Review: A bit too pun-filled, but looking forward to number two
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 18, 2013
**Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy**THE RELUCTANT REAPER is exactly what one would expect from the illustration on the cover, goofy and a bit ridiculous. While it wasn't perfect, I did enjoy this first installment in The Reluctant Reaper series, despite its flaws (and puns -- so many puns). It was as advertised in the book description, quirky and wacky, and I liked learning about the hell Grant created with all of its oddities, such as how swearing pollutes the environment and strip malls are where you go to get your clothes ripped off. Plus, there are characters wandering around such as Loki and Charon, and I do enjoy a good mythology name-drop.The problem is with Kristy, our main character. She's a bit boring. She ends up in hell not because she did something terrible, but because she tried to save her boss and accidentally ended up on the business end of a scythe carried by the reaper Dante (yep, that Dante). And that's where the title is a bit misleading. Kristy isn't exactly a reluctant reaper, she is more like a reluctant reapee - that is, someone who was reaped (I am aware I'm making up words at this point). I was kind of hoping she'd end up as a reaper but the story pretty much ends with the judgement at her accidental reaping trial. It is part of the plot that she is as nondescript as she is, but it was a little frustrating that she didn't do more. What was interesting was learning about hell through Kristy's eyes, with the credit cards that pay in karma points and bureaucratic reincarnation offices.I think because of the length of THE RELUCTANT REAPER, the story felt a little more like a prequel than the actual start of a series. At around 200 pages, it is a bit longer than a novella, but a bit shorter than a full novel, and there was a lot crammed into those 200 pages. The character growth, the mystery about Kristy's boss and her reaping, and even the beginning of a relationship between Kristy and Dante were all thrown into the mix. Plus, the world building alone was enough to keep me interested (if you couldn't already tell). As a result, I'm looking forward to the next installment in The Reluctant Reaper series, to find out where Kristy ends up, and how her relationship with Dante evolves, bad poetry and all. Luckily, I won't have to wait long as SCYTHE DOES MATTER, the next in the series, comes out in July.