Saying goodbye to Charley Davidson + Giveaway

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Grim Reaper Charley Davidson is back in the final installment of Darynda Jones’ New York Times bestselling paranormal series! 

Charley Davidson, Grim Reaper extraordinaire, is pissed. She’s been kicked off the earthly plane for eternity—which is exactly the amount of time it takes to make a person stark, raving mad. But someone’s looking out for her, and she’s allowed to return after a mere hundred years in exile. Is it too much to hope for that not much has changed? Apparently it is. Bummer. 

She’s missed her daughter. She’s missed Reyes. She’s missed Cookie and Garrett and Uncle Bob. Now that she’s back on earth, it’s time to put to rest burning questions that need answers. What happened to her mother? How did she really die? Who killed her? And are cupcakes or coffee the best medicine for a broken heart? It all comes to a head in an epic showdown between good and evil in this final smart and hilarious novel.

My Review

Ok, so you could call my feelings about wanting to read this book "bittersweet". I could not wait to revisit and hang out with Charley, Reyes, and the rest of the gang but at the same time I was not ready to say good bye to them either. Luckily, this book did keep up with my expectations and ended on a good note. Although, I hope that Mrs. Jones did revisit this series in a way with Beep as the lead character. I think there is more that us readers have yet to discover in Beep and what abilities she inherited from her parents.

As this is the final book it is only appropriate that the final showdown be a family affair "literally". Charley and Reyes forever. They are one of my favorite couples. It was great seeing every one again as well. I learned more about where Charley came from and who she got her sense of humor from. While, this is the last book there is still plenty of humor to be found as well. Fans of this series will be happy with this book. Thirteen may be considered "unlucky" but the only ones "unlucky" are the readers who don't pick up a copy of this book.

BUY LINK

 

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author DARYNDA JONES won a Golden Heart and a RITA for her manuscript First Grave on the Right. A born storyteller, she grew up spinning tales of dashing damsels and heroes in distress for any unfortunate soul who happened by, annoying man and beast alike. Darynda lives in the Land of Enchantment, also known as New Mexico, with her husband and two beautiful sons, the Mighty, Mighty Jones Boys.

 

DARYNDA’S SOCIAL LINKS: Twitter: http://twitter.com/Darynda Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/darynda.jones.official
Website: http://www.daryndajones.com/

SMP Romance Twitter: https://twitter.com/heroesnhearts & https://twitter.com/SMPRomance SMP Romance Website: https://heroesandheartbreakers.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1

What, pray tell, the fuck?

—T-shirt

 

 

 

 

 

It wasn’t until I felt the sun on my face that I knew, really knew, I’d made it back. The bright orb drifted over the horizon like a hot air balloon, blinding me, yet I couldn’t stop looking at it. Or, well, trying to look at it. After giving it my all through squinted lids, I gave up and closed them. Let the warmth wash over me. Let it sink into my skin. Flood every molecule in my body.

God knew I needed it. I hadn’t had a drop of vitamin D in over a hundred years. My bones were probably brittle and shriveled and splintery. Much like the current state of my psyche.

But that’s what happens when you defy a god.

Not just any god, mind you. No siree Bob. To get booted off the big blue marble, one had to defy the God. The very One a particular set of children’s books called Jehovahn.

The Man had some serious control issues. I bring one person back from the dead and bam. Banished for all eternity. Exiled to a hell with no light, no hair products, and no coffee.

Mostly no coffee.

And, just to throw salt onto a gaping, throbbing flesh wound, no tribe. In this dimension, the one with the yellow sun and champagne-colored sand on which I now walked, I had a husband and a daughter and more friends than I could shake a stick at. But in the lightless realm I’d been banished to, I’d had nothing. I floated in darkness for over one hundred agonizing years, tormented by dreams of a husband I could no longer

touch and a daughter I could no longer protect.

She would be gone by now. Our daughter. I will have missed her en- tire life. The thought alone shattered me. Cut into me like shards of glass every time I breathed.

But I’d missed more than her life. It had been prophesied that she would face Lucifer in a great battle for humanity. That she would have an army at her back and, fingers crossed, a warrior at her side. And that she would stand against evil when no one else could.

I’d wondered for dozens of years if she’d won, the pain of not knowing, of not being able to help, driving me to the brink of insanity. Then I realized something and a peculiar kind of peace came over me. Of course she’d won. She was the daughter of two gods. More to the point, she was her father’s daughter, the god Rey’azikeen’s only child. She would’ve been wily and cunning and strong. Of course she won.

That’s what I’d told myself over and over for the last thirty-odd years of my exile. But now I was back. An exile that was supposed to be for all eternity stopped just short, in my humble opinion, of its goal.

