Fifth Grave Past the Light

I absolutely love this series and have had them on pre-order since I read the very first installment. It is fun, witty, very sexy, and completely packed with mysteries and action that never drag the story down. Quite the opposite, if anything, our protagonist has attention deficit and you feel it coming from the pages since she's tackling so many different things at the same time, meanwhile distracting herself with her own inner ramblings. For some, this is distracting, but I find it campy and engaging. If you haven't read any of the previous installments, this is not the first place to start. The fifth book brings a very satisfying turning point to a rather stalled relationship that I find to be one of the most compelling and unique couplings in paranormal romance and the fantastic supporting characters are all back without recaps of who they are and what they do.

The story begins with Charley back in the swing of things working on your typical infidelity investigation, but her workload gets much larger when traumatized ghosts, ranging in ages from 7 to 35, all women with blond hair, start turning up in her apartment. Charley also finds herself completely stumped when she tracks down a body from one of her ghostly visitors only to find she's not a ghost. With backlogged cases, family matters and most importantly, relationship issues, Charley finally makes a decision about what she wants from her long list of boyfriend potentials.

This installment is simply non-stop. Like the other installments, multiple mysteries unfold in the beginning, but this one piles on even more mysteries, red herrings, violence, possible alliances and potential antagonists for future stories. I felt this story set the stage for a different direction on where this series is heading and I for one am completely thrilled. For me, there's nothing more fun and sexy than following a possible romance between the Grim Reaper and the Son of Satan, and alas, we find more quality Charley and Reyes time here than the other books put together. Although we're left on a bit of a cliffhanger, I really can't say that I mind. I was frustrated with the stalled relationships and it appears now things may be full steam ahead. I will anxiously be awaiting the next installment.

I love Charley Davidson. In this fifth installment of the series, she continues to discover her powers as grim reaper as she deals with threats to herself and to those she loves. There is plenty of Charley's quirky humor to make me laugh out loud, and her helper/assistant/sidekick Cookie is always good for attitude and humor as Charley enrolls Cookie in a gun safety class to protect the public from Cookie's gun-wielding penchant.

Reyes is as gorgeous, dark, mysterious and compelling as ever, and as Charley learns more about him, she decides to stop resisting his allure. How convenient that he has moved into the adjoining apartment!

Murdered women are congregating in Charley's apartment. Charley is hunting the bad guys, as usual, while the police captain seems to be hunting Charley; he wants to know how she has managed to solve so many murder cases and is determined to discover her secret.

So we have plots within plots: murder mysteries, family conflicts, love, and sex, all presented through Charley's rather bizarre sense of humor. I looked forward to the release of this installment, and I was not disappointed!

I was thrilled to get offered a pre-publication copy of this book for review because I have read and loved the first four books in this sassy series. However, this book left me scratching my head and wondering if the author hired a ghostwriter instead of writing the book herself.

Charley Davidson is a Private Investigator, Grim Reaper and coffee guzzling addict all wrapped into one gorgeous, sarcastic and funny package. This time around she seems to have too many problems to solve: 27 murdered women are crowding her out of her apartment, her soul mate and sometimes not so charming lover Reyes has moved in next door and seems to want more than Charley can offer, someone is burning down buildings in Albuquerque, etc., etc. There were so many things going on in this book that I suffered whiplash trying to keep up.

Charley seemed to be less funny this time around. Her best friend and assistant, Cookie, is missing in action for most of this book and that really took some of the shine out of this installment. Combine all of this with a sex scene that is too weird and explicit even for liberal, old me and this book just wasn't my cup of tea.

Passionate fans will get some pleasure out of this book, and I did too, but it really doesn't do the series any favors in the long term.

**SPOILERS**

I'm not sure exactly how I feel about this book, on one hand I love Charley Davidson, but on the other, this book took some strange turns, & some of it is getting repetitive.

