Waiting on Wednesday (1)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Third Grave Dead Ahead by Darynda Jones

Expected publication: February 2nd 2012

From Goodreads:

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 a man hires her to find his wife, Charley accepts the job with one goal in mind: Put the man behind bars, and not the wet kind. She can sense the guilt waft off him and vows to find the woman’s body and prove he’s a murderer.
In the meantime, Reyes is back in prison and none too happy about it . . . so Charley thinks, until she is carjacked by the dark-haired rake, who swears the very man he went to prison for killing is not only alive, but close by. And he wants Charley to find him.

While a visit to her old friend Rocket sheds no light on Reyes’s situation, Charley finds out the man’s wife is still alive and time is running out. Finding her before she dies would be a miracle, but she has to try. Together with the help of a fashion-impaired receptionist named Cookie, Charley sets out to bring the bad guys to justice. She just hopes Reyes is not one of them. And that she’s not hallucinating from her self-induced bout with insomnia. 

What's your "waiting on" pick this week?

Review: First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones

Title: First Grave on the Right (Charley Davidson #1)

Author: Darynda Jones

Format: paperback, 310 pages

Genre: Paranormal Suspense

Published: June 7th 2011 by St. Martin's Griffin

Source: Personal Shelf

Buy It: Amazon

From Book: Charley Davidson is a part-time private investigator and full-time grim reaper. Meaning, she sees dead people. Really. 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 (like 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. But what does he want with Charley? And why can't she seem to resist him? And what does she have to lose by giving in?


I first saw this book on another blog I follow. When I read it was about a grim reaper I was a little skeptical, but JR Ward labeled it as a must read so I knew I had to give it a try. I pictured a grim reaper as a black-cloaked, scythe-wielding personification of death, but it turns out Charley Davidson is not the typical grim reaper.

Charley has been able to see dead people since the day she was born. She does not wear a black cloak or carry a scythe, but there is someone in the book who does. ;) Instead she wears a Scorpions hockey jersey and boxers to sleep in and uses a Bugs Bunny comforter. Charley works with her Uncle Bob, who is a detective for the police department, to help solve cases. She thinks it's easy when all you have to do is ask the dead person who killed them. 


The book starts out with Charley waking up from a sexual dream, to a phone call from Uncle Bob aka Ubie, with a dead guy in her bedroom and none of this is unusual. She gets to the crime scene, with dead guy and learns that there are three murder victims. They are all lawyers at the same firm. Not only will Charley have to solve the lawyer's murders, but she wants to find out who is in her dreams and what exactly is "The Big Bad" that shows up in her time of need but scares her half to death. Charley has the help of Cookie, who is her neighbor-slash-best-friend-slash-receptionist. Angel is also a "dead" employee who helps solve her cases involving the already departed. The demon child is one Charley tries to avoid. Through out the book we learn more and more of what Charley is and what she does for the dead, as more of them show up to pass through her to the other side.

One of the things I love about this book are the funny sayings found at the beginning of each chapter that come from Charley herself, a t-shirt, bumper sticker or somewhere else. I love the humor, it did give me a few laughs. First Grave on the Right is full of action, humor, romance and mystery, what more could one ask for in a book? Once I finished the book, I started really looking forward to book 2, Second Grave on the Left (published Aug. 16,2011). Book 3, Third Grave Dead Ahead publish date is Feb. 12, 2012.

 

 This book contains adult language and sexy scenes