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Release-Day Review: The Curse of Tenth Grave by Darynda Jones (Charley Davidson #10)

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The Curse of Tenth Grave by Darynda Jones // VBC ReviewThe Curse of Tenth Grave (Charley Davidson #10)
Darynda Jones
Published: June 28, 2016 (St. Martin’s)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon
Review source: copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review

Reviewed by: Margaret

Rating (out of 5): 4 stars

Note: While this review will be spoiler free, it does make reference to previous books. If you haven’t started this series yet, check out VBC’s review of book1, First Grave on the Right.

You might remember that the last Charley Davidson book, The Dirt on Ninth Grave was… let’s go with “not my favorite in the series.” But it did advance the series plot in important ways. Charley has taken a big step forward in her understanding of her powers and her purpose. (Her complete cluelessness was one of the things that has bothered me periodically in previous books.) The problem is that along with knowledge of her own nature, Charley learned about Reyes’s. And she’s afraid her husband might be evil.

The Curse of Tenth Grave feels like early books in the series to me in some ways. Charley’s insecurity about her relationship with Reyes, and her crazy attraction to him, feel very familiar. In vintage Charley fashion, she antagonizes detectives and district attorneys in the course of investigating her latest case, a murder where all evidence points to the victim’s boyfriend. And she solves a few extra cases along the way, one with her friend in the FBI and one involving a homeless girl she finds in an alley.

But at the same time, Charley’s a little more mature and a little more organized, though both of those are relative terms where Charley’s concerned. Knowing that she’s a god seems to have given her confidence, though not as much as you might expect–she’s still very much Charley. She uses her new powers in subtle ways, for the most part, that don’t detract from her familiar personality. Although she kisses seemingly everyone in this book, which is new.

I never expected that snarky P.I. who names everything from her car to her body parts would turn out to be a deity. And frankly, I was a little bit skeptical when angels started showing up in the series. But Jones puts an unexpected twist on Judeo-Christian mythology and blends it with the existing series mythos. And it works. I’m no longer a skeptic.

I’m happy to say that I enjoyed The Curse of Tenth Grave much more than the previous book in the series. I’m back on the Charley Davidson bandwagon and I’m looking forward to its next stop.

Sexual content: graphic sex

3 Responses to “Release-Day Review: The Curse of Tenth Grave by Darynda Jones (Charley Davidson #10)”

  1. Amy M says:

    I’m almost finished with this one. I’m enjoying it more than Ninth Grave as well.

    I think the best thing is that Charley is finally back on “home turf”. I didn’t realize it until we start seeing all the familiar characters and everyone’s like “where have you been Charley?” But Charley went away at the end of Seventh Grave to finish out her pregnancy and then of course Ninth Grave where she’s completely out of the picture (with amnesia and all).

    So it was really nice to see her back to her PI business and harassing the local police etc. Like you say, Tenth feels like early books, but with a tad bit more maturity / understanding on Charley’s part.

    Ok, now I’m off to finish the book now 🙂

    • Margaret says:

      I think that being back to “normal” might be why it feels like early books, but I loved Eighth Grave when they were away from home too.

  2. Jo @ Vampire Book Club says:

    I *really* need to catch up, I’m now 2 books behind!! :0

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