Review: Could have been a five star book
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 13, 2013
Before I get further into this review, I would like to make it clear that I didn't rate this book higher not because it wasn't well written - it was, and not because I didn't like the characters - I did, and not because the story was boring - it wasn't.  It was totally because of the layout of the plot...or in this case, plots.This was the story of a grim reaper named Michael.  Not 'the' grim reaper, but 'a' grim reaper.  Turns out there are lots of them.  They take the souls of the recently departed, turn them over to purgatory and collect their pay.  He shares an apartment with a tooth fairy named Chip.  They both live like pigs in a scummy town and aside from their work, all they do is drink.Now I know this may not sound overly appealing based on what I just told you.  It sounds very weird, and it was, but it was a surprisingly good story.  My review will not do the story justice.Michael agreed to become a grim reaper at his death, because who wouldn't jump at the offer for immortality when faced with their own death, but he has since grown to loath it.  He doesn't understand what's going on and no one will tell him anything.  He's lost in this existence.  He is trying to understand things and also trying to regain some type of life for himself, but he seems to have lost almost all hope.I wasn't sure what to expect from the story at this point.  I thought maybe it would explore Michael slowly coming to understand what the grim reapers are for and more about the afterlife.  Perhaps it would explore ways for a grim reaper to get back to real life again.What did happen was someone came into the picture who was stealing souls before Michael had a chance to collect them.  Ooh, getting exciting now.  I like this storyline....but it also led me to why I didn't rate the book higher.Clones were stealing souls of werewolves and they were controlled by a powerful immortal.  Michael was given the job of finding them and the souls that were stolen, which he does but he doesn't meet the immortal who apparently knows who Michael is.  While looking at a picture of Michael, the immortal says "You have made a powerful enemy".....then we hear nothing more about him.This would have been a reasonable place to end the story since this is supposed to be a series.  The second book could have continued answering the questions about who this immortal was, why he was stealing souls of werewolves, what he was doing with them.  But this didn't happen.  For whatever reason the author moved on to another storyline about some demon who thinks he's Santa Claus.  Michael and friends help him out then turn him in.  And that's where the book ends.If the Santa Claus part hadn't been written and the first storyline continued, this would have been a great book.  I can only assume it will continue in future installments.  It just should have continued in this one or at least left off at a cliffhanger, the Santa Claus part took away from the book in my opinion.