More murder. More mayhem. More champagne.
Toni Windsor is failing at 'happily ever after,' but it really isn't her fault.
All she wants is true love and the perfect wardrobe, but it doesn't look like they are coming her way any time soon. Instead, there are murders to solve and zombies to raise, and she's broken her phone again.
Worst of all, her shiny new boyfriend turns out to be a jerk; maybe dating a vampire wasn't her best decision ever?
I adored the first book in the series (Grave Secrets) so I was thrilled to see a second book arrive and even more so when I was asked to take part in the blog tour to promote it.
When we join Toni this time she is in the morgue attempting to help her police officer brother Wills track down the murderer of a teenage girl - an experience that Toni finds incredibly unsettling - not because she's in the morgue - she is after all a necromancer but because the girl bears a startling resemblance to Toni and was a pupil at Toni's old school. Drawn in Toni is determined to track down the girls killer - even if it means starting her own investigation when she believes the police are looking in the wrong places.
As if that wasn't enough to be going on with Benedict Akil the head of Oscar's [remember him, Toni's hot Vampire boyfriend] and therefore by default Toni's assemblage has a job for Toni too - to track down and talk to the Vampire healer who has appeared in Benedicts turf without invite.
To top it all off Oscar is being a bigger jerk than ever and very quickly we see a turn in that relationship as Toni struggles to know what to do for the best. Made even more complicated by the fact that Peter (also Oscar's partner) is tied up in whatever decision Toni makes too - she can't have one without the other and Peter is a sweetheart.
At this point a trigger warning feels appropriate - this book does deal with physical and emotional domestic violence. It is well handled and sensitively done but it is a significant part of the plot so if you find this hard to read this maybe isn't the book for you.
I said after reading the first book that I rather liked Benedict despite Toni's dislike of him and that definitely played out in this book. He's a hugely fascinating character who is everything I want a powerful vampire to be while also having a hidden emotional side. We got to see a lot more of vampire society and the way the community worked, I'm glad we did because it gave context to a lot of Benedicts actions.
Paul (murder suspect, turned Toni's sidekick) was a brilliant addition and the double act the two of them built up was great. Nice to see Toni having another living relationship too.
There were less Zombies for this outing but I'm thrilled that we still got to visit Bredon a couple of time too, he's such a wonderful character and I'm thrilled that he got to expand his horizons in this book a bit more too. His hanging out with Paul was brilliant.
I can't end a review of this book without mentioning the awesome artwork at the beginning of each chapter too - I loved it in the first book and I'm so pleased it's stayed for the second. That little drawing definitely adds something and it makes me smile every time.
Fun, fast paced, emotional, this book was a delight to read.
With thanks to Alice James and Solaris for a copy in exchange for honest review.
Grave Danger is out now.
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