BOOK TOUR | GRAVE DANGER | ALICE JAMES

 

I recently got invited  to join the tour for Alice James's new book Grave Danger, which was out yesterday in the US and tomorrow in the UK, and published by one of my favourite publishers, Rebellion. 

Well, how could I turn that down (spoiler: I couldn't), so here I am, along with a whole host of my favourite blog peoples waxing lyrical about my favourite estate agent cum nocturnal necromancer Toni Windsor.

More murder. More vampires. More snogging.

Toni Windsor is failing at ‘happily ever after,’ but it really isn’t her fault.

All she wants is true love and the perfect wardrobe, but it doesn’t look like they are coming her way any time soon. Instead, there are murders to solve and zombies to raise, and she’s broken her phone again.

Worst of all, her shiny new boyfriend turns out to be a jerk; maybe dating a vampire wasn’t her best decision ever?

AMAZON US  |  AMAZON UK  |  ADD TO GOODREADS  |  REBELLION (PUBLISHER)

So! Here we are again and another story with the effervescent Lavington (Toni) Windsor and her forever falling through the world of vampires into some danger or other.

The story starts a couple of months after the first book and we soon get the hint that there's trouble in paradise. At the end of the last book, Toni was supposed to be going off into the sunset with her vampire lover, Oscar. However, as we start the book, we soon see that things are not going well.

Well, that is not entirely true! To be more specific, things are not going well at all with Oscar. But then there's Peter and that is a whole different story. Yep, Toni's love life is as complicated as ever, and just to add that little extra little bit of bother, there's Benedict, the head of the vampire coterie to add in the mix.

Phew, this woman! I don't know how she has time for anything else, but she most certainly does, coz if she isn't in trouble with her love life, she manages to get herself in trouble in a myriad of other ways.

Similarly to book one, the story starts with our little ray of sunshine heroine aiding her brother in a murder. This time though, it's the murder of tween Bella, who after nipping into the school after hours is brutally throttled by goodness knows who, but there are two main suspects, Spikey Mikey, the cleaner of the posh grammar school, and dodgy teenager Paul, who apparently has a rap sheet as long as yer arm and coincidentally sneaks into the school after hours to do his homework.

I can't help but like these books as they are utterly charming. Toni is a great character, a complex mish mash of contradictions. On the one hand she is completely ditzy, yet full of depth. She's fun and shallow, but can turn on a sixpence to being fierce and loyal.

Then there's the necromancer side of her, which I find really intriguing, especially when she starts conversing with demons and shit, and she will also off the odd vampire or two without a second thought.

One of the things that I like about these books, is that whilst there is a seeming lightness to the story, there are also some things going off under the rippling surface of good naturedness, and one of these things is Toni's relationship with Oscar. I don't want to spoil things, but things do take a turn in their relationship that has a significant impact and brings back some of the warnings that were presented in book one.

I also love that the books are chock full of wonderful characters that elevate the story as a whole.

If you like your books with a complicated heroine, a bit of spiciness, blood and guts a lot of mystery, then nip out to your local bookshop and pick up these books.