Audiobook Review – Third Grave Dead Ahead (Charley Davidson, Book 3) by Darynda Jones, Narrated by Lorelei King (5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 9 hours and 51 minutes (368 pages)
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Release Date: January 31, 2012
ASIN: B0073OGXBQ
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in the Charley Davidson series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 5/5 stars

“Paranormal private eye. Grim reaper extraordinaire. Whatever. Charley Davidson is back! And she’s drinking copious amounts of caffeine to stay awake because, every time she closes her eyes, she sees him: Reyes Farrow, the part-human, part-supermodel son of Satan. Yes, she did imprison him for all eternity, but come on. How is she supposed to solve a missing persons case, deal with an ego-driven doctor, calm her curmudgeonly dad, and take on a motorcycle gang hell-bent on murder when the devil’s son just won’t give up?”

This is the third book in the Charley Davidson series. Each book of this series gets better and better; Jones is doing so much right with this urban fantasy series. Right now there are ten books in this series with the eleventh book, Eleventh Grave in Moonlight, expected to release in Jan 2017.

I have been listening to this book on audiobook and the narrator does an awesome job on narrating this series. Lorelei King IS Charley, she sounds exactly like I imagine Charley would and does an wonderful job with other characters’ voices and with conveying emotion. If you like to listen to audiobooks I would highly recommend listening to this series on audiobook.

A lot happens in this book. Charley and Reyes are on the outs but somehow every time Charley falls asleep Reyes is there angry and yet…wanting. To solve this issue Charley has decided not to sleep…at all…for weeks at a time. Things get more complicated when Charley starts working on a missing person’s case and Reyes escapes from prison.

These books are written in a way that is witty and funny (sometimes a bit over-the-top eye-rolling funny…but in a good way). I love Charley and her quirky way of misinterpreting what people say…that and her extremely humorous view on death in general. Reyes is amazing and frustrating and dangerous all at once and I am glad we got to see more of him in this book than we did in the last book.

Again in this book Charley figures out a little bit more about her awesome Grim Reaper powers. I also loved that she gets a Guardian as well (and no it’s not who you think it might be).

There are so many things that Jones is doing right in this series. I love the mystery, the action, the humor, the characters, the teasing, and growth Charley goes through. The way she handles Charley being the Grim Reaper is extremely cool as well. I just can’t wait to see where this series is going.

Overall this was an amazing continuation of this series. The book is incredibly engaging and hard to stop reading. I love the characters, the mystery, and the action. The humor is incredibly refreshing and fun; Charley is so quirky and weird that you just have to love her. I would recommend to those who enjoy UF/PNR that is on the lighter side. This series reminds a bit of Molly Harper’s Jane Jameson series.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge
– Audiobook Reading Challenge