#robyn peterman

I’m not bawling, you’re bawling. 😭 Who knew this funny little paranormal, rom-com would heal me a little??? I sure had no clue this “episode” would meet me in the center of my traumatic childhood and deconstructing religion shit. 🥺

Yes, I am almost at the end of book 6 in like 3 days, and book 7-12 are no longer free. 🤦‍♀️ But imma prob find a way to download them.

I think imma start a community on here for smutty readers. I’ve made a few friends here who I know are! One of those friends suggested this book yesterday, and I downloaded it completely trusting her book taste. Started it this morning when walking the dog, and just finished it, it was that good. And free if you have an Audible membership! Of course I jumped right into book 2, cause it ends on a cliffhanger!

Ironically there is zero sex, and for me to get that into a book without sex should say a lot. Lol 😆

Reminds me faintly of the Fox Lucifer show a little, altho female lead. And it’s hilarious with surprising moments of depth.

I did get my desk chair put together and the massive box to the ally trash, and started laundry so at least there’s that. 🤷‍♀️

Topics: Supernatural romance, comedy, grief, suicide

Spice: 🌶️

The 8th book in this series.

I liked this one a lot, it sort of went back to its roots in a way.

Daisy has her hands full with her new baby as well as her motley crew of angels, demons and immortals. She is now The Death Counselor and The Angel of Mercy. The big bad from the last two books the first Angel of Mercy Zakiel, who retired at one point but apartently decided to go barking mad instead of collecting coins or something, has been causing mayhem. At the end of the last book, he was killed, came back as a ghost and wanted Daisy to help him with unfinished business. Daisy refused, and then things got weird again. The ghosts that usually hang out at her house suddenly dissappear and a very campy harbinger of doom arrives.

This one was very funny and character driven. My favorite characters are Candy, who is Karma and Tim who is the courier between planes. They have been hanging out since the beginning of time and bicker like brother and sister. They have both been described but no matter what, I imagine Candy to look (in face and body, not in dress) like Ms. Li from Daria, if she were not a cartoon. Tim, I  see as looking like Colin from What We Do in the Shadows.

My favorite line in the whole book this time around came from a sniping session between these two. From Tim to Candy: "Keep talking, I'm diagnosing you."

I *am* getting sick of the "My Love Interest is in danger, please allow me to employ rampant destruction that will accomplish nothing at best and bollocks up the universe at worst."

Every time Daisy does something dangerous Gideon loses his mind. I mean, I get being worried, but fuck, these 8 books take place over the course of like, two months (the crazy angel excellerated Daisy's pregnancy) so literally not two days go by when Daisy doesn't need to do something dangerous, and she has more powers than any other immortal. Crank down the knight in shining armor shit. Your girl is not the damsel in distress, she's the fucking dragon!

The 8th book in this series.I liked this one a lot, it sort of went back to its roots in a way. Daisy has her hands full with her new baby as well as her motley crew of angels, demons and immortals. She is now The Death Counselor and The Angel of Mercy. The big bad from the last two books, the first Angel of Mercy Zakiel, who retired at one point but apparently decided to go barking mad instead…

Bear with me here, I’m a tad behind and also not feeling all that great, but I really like doing this so… Onward!So this is the 7th of the Good to the Last Death books. I’ve had a hard time focusing this week, so maybe that’s why this one seemed a bit scattered. There’s just so much *stuff* happening.*Spoilers for the whole series*So, the books are doing what so many paranormal type books do,…

Bear with me here, I'm a tad behind and also not feeling all that great, but I really like doing this so... Onward!

So this is the 7th of the Good to the Last Death books.

I've had a hard time focusing this week, so maybe that's why this one seemed a bit scattered. There's just so much *stuff* happening.

*Spoilers for the whole series*

So, the books are doing what so many paranormal type books do, they start with a somewhat simple premise, in this case: 40 year old widow sees ghosts and helps them cross over. And then adds stuff in to make it more and more complex and soon you have little to no action involving the original premise left.

That is happening here. The first book was about Daisy coming into her role as Death Counselor and somewhere in the middle, the hierarchy of angels and demons was introduced along witg the concept of run of the mill immortals. Boyfriend Gideon is the Grim Reaper, Crazy Boss Clarissa is the Angel of Mercy, one of Daisy's best friends Heather is The Arbitrator. Big boss at Daisy's law firm is tge Archangel Michael There is always a battle to keep the balance between dark and light.

Next few books we find that there are other immortals including Karma, The Enforcer, and Courier between the Dark and the Light.

Then we find that Daisy is the daughter of Archangel Micheal, as is Heather and that there are other full angel siblings. Daisy is coming into various powers and battles heat up. She still does some ghost helping. Then more unhinged angels and reluctantly helpful demons come into the picture while Daisy is in the running for an angel post she's not sure she wants Also? Daisy is pregnant with the Grim Reaper's child.

Unhinged angels cause problem after problem, and soon Gods from other pantheons show up. Babies and battles put the ghost helping on a back burner in another house.

By the end of this book, you can hardly recognize the original premise.

