THE REAPER'S DAUGHTER (THE REAPER'S DAUGHTER SERIES, BOOK 1), BY KM RANDALL
Published by Booktrope, 251 pp.
Buy the book on Amazon
Check out the book on Goodreads
Visit KM Randall's website
Check out KM Randall on Goodreads
Like KM Randall on Facebook
Follow KM Randall on Twitter
SYNOPSIS
I've always felt like an average girl ... except for my strange relationship with death. You could say I like to court it. Whether I'm soaring through the air as a flyer for Specter University's cheer squad, or speeding down the steepest mountain with only grace and balance keeping me from an icy end, I've always needed to feel a rush. But now Death is courting me -- in more ways than one. First, there's Rishi, a rogue death deity who has a penchant for annoying me nearly to my grave and whose intense gaze has the power to see right through me. Then there's Hades, who I'd rather stayed just a myth. Now that he knows I exist, he's not going to leave me alone until I meet the same end as my mother.
Oh yeah, did I forget to mention her? I spent my whole life thinking she had died when I was a baby, but now I've found out that she's much more than dead. Fifty years ago, Hades banished my mother from the underworld and took away her ability to cross over souls -- souls that have wandered lost through the world ever since. Now she wants me to clean up the mess. You may have heard of her before ... They call her the Grim Reaper.
THE GOOD
I feel like teen stories have exhausted every original paranormal thought ... until this one. KM Randall takes the concept of the Grim Reaper and adds a really interesting and energetic teen flair to it. The result is quite clever, and I enjoyed reading further into the story to see how Blake grows and responds to her new-found abilities.
THE BAD
My one critique of Blake is that she mastered her abilities astonishingly fast. I feel like in the middle/end of one chapter, she was just starting to come to terms with what she could do, and in the beginning of the next chapter it was several months later, she was off to college and she knew exactly what to do and when to do it. I would have liked to see a little more "trial and error" (a "training sequence," if you will).
THE UGLY
This isn't really a critique of the book, because overall I really enjoyed it. If I could add something to it, to develop the concept of the Grim Reaper even further and really create the impact of Blake and her newly-realized fate, I would add some background to the story of Death. The story of Hades banishing Grim and taking her ability to cross people over is really interesting, and would have made a great preface to the story. I would have also been interested in some history on how death is viewed in each culture, and the role the deities play in those individual areas. We get a little of it with Rishi, but I would have loved to see a bit more.
CONCLUSION
As I said earlier, I really liked this one. It was a great origin story, and an interesting first book to the series. I don't know how many books Randall has planned for The Reaper's Daughter (or if she even has a number in mind), but I look forward to seeing how Blake grows and how Randall uses the concept of the Reaper almost as a superpower (am I the only one that half-pictured Bonnie from The Vampire Diaries when I read Blake?)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
As a girl, KM always wished she'd suddenly come into magical powers or cross over into a Faerie circle. Although that has yet to happen, she instead lives vicariously through the characters she creates writing fantasy and paranormal. She is the author of Fractured Dream (The Dreamer Saga) and The Reaper's Daughter. When KM is not busy writing her next novel, she serves as a freelance editor and writer. She has a master's degree in journalism from Syracuse University and a bachelor's degree in English-Lit from Nazareth College of Rochester. KM lives in Upstate New York's Finger Lakes region with her husband, her extremely energetic little boy, and their crazy goldendoodle Luna (short for Lunatic). KM is currently busy at work on the second book in The Dreamer Saga trilogy, called Shattered World.
Published by Booktrope, 251 pp.
Buy the book on Amazon
Check out the book on Goodreads
Visit KM Randall's website
Check out KM Randall on Goodreads
Like KM Randall on Facebook
Follow KM Randall on Twitter
SYNOPSIS
I've always felt like an average girl ... except for my strange relationship with death. You could say I like to court it. Whether I'm soaring through the air as a flyer for Specter University's cheer squad, or speeding down the steepest mountain with only grace and balance keeping me from an icy end, I've always needed to feel a rush. But now Death is courting me -- in more ways than one. First, there's Rishi, a rogue death deity who has a penchant for annoying me nearly to my grave and whose intense gaze has the power to see right through me. Then there's Hades, who I'd rather stayed just a myth. Now that he knows I exist, he's not going to leave me alone until I meet the same end as my mother.
Oh yeah, did I forget to mention her? I spent my whole life thinking she had died when I was a baby, but now I've found out that she's much more than dead. Fifty years ago, Hades banished my mother from the underworld and took away her ability to cross over souls -- souls that have wandered lost through the world ever since. Now she wants me to clean up the mess. You may have heard of her before ... They call her the Grim Reaper.
THE GOOD
I feel like teen stories have exhausted every original paranormal thought ... until this one. KM Randall takes the concept of the Grim Reaper and adds a really interesting and energetic teen flair to it. The result is quite clever, and I enjoyed reading further into the story to see how Blake grows and responds to her new-found abilities.
THE BAD
My one critique of Blake is that she mastered her abilities astonishingly fast. I feel like in the middle/end of one chapter, she was just starting to come to terms with what she could do, and in the beginning of the next chapter it was several months later, she was off to college and she knew exactly what to do and when to do it. I would have liked to see a little more "trial and error" (a "training sequence," if you will).
THE UGLY
This isn't really a critique of the book, because overall I really enjoyed it. If I could add something to it, to develop the concept of the Grim Reaper even further and really create the impact of Blake and her newly-realized fate, I would add some background to the story of Death. The story of Hades banishing Grim and taking her ability to cross people over is really interesting, and would have made a great preface to the story. I would have also been interested in some history on how death is viewed in each culture, and the role the deities play in those individual areas. We get a little of it with Rishi, but I would have loved to see a bit more.
CONCLUSION
As I said earlier, I really liked this one. It was a great origin story, and an interesting first book to the series. I don't know how many books Randall has planned for The Reaper's Daughter (or if she even has a number in mind), but I look forward to seeing how Blake grows and how Randall uses the concept of the Reaper almost as a superpower (am I the only one that half-pictured Bonnie from The Vampire Diaries when I read Blake?)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
As a girl, KM always wished she'd suddenly come into magical powers or cross over into a Faerie circle. Although that has yet to happen, she instead lives vicariously through the characters she creates writing fantasy and paranormal. She is the author of Fractured Dream (The Dreamer Saga) and The Reaper's Daughter. When KM is not busy writing her next novel, she serves as a freelance editor and writer. She has a master's degree in journalism from Syracuse University and a bachelor's degree in English-Lit from Nazareth College of Rochester. KM lives in Upstate New York's Finger Lakes region with her husband, her extremely energetic little boy, and their crazy goldendoodle Luna (short for Lunatic). KM is currently busy at work on the second book in The Dreamer Saga trilogy, called Shattered World.
