"a light-hearted urban fantasy read"
All Calliope Reaper-Jones (Callie to her friends and
family) ever wanted was to be normal -- a normal life with a
normal family and a normal job. But being Death's
daughter -- aka the Grim Reaper himself! -- doesn't exactly
lend one to leading a normal life. She's never
wanted immortality or magic, so Callie puts a Forgetting
Spell on herself and moves to New York City to join the rat
race among all the other mere humans of the world. Her
job -- or love life, for that matter -- isn't anything to
boast about, but she's doing what she always wanted --
living as a human. Until one day when her father's number
one right hand man, Jarvis, shows up at her work informing
her she must come home at once because it seems that
someone has kidnapped Death and the rest of the Death, Inc.
Executive Board. Upon arriving home, Callie finds out that
not only is her father and sister missing, but it seems
Death's Protégé is gearing up for a hostile takeover of the
family business. Unbeknownst to her, becoming Death
is Callie's birthright. She's brought up before the Board
and is ordered to complete three tasks before she can
inherit her birthright as Death and then go about saving
her family and friends. When Callie is first summoned home, she is extremely put
out. She doesn't want to go home and she doesn't want the
monumental task of saving her family. In fact, I kind of
got tired of her incessant whining. I must say that I'm
not a big fan of whiny heroines. I can handle a little
whining, but after a while, it just gets old. That being
said, Callie does manage to suck it up and learn to deal
with the situation at hand and manages to make a few very
important friends along the way. The storyline is filled
with lots of comedic relief and plenty of sarcastic remarks
and is overall a pretty light-hearted urban fantasy read.
Callie herself appears to be more than a bit naïve and self-
absorbed, but is overall a good person at heart. She loves
her family despite having forgotten about them for a bit
and does everything she can, albeit grudgingly, to help get
them back. This is the first book of Amber Benson's Calliope Reaper-
Jones series. It's an urban fantasy so don't expect any
HEA's just yet. Overall I would have to rate this as an
okay-to-pretty good read. I still didn't like all the
whining and complaining that Callie did, but if I overlook
that one fact, the storyline was good and very different
from a lot of the urban fantasy books I've been reading.
And in this day and age where urban fantasy authors seem to
be coming out of the woodworks, different is
definitely a good thing. I'd like to just chalk up
Calliope's attitude to her being new at the whole "kick ass
heroine gig" and hope that as the series progresses she'll
grow not only more into herself, but also her role as
Death's Daughter and heir apparent. I think I'll
definitely give the second book a go - if for no other
reasons than to see what progress Callie has made as a
person and to see what kind of trouble she can get herself
into next time around.
Reviewed by Mippy Carlson
Posted April 18, 2009
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A Calliope Reaper-Jones Novel
Calliope Reaper-Jones so just wanted a normal life: buying designer shoes on sale, dating guys from Craig’s List, web-surfing for organic dim-sum for her boss... But when her father—who happens to be Death himself—is kidnapped, and the Devil’s Protege embarks on a hostile takeover of the family business, Death, Inc., Callie returns home to assume the CEO mantle— only to discover she must complete three nearly impossible tasks in the realm of the afterlife first.
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