Dead – Z. Elizabeth

Synopsis

Nicki Sosebee’s adventures continue…

Nicki’s love life might suck, but her sex life is great. The only way both could be spectacular would be if her best friend Sean would look at her as more than just a friend. Nicki knows she’s stuck in the friend zone, so she focuses her energies on her job. She’s becoming a better reporter every day, so when her editor asks her to interview a local politician, Nicki is thrilled. But when the politician’s secretary ends up dead, it’s anybody’s guess as to who did it. Nicki has a few ideas, though, and finds herself in deep trouble as she pokes her nose where she thinks it belongs.

Warning: Not for the faint of heart! This book contains explicit sex and naughty language. Proceed with caution…if you dare

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My Review

Dead continues a two weeks after where Got the Life finished.

As the Political reporter at the local newspaper is off on a deserved two week holiday, Neal has got Nicki to fill his place, and so off she goes to interview the local Politician, who takes the time to continually talk himself up, causing Nicki to become agitated by it, not that she would show it.

The next day though, his secretary, Sara, is found dead and that’s when Nicki begins to delve into her death. But you know with Nicki, nothing is ever straight forward and she begins to try and find out who killed Sara. But it causes more harm than good for everyone she speaks to and since she’s been poking her nose around, there’s one person who doesn’t want her reporting on the story and would rather her be 6 feet under too.

Nicki has a lot of character development in the second book and with her being called a ‘rookie’ by her boss, I feel she has actually come so far in her reporting; asking questions, trying to get the truth, and seeing different angles to the local news stories. Although she still harbours feelings for Sean, she begins to see Jesse in another light, after they spend a bit of time together at a function held by Commissioner Cannon. I felt her emotions when she was completely dumbfounded over seeing Jesse in a different light. It’s one thing to know someone likes you, but when someone seems to flick a switch and you suddenly see them differently too, it can come all at once and I felt that’s what happened to Nicki, even if she doesn’t particularly want to admit it.

Sean is still his charming self and although there isn’t much of him in this book, as I think it focuses more on Nicki’s life and introducing Jesse to the readers, he’s still in the background as the best friend.

Jesse! I’ve been hearing a lot about him from fellow Nicki Sosebee lovers and although he’s mentioned in Got The Life, you finally get to see a bit more of him in Dead. Although I’m not a fan of kissing smokers, he would definitely be one I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on. He and Nicki have known each other since school and he has been advancing her every since, but Nicki doesn’t really see him as anything but Sean’s friend, but now things have started to change. Jesse is the one who ends up saving Nicki this time, and I can’t wait to see their friendship/relationship develop in the other books. It seems that he could be the one to try and keep Sean off her mind, and it always helps that he sounds utterly delicious.

Jade had gotten me hooked on her books from Madversary, and with all the guys in her books, I’m most definitely in love with them all right now. Ooooh someone pass me a cold drink!

Onwards and upwards to continue book three ‘No Place To Hide.’ Give me more Sean and Jesse!

Synopsis

‘What would I do without you, Lucy Brown?’ he said, and kissed me softly. I held his face in my hands and kissed him back. I felt that life just couldn’t get any more perfect. And I was right, it wouldn’t. By the end of the next day, I’d be dead.

Lucy is about to marry the man of her dreams – kind, handsome, funny Dan – when she breaks her neck the night before their wedding. Unable to accept a lifetime’s separation from her soulmate, Lucy decides to become a ghost rather than go to heaven and be parted from Dan.

But it turns out things aren’t quite as easy as that. When Lucy discovers that Limbo is a grotty student-style house in North London she’s less than thrilled. Especially after meeting her new flatmates: grumpy, cider-swilling EMO-kid Claire; and Brian, a train-spotter with a Thomas the Tank Engine duvet and a big BO problem.

But Lucy has a more major problem on her hands – if she wants to become a ghost and be with Dan she has to complete an almost impossible task. How the hell does a girl like Lucy find a girlfriend for the dorkiest man in England? IT geek Archie’s only passions are multi-player computer games and his Grandma.

But Lucy only has twenty-one days to find him love. And when she discovers that her so-called friend Anna is determined to make a move on the heart-broken, vulnerable Dan, the pressure is really on..

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My Review

It’s the night before Lucy and Dan’s wedding, and with Dan leaving Lucy alone, she decides to climb up to the attic to retrieve her gift for Dan. Only problem is, she falls and breaks her neck.

Lucy Brown is now declared dead.

After waking up in Limbo, Lucy is given an ultimatum – She can go to Heaven for eternity and be with her parents, or return as a Ghost/living dead on Earth, and therefore be around Dan once more.

As she misses Dan a hell of a lot, she decides to return to Earth, but the thing is, she has to complete a mission before she can become a ghost and be around Dan forever. She only has 21 days to complete this mission – And the mission is to find computer geek Archibald Humphries-Symth his soulmate. Will Lucy manage to find his soulmate in such a short time and become a ghost or will she fail and end up in Heaven, in a life without Dan until he joins her?

I’m so very glad that I found this book. I love reading about soulmates and with the added ‘Death’ involved in this one, as well as everlasting love, I knew I had to download it and give it a read. I was not disappointed at all in it!

Throughout the 21 days, Lucy occurs friendships with her two ‘ghost’ housemates, which were so special to read. Although they started off roughly -especially with Emo girl Claire – in the end, before both Claire and Brian completed their 21 days, they all grew closer together and looked out for one another when things didn’t go completely their way, helping out when they could. You always got to know both their stories for ending up in Limbo, and why they were doing the mission as to who or what they wanted to stick around if they completed their task.

Lucy’s friendship with Archie – I loved it so much. Albeit, it was for a mission, but it seemed so real to me. She really wanted to help him find someone – it was her mission after all – but the things she does to facilitate her mission touched my heart. I actually thought Lucy and Archie would end up falling in love with one another, but I was sourly mistaken. It was really sad when they met up on her last day. You could tell she was really going to miss him and he was her too, although she had been a complete idiot the night before.

The thing with this book is that when I think something will happen, it takes a turn and surprises me when it doesn’t go that way. That’s what I loved about this book.

Throughout the book, you got to see snippets of Dan and Lucy’s life, and their love for each other was something you really want for yourself. They both had banter together, they both couldn’t live without the other and I really couldn’t see Dan getting with anyone after Lucy’s death, no matter how hard a certain someone tried. Ghost Lucy’s grief and despair really showed throughout the book and I felt so sad that all she wanted was to be with Dan again. Cally really engaged me and I felt all the emotions from all the characters in the book through all the different situations.

On her last day, when Bob from Limbo calls her, she makes a really tough decision about what to do. I really felt for her, because after everything she had done in the 21 days and the things she had seen, it would have been torture to choose what she did, BUT oh my gosh, that ending! I was not expecting that at all. That was one major plot twist. As I type this, tears are still falling down my cheeks but in a really good way. I loved how Cally kept me on my toes over what was going to happen in the end. It really could have gone either way, but I’m so very happy it ended how it did. Hence the tears!

If you want to read a book about loss, forever love and friendships, this book has to be on you book list. It made me laugh, cry, gasp and want a ‘happy’ – as you can be when you’re dead – ending and this book did not fail.