Monday, October 9, 2017

Book #Review: First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones

Book Title: First Grave on the RIght ( Charley Davidson 1)
Author:  Darymda Jones |WebsiteTwitterFacebook|
Publisher: St. Martins 
Genre: Paranormal Romance/ Mystery/ Thriller
Series/Standalone: Series 1
Format: Mass Market 
Cost: $7.99
Pages: 315
How I got it: Purchased & ARC from Netgalley
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Publisher
Publication Date: Feb 2011
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Synopsis:
First Grave on the Right is the 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 Darynda Jones, an exciting newcomer to the world of paranormal romantic suspense.

First Grave on the Right is the winner of the 2012 Rita Award for Best First Book.
I picked this up years ago in a walmart because her shoes looked cool. yeah it was a total cover buy and it sat on my shelves waiting for me to remember it, now even though I never read the first one, i kept buying the series because Grim Reapers are my jam.  With the 12th book coming out in October, I was among the many lucky few who was given the widget to get this book as an E-arc to get us into the world of Charley and I must say it totally worked on me.

I absolutely loved this story, I'm glad I grabbed it when I did because awesome sauce doesn't even begin to explain how much fun this story is.  We are in snarky Charlotte "Charley" Davidson's head most of the time and we see what she sees and knows.  Ghost are real and as the Grim Reaper it is her job to help them figure out what is wrong and why they haven't passed into the veil to the otherside yet.  As such she grew up to become a private investigator after helping her Dad & Uncles fight crime from the time she was five. She's got a fun crime fighting 'secretary/ mother daughter duo, a few ghosts as resourcces and of course the police department in town to help her out.

I absolutely love this story, I love Charley even though sometimes she annoys the heck out of me. At first I didn't understand how she didn't know more about her gift but then you realize this isn't a world in which the supernatural are known and accepted, it's our world basically with only a few understanding souls around. And it's not like there is a Guide to being a Grim lying around anywhere.   Charley tries to use her talents for good, to aide those who need to pass on and those who need her help in this world.  With her links to the cops and her unathletlic abilities she more often than not ends up on the wrong side of a punch.

And then the mystery starts, Charley's being haunted by a man who she cannot see and that scares her.  Even thought the dreams are sexy in nature and not scary they still make her wonder because if she can't see him, what kind of ghost is he.  She's working a few cases and they start to converge as well as the case of her mystery night visitor and before long Charley has headed into a case that is darker than she can imagine.

I found that several of her secondary characters were well developed especially if they were characters that Charley knew well.  She has a cast of characters that make you wonder who is staying and who will be going and why are they here.  A few that seem like love interests, her Uncle who gladly takes her help but doesn't really want to know how her talent works, and a paranormal story wouldn't be complete without an evil stepmother.  Then of course is the man haungitng her dreams and my gawd does the man kno how to haunt.

For me this was a very quick read as it sucked me in and turned me on. I really found myself trying to read faster so I could find out what happened to whom and where is her mystery man, and what was really going on.  By the end we know there is an even bigger bad guy that she must face and I'm pretty worried for Charley because she's got no defense skills at all.  She's an extremely clumsy private investigator , she relies more on her gifts to aide her instead of actual PI skills which unfortunately for her means she runs into more physical issues than anything else.

I'm really invested in seeing where this all goes since I own the next four books in the series. Hopefully she signs up for a self defense class with what is brewing around her because Grim or not she's going to need it. 
 ★★★★☆
Highly Recommend to my paranormal romance friends and those looking for a good paranormal mystery with a sarcastic quirky female lead.  
Happy Reading my loves, 

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