First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones

I'm not the first reviewer here on the blog to discuss Charley Davidson books. Actually, Lili reviewed and was "Daring You to Read..." this very book a few years back. I don't know why I waited so long to get into this series, but I'm really glad I did. First Grave on the Right is hilarious, fun and witty.

I think it's a perfect book to listen to as an audiobook. To be honest, this was the first audiobook I ever listened to in its entirety. I've tried to listen to books multiple times but I've never quite understood the appeal, until now. The narrator of First Grave on the Right, Loralei King, is wonderful and easy to listen to. The voices and the accents she uses makes it easy to follow and differentiate the characters. She reads the sarcastic comments perfectly and simply "gets" Charley Davidson's humour. Berls from Fantasy is More Fun actually recommended this series based on the narrator, and I think from now on, I'll be making more informed purchases when it comes to audiobooks.

As for the actual story, it's the perfect mix of mystery, paranormal and romance. If it wasn't for the paranormal aspects, the story would actually read like a cozie mystery. It has the humour and the crazy situations of a cozie but the author added this wonderful twist, which is Charley Davidson. Charley is a private investigator/police consultant/bartender/grim reaper. That last job title is obviously not on her business card. When we first meet her, she has a lot on her plate but even with her disorganized life she's able to do her job. She's able to juggle four murders, a comatose prisoner from her past, a mysterious shadowy lover, a mysterious shadowy Big Bad, and oh so many ghosts. As a grim reaper, she can see ghosts, and her job as a grim reaper is to try to help them get to the other side. Wherever that may be. As for being a PI, she got into that business because ever since she was five years old, her detective father and uncle have used her special ability to solve murders.

Charley is the perfect female PI for a paranormal romance. She's smart, courageous and resourceful. Her sarcastic wit is very similar to mine so I feel like we would get along perfectly. Her obsession with coffee borders on unhealthy, but come to think of it, so does mine. Her sensual encounters with a mysterious shadow being are pretty steamy, and the more the being interacts with Charley, the more she's led to believe he's Reyes, a complicated character she once met when she was in high school. Charley knows very little about this Reyes, but the more she investigate, the more she wants to find out. We do end up finding out who and what he is at the end of the book, and although I'm not surprised, it raises so many more interesting questions!

If you're a newbie to audiobooks like me, I highly recommend trying this one out as an audio. If you're reluctant, or simply prefer reading, this story is still a great choice. Be prepared to laugh out loud and get sucked into this grim reaper tale.



https://soundcloud.com/macaudio-2/first-grave-on-the-right-by-darynda-jones-audiobook-excerpt

Read More

Posted by Tynga at 02:00

 Audio, Charley Davidson, Darynda Jones, ghost, Grim Reaper, Macmillan, Paranormal Romance, Purchased, Review  1 Person left their mark

Rogue blog tour + giveaway!

Today we're participating in Gina Damico's tour for her upcoming release, ROGUE, the third book in her Croak series. It's a really fun image tour that I think you'll enjoy. Plus, Gina's graciously offering a giveaway to celebrate!

Without further ado, here's Gina!

---------------

Hey hey Croak fans! Welcome to my blog tour / photo hunt / Roguestravaganza!

From now until ROGUE's release on September 10th, each stop on the tour will reveal an image that represents a chapter in the book - could refer to setting, plot, an important object, mood, or whatever other diabolical visualizations with which I feel like tormenting my dear readers. Each image also contains a hidden letter...though really, they're not that well hidden. (If you have eyes, you should be able to spot them.) Collect the letters every day, and at the end of the tour I'll hold a contest, the winner of which will receive signed and annotated copies of the complete trilogy. (For a complete description of the contest, tour schedule, and links to the stops you might have missed, check out the blog tour page on my website.)

This photo is for Chapter 5. I will let the image do the talking.




Thanks for having me! Good luck everyone!

---------------

Teenage Grim Reaper Lex’s power to Damn souls is getting out of control. She's a fugitive, on the run from the maniacal new mayor of Croak and the townspeople who want to see her pay the price for her misdeeds. Uncle Mort rounds up the Junior Grims to flee Croak once again, but this time they're joined by Grotton, the most powerful Grim of all time. Their new mission is clear: fix his mistakes, or the Afterlife will cease to exist, along with all the souls in it.

The gang heads for Necropolis, the labyrinth-like capital city of the Grimsphere. There, they discover that the Grimsphere needs a reboot. To do that, the portals to the Afterlife must be destroyed...but even that may not be enough to fix the damage. Things go from bad to worse, and when at last the fate of the Afterlife and all the souls of the Damned hang in the balance, it falls to Lex and her friends to make one final, impossible choice.

