Hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

First Grave on the Right (Charley Davidson, Book 1) by Darynda Jones

“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 book started out great. The protagonist was sarcastic and funny. But then it got too clever. There were one liners for every situation that started to feel forced. There are two mysteries in this book. Three lawyers die on the same night and their deaths are connected to a case they are working on and then,….. yeah, I can’t remember. I think there was a priest involved. It isn’t great when the main part of the story was so unmemorable.

The Bride’s House by Sandra Dallas

“It’s 1880, and for unassuming seventeen-year-old Nealie Bent, the Bride’s House is a fairy tale come to life. It seems as if it is being built precisely for her and Will Spaulding, the man she is convinced she will marry. But life doesn’t go according to plan, and Nealie finds herself in the Bride’s House pregnant—and married to another.

For Pearl, growing up in the Bride’s House is akin to being raised in a mausoleum. Her father has fashioned the house into a shrine to the woman he loved, resisting all forms of change. When the enterprising young Frank Curry comes along and asks for Pearl’s hand in marriage, her father sabotages the union. But he underestimates the lengths to which the women in the Bride’s House will go for love.

Susan is the latest in the line of strong and willful women in the Bride’s House. She’s proud of the women who came before her, but the Bride’s House hides secrets that will force her to question what she wants and who she loves.”

I love Sandra Dallas’ books. I don’t think this was one of her best but it was a sweet story of love through three generations of women in Colorado.

Ghost Story (Dresden Files, No. 13) by Jim Butcher

“When we last left the mighty wizard detective Harry Dresden, he wasn’t doing well. In fact, he had been murdered by an unknown assassin.

But being dead doesn’t stop him when his friends are in danger. Except now he has nobody, and no magic to help him. And there are also several dark spirits roaming the Chicago shadows who owe Harry some payback of their own.

To save his friends-and his own soul-Harry will have to pull off the ultimate trick without any magic… “

I was so excited about this book that I signed up for Audible just to get it on audio. (I was #100 in line at the library!) I knew that I wanted it to last longer than it would if I read it. That was a good choice. I’m not a person who reads the end of a book first but I found myself wishing I could do that just so I’d know how it ended up.

Harry was killed at the end of the last book just after killing off a whole species of vampire. He finds himself in a purgatory where he is told that his death was irregular and he needs to go back to solve it. This really annoys him because 1) it’s a cliche and 2) he doesn’t want to have to work any more if he is dead. He goes to the one person he knows can see him – Morty. He’s a minor character in the series who can talk to ghosts and who doesn’t like helping Dresden at all.

He finds out that it was been 6 months since his death. The murder of the vampires left a power vacuum that all kinds of nastiness has come in to fill and his friends have been fighting and mostly failing to keep it under control. Harry has to face the consequences of his actions and how it is affecting the people he left behind.

I loved it. There is a lot of backstory here for the series’ fans. There are stories about his evil mentor Justin, etc.

New Where am I reading places – New Mexico, Colorado