Graveminder

(This is the 7th book I’ve read for RIP)

Graveminder by Melissa Marr.

Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: William Morrow (May 17, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0061826871

   Product Description
The New York Times bestselling author of the Wicked Lovely series delivers her first novel for adults, a story about the living, the dead, and a curse that binds them.

Rebekkah Barrow never forgot the tender attention her grandmother, Maylene, bestowed upon the dead of Claysville, the town where Bek spent her adolescence. There wasn't a funeral that Maylene didn't attend, and at each Rebekkah watched as Maylene performed the same unusual ritual: three sips from a small silver flask followed by the words "Sleep well, and stay where I put you."

Now Maylene is dead and Bek must go back to the place--and the man--she left a decade ago. But what she soon discovers is that Maylene was murdered and that there was good reason for her odd traditions. It turns out that in placid Claysville, the worlds of the living and the dead are dangerously connected. Beneath the town lies a shadowy, lawless land ruled by the enigmatic Charles, aka Mr. D--a place from which the dead will return if their graves are not properly minded. Only the Graveminder, a Barrow woman, and the current Undertaker, Byron, can set things to right once the dead begin to walk.

Strangely enough, this book was pretty good.  It was quick to read because of short chapters (something I dearly love!). 

As much of a story this book is about the dead (or the waking dead) I bet you might not believe it’s also a love story.  Yup.. a love story!  I am not sure how Ms Marr managed to combine the two subjects so well, but she did!

I am not usually one for love stories.   Well, at last not an out and out love story without a good story behind it… and this was a pretty darn good story!  And for longer then Byron would care to remember Bek was not about to admit that she felt the same for him… that’s frustrating enough to make you want to be dead yourself… except that Byron is the Undertaker!  Good lord.. I just can’t picture loving an undertaker.  I guess I just can’t imagine what the talk would be like around the dinner table. 

“hon, it that a leg or a thigh?” ewwwwwwwwwww never mind.

Anyway this was  one of the better stories that I’ve read during RIP.  But I still have to admit that the other books are probably better then I stated just because I am still so stressed out that nothing is quite right lately.

The Amazon review above gives a good  idea of the book… and all I can add to it is that it was surprisingly a very good read.

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As you may remember back that I purchased a book called Death by Dickens edited by Anne Perry.  It’s a book of short stories using characters by Charles Dickens.  I thought this was ingenious and thought I would actually enjoy the short stories.  But then again I thought that when I bought a short stories book about wizards once too.. nada.

Out of this book I have read 2 short stories.  The first was so short I couldn’t find a storyline.  The second fared a bit better for a storyline but they made Dickens sound like Sherlock Holmes!… needless to say I put the book down and read the above book of Graveminder…  I may try another story at another time but for now I have way too many other books I’d rather give a try to..