Grave Witch, by Kalayna Price

From the back cover: Grave witch Alex Craft can speak to the dead, but that doesn't mean she likes what they have to say.

As a private investigator and a consultant for the police, Alex Craft has seen a lot of dark magic. But even though she's on good terms with Death himself - who happens to look fantastic in jeans - nothing has prepared her for her latest case. Alex is investigating a high-profile murder when she's attacked by the 'shade' she's raising, which should be impossible. To top off her day, someone makes a serious attempt on her life, but Death saves her. Guess he likes having her around...

To solve this case Alex will have to team up with tough homicide detective Falin Andrews. Falin seems to be hiding something - though it's certainly not his dislike of Alex. But Alex knows she needs his help to navigate the tangled webs of mortal and paranormal politics, and to track down a killer who wields a magic so malevolent, it may cost Alex her life... and her soul.

First of all - look at the cover! Isn't it gorgeous? I love it, and it really holds the atmosphere of the book.

I’d never heard of this book before, or the author, but the blurb sounded interesting, and the cover looked cool, so I picked it up. It certainly didn’t disappoint.

Things are exciting from the very first sentence, where Alex admits she first met Death when she was five. Now, she’s trying to talk to a client, while Death hovers behind him, taking his soul before they can finish the conversation. Escaping this situation, Alex heads for the morgue to help her estranged family, and hopefully get paid. Of course it doesn’t turn out that simply, and with one of her friends in a coma in hospital, she has to figure out what’s going on. This all happens in the first 35 pages, and I had to read the rest of the book just as quickly. I took it to lectures with me, reading under the table whenever the lecturer didn’t seem to be saying anything important.

I love a lot of things about this book. There is always something important happening, and it’s always interesting. It’s told from Alex’s perspective, and it was very entertaining to read - I like her sense of humour. I loved how Death was taking a more personal interest in Alex. The coffee-sharing scene, where she has to hold the cup for him - sooo sexy! Drinking coffee will never be the same. I thought Falin was an idiot at first, another annoying cop where there are books full of them. But as we get to know him, I realised as Alex did that Falin isn’t so bad after all, and he’s another yummy guy to read about. I can’t wait to see in future books where these romantic beginnings go. There are a lot of problems with both relationships, and I want to see more about the fallout from certain things revealed about Falin at the end of the book.

My favourite thing was the mystery that Alex is trying to solve, the twists and turns as you try and work out who the bad guy is, and what they’re trying to achieve. Combined with the romance, this is what kept me reading so fast. Alex is a great main character to read about. Even without people trying to kill her, she would have a pretty interesting day to day life. I can’t wait to learn more about her and her world in the sequel, and I wish it came out sooner than July!

9 out of 10