Death's Daughter by Amber Benson

Death's Daughter

Written by Amber Benson

Reading Source: Library
Series: Calliope Reaper-Jones
Book #: 1
Rating:



I was initially cautious to read this book. Amber Benson was an actress on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I know what you're thinking... "OMG - Is this chick not a Buffy Fan???!!!" Well it's not that I'm not a Buffy Fan (lot's of negatives in that one... sorry...), but I never got into the show. I was into sports and boys and reading books.... I've never really gotten into TV at all. So that being said... on to the good stuff.

I read this book a little bit ago, so it's not going to be very detail oriented.

Calliope Reaper-Jones is your average 20 something trying to live and work in New York City - once you take away the fact that she's Death's daughter. That's right - she's the Grim Reaper's daughter. Long (not too long - but entertaining) story short - Callie has put a forgetting spell on herself so that she can be normal. One bite out of a healthy muffin, and her Dad's assistant broke the charm. Her Dad has been kidnapped and now it is up to Callie to save Death, Inc from the Devil's protege, Daniel. Callie must become Death - to do so, she is in a race against Daniel to complete 3 tasks in order to get the powers of Death, and keep her family immortal, oh yeah - and she has to find out what happened to her father.

Overall, I thought this was a pretty entertaining story. It was a little "valley girl" at times and the romance was a little trite, and all together weird. It was an original concept and at times incredibly amusing. I enjoyed the secondary characters quite a bit, and found that a lot of the humor was contingent on them. I've since read the second book in the series, and intend on reading the third one. This story in particular I listened to on the way to work - that being said - I've heard some complaint on the number of italicized words, but since I did not "read" it, I cannot speak to it. I can say that I may not have enjoyed the book as much if I didn't get to hear it the way Ms. Benson intended the tone to be. She did a very good job on the narration.

Me, Myself and Why? by MaryJanice Davidson

Me, Myself and Why? 

Written by MaryJanice Davidson

Reading Source: Library
Series: Cadence Jones
Book #: 1
Genre: Mystery/Fantasy
Rating:


So far (the prologue) I'm thinking I'm going to like this...

"First comes the blood and then comes the.... First comes the blood and then comes the screams, then comes the screams, then comes the screams, and the wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, its so loud. I just wanna sleep and the screams come around all the day long."

Oh I think I love this already.....

Cadance/Shiro/Adrienne has to be my favorite character(s)yet. At first I thought she/they didn't know that the other ones existed - but time showed my original assumption was wrong.

This book is not a "serious" read. But it doesn't detract from its awesomeness. Its a light, twisted, comical read.

MMW is told in first person from the point of view of the "sisters". Traumatized at a young age Cadance acquired a "sister" to protect her, a little later she acquired another "sister" to remember. Together, they fight crime at an atypical branch of the FBI dubbed BOFFO. BOFFO is comprised of all the crazies you'd never expect to carry weapons at the insistence of the government...

BOFFO is after a serial killer that kills three people each round. And lo and behold the killer, given the monicker ThreeFer, knows "the sisters" and is leaving her/them messages at the crime scenes.

The twist is interesting, and the mild romance in the subplot is comical and odd... but what can you expect when a "single" starts dating the sisters?

If you want a read that's quick, twisted, and darkly humorous - check this book out. I'll definitely be checking out more of MaryJanice Davidson's works.