Good to the Last Death Series 1-6, by Robyn Peterman
So, after a fairly heavy book, I tend to either go heavier or, go in the opposite direction. This time I chose the latter.
After I finished Spare, I decided to listen to a book that has been sitting in my audible library for a while.
As we have already established, I have a weakness for stories about people who help ghosts, and books with humor and goofy characters. These books have both in spades. We drop into Daisy’s life on her 40th birthday. She’s approaching the first-year anniversary of her husband Steve’s death and is in the first month of thinking she has lost her mind, because suddenly her house is full of ghosts in various states of dropping bits off.
As things progress Daisy starts to feel for her dead house guests and starts to try and figure out how to help them, of course she’s still not entirely sure it they are actually there, but she is a nice person so she’s determined to help them.
This book is the perfect intro everything is set up in such a way that even though Daisy is muddling through her new reality, the reader can pretty well figure out where things are headed. Usually this kind of writing annoys me, but everything is so funny, and also heartfelt that it didn’t bother me that Daisy keeps assuming that she knows what she’s doing when she clearly does not.
Now the romance, usually would have put the brakes on my interest in this story. Its my least favorite type. Super-hot new lawyer in Daisy’s law firm is a quasi-jerk and also assumes that Daisy knows what she is doing which bares no resemblance to what Daisy thinks. He’s in instant lust/love with her, she doesn’t like him, but grows to.
I find this kind of romance makes my teeth itch. However, something about the writing made me want to see how it would play out. It helps that Gideon has a good personality. Don’t get me wrong, he still does the what I call “shirtless bookcover” act. There is a lot of “Don’t do this dangerous thing, my life would be nothing without you” and “You are perfection no matter what you do” type stuff. This is subverted and or called out somewhat, either through communication, or by Daisy telling him to knock it off. Also helpful, is that that Daisy’s main focus is not the beautiful Gideon.
I read on various blogs and write on my other blog about how friendships are not training wheels for romantic relationships nor are romantic relationships the end goal. And I don’t just mean this for people not interested in romantic relationships. I feel this is true for anyone who has or wants relationships. Family bonds are family bonds, friendship bonds are friendship bonds, romantic bonds are romantic bonds. And friendship can be an element of romantic and family bonds. Everyone has their own personal experiences with the bonds that they have, but in concept, no one bond is better than, or above another. One of the things that bug me about romance books is that many of them just have the main character focus entirely on the romantic connection, friends and family are suddenly less important, and only really come into play if the best friend, brother, mother, etc, (who the main character sheepishly admits they have been neglecting lately) get into some kind of trouble. Only to have them relegated to second or third-string characters again, in the next book, but its okay because they tell Main Character that they understand that Love Interest is the most important person to them. This is annoying for various reasons, not least of which is simply that it's boring.
These books don’t fall into that trap. Daisy has her grandmother, and friends that are like family, and they are always a strong presence, even if they don’t know what’s going on, Daisy values them, and when anyone of her loved ones (no matter what kind of love) are in danger, she will fight with all she has for them and has the same intensity of emotion. Gideon is *added to* this love, he doesn’t replace it.
This is evident in the second and third books.
*spoilers for the first five books to follow*
I’ll be honest I didn’t like the second book, because it is the equivalent of the second act break up. these books are short, but 200 pages of hurt feelings is hard to read.
So, the run down that we learn from the first book:
The small Georgia town is a powerful portal for the dark and the light. Daisy comes from a long line of Death Counselors, who helps souls cross over after helping them with unfinished business.
Gideon, her boyfriend, is the Grim Reaper
Daisy’s crazy boss? Angel of Mercy
Heather, one of Daisy's best friends is essentially a celestial lawyer.
Another friend is the Enforcer, an imortal law keeper of sorts
The irritating cashier at the grocery store is the embodiment of Karma
The mailman is the courier between planes
And they all are delightfully insane. They are also pretty diverse, in a quiet way. It doesn't pretend like everyone would be accepting, but all of our main characters are. And it's not a thing. Someone is gay, they just are. When one character states that he is not interested in anyone, it's just accepted. Of course it is met with some awkward silence, not really because of the info, but because he says it in the middle of a lunch thusly "Nither vaginas nor penises appeal to me." The shock cones most f4om the fact that it was said apropos of nothing and none of the pipe southern people could think of what to say next since genitals aren't normally mentioned during lunch.
It's all about the dark and the light, the human condition and magic they are the definition of fun, for me. They also remind me of a mini series. Every book so far has ended on a cliffhanger, making me want to start the next one immediately hence why I have managed to read 6 of them in a week. Thankfully, not only are the first 7 included in my audible membership, they are also free on Kindle unlimited, so I have been going back and forth between the audio and the written versions. I have enjoyed the hell out of these, and will be finishing them.