The book is full of the snark I love, and has some very funny one liners, but I am over Charley naming things. It might have been funny in the first book, but now it's just kind of stupid. Another thing I am over is Charley getting hurt in every book. In this book it doesn't happen until the end, but she gets whipped, nearly raped, & set on fire. I found her torture at the hands of Earl Walker to be too much in the third book, & this torture was just as bad.

I also found some things in the book odd, what was with the sudden "girl parts" doctor story? I kept waiting for her to turn up pregnant, but no, it was just thrown in there for no apparent reason. Also, the little girl recognized Mr. Wong, & then we never heard anything else about that, & why did Charley get so mad at Rocket when he put Reyes' name on the wall? What happened to Duff & why was he there? These things may be setting up something for the next book, but they felt like they were just thrown in & then dropped in this book.

Another thing I'm confused about is the sudden change of backstory of why Reyes is there, & what appears to be changes to the characters around her. We didn't hear from the stepmother once in this book even though she's been in every other book, & Charley's father (who wasn't in this book much either) suddenly sold his bar to Reyes & is divorcing the stepmother, so I guess she's gone forever, & since he's going traveling, we may never hear from him again. And finally, Reyes asks Charley to marry him, & buys the asylum & the building for her. Is the next book going to be Charley getting pregnant & they get married & become the perfect little supernatural suburban family? It felt like the end of the book was rushed with changes.

I enjoyed the book, I just find the changes & dropped plots confusing. I hope the story in the next book is much tighter, & the things that are repetitive get dropped.

Fifth Grave begins a few days after the conclusion of Fourth Grave. Charley is working a "normal" private investigation for a woman who suspects that her husband is cheating. As usual, it doesn't take long for things to go awry, and just like that, Charley and her support team are off and running through another breathtaking adventure that includes eXXXplicit seXXX, graphic violence, several new characters (who seem likely to show up in future books), thrills, chills, surprises, and another cliffhanger ending.

I rated this book three stars because the sex and violence seemed much more intense than in the first four books and pushed me way past my comfort zone. Word for word, I also thought that the amount of back story information included was unnecessary for followers of the series. I would rather have had those words develop the story line of Charley's destiny as a portal a little further.

I admire Darynda Jones' imagination and talent, and her dedication to the craft of writing paranormal fiction. She has a winning series and probably wants to keep it going as long as possible. I wish her all the best. Even though I care about Charley and her Scooby Team, and I'm curious about "the coming war", I just prefer a good developing story line without being side tracked by sex and violence. I'm not sure if I'll be coming back for Sixth Grave, whatever that may be. I'd rather go "Ooh!" and re-read sentences and/or passages for being well written than roll my eyes and skip over passages roiling with sexual passion -- not that the latter can't be the former, just that I'd rather get on with the paranormal than the carnal.

This series started out with so much promise, the son of Satan in love with the Grim Reaper there is lots there to work with. For the first four books...ok well 3.5 the fourth book wasn't that great either I thought this series was fantastic now I just find it slow and repetitive. Don't get me wrong there is a crap load of hilarious one liners accompanied by a crap load of really really dumb ones.

The humor I found funny in the first couple of books I once again found juvenile. The Charley/Reyes story finally moved forward but not by much. By the time we find out what Charley's background is it will be the 20th book, I don't have the patience for that. The plot this time was just kinda meh but I was grateful there was no dumb love triangle this time around. All in all not my favorite book in the series.

I was watching a documentary about a famous cinematographer and he was discussing the various starlets of the era who posed for portraits for him. He particularly loved shooting with lighting that went light, dark, light, dark. The picture that was shown as an example of this was quite arresting. Yes, the lady was beautiful, but the photographer added layers of intrigue with the lighting, made her an interesting character instead of just another pretty face.

