Emoji Review by Rebecca Dixon
I just finished reading ‘First Grave on the Right,’ Book 1 of the Charlie Davidson series by Darynda Jones and it was FANTASTIC 🥳! (FYI, I’m not affiliated with the author, not in the book biz, reading is just a HOBBY, and I’m just a regular reader that is SUPER PASSIONATE 💞 about spreading the word about GREAT 🤩 books!) There are NO spoilers!
So!! The most glaringly 👀 OBVIOUS thing that I HAVE to say is… HOW THE HECK HAVE I NOT READ THIS BEFORE 🤦🏻♀️😆?! For those of you who have been following my silly 🤪 ‘emoji’ reviews, you already know that I love a HUGE RANGE of diverse books that fall under the Romance Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, and Urban Fantasy umbrella ☂! But my ROOTS really are in Urban Fantasy 👏🏻. I’m SO drawn to a modern writing style (in the first ☝️person,) that takes place in ‘our modern 🚗 world’ (so I can ‘pretend’ it really happens in our real world 😅,) with a kickbutt 🤺 FMC (love 💗 the SASS!,) … AND… a K!LLER ALPHA MALE that is SMOKIN 🔥👏🏻
I’m a bit different than a lot of UF lovers in that I am a ROMANCE 💘 girl at HEART 💝. I just Love 💗 Love 💗Love 💗 a drool-worthy 🤤 romance plotline and that’s how I fell into similar genres to UF… steamy 🥵 PRNs and alluring 😍 Romance Fantasies! But my heart still loves a great UF… and man, this is a FANTASTIC 🤩 one that really combines UF with a GREAT 👍🏻 slow-burn PRN vibe 🙌🏻!
OK!! Let me get straight 🎯 to it! The story 👏🏻! So we have this chick… who is FREAKING FUNNY 😂… like she probably has a joke in almost every paragraph in the book, she is that FUNNY 😅! Anyhoo (yes, she does say that 😆,) she sees DEAD PEOPLE ☠️🧟♂️👻… and has 3.7 jobs (yep I’m quoting the book 😅)… she’s a Private Investigator 🕵️♀️ , a part-time Bartender 🍺, on the payroll for the local Police 👮 department, and the .7 is the GRIM REAPER 💀🪦 ⛏ … since like, she doesn’t get paid for that (her words 😆!!) She’s QUICKLY thrown into a murder 🩸 case and has the EXTREMELY advantageous knack for actually talking 🗣 to the victims (who don’t always know their dead 😅) to help solve the case. Enter in a freaking HOT 🥵, sort of invisible 😆, smoke 💨 kinda guy that is DANGEROUS 🥷(& did I say HOT 🥵 as all get out?!)… and is her personal savior 😇… PLUS sort of her worst nightmare 😱 … WRAPPED UP 🎁 with maybe a bit of a SEXY times 🍆 🍑 🔥… and this story HOOKED 🪝 me and FAST 🏃🏻♀️!
I just have to say that this story is sooooo UNIQUE, ORIGINAL, and yeah… I think I said it already… FUNNY 😂😂😂. The FMC has this QUIRKY personality that makes all of her interactions with the dead really giggle 🤭 worthy! I was chuckling 😆 my way through this ENTIRE book 👏🏻. I sent screen shot after screen shot to my girlfriends while I LEGIT cackled 🤭 at the jokes! Even the beginning of every chapter had a funny quote that made me laugh out loud 😅. For example, “I may not look like much, but I’m an expert at pretending to be a ninja 🥷” OR… like “Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons 🐉, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.” Like… really funny, silly stuff! So yeah, LOVED the FMC!! She’s got thick skin (considering her profession 🤪) and a sense humor for days! 🥳
But what really, REALLY captured my romance-loving-heart, was the MMC!! SWOON 🥵🥵🥵. This is actually the strangest book in this regard for me 😆!! I’ve read 100’s of PRNs, UFs, Romance Fantasies… and I don’t think I’ve ever been OBSESSED 😍 about a MMC that I’ve hardly met 😲😆! This guy who SWOOPS all up in there and out… has actual pretty little book time when it’s all said and done (super slow-burn)… but even with this little stage time, he makes a HUGE impact. LIKE HUGE 🙌🏻! Man… I think I was drooling 🤤 at a certain reveal of a strong forearm 💪🏻… I kid you not! There is an ART to capturing the OBSESSION of a reader with so little dialogue with the MMC and this author sure does it 👏🏻! I was literally page-turning on pins and needles 🪡 , just eagerly WAITING for his next BIG swoop in moment! Because mannnn… HOT 🔥 HOT 🔥 HOT 🔥 stuff! And like… I’m CRAZY 😍🥰😍 about this guy! SO FREAKING AWESOME 👏🏻 of a MMC!! I cannot wait to get into Book 2 for MORE!! 🤩🤩🤩
But what about the plot?!? It’s actually SUPER COOL 😎. The parallel mysteries of the murder plotline alongside the romantic plotline, pretty much had me page-turning (when I wasn’t chuckling 🤭 & msging my friends with jokes from the book, that is!) I’ve just read the first book (literally just finished and had to write this straight away!,) but I can tell this is a super SOLID 🥇series. Like… this really should be a household name for UF like a Kate Daniels, Mercy Thompson, or a Night Huntress! This totally has Kate & Curran, Mercy & Adam, and Cat & Bones vibes 🙌🏻👏🏻🙌🏻! Seriously, I’m gonna be saying “Charlie & Reyes” all over FB anytime I rec a fantastic UF with a kickbutt 🤺 power couple!
So really, a big BONUS 💰 in my book is that not only does it feel like a flagship UF, but for my steam 🔥- loving 💗-heart❤️🔥, it really feels like it has some good PRN vibes with the heat between our quirky girl and our smoldering, ‘BURN 🔥THE WORLD DOWN FOR HIS GIRL’ guy! Again, this is DEFINITELY a series that I’m going to recommend in the same sentence as one of the UF Best-of-the-Bests 🏆! And hands down, if your reading lots of dark PRNs lately, this is a fantastic palette cleanser 🙌🏻! The comic relief is soooo refreshing 🌬… but then you are STILL going to get that PRN hit 🥵 ! OH and the END!!!!!!!!!!! OMG 😲😲😲 this series is SERIOUSLY going into some pretty COOL 😎 places! I can tell that it’s going to be like an onion 🧅 and every book is going to peel away a layer of adventure! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
So if you love a book with COMEDY, a quirky FMC that is FREAKING FUNNY 😂, a mysterious HOT 🥵 ALPHA male that we know hardly anything about but are somehow in love 🥰 with him ALL THE MORE for it 🙌🏻, and a super UNIQUE story that is going down a really COOL 😎 path, give this book a shot! The first book is free on KU and you never know, it may be the book that REAPS a fangirl (fanboy) out of you!