[embed width="420" height="315"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSM7X-Aw7Ys[/embed]

Pre-order: Amazon | Book Depository

Read an excerpt

---------------

Gina is graciously offering a giveaway to our readers and it's open internationally!
One (1) lucky winner will receive a Croak Prize Pack!

Check out the Rafflecopter for details.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Read More

Posted by Tynga at 01:00

 Gina Damico, giveaway, Grim Reaper, Guest Post, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, young adult  12 People left their mark

Grave Intentions by Lori Sjoberg

Grave Intentions by Lori Sjoberg

Book stats:
Reading level: Adult
E-book: 586 KB
Genre: Paranormal romance
Publisher: Kensington
Release date: January 3, 2013

Series: Grave #1

Source: Review copy from publisher via NetGalley

Reviewed by: Jenn

Purchase: Amazon

He’s handsome, reliable, and punctual—the perfect gentleman when you want him to be. But this dream man is Death’s best agent—and now he’s got more than his soul to lose…

One act of mercy before dying was all it took to turn soldier David Anderson into a reaper—an immortal who guides souls-of-untimely-death into the afterlife. But the closer he gets to atoning for his mortal sin and finally escaping merciless Fate, the more he feels his own humanity slipping away for good. Until he encounters Sarah Griffith. This skeptical scientist can’t be influenced by his powers—even though she has an unsuspected talent for sensing the dead. And her honesty and irreverent sense of humor reignite his reason for living—and a passion he can’t afford to feel. Now Fate has summoned David to make a devastating last harvest. And he’ll break every hellishly-strict netherworld rule to save Sarah…and gamble on a choice even an immortal can’t win.

GRAVE INTENTIONS is a the beginnings of a paranormal romance series featuring grim reapers. It's a cute book with likeable characters. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it but it didn't work its way onto my love list because it's a fairly standard paranormal romance.

In Lori Sjoberg's world, dead folks become reapers when they have a debt to repay. David has been reaping since the Korean War and he's lost most of the joy in his life, going through life fairly mechanically. He chafes at the rules he has to live by but dutifully does his job, reaping souls and overseeing a small group of reapers. Sarah is his next door neighbour, a scientist with an unpleasant work situation thanks to a harassing boss. They meet cute and begin a sweet romance that faces one main obstacle: David's "career".

I thought the two main characters were decent leads. They were very pleasant and compatible. I didn't feel serious sparks between them but I think that was because they were both very vanilla. David's very gentlemanly and honorable, Sarah is very smart and sweet, and they work well together but their romance didn't leap off the page for me. It didn't seem incredibly passionate or moving. And that is something of a problem for me in a paranormal romance. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't put off by it and I did like the book but I just didn't have any strong feelings about it at the end. And I really want to feel something at the end of a story because it means I've been engaged by the characters, setting, and/or plot.

For me, GRAVE INTENTIONS is a definite library book. I don't think I'll read it again. My recommendation would be to check out the excerpt below and see if GRAVE INTENTIONS is a book for you. It's a light and conventional paranormal romance that has all of the usual components and is a good choice if you're looking for something light and fluffy to while away some time.

Read an excerpt

Read More

Posted by jenn at 05:00

 Grim Reaper, Kensington, Lori Sjoberg, Review  1 Person left their mark

Second Grave on the Left by Darynda Jones

Second Grave on the Left by Darynda Jones

Book Stats:
Reading level: Adult
Hardcover: 307 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release date: August 16, 2011

Series: Charley Davidson #2

Source: Library

Reviewed by: Lili

Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository

Charley Davidson, Grim Reaper Extraordinaire, is back in this sexy, suspenseful novel of supernatural shenanigans.

When Charley is rudely awakened in the middle of the night by her best friend who tells her to get dressed quickly and tosses clothes out of the closet at her, she can’t help but wonder what Cookie’s up to. Leather scrunch boots with a floral miniskirt? Together? Seriously? Cookie explains that a friend of hers named Mimi disappeared five days earlier and that she just got a text from her setting up a meet at a coffee shop downtown. They show up at the coffee shop, but no Mimi. But Charley finds a message on the bathroom wall. Mimi left a clue, a woman’s name. Mimi’s husband explains that his wife had been acting strange since she found out an old friend of hers from high school had been found murdered a couple weeks prior. The same woman Mimi had named in her message.

Meanwhile, Reyes Alexander Farrow (otherwise known as the Son of Satan. Yes. Literally) has left his corporeal body and is haunting Charley. He’s left his body because he’s being tortured by demons who want to lure Charley closer. But Reyes can’t let that happen. Because if the demons get to Charley, they’ll have a portal to heaven. And if they have a portal to heaven…well, let’s just say it wouldn’t be pretty. Can Charley handle hot nights with Reyes and even hotter days tracking down a missing woman? Will Cookie ever get a true fashion sense? And is there enough coffee and chocolate in the world to fuel them as they do?

Here is your signpost for the most hilarious read of the summer: Second Grave On The Left.

While not as amazing as the first, Jones still manages to take us on an unforgettable and snarky journey with paranormal private investigator and grim reaper extraordinare, Charley Davidson.

The plot held me prisoner and I powered through this book without a problem. Charley manages several cases in this one that surround the disappearance of one of Cookie’s best friends, Mimi Jacobs. Amazingly, she managed to launch her own investigation in search of Reyes’s human body before time ran out that took us on a slightly humorous ride, even going as far as to introduce us to the president of his prison fan club, while hunting for Cookie’s friend. Charley can’t allow Reyes’s corporal body to die when all she wants is to continue seeing him in the flesh, so she ignores his continued warnings and acts on her impulses—a decision that can come to haunt her later in the series.

Littered with Charley’s sarcasm, this book seemed slightly more serious to me. There were so many investigations going on with some pretty hefty cases that there wasn’t much time for humor, but those spots where Jones was able to allow Charley her patented snark had me roaring with laughter once again.

It’s hard to elaborate on much in this one because it truly did live up to my expectations, though the first book set the bar so high that this one fell slightly below it. While the plot wasn’t as lighthearted at times, we did see amazing character growth in Charley’s amazing sidekick, Cookie. We learned more about Reyes’s past, which any reader will eat up, and we watched Charley grow and make more connections with her oddly disconnected family.

I highly recommend this series to any paranormal lover, especially those who like some forbidden romance thrown in, but this book isn’t a standalone and it is a must to read its prequel. Much like its predecessor, it’ll be everything you wanted and more and will take a place high up on my recommendations list. Jones weaves a story with so many twists and turns that I can’t even think straight!

Read More

Posted by Lili at 06:00

 Darynda Jones, Grim Reaper, Review, St. Martin's  3 People left their mark

First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones

First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones

Book Stats:
Reading level: Adult
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Suspense
Mass Market Paperback: 315 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release date: July 5, 2011

Series: Charley Davidson #1

Source: Personal shelf

Reviewed by: Lili

Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository

A smashing, award-winning debut novel that introduces Charley Davidson: part-time private investigator and full-time Grim Reaper.

 Charley sees dead people. That’s right, she sees dead people. And it’s her job to convince them to “go into the light.” But when these very dead people have died under less than ideal circumstances (i.e. murder), sometimes they want Charley to bring the bad guys to justice. Complicating matters are the intensely hot dreams she’s been having about an Entity who has been following her all her life...and it turns out he might not be dead after all. In fact, he might be something else entirely.

This is a thrilling debut novel from an exciting newcomer to the world of paranormal romantic suspense.

Honesty, I am at a loss for words while I write this review. This is Darynda Jones’ debut novel and she certainly exploded onto the scene. This story is laugh-out-loud hilarious and will pull you in from the get go while you wonder why it took you so long to pick up this book. I can’t even begin to express how hard it is for me not to include spoilers for this one.

Undoubtedly, what makes this novel worth reading is the protagonist: Charley Davidson. Yeah, you heard me right! That’s really her name and she pulls it off well! She’s slightly crazy and will stop at nothing to get what she wants, making it incredibly easy to fall in love with her despite her habit of walking straight into near fatal situations. Charley is beyond snarky and has an infinite flow of insulting come backs that’ll make you double over with laughter. I’m seriously considering taking some of them for myself so I can throw them back in other people’s faces and watch them stand there in shock from the sheer awesomeness of them all. They’re that good. Charley brings a level a humor to this novel that I have not encountered in a while.

While this story focuses on her helping to solve a murder mystery—is that really a surprise? She’s a grim reaper, after all—a very huge back-plot of the story evolves around the love interest. Discovering his identity, his connection to her past, and what he is truly capable of is like an addictive drug. You get a taste and you just want more. Who is this mysterious Entity that makes Charley quake with pleasure? Why is he so important? I wish I could tell you, but I couldn’t even begin to explain their connection and the amazingness of it all. Jones had me flipping pages like no tomorrow to figure everything out for myself.

