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A review by sashapasha
The Dirt on Ninth Grave by Darynda Jones
4.0
It’s not often that I approach a series with absolutely no consideration for order, but in the case of Charley Davidson, I wasn’t initially impressed enough when I read the first book some years ago to care. In fact, I’m not entirely sure what prompted me to pick up them back up again, but in the past few weeks I’ve read the fifth, fourth, sixth, and now the ninth, and discovered a few truths:
• These aren’t great books.
• They aren’t particularly strong in the plot department—actually, they couldn’t be more formulaic if they’d been written while consulting a chemistry textbook. (It’s a pretty safe bet to say that they will always end with Charley sustaining some awful injuries and solving about three different cases at once.)
• They are horrifically oversexed, waxing fifty pages too many about how the love interest redefines perfection, his dick is gilded in gold, etc.
• All the characters are shockingly beautiful, handsome, attractive, etc, except for a select few, and these poor homely folks just also happen to be evil.
• Charley Davidson is goddamned lovable.
Charley's wit and charm are what kept me reading, and yes, I did enjoy the romantic drama a bit. While all of Charley's constant internal dialogue about the otherworldly perfection of Reyes Farrow can be annoying, after a point I sort of got used to it and could finally stop rolling my eyes long enough for his character to grow on me.
Particularly after reading the 9th book, I’ve started to see why they love each other a little more. I think what initially turned me off so strongly to the first book was how instantaneous and absurdly strong their attraction was. Like, there were entire pages dedicated to describing Reyes’s hotness in minute detail, and that doesn’t normally do it for me. I prefer to be shown how attractive the love interests are through their actions, rather than be told ad nauseam that their mere presence can melt the loins off of fifty women and a glance from them can catapult a women to seventh heaven in one explosively orgasmic moment, blah blah blah….
So in summary, I think if you like the main character and the humor does it for you, then this series will be a fun, fluffy distraction. If you don’t like Charley, then there’s not much else to impress.
• These aren’t great books.
• They aren’t particularly strong in the plot department—actually, they couldn’t be more formulaic if they’d been written while consulting a chemistry textbook. (It’s a pretty safe bet to say that they will always end with Charley sustaining some awful injuries and solving about three different cases at once.)
• They are horrifically oversexed, waxing fifty pages too many about how the love interest redefines perfection, his dick is gilded in gold, etc.
• All the characters are shockingly beautiful, handsome, attractive, etc, except for a select few, and these poor homely folks just also happen to be evil.
• Charley Davidson is goddamned lovable.
Charley's wit and charm are what kept me reading, and yes, I did enjoy the romantic drama a bit. While all of Charley's constant internal dialogue about the otherworldly perfection of Reyes Farrow can be annoying, after a point I sort of got used to it and could finally stop rolling my eyes long enough for his character to grow on me.
Particularly after reading the 9th book, I’ve started to see why they love each other a little more. I think what initially turned me off so strongly to the first book was how instantaneous and absurdly strong their attraction was. Like, there were entire pages dedicated to describing Reyes’s hotness in minute detail, and that doesn’t normally do it for me. I prefer to be shown how attractive the love interests are through their actions, rather than be told ad nauseam that their mere presence can melt the loins off of fifty women and a glance from them can catapult a women to seventh heaven in one explosively orgasmic moment, blah blah blah….
So in summary, I think if you like the main character and the humor does it for you, then this series will be a fun, fluffy distraction. If you don’t like Charley, then there’s not much else to impress.