Book Review : Grave Destinations by Lori Sjoberg (Grave #2)

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title:  Grave Destinations

Author:  Lori Sjoberg

Publication Date:  January 2, 2014

Publisher:  eKensington

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Summary:

 She’s sexy-fierce, resourceful—and will do anything to protect victims as innocent as she once was. But this kick-ass reaper never bargained on meeting her not-quite-human match…or putting their very souls on the line.

A luxury Caribbean cruise is Ruby Dawson’s idea of hell even under the best circumstances. Too many bad memories bubble up—especially of the wrenching injustice that made her a reaper. It doesn’t help that Jack Deverell is making this routine soul-collecting job twice as difficult with his devilish good looks and not-so-innocent questions. Now, as several unscheduled, unexplainable deaths throw passengers and crew into a panic, Jack becomes the prime suspect. The only way Ruby can save him is to challenge the decades-old curse threatening his soul. And as a malevolent unstoppable force turns their immortality into a fatal weakness, Ruby and Jack must risk their fragile humanity to save Fate’s delicate balance and their own unexpected destiny…

My Thoughts:

 The review first can also be seen on CoffeeTalkWriters' Blog.

This is the second book in Grave series by Lori Sjoberg. But the first one I read by this author. Somehow I was anticipating a little bit more from it. The story follows a stunning, sexy and resourceful reaper – Ruby Dawson on a luxury Caribbean cruise. For all of the population of the liner it’s a vacation but not for Ruby. She has a job to do and survive the hell aka the cruise. Why? That’s a mystery a reader has to unravel for himself. Everything should be fine, but then Jack comes into her life and turns it upside down. There’s no place to run from him. She is attracted to him, but he has a secret of his own. It’s curse which makes his life unbearable. He wants to get rid of and somehow Ruby is the answer. Will Ruby be able to do her job and save Jack? Is it in her power?

Maybe it was not my cup of tea, but I didn’t get all those amazing vibes from the book. It was average: a good read to keep you occupied, and take your mind off something for a bit, but it got boring in parts. All characters were standard. Well maybe except Dmitry, but mostly they were just telling a story not living in it. And that left me not satisfied. I, myself wanted to dig deeper into their past, understand them more. It was more like giving us a shell of a person, a tiny bit to form some kind of an opinion about him or her, but not to understand him fully. Somehow in the end of the book I still didn’t understand the ultimate motif of the villain which was frustrating.  What I mean is that the existence of the main character is a doing of a villain, and somehow the mystery is still not revealed thought out the book. It was interesting in the beginning, compelling to read further, but when nothing interesting happens in the first half of the book it’s quite annoying and disturbing.

One of the things I always look for in the book is how everything is described and if while reading I can “see” it all in front of my eyes. Somehow I had a little difficulty with that with this book. On one hand I had all the information I needed, but somehow I was just reading the book not experiencing it. I always knew what, when and how was something happening but somehow I had a hard time seeing it all. The book has its good sides too, like dialogues between the characters. They felt real. But somehow the characters and the dialogue didn’t go together. It was like characters were one units and what they spoke completely different.

 To sum up everything, this book is a good one time pick. It takes the mind off current problems and wives an intriguing mystery. It is good to read while you are at your own cruise and serves as a good guide what to and not do. I do hope I didn’t crash your hopes to read this book. I do think that the book is a good read just not my type. Hope you will consider reading it, and will go on an interesting cruise with Ruby and Jack, who knows, maybe you will get sucked into their world more. Happy Reading. 

My Rating: