Espirit de Corpse (Reluctant Reaper #3) by Gina X. Grant

Kirsty scythed Conrad – her evil ex-boss who tried to sell her soul to increase the terms of his demonic pact – with Dante’s scythe. All the rules said this was forbidden, but no-one knew why. Until Conrad turned into a demon, escaped from prison and fled to the mortal Coil

Guess that answers that question

Of course, it’s Dante and Kirsty’s job to bring him back since they’re at fault – and quickly. But Conrad has returned to his old company and targeted his daughter and Kirsty’s best friend – Shannon. As if possessing Shannon wasn’t enough, she then gets arrested for murdering Kirsty!

Through all this Kirsty also has to deal with a moody Dante who is Not Happy with Kirsty over the whole scythe thing.

Oh this book. In fact, this series. I can see what it’s trying to do. I can see what it’s trying to achieve. It’s trying to be a very funny, fluffy, light and irreverent story with a slightly ditzy protagonist and lots of zany amusement. Kind of like Mary-Janice Davidson’s Undead series.

But it really isn’t working for me. It’s trying to force all these puns and commentary and it just doesn’t work for me. And everything about the world and story kind of revolves around setting up the next joke or gag so it all kind of doesn’t work for me.

I don’t mind the story in this book – the beginning set up was annoying and the conclusion vexed me, but the middle was pretty interesting. I followed along wondering what they were going to do next, how they were going to rectify things and if they even could, especially from the coil. I was interested and engaged but a little frustrated that they seemed to be more witnesses than participants in the story.

I do give massive points to the awesome judge who set the court room lawyers homework to learn the damn law and banning them from watching courtroom dramas. I cheered that judge. I bow down to this judge. This judge is beyond awesome.

I would really like to see Kirsty involved in a storyline that didn’t come about because of her own mistakes. The second book came from one of her unintentional blunders in the first book and this book is based on her grabbing Dante’s scythe despite knowing there would be (admittedly ill-defined) consequences. If there’s a fourth book in the series, I’d very much like it not to be another episode of “Kirsty D’Arc, scrabbling to clear up her mess. Again.”

Scythe Does Matter (Reluctant Reaper Series #2) by Gina X Grant

Kristy is torn – she can stay in hell with Dante, or she can fight to return to her mortal life, see her friend and loved ones but possibly never have a relationship with Dante again. It’s a hard choice

But one becomes much clearer when her boss, who already schemed to claim her soul, is now plotting another extension and back up plan; he’s going after her aunt. Her aunt will do anything for Kirsty – even if it means sacrificing her soul thinking it will bring her out of her coma.

Her mission is now clear – especially after how little Kirsty appreciated her aunt when she was alive. She has to return to the mortal coil, she has to get her life back and save her aunt. And to do that, she needs to become a Reaper, with the power to travel on the coil and affect the people there

And it’s past time her boss was scythed. But first she has to go to university and pass the course.

On the plus side, this book manages to be more amusing than the last one because it doesn’t try so hard. It’s amusing because the characters are kind of fun, the world is a little quirky the whole thing is silly in a good way. The puns are still there but they are much much more restrained and it’s generally lost the whole sense of trying to FORCE the humour that the first book had.

We also had a more coherent story. Kirsty wasn’t just wandering around while random stuff randomly happened randomly around her with much randomness. Nor was she just following people around. She had a plan – admittedly not a good or decent one – was motivated and decided to act. It wasn’t a complicated plan, completely failed to take various things into account, was far from sensible and there were definitely more sensible routes she could have taken. But it was her plan, it was a goal and it was something she set out to do and eventually succeeded in (kind of).

There was also a suggestion of character growth in this book and a definite forward push in her character. She learned, she adapted she accepted her capabilities or lack thereof. It wasn’t huge, but she did work to become more of a character than a passive actor. She even assumes some elements of leadership and a driving force not just in her own life but in the characters around her. She takes charge of her life, she forms new relationships and even shows courage and dedication that is surprising after the first book

The Reluctant Reaper (Reluctant Reaper #1) by Gina X Grant

Kirsty D’Arc is happily living her life, doing her thing when her day is spoiled by being attacked by a stapler. A stapler. As if violent office supplies weren’t enough, she then finds her boss is actually trying to sell her soul – to get an extension on his old contract

A dizzying series of terrible accidents finds Kirsty down in Hell, the afterlife. And nothing is what she expected but nor is it easy to fix such a blatant mistake. She’s down there for some time – giving her chance to learn a little about herself, her family – and how little she had done with her life but also what she actually wants

Especially concerning attractive Reaper Dante.

You can tell this book was designed to be funny and light full of quips and wit and lots of giggly moments. It doesn’t take itself seriously, it often jumps into the ridiculous and positively wallows there. Everything is a little silly, a lot zany, a lot whacky and more than a little cartoony. And I can appreciate that – some of my favourite books have been those that are just loopy and out there and make me giggle all the time. It’s especially fun when you take something as serious and dark and mournful and, well, grim as a Grim Reaper and throw all this light, silly, funny joy on top. So it had a lot of potential

And completely missed the mark for me. I don’t think I laughed once, unfortunately, I’m not even sure if I cracked a smile. The humour is contrived, it doesn’t fit even in the zaniness. It relied a lot on convoluted mental monologues while Kirsty chased her own thoughts in circles until she could force out a quip (and setting up your own funny lines doesn’t work). There is an inordinate number of puns – puns on top of puns on top of puns that just don’t work for me even slightly.

It has the odd line like: “When life had handed me lemons, I’d gone online and purchased grapefruits. Victoria’s Secret was safe with me.” That wasn’t bad. But gee-nomes that sting you and alter your DNA? Lead by the streetsmart “metrognome”. She gets angry when it’s misty so becomes “misterical”. The mist that would not be missed?  I didn’t laugh – I did groan. I did look back and see if I had actually read that. Then I groaned again. And really, this is just the tip of the iceberg. It gets worse. It gets so much worse.

This is shaky ground to be on. You have a book whose prime selling point is its humour and, to me, it’s just not funny. That’s crashing and burning right there.

But, worse, humour is pretty much all the book has. The plot is really weak. She dies, she goes to Hell, she wanders around and random stuff happens. That’s about it – each random event is an excuse for some more zaniness and puns and maybe some world exploration – but there’s no actual plot. There’s a vague, background “oh I want to go back to my life” but she doesn’t actually do anything about that or about anything else. She just kind of exists. I think this is trying to set up her character as someone who has no karma – because that is exactly what she is in this setting, she has neither good karma nor bad karma (which is currency in this Hell) because she hasn’t actually lived; she never takes chances, she never does anything, she’s not an active participant in her own life. Which is an interesting thing to explore in both a character beginning to grow and over a series – but there’s nothing else in this book to provide a scaffolding around a deliberately blank protagonist.