Now, I wouldn't say that all of this is bad, the stories are still enjoyable. And I love all the characters.

This one just had the convergence of all elements happening in less than two hundred pages, it made for some frenetic action.

One thing I'm not sure I like I that there seems to be nothing Daisy can't do, any time there is a new problem, she discovers a new power. It's like she's her own Deus ex Machina. Limitations make for challenges, which I think makes for interesting stories so having her do whatever the plot needs her to do with no other explanation than "She can do that now" is a little tiresome.

So, after a fairly heavy book, I tend to either go heavier or, go in the opposite direction. This time I chose the latter.

After I finished Spare, I decided to listen to a book that has been sitting in my audible library for a while.

As we have already established, I have a weakness for stories about people who help ghosts, and books with humor and goofy characters. These books have both in spades. We drop into Daisy’s life on her 40th birthday. She’s approaching the first-year anniversary of her husband Steve’s death and is in the first month of thinking she has lost her mind, because suddenly her house is full of ghosts in various states of dropping bits off.

As things progress Daisy starts to feel for her dead house guests and starts to try and figure out how to help them, of course she’s still not entirely sure it they are actually there, but she is a nice person so she’s determined to help them.  

This book is the perfect intro everything is set up in such a way that even though Daisy is muddling through her new reality, the reader can pretty well figure out where things are headed. Usually this kind of writing annoys me, but everything is so funny, and also heartfelt that it didn’t bother me that Daisy keeps assuming that she knows what she’s doing when she clearly does not.

Now the romance, usually would have put the brakes on my interest in this story. Its my least favorite type. Super-hot new lawyer in Daisy’s law firm is a quasi-jerk and also assumes that Daisy knows what she is doing which bares no resemblance to what Daisy thinks. He’s in instant lust/love with her, she doesn’t like him, but grows to.

I find this kind of romance makes my teeth itch. However, something about the writing made me want to see how it would play out. It helps that Gideon has a good personality. Don’t get me wrong, he still does the what I call “shirtless bookcover” act. There is a lot of “Don’t do this dangerous thing, my life would be nothing without you” and “You are perfection no matter what you do” type stuff. This is subverted and or called out somewhat, either through communication, or by Daisy telling him to knock it off. Also  helpful, is that that Daisy’s main focus is  not the beautiful Gideon.

I read on various blogs and write on my other blog about how friendships are not training wheels for romantic relationships nor are romantic relationships the end goal. And I don’t just mean this for people not interested in romantic relationships. I feel this is true for anyone who has or wants relationships. Family bonds are family bonds, friendship bonds are friendship bonds, romantic bonds are romantic bonds. And friendship can be an element of romantic and family bonds. Everyone has their own personal experiences with the bonds that they have, but in concept, no one bond is better than, or above another. One of the things that bug me about romance books is that many of them just have the main character focus entirely on the romantic connection, friends and family are suddenly less important, and only really come into play if the best friend, brother, mother, etc, (who the main character sheepishly admits they have been neglecting lately) get into some kind of trouble. Only to have them relegated to second or third-string characters again, in the next book, but its okay because they tell Main Character that they understand that Love Interest is the most important person to them. This is annoying for various reasons, not least of which is simply that it's boring.

These books don’t fall into that trap. Daisy has her grandmother, and friends that are like family, and they are always a strong presence, even if they don’t know what’s going on, Daisy values them, and when anyone of her loved ones (no matter what kind of love) are in danger, she will fight with all she has for them and has the same intensity of emotion. Gideon is *added to* this love, he doesn’t replace it.

This is evident in the second and third books.

*spoilers for the first five books to follow*

I’ll be honest I didn’t like the second book, because it is the equivalent of the second act break up. these books are short, but 200 pages of hurt feelings is hard to read.

So, the run down that we learn from the first book:

The small Georgia town is a powerful portal for the dark and the light. Daisy comes from a long line of Death Counselors, who helps souls cross over after helping them with unfinished business.

Gideon,  her boyfriend, is the Grim Reaper

Daisy’s crazy boss? Angel of Mercy

Heather, one of Daisy's best friends is essentially a celestial lawyer.

Another friend is the Enforcer, an imortal law keeper of sorts

The irritating cashier at the grocery store is the embodiment of Karma

The mailman is the courier between planes

And they all are delightfully insane. They are also pretty diverse, in a quiet way. It doesn't pretend like everyone would be accepting, but all of our main characters are. And it's not a thing. Someone is gay, they just are. When one character states that he is not interested in anyone, it's just accepted. Of course it is met with some awkward silence, not really because of the info, but because he says it in the middle of a lunch thusly "Nither vaginas nor penises appeal to me." The shock cones most f4om the fact that it was said apropos of nothing and none of the pipe southern people could think of what to say next since genitals aren't normally mentioned during lunch.

So, after a fairly heavy book, I tend to either go heavier or, go in the opposite direction. This time I chose the latter.After I finished Spare, I decides to listen to a book that has been sitting in my audible library for a while.As we have already established, I have a weakness for stories about people who help ghosts, and books with humor and goofy characters. These books have both in spades.…