Jones weaves a tale rich with plot twists while Charley works with her ghostly and human friends, “Angel” sidekick, the police force led by her uncle, and the mysterious Entity that stalks her dreams to uncover secrets that are all part of a complicated web of lies and hidden truths. Part mystery and part romance, this novel will satisfy any reader and is definitely worth picking up.

If you’re anything like me, your only complaint would be that you weren’t smart enough to buy the entire series at the same time so you could continue Charley’s story and see what journey this snarky heroine will take us on this time.

Just because this story is so hilarious, I wanted to share one of the first quotes that made me laugh. Located only on page seven, it'll set the tone for the humor throughout the rest of the book even when faced with near death experiences.

"You rented the apartment with a dead guy in the corner?"

I shrugged. "I wanted the apartment and I figured I could cover him up with a bookcase or something. But the thought of having a dead guy hovering behind my copy of Sweet Savage Love gnawed at me. I couldn't just leave him there. I don't even know if he likes romance."

Read an Excerpt

Read More

Posted by Lili at 06:30

 Darynda Jones, Grim Reaper, Review, St. Martin's  11 People left their mark

Croak by Gina Damico

Croak by Gina Damico

Book stats:
Reading level: Young Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Paperback: 311 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Release date: March 20th 2012

Series: Croak #1

Source: Personal Shelf

Reviewed by: Christine

Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository

Sixteen-year-old Lex Bartleby has sucker-punched her last classmate. Fed up with her punkish, wild behavior, her parents ship her off to upstate New York to live with her Uncle Mort for the summer, hoping that a few months of dirty farm work will whip her back into shape. But Uncle Mort’s true occupation is much dirtier than that of shoveling manure.
He’s a Grim Reaper. And he’s going to teach her the family business.

Lex quickly assimilates into the peculiar world of Croak, a town populated entirely by reapers who deliver souls from this life to the next. Along with her infuriating yet intriguing partner Driggs and a rockstar crew of fellow Grim apprentices, Lex is soon zapping her Targets like a natural born Killer.

Yet her innate ability morphs into an unchecked desire for justice—or is it vengeance?—whenever she’s forced to Kill a murder victim, craving to stop the attackers before they can strike again. So when people start to die—that is, people who aren’t supposed to be dying, people who have committed grievous crimes against the innocent—Lex’s curiosity is piqued. Her obsession grows as the bodies pile up, and a troubling question begins to swirl through her mind: if she succeeds in tracking down the murderer, will she stop the carnage—or will she ditch Croak and join in?

Croak is the start to a new YA series about Lexington Bartleby, aka Tyrannosaurus Lex or simply Lex, delinquents, troublemaker and all around nuisance. At the beginning of this book, Lex is a true delinquent. She hurts fellow students, acts out and has serious anger management issues. Unlike other "delinquent" characters, she doesn't just pretend to be aggressive, she simply is and has no explanation for it. One day, her parents have had enough and decided to send her away. A whole summer of hard labor on her uncle's farm instead of a summer in NYC, or so Lex thinks.

Turns out Croak, the small town where her estranged uncle lives is actually one of the few towns inhabited only by reapers and her crazy Uncle Mort is actually their mayor. Shortly after her arrival and initiation in the town community, Lex shows a remarkable talent for the Killing and Reaping business and a newfound sense of justice - a wish for dishing out justice to the killers of innocent victims she has to reap. Then, unscheduled deaths with an unknown cause of death (even for the most experienced reapers) start to occur and things are getting a lot more interesting.

I really enjoyed the dark, snarky and sassy humor of this book, even though it is a bit immature from time to time. Still, Croak is a hilarious version of the well known "delinquent is sent away" trope. Some elements of the story were expected, like Lex developing an extraordinary gift, struggling to fit in in Croak and the subtle romance between her and one of the other junior grims. Yet, Gina Damico takes these motives, changes them up and thus puts a whole new spin on this story: suddenly growing up in a loving family makes Lex an outsider among a group of kids who’ve lived a rough life so far.  

The reaper mythology is very well crafted with funny and extraordinary details. I liked how each scythe is somehow a representation of the character who wields it. That, along with the special drink for reapers and other details felt like a nod to the Harry Potter books.

Croak’s inhabitants are all entertaining and interesting. Characters like Uncle Mort and Driggs have a lot of potential and I believe there are many stories to be told about them which I'd love to delve into in future books.

