Review – Death and Relaxation (Ordinary Magic, Book 1) by Devon Monk (5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 324 pages
Publisher: OddHouse Press
Release Date: June 18, 2016
ISBN-13: 978-1939853028
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Ordinary Magic series
Source: Gift
Rating: 5/5 stars
“Monsters, gods, and mayhem… Police Chief Delaney Reed can handle the Valkyries, werewolves, gill-men and other paranormal creatures who call the small beach town of Ordinary, Oregon their home. It’s the vacationing gods who keep her up at night. With the famous rhubarb festival right around the corner, small-town tensions, tempers, and godly tantrums are at an all-time high. The last thing Delaney needs is her ex-boyfriend reappearing just when she’s finally caught the attention of Ryder Bailey, the one man she should never love. No, scratch that. The actual last thing she needs is a dead body washing ashore, especially since the dead body is a god. Catching a murderer, wrestling a god power, and re-scheduling the apocalypse? Just another day on the job in Ordinary. Falling in love with her childhood friend while trying to keep the secrets of her town secret? That’s gonna take some work.”
Previous to reading this book I had read Monk’s Allie Besckstrom series (liked it), House Immortal series (loved it), Broken Magic series (loved it), and Age of Steam series (it was okay). This is the first book in her Ordinary Magic series and I absolutely loved it. This book was just so much fun to read.
Delaney Reed is police chief in the town of Ordinary, a town where Gods relinquish their powers to become mortals and take a vacation. Ordinary also has normal folks and a bunch of tourists who come out for the Rhubarb Festival. When people/gods start dying and rhubarb gets blown up, Delaney knows she’s going to have her hands full. Then Death shows up wanting to take a vacation and things get even weirder.
I loved the idea of this town and the mystery behind the murders. The characters in here were amazing and I loved the witty banter. This book was an excellent balance of world-building, mythology, mystery, magic, and romance.
Delaney and her sisters are intriguing characters that really pull you in. Ordinary itself is absolutely fascinating. The writing was easy to read and the whole package was highly entertaining and amusing.
Overall I really really loved this book and have already purchased the 2nd book in the series. I would highly recommend this series to fans of creative investigative urban fantasy.
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Goodreads Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge
