better experience for me.

I am quite impressed that this is a debut novel. Of course, the author seems to have prior writing experience, but general writing and novel writing isn't the same ballgame. The writing in this book is structured and the themes, focussed.

Just a few days ago, the author posted on her Instagram page that Pearly Gates is now officially a trilogy, and books 2 and 3 will be out by the end of 2026. Despite my slight dissatisfaction with the language and a couple of the writing choices, I am still intrigued to see how Pearly’s journey continues. So… count me in!

Recommended to those looking for an offbeat narrative with a flamboyant lead character and are okay with profanity in cozy reads.

3.5 stars. (Rounding up for the novelty of the plot and the umbrella rep.)

My thanks to Bonsol Press for providing the ALC of “Pearly Gates” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook.he digital version of this book is currently available on Kindle Unlimited.

4 stars, with a caveat: for a book that was grounded so thoroughly in Black drag culture, this book barely talked about race. Aside from that glaring issue, this was delightful and fun!!! The plot was great, the characters were charming, and the setting felt very well fleshed out.

rep: drag queen queer MC, genderqueer side character, Trans woman side character, bisexual side character

spice: none

tw: breakup of a long term relationship, death of a major character

I got the audiobook for review on Netgally.

I was instantly excited to listen to the book by the cover and the blurb. It was a cosy read but very emotional yet funny read at times. I fell in love with following Pearly Gates with her navigate the new turn of her after life. The audiobook book was great and really enjoyed listening to it.

I adored this audiobook. It's laugh-out-loud funny, endearing, heartbreaking, uplifting, inspirational and beautifully written with characters I dare you not to fall in love with. Bonnie Solomon has done a fabulous job with this book, and her narration makes it even more amazing. She brings these sensational characters to life. 

Pearly Gates is a dead drag queen working in waste management in the afterlife, but wants more in her life after death. She convinces a spirit guide to take an unscheduled holiday while she takes his place looking after three souls. Hannah is a widow having a hard time moving on, Sam is battling cancer and not coping with it, and Danielle is a trans woman who is struggling to accept her true self.

Pearly jumps headfirst into her new role as a guide while trying to stop herself from being recycled by making sure her boss thinks she is still at work. She comes up with an ingenious way of keeping up appearances at her job while helping her charges to live their best lives.  

This book is beautiful and was a pleasure to read/listen to. I cannot wait to read more from Bonnie. Highly recommend. 

A drag queen from the afterlife poses as a spirit guide in order to get out of her awful job - but ends up with way more than she bargained for, including a gorgeous found family.

Disclaimer: I received an early copy of the audiobook of Pearly Gates by Bonnie Solomon via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Those that know me, know that I am a big fan of the art of drag - and also that I am a sucker for queer found family stories. So when this appeared on my radar, I just knew I had to read it! Luckily, Bonnie Solomon gave me that opportunity and honestly: this book did not disappoint!

As mentioned, I listened to this as an audiobook and I definitely feel that that's the route to take. There are a lot of drag colloquialisms that come across best when listened to (like Yassss queen - which comes across different on page than via audio), and I feel that Bonnie, who didn't just write the book but also narrated it, gave it the exact right amount of inflection, without taking it over the top.

Now, as to the story: it is a tale as old as time. A drag queen in the afterlife who is stuck in a deadend job decides to stage a minor con by tricking an actual spirit guide into allowing her to become a spirit guide, so that she can get out of hear deadend job. Instead, she learns a bunch about herself and ends up, unkowingly, creating a gorgeous community of beautiful queer and vulnerable people. Bonnie handles this narrative with grace and a lot of love.

