Review ~ The Dirt On Ninth Grave by Darynda Jones

The Dirt On Ninth Grave by Darynda Jones
Narrator: Lorelei King
Length: 10 hrs 11 mins
Series: Charley Davidson #9
Published by St. Martin's Press on January 12, 2016
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 336

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I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

In a small village in New York lives Jane Doe, a girl with no memory of who she is or where she came from. So when she is working at a diner and slowly begins to realize she can see dead people, she's more than a little taken aback. Stranger still are the people entering her life. They seem to know things about her. Things they hide with lies and half-truths. Soon, she senses something far darker. A force that wants to cause her harm, she is sure of it. Her saving grace comes in the form of a new friend she feels she can confide in and the fry cook, a devastatingly handsome man whose smile is breathtaking and touch is scalding. He stays close, and she almost feels safe with him around.

But no one can outrun their past, and the more lies that swirl around her—even from her new and trusted friends—the more disoriented she becomes, until she is confronted by a man who claims to have been sent to kill her. Sent by the darkest force in the universe. A force that absolutely will not stop until she is dead. Thankfully, she has a Rottweiler. But that doesn't help in her quest to find her identity and recover what she's lost. That will take all her courage and a touch of the power she feels flowing like electricity through her veins. She almost feels sorry for him. The devil in blue jeans. The disarming fry cook who lies with every breath he takes. She will get to the bottom of what he knows if it kills her. Or him. Either way.

I was very unhappy with how Eighth Grave After Dark ended. That made me kind of leery going into The Dirt On Ninth Grave. I didn’t like where the storyline was headed and was just hoping that it would all turn around very quickly.

The Dirt On Ninth Grave kept me both frustrated and intrigued at the same time. I was constantly waiting for Charley to snap out of it. All our favorite characters are here, but they lurk in the background in the hopes that their everyday appearance will help. It drove me nuts that with all her friends and family around, she just couldn’t shake it. I thought for sure Cookie or Reyes was going to get through to her. The heat with Charley and Reyes was intense enough that it should have cut through the fog. Also, Cookie’s acting just really sucked! I laughed so hard at her trying to do a job she just wasn’t experienced enough to do at the same time as remembering to make sure Charley didn’t know who she was.

Charley’s powers have definitely progressed. Everything is new to her, so even the normal things she used to do fascinate her. The strength that comes out of her when her emotions get out of control are totally new. They also attract some unwanted attention. The attention she gets totally confuses her as she has no idea what these big, bad guys that Reyes keeps trying to save her from, really want. There is going to be some great conflict between these guys and Reyes. With Reyes’s reaction, I’m really scared to see what it comes down to.

Despite all this personal stuff Charley is going through, we still manage to have some interesting cases. As usual she finds herself in some pretty dangerous situations a few times. I particularly liked how Charley helped Erin. I was really creeped out by the picture thing. We also find out more interesting things about Charley & Reyes and what is to come for them.

I couldn’t stop reading because I was dying for Charley to come around. Every little thing hinted like she would remember, so I had to keep going. Also, the jumps between the mysteries were also really interesting. Although I found I was focused more on Charley’s mental health state. I couldn’t believe how the frustration I was feeling kept me so glued to the story. That very well could be a ploy to either keep us wrapped up in the story, or a way to kind of reboot and bring more possibilities into the series. For me, it definitely engrossed me.

For this book I read the ebook. I normally listen to this series and I think reading it made a big difference in my opinion. I found places that made me laugh were not as funny without Lorelei King’s voice. This is one time I may actually reread so I can listen to the audio.

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