Speaking of Driggs, he is such an entertaining partner for Lex! Their constant bickering and squabbles are hilarious, fresh and surprising. At the beginning, they are just too much alike to get along which leads to some funny scenes that had me snickering more than once. Throughout the book, they struggle to develop a real friendship, a very close relationship that didn’t feel rushed or forced but very natural. I also adored how he seems to have an almost unhealthy appetite for sweets when nervous and how excited he can get about something as weird as road kill.

Lex is an interesting female lead. I was afraid that she was too intense for me at first, but she slowly grew on me and I ended up liking her a lot. She is not the most sensitive of all characters, yet her she does evolve by the end of the book.

While a large part of the story was about Lex settling in Croak and being shown the ropes of her job, I wasn't bored by it. In fact, I really enjoyed getting to know the peculiar little town and its memorable habitants. The story arc about the killings starts later in the book, but is engaging and remains a mystery until the end of the book. The revelation of the killer is accompanied by an unforeseen event that changes Lex's life profoundly. I'm eager to find out how she will deal with the aftermath in the next book.

Despite the rather funny and sassy tone of Croak, the book deals with some very serious topics as well: death, loss and child abuse being just a few of those. While it is mostly only hinted at, the violent and dark pasts of Lex’s fellow junior reapers add just another layer to their characters and made me even more curious about them.

Gina Damico's debut is a fun and fast read I can only recommend. I'm really looking forward to her next book, Scorched to see what awaits Lex on her journey.

Check out the hilarious trailer for Croak:

Read More

Posted by Christine at 06:32

 Gina Damico, Grim Reaper, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Review, young adult  7 People left their mark

Third Grave Dead Ahead by Darynda Jones

Third Grave Dead Ahead by Darynda Jones

Books Stats:
Reading level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Hardcover: 310 pages
Publisher: St Martins Press
Release date: January 31st, 2012

Series: Charlene Davidson #3

Source: Personal Shelf

Reviewed by: Christine

Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository

Charley Davidson—grim reaper extraordinaire, private investigator . . . meh—is practicing her profession under the influence, caffeine and copious amounts of it, due to an extreme desire to induce insomnia. Every time she closes her eyes, Reyes Farrow, the part-human, part-supermodel son of Satan, is there. Only thing is, he's a tad peeved. She did bind for all eternity, so it's hard blame him. But 13 days without a wink is bound to bring out the crazy in a girl. So when she accepts a missing persons case, she discovers that her focus is sketchy at best. But a woman's life hangs in the balance, and Charley fights her ADD tendencies to find her.Together with the help of her fashion-impaired receptionist, Charley sets out to bring the bad guys to justice and to single-handedly make bloodshot, sleep deprived eyes the newest fashion trend.

The third book in Daynda Jones´s Charley Davidson series picks up right where the second book left us. Due to the events that happened at the end of the last book, Charley tries her best to avoid Reyes, even if it means no sleep in fourteen days.

All of you who know Charley also know that she is really funny even in a well rested state. But being sleep deprived makes her absolutely hilarious. There are so many funny quotes I could share with you, but trust me, it´s better you read the book yourself! Charley´s character definitely sets her apart from all those heroines you know in other urban fantasy or paranormal romance novels. Her sometimes random behavior and the fact that she does not take herself too serious are refreshing and endearing.

If possible, some of the secondary characters Darynda Jones has created are even more endearing than Charley. I have to admit that I have a huge girl crush on Cookie, who never pales in comparison to Charley.
After the last book, I was pretty excited to find out who was behind the mysterious email Charley got and boy was I surprised when I found out. I would have never ever seen that one coming!

There are several story lines in the book, one missing person case, one case that introduces a biker gang as new characters and the main story arc, concerning Reyes and Charley´s gifts. Like in every previous books, the missing person case is gripping and I can´t wait to see what Miss Jones has planned for the biker gang she introduces in Third Grave Dead Ahead.

But as always, I´m most fascinated by the relationship between Charley and Reyes. We get a few new tidbits about that as well as about Charley´s abilities in general. The end of the book is once more a huge turning point for her. She has to grow to deal with the aftermath of everything that happens in this book and I, for one, can hardly wait to see what´s up next for Charley.

By now, I guess you can tell that I loved this book. If you love paranormal stories that are truly funny without trying too hard, this book is a must read for you. If you don´t, I´m asking you to read it, because trust me, you will love it!

So, has anybody else fallen in love with this series? Do you enjoy those shirt slogans and bumper stickers as much as I do? Where is a sexy son of Satan when you need one? =)

Read an excerpt here.

Read More

Posted by Tynga at 07:22

 Darynda Jones, Grim Reaper, Macmillan, Review  10 People left their mark