Hi Cara,
I am continually trying to find a new book series to listen to. This time I am looking crime urban fantasy. The series I came across is Dying for a living by Kory. M. Shrum, the first book in the series with the same name.
And you thought dying once would be hard…
On the morning before her 67th death, it is business as usual for agent Jesse Sullivan: meet with the mortician, counsel soon-to-be-dead clients, and have coffee while reading the latest regeneration theory. Jesse dies for a living, literally. Because of a neurological disorder, she is one of the population’s rare 2% who can serve as a death surrogate, dying so others don’t have to.
Although each death replacement is different, the result is the same: a life is saved, and Jesse resurrects days later with sore muscles, new scars, and another hole in her memory. But when Jesse is murdered and becomes the sole suspect in a federal investigation, more than her freedom and sanity are at stake. She must catch the killer herself–or die trying.
Dying for a living has an amazing premise. The idea that a mutation in the brain allows people to come back from the dead is fascinating. This is one of my favourite element of the book, it’s interesting how they replace a dying person and what the body does with it’s pieced back together.
The leading lady ins Dying for a living is Jesse Sullivan a necronite, one of the 2% that can die and come back. Jesse is snarky and sarcastic, and not perfect. She is in a tricky situation and does the best she can in the many bad situations she gets into. I liked Jesse as a character, she is someone I could be friends with. I think it also helps that she has a great group of friends that bring out the best in her.
There is a bisexual romantic triangle in Dying for a living. Jesse isn’t ready for commitment but she has two people that want to commit to her. One is her best friend and assident Ally, and friend and owner of the building she rents an office in Lane. Both give Jesse different things, but both want more. Ally and Lane don’t really see eye to eye because of that but will put it aside for Jesse. But they still make snarky comments to each other. I like the fact that the focus is more about her lack of ability to commit. Not the fact her options are a man or a woman.
There are parts of the story that feel like it jumps without explantation. As I was listening to the book I felt I missed something but I hadn’t.
The plot of Dying for a living is interesting and compelling. There are parts that I felt slowed the pace of the book down but overall it moved at a decent pace.
By the end of Dying for a living, some surprises happened, somethings were answered and a lot wasn’t. It will be interesting to see what happens in Book 2 Dying by the hour.
I enjoyed the audio performance of the book, my only small issue was some of the voices sounded very similar.
My Rating for Dying for a living is 3.8.
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Thanks for reading,Â
