Fifth Grave Past the Light

Charley Davidson, Book #5

By Darynda Jones

ISBN# 9781250014405

Author’s Website:  http://www.daryndajones.com/

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi

*Beware of Possible Spoilers*

Okay my fellow readers; we’ve all been anxiously awaiting some more Charley and definitely some more Reyes!  So needless to say I was stoked when this book arrived on my doorstep.   This is one of those series that makes me extremely happy to be a reviewer and affording me the ability to get the book a few weeks before its release date!  Sit back and enjoy!

 

In Fifth Grave Past the Light, Charley finds her apartment being overrun by a horde of scared, dirty, and bloody women; all departed of course.  And, strangely enough, all blonde.  All the women are too skittish to even talk to Charley, which makes finding out what they need from her to be incredibly hard.  They appear to be the victims of a serial killer, but based on their appearance their deaths span decades.  Why are they suddenly showing up now?  It’s up to Charley to find out what happened so they can finally be at peace and she can get her apartment back!

Meanwhile, Reyes is making himself at home as Charley’s ‘disobedient’ neighbor.  Those that have read the book will know what I’m talking about:)

“We should date.”

I laughed, curled him into my arms, and kissed the soft spot underneath his earlobe. “You’re going to have to go to obedience school for that to happen. You have authority issues.”

“Never mind. We should have sex again and then date.”

“Since you put it that way, okay.”

But Reyes would rather be more than neighbors and makes it clear at every turn.  And, let’s face it; he’s pretty irresistible, even to the Grim Reaper!

But when Gemma’s life is in danger, Charley will do anything to protect her … even sell her soul to the son of Satan himself!

“What do you want?”

“You,” he said, his voice lowering an octave. “I want you, Dutch, body and soul. I want you in my bed every night. I want you there when I wake up in the morning. I want your clothes strung across my apartment and your scent on my skin.”

This was another great book in the Charley Davidson series that all her fans will be sure to love!  The humor is once again top-notch, the steam factor is definitely there with a certain wrongly accused ex-con, whom I personally can NOT get enough of and this book is one you will not want to put down!

Let’s start off with Gemma (you thought I was going to start with Reyes right? I totally fooled you!).  I have really enjoyed seeing her and Charley’s relationship evolve over the last couple of books.  Remember when they couldn’t stand to be in the same room?  Now, Charley loves her so much she’d risk anything for her!  I think they are really starting to understand each other.  It’s sweet.  And, I really like to watch them annoy each other, like normal siblings do!

Garrett is still coming to grips with his trip to hell and back, but appears that he is finally getting some clarity, and it appears that he will be a huge help in the fight to keep Charley breathing!

Cookie was a lot of fun in this one as well, but I’m curious to see who she’s going to end up with romantically.  I do kind of like the idea of her with Mr. Swopes, and she would be perfect to help him deal with what we discover in this book.  But, then Reyes and Garrett wouldn’t be as much fun to watch with their male posturing over Charley.

And, finally what you’ve all been waiting for!  Reyes.  Farrow.  He is definitely at the top of his game in this book!  The perfect mix of sexy, sarcastic, funny, and did I say sexy?  We get some smexy bits with him and Charley that are a lot of fun.

“Hey, wait,” I said, pulling back, “you are the son of Satan. Maybe we need a safe word.”

His grin morphed into something wickedly charming. “Okay, how about, ‘Oh, my god, it’s so big.'”

Laughter burst out of me before I could stop it. Not that it wasn’t. “That would be a safe phrase, but okay.” I thought about it, then said, “How about ‘Is that all you’ve got?”

Then later….

“With a deep regret, I wiggled out from under him despite his sleepy protests and grabbed articles of clothing as I tiptoed to his door. What amazing willpower I had. What fantastic self-control. I’d come over for one reason, and everything but that reason seemed to be resolved. When I reached the door, I saw what looked like another note. But this was his door, not mine. I peeled it off, then angled it until I could read it by the light of the fire.

Is that all you’ve got?

With a smile spreading slowly across my face, I dropped everything I’d just picked up and went back for more.”

Reyes’s wisecracks are good enough to rival even Charley’s!  I especially loved when he made that deal over Gemma considering where she was at the time!  Also, the post-it notes were fun.

“A wicked grin crinkled one corner of his mouth as he secured another sticky note on the door before shutting it in my face.

I blinked, then read the note.

Use the key.”

And, of course I loved Reyes’s protectiveness and possessiveness over Charley.  It’s always fun to ‘watch’!

“I noticed you tore down Donovan’s house.”

He lifted his gaze until it locked with mine. “He’s alive because he left town. His house chose to stay. It paid the price.”

The only thing I didn’t like in this book, was I found the synopsis to be a little deceiving.  It made it sound like the only reason Charley was getting close to Reyes again was so he’d protect Gemma.  In reality, they were already close and the Gemma thing was just a small moment anyway … not the whole book.  But really this complaint is minor and the story was great!

There are some loose ends still … the biggest one for me was Rocket’s prediction.  I’m anxious to see if that will be revealed in the next book, along with Charley’s reaction to that last scene of the book!

If you haven’t already, go pre-order this book now!  You will love it!  You will want to read it over and over again, so you must have a copy of your very own!