[R] Eight Grave After Dark, by: Darynda Jones

Eight Grave After Dark
(Charley Davidson #8)
by: Darynda Jones

★★★★★

Charley Davidson has enough to be getting on with. She is, after all, incredibly pregnant and feeling like she could pop at any moment. But, just her luck, twelve deadly beasts from hell have chosen this time to escape, and they've made Charley their target. She takes refuge at the only place they can't get to her: the grounds of an abandoned convent. Before long, Charley also has a new case to hold her attention: the decades-old murder of a newly-vowed nun she keeps seeing in the shadows of the convent.

Add to that the still unsolved murder of her father, the strange behavior of her husband, and Charley's tendency to attract the, shall we say, undead, and she has her hands full . . . but also tied. While the angry hellhounds can't traverse the consecrated soil, they lurk beyond its borders like evil sentries, so Charley has been forbidden from leaving the sacred grounds and is powerless to get the answers she wants.

Luckily, she has her loyal team with her, and they're a scrappy bunch. They scour the prophesies, searching for clues on the Twelve, and their presence is comforting - it's almost as though they've all been drawn to her as part of a bigger picture . . . But the good feelings don't last for long because Charley is about to get the surprise of her crazy, mixed-up, supernatural life.

Ok, well, I have issues. Serious issues. Not with the book persé, but how it end. And whatever comes after, too. I have those issues. I am actually very ohkay with the fact that end in a cliff, because most of the books in this series end that way, but I am not ohkay exactly how THIS ONE ended. I did not like it one bit. But the book still is five stars, because it was that good.

If I, and you, thought that Darynda couldn't spin the bottle of plot twists more... dude, we were wrong. So so wrong. I'm kind of having Charley's ADD right now. While writing this review, my mind is running like at the speed of light. I just cannot freaking swallow the whole book, no matter how slow or fast or times I read it all. SO many things happened. Let me make an order of scenes:

• Charley is eight month pregnant. The book starts the day of Cookie and Ubie's wedding.
• Kit and the new Agent Waters arrive with a case for Charley of a kidnapping (the girl is Waters' niece).
• There is a LOT of departed in the convent, even a chick crying in Charley's closet. The hellhounds are outsite of the perimeter just waiting. For what? Read the book!
• A departed nun that doesn't talk has Charley very curious.
• Reyes is acting overly strange and having meetings with Angel (which angers Charley because she wants to be part of it).
• Charley has her secret meetings too with a PI who is doing her dirty work. Like finding Reyes' real parents and all. Which they want to meet him, so Charley has to talk to Reyes about them.

I'll stop right there and will not tell the spoilers. But you see that no matter that Charley is pregtastic, she still finds trouble. What can we do, we love her that way, right?

My issues with the book are mostly founded with the end, but if we cut that part out. Jeez. 300 pages of full action. We even met the real Mr. Wong and Lucifer too! (oops, spoilers? com'on, we saw that coming!). I don't want to talk about character development, because this book really had drastic changes. The plot got so deep that we went to hell and its void... like really really. And don't get me started on the end. Not going to talk about it now.

I'm still debating if to read the ninth book or not. I know it will be kind of slow and the end will leave me wanting much more and the next book isn't out until June. BUT if I get an ARC of it, I'm certainly going to read it. Where can I get one of those? I googled it and apparently in netgalley, but is not up get. I NEED A COPY, NETGALLEY! Anyways, still debating reading number nine.

No matter that it end, this is a series that I would recommend with my eyes closed. I have faith that Darynda will give me an HEA at the end of book eleven. I don't know if she pretends to write more (don't hope so), but for now that's it. Read me later! But I'll probably will not write about this series for a while. Its hurting me. #RightInTheFeels