There's so much humor to be found within the pages of this book, and I often found myself chuckling when Pearly cooked up another ridiculous scheme or expressed herself in her draggy larger-than-life way. But not only that, there's also a lot of heart in this book. While the tone is mostly lighthearted, this book deals with a lot of heavy themes, including (but not exclusively) transitioning, gender dysphoria, death and dying from terminal disease and grief, and Bonnie does so beautifully- you can tell that she's done the work to create authentic and loving LGBTQ representation: the entire cast of characters of Pearly Gates is queer and they are all so achingly real, that you can't help but fall in love with them.

I'm a huge fan of Pearly Gates and if you enjoy uplifting queer stories with a dash of magic that'll tug at your heartstrings, please do yourself a favor and pick up Pearly Gates. You won't be disappoined. Periodt.

(4.5 stars bumped up to 5)

Can not in good conscience recommend this book to anyone, especially not (gender)queer people. Cozy queer fantasy with found family had me very excited but it quickly turned into a hot mess. Your regular TERF #1’s magical school reference in the year 2025 is bad enough as is, but this lovely quote made me question whether I needed my ears checked: "there was that dream she had of Voldemort going down on her in the Forbidden Forest”.

(DNF @ 25%)

This book had such a unique story. I absolutely love the way the world was built and the author did an amazing job of keeping this book fresh and exciting.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Heartfelt, hilarious, and utterly unforgettable.

I loved this book. Pearly Gates is the kind of character that sticks with you — bold, snarky, hurting, and hopeful. The story blends cozy fantasy with deep emotional resonance, and it had me laughing one minute and tearing up the next.

I listened to the audiobook, and having Bonnie Solomon narrate her own book brought everything to life in the best way. Her performance made Pearly feel so real — the humor, the attitude, the heartbreak — all of it hit harder because she knows these characters inside and out. It made the whole experience feel personal and alive.

This book is full of queer joy, messy love, second chances, and unexpected healing. If you like your fantasy character-driven, funny, and full of soul, Pearly Gates delivers. I already want to re-listen.

1000 stars. I thought I was settling in for a romance—and while it absolutely isn’t one, I’m not even mad. I laughed, I cried, I squawked, I bawked, I enjoyed every second. I want more Pearly. I want to follow her exploits forever. Will there be a sequel? Please let there be a sequel.
The story follows Pearly Gates, a deceased drag queen who’s landed the worst gig in the afterlife—cosmic sanitation worker. When her soulmate dumps her for being “emotionally unevolved,” Pearly seizes the chance to illegally take over a burnt-out spirit guide’s caseload to prove she’s worthy of love and redemption. Her mission drops her into Thunderbolt Books & Coffee, a cozy small-town café with a ghost problem and a community in need of a little magic. Along the way, she meddles, mentors, and maybe even matures—until a twist involving her reincarnated ex forces her to choose between sabotage and true growth.
The writing is sharp and snappy with a distinct voice that never falters. Each character feels like their own full technicolor self, and the tone somehow balances laugh-out-loud irreverence with real emotional resonance.
Tropes like found family, second chances, and redemption arcs get a heartfelt and high-glam treatment here, and it works. This is not a love story, but it is absolutely a story about love—in all its tangled, transformative forms.
Pearly’s arc? Incredible. She goes from hot mess to hot shit in a way that’s both hilarious and deeply moving. And the audiobook? Top notch. The narrator brings Pearly to life with flair, nuance, and heart—truly enhancing the entire experience.

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

Absolutely one of my favorite cast of characters! A heartbroken spirit who drives a pink trash truck as a cosmic hazmat worker gets dumped for not progressing in her afterlife journey after centuries of being with the same soulmate. At a bar she decides to do a little job swap with a burnt out spirit guide and take over his charges on earth. Enter one of the sweetest dysfunctional journeys of heartbreak, love, and growth!

I will say, it's always a little weird when your name is the same as a frequently mentioned character, especially when her story has parallels with your own life. But I absolutely fell in love with how Bonnie Solomon wove so many different characters and their individual journeys into one. Absolutely a wonderful read!

Thank you NetGalley and Bonsol Press for the audiobook in exchange for my honest review!