Review: DEATH TIMES TWO – TWICE AS AWESOME
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 3, 2014
THIS IS ONLY FOR "DEATH TIMES TWO"E-Galley provided by publisher via Net Galley for review purposes on my blog. No remuneration was exchanged and all opinions presented herein are my own unless otherwise noted.The two authors are both women I know and they are both delightful. Their writing styles are not similar in all their works, but in their paranormal series, both write about some spooky and, sometimes scary/horror stuff with humor and healthy doses of snark. You probably need to have read CJ’s VV Inn Series and the first book in Boone Brux’s new series, TO CATCH HER DEATH for the optimal experience.Back to the story at hand: Boone’s Lisa, who is a Grim Reaper helps confused souls pass over to their next stop. She seems to have taken over her late husband’s job.Meanwhile, C.J.’s characters at the VV Inn are hanging out while the boss and her husband are away for the summer. One vampire, Asa, has stayed behind. The Inn is haunted with spirits reluctant to move on and Lisa’s boss sends her to the exclusive resort to take care of it. Asa has to show her around and explain the various phantoms. Lisa and Asa are attracted, perhaps due to the alliterative qualities of their names when printed together.The two characters take turns narrating the story. The two writers’ voices complement each other quite nicely. The differences between them help to make the characters sing. The story is unusual and not unpredictable in its general plotting – it’s a paranormal romance after all so there are, paranormals and there’s romance. What isn’t predictable is how funny the route to the bedroom is. There are several ways a ghost could try to possess a living being and there are a lot of funny moments around those!I thoroughly enjoyed the story. The collaboration enhanced each series: the combination of the two worlds offers depth and possibility to both. While Boone’s world is built around paranormal activities, her character Lisa’s life is that of a widow left with two kids and a strange job. Like a lot of single moms the struggles she faces at work and home are mundane and hard. On the other hand, CJ’s world hardly ever deals with the mundane at all. If there are mortals in the story they are ancillary to the paranormal aspects of the story. Each series benefits! I think this is CJ’s best work, but with each book her writing just gets better and better.The pacing is great with nary a dull or wasted moment. This is assisted by the alternating voices.Neither character gets a lot of primary development, but we do get to see into each character’s head a little more than we have in either series. Lisa is a new character in a new series, and Asa is a major character but we haven’t seen him with a regular human before now.I will look forward to whatever comes next in either series and I certainly hope to authors work together again. I ate this one up and highly recommend it.