Rating: 4.75🌈

Forever Together, the book in which Shelby Rhodes emotionally glitter bombs the readers with a roller coaster of a finale plot for vampire Octavius Evander and his now zombified hunny bunny love, Turney, and the rest of the Undead Detective Agency family.

I was wondering how Rhodes was going to pull all the wandering plot threads together and give this series and couple the finale they deserve. Especially after all they’ve been through to get to this point in their undead lives. Does it come together? Absolutely, in a well written and exciting manner!

It’s Halloween in the story (and date of release), so naturally Octavius has gone completely over-the-top batty in planning out his Halloween party for the house, his family and his love. It’s an extravaganza of glitter, exuberance and shocking horror. Not surprisingly, and to Octavius’ dismay, most of his crew isn’t happy about the results. That includes Turney.

Imagine a toddler on about a 18-wheeler’s worth of sugar high, and that’s a realistic description of Rhodes’ Octavius. It would be easy to get irritated by this character if not for his traumatic past history and death which is absolutely terrifying. That darkness and the psychopath who killed him has been a black thread throughout the narrative. That knowledge has balanced the childishness and chaos that Octavius sometimes brings to this storyline. It’s his way of dealing with that trauma and part of his life that’s never left him and what happened to parts of his family. And that aspect of his personality allows us a better understanding of him as a whole complex individual.

Turney, an excellent character, is still reeling from all the changes he’s undergone as well as the guilt he feels about surviving when others have been lost. The trauma of his death, being brought back to life by Scarlett, adjusting to his new status, it’s so much emotionally and physically for Turney at the moment. And Octavius isn’t aware of his issues.

I think if I do have any quibbles about this, it’s Octavius’ lack of awareness about Turney’ feelings. Whether it’s to his new status as a zombie or that he really dislikes being scared by the tricks laid out by his vampire partner, it takes someone else to make Octavius look at what he’s doing or not noticing about Turney. That wasn’t a satisfying aspect of this relationship for me. It’s their own type of relationship that’s unchanged since the beginning but certain events here have highlighted that more.

The side relationships for Scarlett, Henry, and the others are just as important and well done. Especially Scarlett who’s been through so much and who’s independence means more to her than anything.

Honestly, Rhodes has written more than one heartbreaking scenes here, amidst some fast paced action packed sequences. With glitter!

Gots to have glitter.

Did I wish the villain , Dayan, had gotten an even better or say worse send off? Perhaps. Honestly, he was so awful Rhodes could have dedicated a page to his death scene to make it really gory.

But dead he is, happy we are.

And per Rhodes, there will be more stories for the side characters and Agency as well to come. Be still my heart.

So Forever Together (The Undead Detective Agency book 4) by Shelby Rhodes gives us a great finale and launching point for more stories to come. I’m extremely satisfied and looking forward for more mysteries and murderous glittering mayhem.

Not familiar with this series and characters? Start at the beginning and read all the way through for the complete journey of Octavius and Turney. It’s one wild and wonderful adventure.

The Undead Detective Agency:

✓ Get It Together #1

✓ Keep It Together #2

✓ In Death Together #3

✓ Forever Together #4 – finale

More stories to come in other related series!

Buy Link:

Forever Together (The Undead Detective Agency Book 4)

Blurb:

Octavius Evander here. I suppose you have come to see how it all ends. Well, ‘ends’, as in, we’ve reached the end of this part of my story. It wouldn’t be proper of me to move on until we finish it all off, right?

As this is the last book in this series, I feel it is my duty, to end things with a bang! A glittery bang. By bang, I mean, a giant, super cool, Halloween party. And what a party it was… Costumes, decorations, family, frenemies, scares, Turney screaming and clinging on to me—fun times! Not so fun was the interruption to said party. It really was unfair to me. I was on vacation from real murder and mayhem—case related mayhem only—yet somehow, someone had the audacity to be murdered. Inconsiderate people all around!

But you didn’t all come here just for the Halloween party. I know that. There is a certain someone you are waiting to hear about, I’m sure. A certain horrible, maggot of a person. Well…you won’t be disappointed. That issue will be solved, once and for all. The question you may be asking yourselves now is, how will it be solved? All I’m willing to say is, it happened in an unusual and extremely unprepared way. While, you shouldn’t worry too much, as my story, my precious Turney’s story, has a happy ending…it may be good to keep in mind that happiness sometimes shines brightest right after despair.

CONTENT WARNING: This is an M/M paranormal romance book. There will be blood, violence, gore, mention of SA (no on-page details), and death. Please do not read if you find any of the previous situations triggering.