R.I.P. IV -- Book #2

Having completed Peril the Third with my first book, I have now completed Peril the second with this one.

 

Peril the Second:

Read Two books of any length, from any subgenre of scary stories that you choose.

For my second book, I chose Living with the Dead by Kelley Armstrong. This is the 9th book in her Women of the Otherworld series.

One of the reasons I really like this series is that it doesn't just follow any one character from book to book. Rather, Ms. Armstrong has chosen to create a wonderful world for her characters to inhabit, then with each book gives us a story centered around one (or a group) of characters. A character who is a the main character in one book will show up in the next as a minor character. Often you will see an event from a previous book only this time thru the eyes of a different character. This tends to keep the stories and world fresh.

This book, while good, wasn't quite as sharp as some of the others in the series. It tells a story while also exploring love-- what it means to find it, and to lose it. If you have read any of the other books in the series, you will be thrilled to find Hope Adams (the half-demon) and her boyfriend Karl (werewolf AND jewel thief) are in this up to their eyeballs.

The story is about Hope's friend, Robyn. Robyn is a regular human and has no idea that the 'Otherworld' exists, but she is about to find out! A PR rep for a 'celebutante' named Portia Kane, who is murdered, she becomes the prime suspect for the murder. In clearing her name we will get to meet a Necromancer (someone who can see/speak with the dead), who doesn't know that is what he is (he just thinks he has this odd family 'gift'), Robyn's dead husband, a whole clan of clairvoyants, and a psychopath.

While I am glad to have read this book, I would not recommend it as a starting point for this series. While for the most part this series does not require you to read them in a certain order and allows you to just jump into whichever book you pick up, this book is not one of those. You do need a little background from the other books for it to really work. If the books sound interesting, I would recommend starting with either Bitten or Dime Store Magic. However, be warned, once you dip into these books you will want to read them all to find out what happens to your favorite characters.