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

4 Stars

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Date of publication: February 1st, 2011

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Romance, Romance. Suspense

Number of pages: 321

POV: 1st person

Series: Charley Davidson

First Grave of the Right – Book 1

For I Have Sinned – Book 1.5

Second Grave on the Left – Book 2

Third Grave Dead Ahead – Book 3

Fourth Grave Beneath My Feet – Book 4

Fifth Grave Past the Light – Book 5

Shimmer – Book 5.5

Glow – Book 5.6

Sixth Grave on the Edge – Book 6

Seventh Grave and No Body – Book 7

Eighth Grave After Dark – Book 8

Brighter Than the Sun – Book 8.5

The Dirt on Ninth Grave – Book 9

The Curse of Tenth Grave – Book 10

A Very Charley Christmas – Book 10.5

Eleventh Grave in Moonlight – Book 11

The Trouble with Twelfth Grave – Book 12 (expected publication date: October 31st, 2017)

Charley Davidson #13 – Book 13 (expected publication date: October 31st, 2018)

Where you can find First Grave on the Right: Amazon | Barnes and Noble

Book synopsis (from Goodreads):

This whole grim reaper thing should have come with a manual.
Or a diagram of some kind.
A flow chart would have been nice.

Charley Davidson is a part-time private investigator and a full-time grim reaper. Meaning, she sees dead people. Really. 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 (like 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. But what does he want with Charley? And why can’t she seem to resist him? And what does she have to lose by giving in?

With scorching-hot tension and high-octane humor, First Grave on the Right is your signpost to paranormal suspense of the highest order.

Trigger Warning: None

My review:

Ever read a book where you are almost peeing your pants laughing because it is hilarious? That is exactly what First Grave on the Right did to me. I couldn’t stop laughing. I read the book laughing and with a permasmile. After the last couple of weeks that I had, 2 out of my 3 kids were sick, I needed to read this book.

First Grave on the Right starts off with Charley being woken up after a couple of hours of sleep to go to a crime scene. Charley has some unique abilities. She is able to talk to the dead and she is able to guide them towards the light. She calls herself a grim reaper and in retrospect, she is. Charley ends up getting involved in an investigation that will push her to her limit. The other major plotline is Charley and her unique connection to a man named Reyes Farrow. Charley must solve the crime, find out exactly who and what Reyes is and keep herself from being killed. Which is not easy since she attracts danger like trash attracts flies.

Charley has to be the snarkiest woman that I have read in a long while. Her outlook on life and her gifts was hilarious. While she was snarky, it was a front. She was still that little girl who was berated for using her gifts in public. Her father did nothing while his wife did her best to break Charley and in my eyes, that made him as bad with his wife. Charley did have a wonderful support system, alive and dead. Her biggest protector was an entity called Big Bad. Big Bad was present at her birth and he has protected her since then. Her trust issues with friends were well founded too. The scene where she opened up to Cookie was heartwarming and sad. All I have to say is thank you that Cookie took everything Charley said and believed her.

There is only one sex scene in this book. But, there is lead up to it. I mean, Reyes visited Charley every chance he got and he tormented her before leaving. When they finally did the dead, holy crap. I swear that I saw fireworks go off, it was that hot. Of course, seeing that Reyes was incorporeal, I did wonder how they managed to do it….lol.

The action scenes in this book were fantastic too. I did like that the author chose to portray Charley as human. She had to take time to somewhat heal before going out to do the next outrageous thing. It made the book more believable and likable to me.

The end of the book shocked me. It also set up for book 2. Once I catch up with my backlog of reviews, I will be reading the rest of this series!!

First Grave on the Right was a humorous read. It had snappy dialogue, a main character that cracked me up and plotlines that were fantastic. This is a series that will definitely be worth my time reading.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Adult

Why: Language, violence, sex

I would like to thank   Jones, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review First Grave on the Right.

All opinions stated in this review of First Grave on the Right are mine.

I received no compensation for this review

**I received a free copy of this book and volunteered to review it**