Laura’s Review of Second Grave on the Left (Charley Davidson, #2) by Darynda Jones

If you’ve read and enjoyed Undead and Unemployed (Undead, #2) by Mary Janice Davidson, Grave Sight (Harper Connelly, #1) by Charlaine Harris, and Two for the Dough (Stephanie Plum, #2) by Janet Evanovich  than you will LOVE this book!!!

 Basic Summary

               If you hang around with dead people, life can get pretty complicated.  Take it from Charley Davidson, part-time investigator and full-time Grim Reaper.  Complicated is her middle name.  The deceased find very sparkly.  Demons find her irresistible.  And one entity in particular wants to seduce her in every way possible.

            When Charley and Cookie (her best friend/receptionist) have to track down a missing woman, the case is not quite as open and shit as they anticipate.  Cookie’s friends Mimi disappeared five days earlier.  Mini then sends Cookie a cryptic message telling Cookie to meet her at a nearby coffee shop.  The coffee is brewing, but Mimi’s still missing.  There is, however, a clue Mimi left on the bathroom wall: a woman’s name.  Mimi’s husband explains to them that his wife had been acting strange since she found out an old high school friend had been murdered.  The same woman whose name Mimi had scribbled on the bathroom wall.

            Meanwhile, Reyes Alexander Farrow (otherwise known as the Son of Satan. Yes. Literally) has left his corporeal body and is haunting Charley.  He’s left his body because he’s being tortured by demons who want to lure Charley closer.  But Reyes can’t let that happen.  Because if the demons get to Charley, they’ll have a portal to heaven…well, let’s just say it wouldn’t be pretty.

            Can Charley handle hot nights with Reyes and even hotter days tracking down a missing woman? Can she keep those she loves out of harm’s way?  And is there enough coffee and chocolate in the world to fuel her as she does?

What I Loved

               

            Okay first of all Charley is probably one of the funniest characters I have read in a long time.  Her banter with people is hilarious and I love her sarcasm.  I also love that during certain conversations Reyes can be kind of funny as well.  I love Charley’s relationship with her Uncle Bob and the things she says to him had me cracking up!  I love that she is that way with everyone too not just alive people but also dead ones. 

            There’s so much going on in this book I don’t know how Charley got any time to sleep!  Once again Charley is faced with a mystery; a woman is missing that just so happens to be her best friend Cookie’s good friend.  As they try to find Mimi they stumble upon various murders and suicides along the way and of course this just leads to more trouble.  I swear Charley just attracts bad luck and when it finally comes to her it’s so funny you just sit there shaking your head or laughing out loud.   Of course one of the things she stumbles upon is a dead guy in Cookie’s trunk that leads to another mystery that by the end of the book Charley has figured out.  While this is all happening a man blackmailing her father tries to stab to her to death and Charley has to get super glued back together from the knife wound.  When this happens one of Charley’s many supernatural abilities is revealed, know she can slow down time in a way that she can move faster than humanly possible. 

            Meanwhile Reyes Farrow has gone missing and while Charley goes out and looks for him you find some more interesting items about Reyes.  You get more into his personal life with meeting his best friend and discover some more of actual abilities.  I love that I anytime Reyes is around I instantly want more!  I actually got mad when Charley walked away from him without getting naked first.  The way Darynda writes him just instantly makes you want him around every second of the book.  I always feel like there is never enough of him even when he is in a scene.  I love that he has fan clubs and websites dedicate to him and women stalking him prison it just added to the hilarity of the book and making you even more aware of how out of this world Reyes truly is. 

            There was a very heart wrenching part of this book that dealt with Charley’s father and sister.  I almost started tearing up because you just see how hurt Charley was and how heartbroken she was because of her father’s actions and it was so hard to see her that way. 

Not So Much

                There was  so much going on in this book at times it was hard to keep up and at times felt a little unorganized.  It was hard to keep track of all the players and remember who was working for whom, and what case she was working from one minute to the next.  I just wish the plots in this book were more streamlined and be more organized.  Although we got to see some of Charley’s abilities I still have lots of questions and I just hope eventually I get them answered. 

            Once again I kind of hate Charley’s father, he just doesn't stand up for himself and in turn doesn't stand up for Charley to her stepmother Denise.  I just have a hard time understand how a person can be so mean to someone that they are helping to raise and how everyone else around her knows this but doesn't say anything to her or do anything.  I don’t get how it takes these people twenty some odd years to finally say something, why they didn't do this when she was a kid and deserved to have a real supportive mother.  It just annoys me a lot and it hurts knowing that she grew up feeling so alone and that things were her fault and how miserable that must have been for her.

Overall

          It was a great book as far as another stepping stone as far as finding out what Charley Davidson is all about and what that means for the rest of the world.  Also there were more bits and pieces put in about Reyes and his role in Charley’s life and his abilities.  There definitely is a lot of mystery surrounding him and a lot of scared ghosts that don’t really tell Charley the whole truth.  You did learn in this book that just as Charley is a portal to heaven, he is a portal out of hell and what that means for the humans on earth and the demons in hell.  In this book you also get to see some demons and learn just exactly how they get to come to earth in the first place.  I definitely feel like there is something there as far as these evil beings are concerned that will be in other books.  I love getting more Reyes and I hope that just grows and grows as the series moves on.  I so desperately want his actual physical body to come alive and be with Charley I can almost taste it!  I was kind of upset towards the end though because is more than little mad with Charley and I’m excited to see how all that is going to play out.  It definitely seems that Reyes is one of the most powerful beings on earth, but I hope one day Charley realizes that if anyone can control him it’s her and that certainly makes her way more powerful than him.