The Charley Davidson universe reminds me of that. Light, dark, light, dark. Textures, layering. You find yourself laughing out loud at Charley and Cookie, then 3 pages later you're crying like a baby, or reading like a rabid monkey on crack, trying to see who is going to HELP (insert name here) BECAUSE IT ALREADY FEELS LIKE IT'S TOO LATE! And somebody better get there, and soon dammit, because I CARE ABOUT THESE PEOPLE!

I don't know how else to convey to you how very awesome this series is other than to say, to know Charley is to love her. You are drawn into her world, her zany, terrifying, hilarious, tragic, world and honestly, I always feel a bit sad when I have to leave it. In the immortal words of Tina Fey's daughter, "I want to go to there."

I forget about everything else when I am reading the Davidson books.

And that is the highest praise I can give an author.

Love..love..love

***As originally posted on my book blog TickettoAnywhere (dot) net***

Holy frijoles Batman!

This is one book that I have a hard time putting into words it was just that good and exceeded all of my expectations. If you're a regular reader of this blog then you know that I've been blitzing through the Charley Davidson books by Darynda Jones. And if you live in Massachusetts then you may have hear my squeal of delight when I received a copy of Fifth Grave Past the Light which is the newest installment in the series. Fifth Grave picks up almost immediately after Fourth Grave Beneath My Feet ends and its just filled with hotness and awesome.

The mystery portion of this book wasn't as intriguing to me in this book as in previous ones and in some cases it even took a back seat to the secondary storylines. Because in this book, dear readers, s*** really starts to hit the fans. Things are alluded to that could have some crazy crazy things happen to our favorite grim reaper in the future. Not to mention the whole crazy portal back story and its future implications. Talk about edge of your seat moments and yet at the same time just not enough. Before this book the whole secondary portions of Charley's purpose was just kinda meh. Well, not meh but it just wasn't at the forefront of my brain. But in Fifth Grave there were just enough details and hints given that have me lusting for more.

And speaking of lust....can we just say ooh la la steamy hot scenes with our favorite son of satan, Reyes. Wow. These are the scenes that readers have been waiting for ever since First Grave on the Right. I just love these two together and their chemistry positively sizzles off the page. Plus there was that ending!! Talk about killer and its a whole millenina (ok only about a year) until the next book is out and you know what will happen next. So while there is a cliff hanger its not one that the story hinges on. The mystery is solved in this book and the cliff hanger is all about Charley.

There was some disappointments in this book and that was a lack of the Step-monster. I may not like the character much but I do like the barbs that she and Charley toss at each other. I also missed Charley's interactions with her father but was glad to see more of her sister. Which such a big secondary cast though it can be hard to give them all the page time that they deserve. So as long as there is Reyes, Cookie, Uncle Bob, and Swoops I can be happy. Mostly. It will also be interesting to see where all these secondary characters fit into that thing that we learn about in this book. I have my ideas and I can't wait to see if they pan out or not.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and think its the best one in the series to date. I am eager to see what happens next. If you love a humorous, sexy, fun paranormal story and you haven't picked up this series yet then you are seriously missing out.

***As originally posted on my book blog TickettoAnywhere (dot) net***

The latest of the Charley Davidson series, has the p.i./police consultant/grim reaper/portal to other worlds hot on the trail of an arsonist, on the hunt for a serial killer, trapping an adulterer and canoodling with her spawn of Satan lover. Despite some innovative ideas, this book is as annoying as it is entertaining.

The snarky slogans were probably the must enjoyable part of this book. The breezy writing was not enough to carry the day. Charley's habit of naming everything from body parts to showers is tiring. She and Reyes have lots of explicit sex and their purported evolution into domestic bliss is unconvincing. They behave like juveniles. There are story lines that start but go no where. Perhaps this is a set up for the next book, but most don't go far enough and fail to whet my appetite for more. I don't care for the apocalyptical predictions nor the Charley as messiah line. Overall, it was just too long.

I hope the Charley pregnancy rumors are untrue. The death knell for successful series is when the main characters start marrying and reproducing. I hope this book is just an aberration in an otherwise amusing series.