Will "The Reluctant Reaper" Prove to be Your Guilty Pleasure?

The Reluctant Reaper Title:  The Reluctant Reaper
(The Reluctant Reaper #1)
Author:  Gina X. Grant
Format:  ERC
Length:  200 pages
Expected Date of Publication:  June 17, 2013
Publisher:  Pocket Star

Kirsty d'Arc is enjoying life, until someone she trusts hijacks her soul in this first installment of The Reluctant Reaper series. To escape Hell's inferno and gain revenge, Kirsty must partner with the very Reaper who scythed her-the hunky dead poet Dante Alighieri. Life for Kirsty d'Arc might not be perfect, but it's far from hellish. She likes her job, has a great BFF, and truly admires Conrad, her boss. But when she dives in front of a lunatic's blade to save him from certain death, she finds out Conrad isn't so admirable after all. In fact, he's traded her soul to the Devil!
While her body lies comatose on the Mortal Coil, Kirsty's spirit is dragged straight to Hell...which is not quite the fire-and-brimstone abyss she'd expected. In fact, the place is quirky, wacky, and not without charm. Desperate to reunite body and soul before her time runs out, she seeks out allies, earning the friendship of a powerful drag demon, a psychic server, and, most importantly, Hell's civil servant. But what of her growing attraction to Dante, the sexy Reaper with a flair for romantic language-can she forgive him for scything her soul?
Stuck in the netherworld, Kirsty vows she'll do everything on her postmortem bucket list, starting with getting her life back and ensuring that Conrad has Hell to pay!

My Thoughts
This novella is a campy romp through Hell.  It is not however the fire and brimstone realm of woe and torture bemoaned by clergy the world over.  The Hell we have here is one made up of contracts, waiting lines, cross-dressing ferrymen, and reapers to-die-for.
The best things about this book are:
1.  Characters
2.  The Setting
3.  The Campiness

The worst things about this book are:
1.  Dante's insistence on switching into Old English speak.
2.  The campiness (cute in small doses, but tiresome as time goes on.)

This is what I would refer to as a beer goggles story.  What I mean by that is...this story is at it's best when not taken too seriously, and/or when the reader is very, very, drunk. Watching the dearly, not yet departed Kirsty be put through her paces as she makes her way through the underworld is the biggest draw of this read.  The love interest/romance, not so much.
This is ok as a "first in series" and as such...on to book 2.



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1 comment:

  1. Thank you for the encouraging and well-balanced review. I assume from the several re-posting links that you don't mind if I repost some or all of it (with a link back here.)

    I'm glad you joined Kirsty on her first adventures in Hell. Book 2, SCYTHE DOES MATTER is now, I believe, also available on the reviewer ARC sites.

    Thanks, again.
    ~ Gina

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