Book 48, 2020

Fifth Grave Past the Light by Darynda Jones

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I'm slacking on my book reviews. I finished reading Fifth Grave Past the Light, by Darynda Jones, Tuesday night. This is the fifth part of the author's "Charley Davidson" urban fantasy series, featuring PI and grim reaper Charlotte 'Charley' Davidson.

When the devastatingly sexy son of Satan, Reyes Farrow, moves into the apartment next to Charley's, he poses a major distraction. Charley has been investigating a series of arsons, and Reyes is her prime suspect. She vows to stay away from him until she figures the case out. In the meantime, she has bigger problems when dead women begin coming to her apartment, one after another, until Charley is overrun. The women all appear similar and seem to have died in a similar fashion, which means there's now a serial killer to look into. A more minor mystery for Charley is wondering why her father's bar, Calamity's, seems to be attracting far more women than ever before. Could it have something to do with the new cook? When Charley has reason to believe that her sister, Gemma, may be the next target of the serial killer, there's only one person whom she can go to--Reyes. However, he's not willing to play protector for Gemma without exacting a price from Charley. Fortunately, Charley is willing to pay.

As with other books in this series, this was so darned funny that I found myself laughing out loud several times. Charley's sarcastic wit is hilarious, and the scrapes she gets herself into are truly worthy of head shakes. Characterizations are wonderful and lively, extending even to temporary, secondary characters. There was plenty of action to keep the pages turning.

Favorite lines:
♦ Our relationship was a lot like underwear in a dryer without a static control sheet. One minute we were floating through life, buoyant and carefree. The next we were attached at the crotch.
♦ It seemed wrong to cut him off prematurely, but I could take only so much heavy breathing before inappropriate thoughts involving whipped cream and a Ping-Pong paddle crept into my mind.
♦ "Who is Dr A. von Holstein? And is he related, by chance, to a race of cows?"
♦ Maybe a few feet off-kilter, but close enough to call them a win in my book. No matter that my book was titled How to Call Even Your Most Dismal Failures a Win and Not Feel Guilty About It.
♦ "I've just been so worried about you, what with the chlamydia you got in high school on top of the herpes. I wanted to make sure you were practicing safe sex."
♦ He quirked a brow. "How would you like your eggs?" // I tried. I really did. But I glanced at his crotch and it came out anyway. "Fertilized?"

I could have quoted the entire book. Too comical! Fast, funny, sexy and hella fun--five stars!

Book 49, 2020

About Thyme by Karny McFlynn

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Last night, I completed the ebook novella About Thyme by Karny McFlynn. It's the first installment (prequel, I guess) of the "Thyme Witch" mystery series, featuring Everly Thyme.

Everly is in a rut, bored with her job, her boyfriend, and her life. She gets more excitement than she bargained for, however, when she is invited (summoned, really) to dinner with her enigmatic great-aunt Legoria Thyme. Legoria sends a car to pick Everly up, but before she even makes it to her aunt's house, the car is attacked by creatures out of legend. Everly barely escapes with her life, and now she must keep her wits about her to find out whatever became of her father.

This was utterly confusing. Narrative was choppy, I got no real sense for the characters, and memory spells were cast, which left Everly not recalling things. I believe I was affected as well, because I forgot certain parts, too, until I went back and gave it a quick skim read. For one thing, in the second paragraph of the book, there seems to have been a murder, yet no mention was made of it again. Did it happen, and Everly forgot about it, or will it happen in future installments? I have no idea. Another thing that confounded me was that Everly's boring boyfriend was named Jim, and her mother's on-again, off-again boyfriend's name was...Jimmy. Seriously?! I swear, that's the reason I went back and skimmed the story again, because I wasn't sure whose boyfriend Jim(my) was. Turns out, both of them. Oh, not as in it's the same guy, but men with the same name. Ick. At least the editing was fair, and there were a few lines that made me laugh.

Favorite lines:
♦ Finding out that monsters are real...well, that shakes things up. Finding out you're one, too? Priceless. I should have listened to my mother.
♦ To her "I'm O.K.," meant I was being held hostage by alien beings and probing was the first item on their to-do list.
♦ Worse than the Christmas Mom stayed up too late wrapping presents and everything I got the next morning was from Satan.
That last line left me howling with laughter!

I wanted to like this, but nothing made sense. It's getting two stars, and one is for that killer line about Satan.