Laura’s Review of Third Grave Dead Ahead (Charley Davidson, #3) by Darynda Jones

If you’ve read and enjoyed Club Dead (Sookie Stackhouse, #3) by Charlaine Harris, Undead and Unappreciated (Undead, #3) by Mary Janice Davidson, and Checkmate (Neighbor from Hell, #3) by R.L. Mathewson than you will LOVE this book!!!

Basic Summary

              Paranormal private eye.  Grim reaper extraordinaire.  Whatever.  Charley Davidson is back!  And she’s drinking copious amounts of caffeine to stay awake because every time she closes her eyes she sees him: Reyes Farrow, the part-human, part-supermodel son of Satan.

       Granted she did imprison Reyes for all eternity, but how is she supposed to solve a missing-persons case, deal with an ego-drive doctor, calmer curmudgeonly dad, and take on a motorcycle gang hell-bent on murder when the devil’s  son just won’t give up on his plan of seduction…and revenge?

What I Loved

                Finally we get some real actual human Reyes and Charley action!  I love incorporeal Reyes but to finally have him and Charley meet face to face is awesome.  When they first see each other I swear I had butterflies in my stomach I was so excited.  Reyes is just so awesome in so many ways and it was great to finally have more Reyes in this story.  There were definitely some exciting moments where he is involved, and then some moments where I wanted to smack him across the face.  I liked the ending of the book where Charley kind of tells him off in her own little way because it was exactly what he deserved. 

       Also in this book there was definitely progress of finding out what Charley’s other abilities are, and boy is she one powerful being!  At the end of the book she shows how her powers can shake things up and scare the hell out of people and it just made me more excited to learn more about her.  Another big thing in this book was finally meeting Mistress Marigold and finding out how she knows about Charley being the grim reaper.  That one was a definite shock as well, and kind of ironic to top it off.

       We got see some more characters enter into the fold and I kind of the biker gang Charley has kind of made friends with sticks around because Donovan is one hot man and can give Reyes a run for his money!  I also liked that we got to see Charley start to mend her relationship with her sister and Gemma stick up for Charley when it was needed.  By the end of this book you really get to see the love that Gemma has for Charley, the same goes for her Uncle Bob as well.

Not So Much

Garrett Swopes

             I really don’t have a lot of negative things to say about this book.  There was a lot going on but not so much that I felt like it was unorganized like the previous two books.  The pace of this book was great and I didn't feel like my attention was being diverted away to something else every five minutes.  I guess my only complaint is that I wish there was an actual sex scene between the real Reyes and Charley and no haunting Charley in her dreams crap.  I want man -on -woman action and I want it now!   I hope the next book will have some one on one with them. 
  

       I will say once again Charley’s father really pisses me off and this time all on his own and had nothing to do with Charley’s evil step-mother Denise.  He really shows his true asshole by the end of the book and my heart really broke for her towards the end. 

Overall

                Wow this book was awesome!  There is so much going on and so much to learn in this one that I hung on every single word.  This one was definitely filled with tons of action that had me gasping a couple times and me having to pick my chin off the ground.  I’m pretty sure my blood pressure went through the roof by the time I was done reading.  This book was filled with some close calls when it came to Charley’s life ending more so than before and if you have read the other books that’s saying a lot.  By the time I was finished reading though you really got see just how deep Charley cares for the people in her life like Cookie and her daughter Amber.  You also get to see just how crushed and hurt she can be when someone she trusts and loves betrays her, and that happened a couple times.  You do learn just how powerful Charley can be but I have feeling this is only the tip of the ice burg and there is way more to learn about Charley and many gifts.   I loved that by the end of the book Gemma and Uncle Bob were valiantly standing up for Charley showing that maybe there are good people out there.  This book ended on a bittersweet note because people we thought died didn't really die but also Charley was physically and emotionally injured and I’m anxious to see how all this will play out in the next book.