This was a DNF but I read enough to rate it for creativity of premise and the main character’s backstory.
Rating : 3🌈
I like Jenn Burke as an author which is why I bought this book but immediately the character of Wes Cooper, the “not ghost” who died and was resurrected but in a different state, one where he’s not exactly alive, is the issue.
What sort of person is Wes? Has Wes used the opportunity for a new life, no matter what form, to progress in his development as a person? Matured or at least, become grateful to those who saved him, given back, or in any way done anything that would make the reader not immediately write him off as a waste of our time?
Nope. He’s cowardly, content to do as little as possible to get by and maintain his life, such as it is.
For me, every interaction with Wes was a constant fight not to just not quit the story right there. He’s that much of a reminder of everything that I avoid in RL atm.
The story is short. Extremely short. There’s no realistic scenario where Wes decides that years of stagnation and avoidance is overcome and he accumulates all the missing assets and pieces in that time period.
Unfortunately this is a no go for me.
Burke has other excellent series and characters to explore. This isn’t one of them. Wes and Hudson, his “silver fox” police detective are underwhelming in their dynamic and chiefly the reason it’s a DNF.
NOT DEAD YET (book one)
GIVE UP THE GHOST (book two) GRAVEYARD SHIFT (book three)
Buy link
Blurb
Don’t miss this thrilling and suspenseful second chance romance, book one in a fan-favorite supernatural detective series from Jenn Burke.
Dying isn’t what it used to be.Wes Cooper was dead. Then he wasn’t—though he’s not exactly alive, either. As an immortal not-ghost, he can transition between this world and the otherplane, which makes him the perfect thief for hire. For seventy years he’s made a “living” returning items to their rightful owners, seeing his fair share of the bizarre in the process. But he’s never witnessed murder. Until now.
His latest mission brings him more than he bargained for: a very-dead actor who is definitely going to stay that way. It’s just Wes’s luck that his ex-boyfriend, Detective Hudson Rojas, is assigned to the case. Hudson broke Wes’s heart years ago—and could again, given he’s rocking a hot silver-fox look that shouldn’t be legal.
As they work together to track down the murderer before anyone else gets hurt, it becomes clear Wes and Hudson have unfinished business. And when a secret Hudson’s been keeping threatens more than just their happiness, it might mean the end of their not-life together—permanently.
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 