Unfortunately, I had no idea why I was back. I’d felt myself being drawn forward, pulled through space and time until the darkness that surrounded me gave way to the unforgiving brightness of Earth’s yellow sun. That big, beautiful ball of fire I’d so often complained about as a resident of New Mexico, where sunshine was damned near a daily occurrence.

The horror!

And here it was, bathing me in its brilliance as my feet sank into dew-

 

covered sand with every step I took. I walked toward it. The sun. Craving more. Begging for more.

“I will never complain about you again,” I said, tilting my face toward the heavens, because the thought of my daughter growing up without me wasn’t the only thing that had driven me to the edge of sanity. Nor the heartbreak of missing my husband. His hands on my body. His full mouth at my ear. His sparkling eyes hooded by impossibly thick lashes.

No, it was the perpetual darkness that pushed me so far inside myself I could hardly stay conscious.

I’d tried to escape. To find my way back to my family and friends. Boy, had I tried. But it seemed like the harder I struggled, the deeper I sank. The realm in which I’d been cast was like an inky, ethereal form of quick- sand. If not for the wraiths . . .

I stopped and bent my head to listen. Someone was following me, and for the first time since materializing on the earthly plane, I tried to take in my surroundings. With my vision adjusting, I could just make out the sea of peaches and golds that stretched out before me. Sand as far as the eye could see.

Then it hit me. The Sahara. I’d been here before. With him.

I started walking again, slowly, making him come to me as I used every ounce of strength I had to tamp down the elation coursing through my veins.

I’d dreamed about this moment for so long, a part of me wondered if it were real. Or if I were hallucinating. But I felt the warmth radiating from his body and I knew. Heat—his heat—pulsated over me in rich, fervent waves, stirring parts of me that hadn’t been stirred in decades. Or churned. Or even whisked, for that matter.

I dared a glance over my shoulder. My knees weakened and my stomach clenched at the sight. Dressed as a desert nomad in traditional, sky- blue garb, he followed at a leisurely pace. A light breeze pressed his robe against his body, outlining his wide shoulders, long arms, and lean waist.

A turban of the same sky blue had been wrapped around his head and face until only his eyes shone through.

Dark. Shimmering. Intent.

Like that could fool me. Like I wouldn’t know my husband from a thousand miles away. His essence. His aura. His scent.

Of course, the ever-present fire that licked over his skin, the lightning that arced around him, didn’t hurt.

He moved like an animal. A predator. Powerful and full of confidence and grace. Every step calculated. Every move a conscious act.

And he was closing in.

I turned back to the horizon, my heart bursting with the knowledge that my husband was still here. Still on Earth. Still sexy as fuck.

And yet, there was something not quite . . .

I whirled around to face him when I realized part of what I was feel- ing, part of the tangle of tightly packed emotions that made Reyes Reyes, was anger.

No. Not anger precisely. Anger would be far too tame a word. He was livid. Furious. Enraged. And it was all directed at me.

 

A FUN FACT FOR EACH OF THE CHARLEY BOOKS:

 

First Grave on the Right

·         The concept for First Grave came about while Darynda was working as a sign language interpreter in her hometown. She stole many of the names from students at the schools where she worked, including Reyes, Garrett, and Amber. As far as Darynda knows, they have all forgiven her for her thievery.

 

Second Grave on the Left

·         Uncle Bob is a combination of two people: Darynda’s oldest brother, Luther, and the principal at the high school where she worked for several years.

 

Third Grave Dead Ahead

·         This was originally titled Third Grave Straight Ahead, but Darynda’s web designer, Liz Bemis, asked her to change the name to Dead Ahead. Firstly, it fit the content better, and secondly, Liz got tired of spelling the word Straight wrong while updating the website. Dead is much easier to type.

 

Fourth Grave Beneath My Feet

·         Quentin Rutherford makes his first appearance in this book. While his first name was stolen from Darynda’s little brother and his last name stolen from yet another Jr. High student, Quentin is physically sculpted from her oldest son, Jerrdan, a bona fide blond-haired, blue-eyed devil with a sparkling smile that melts even the staunchest of hearts. And, like Quentin Rutherford, he was born Deaf. Not that he let it stop him for a second.

 

Fifth Grave Past the Light

·         This book was fun to write! Darynda was trying to come up with something truly creepy to throw into the book, and she figured what would be creepier than having an apartment full of departed women crawling up the walls, skittering across the ceiling, and huddling in the corners? Also, it is one of the hotter books, so that was fun, too. Because, you know, Reyes.

 

Sixth Grave on the Edge

·         Darynda really wanted to open this one on a humorous note. She wanted to have Charley on a stakeout with a departed elderly man, who also happens to be naked, riding shotgun. Which begs the question: Are we really stuck in (or out of) whatever we are wearing when we die for all eternity? ‘Cause that would suck.

 

Seventh Grave and No Body

·         Osh’ekiel was originally supposed to be in one book only. And he was supposed to be a very bad guy. But Darynda fell in love with him while writing the book and decided to redeem him and give him a bigger role. Just how big his role would become didn’t come to Darynda until plotting Eighth Grave. He has been one of her favorite characters since she wrote that first scene with him.

 

Eighth Grave After Dark

·         Darynda wanted to really turn the tables on Charley and force her to have to stay in one place, thus the sacred ground of the convent came into play. It was fun and challenging to write a “locked room” mystery, so to speak, but that’s why she loves writing so much.

 

The Dirt on Ninth Grave

·         One of Darynda’s favorite books in the series, she looked forward to writing this book ever since she came up with the concept while plotting Sixth Grave. Part of what makes a romance so fun is the falling-in-love part, and she wanted Charley to fall in love with Reyes all over again. This book was doubly fun because the audience knows all the characters’ backstories, and they get to watch in anticipation as Charley slowly unravels the mysteries of her past, while seeing her fall head-over-heels for the same guy all over again.

 

The Curse of Tenth Grave

·         This book had one of those too-close-for-comfort calls. Right before Tenth Grave went to print, after going through editors and copyeditors and readers of all shapes and sizes, a savvy proofreader let Darynda in on a little secret: A Sherpa is part of a culture, not an occupation. Thanks to this razor-sharp reader, Darynda narrowly escaped insulting an entire culture in one fell swoop. Aka, her worst nightmare. Her gratitude is unending.

 

Eleventh Grave in Moonlight

·         Darynda dreamed of going to Scotland for so long, she finally decided to just put it in one of her books. She had Charley accidently materialize in the magical country, only to find out weeks after finishing the book that she would finally get to go there herself. In person. For realsies. It was even more magical than she’d imagined it would be, and she can’t wait to go back.

 

The Trouble with Twelfth Grave

·         This book has one of Darynda’s favorite epiphanies EVER!!! She thought, what if someone out there in the universe, a child perhaps, knows everything about Reyes and Charley? Everything starting from their supernatural heritage to their human identities? And what if that person wrote a book about them? Or a series of books? Say, perhaps, a set of children’s books and Garrett just happens to stumble upon them while doing research? How fun would that be? And the international bestselling children’s book (fictionally speaking) The First Star was born.

 

Summoned to Thirteenth Grave

·         By far the hardest story in the series to write, penning the last Charley book was a bittersweet experience. But Darynda knew she had to go big or go home, so what better way to go out with a bang than to end the world as we know it by starting the zombie apocalypse? Because that’s what writers do. We start apocalypses.

 

Q&A with Darynda Jones

How did you come up with Charley?

So, I’m lying in bed one morning, waiting for my turn in the shower, when Charley popped into my head in all her glory. I loved her from the get-go. I will add that I was looking for her. I had just typed The End on my second complete manuscript, a YA titled Death and the Girl Next Door which later sold to my amazing editor along with the Charley books. So, I was craving another project. I knew I wanted it to be adult and paranormal. That was all I had. And then Charley walked in.

 

What has it been like to planning and writing this series, and how does it feel to be wrapping it up?

I had no clue! I dreamed, of course. We all do that. But for that dream to become a reality…it’s quite surreal. I have the best job in the world. Planning and writing the last two books have been bittersweet. I love writing these books so much, so the fact that it’s coming to an end is a little heartbreaking, but I want to go out with a bang. Like a HUGE one. I hope everyone loves reading them as much as I’ve loved writing them.

 

Are there any side characters or plots you wish you would have developed more?

Actually, yes. In Fifth Grave Past the Light, I brought in a character named Nicolette Lemay, gave her an insanely cool gift, then never brought her back in again. We see her briefly in Twelfth Grave, but I wish I’d done more with her.

 

Can you give us a sneak peek into how it all ends? What do you hope readers feel as they reach the last page?

I am very hopeful that readers will feel a sense of happiness, closure and (dare I dream?) euphoria. All I can say is that this book is truly darkest before the dawn. Charley and Reyes have accidentally opened a hell dimension within our own, and they have to figure out how to close it before it takes over the world. But it’s expanding exponentially, and soon there will be nothing left of the world as we know it. But with a little help from Charley's departed mother, one clue leads Charley in the right direction and, hopefully, to the secret to stopping the hell dimension and save all of humanity. Sadly, she only has three days to do it. 

 

What's the next project you're working on?

Right now I am working on a brand new series, a trilogy set in a small town in New Mexico with a sheriff named Sunshine, a missing girl named Olivia, and a murder suspect named Levi. Too bad she is in way over her head, especially since the missing girl is her daughter's best friend and Sunshine has been in love with Levi since she could breathe. 

 

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