Review: Give Up the Ghost by Jenn Burke

Title: Give Up the Ghost

Series: Not Dead Yet: Book Two

Author: Jenn Burke

Publisher: Carina Press

Length: 256 Pages

Category: Urban Fantasy

At a Glance: This is some impressive and fun-tastic paranormal fiction, given to bouts of heartwarming moments and beautiful romantic turns. The perfect storm for a good binge reading session.

Reviewed By: Lisa

Blurb: The bigger they are, the harder they maul.

Immortal not-ghost Wes Cooper and his vampire partner, Hudson Rojas, have it all—rewarding private investigation work, great friends and, most important, a love that’s endured. But ever since Wes sent a demon screaming back to the beyond, his abilities have grown overpowering and overwhelming. He’s hiding the fact that he’s losing control the best he can, but it’s hard to keep anything a secret for long when your partner’s a former cop…and especially when your partner’s a former cop who wants to move in together.

When all hell literally breaks loose in Toronto and superstrength ghosts are unleashed on Wes and his friends, he and Hudson are thrown into a case unlike any they’ve seen before. To save the city, Wes needs to harness his new power…and find some answers. But when he gets them, the solution to fix it all could mean losing everything.

Review: Give Up the Ghost is the sequel to one of my favorite books so far this year, Not Dead Yet. If you’ve been anticipating this book as much as I have, and are wondering if Wes Cooper and Hudson Rojas could possibly live up to all the angst, action, surprises, and romance Jenn Burke delivered as she introduced this unique and strictly fabulous Urban Fantasy world to her readers, the answer to that question is a resounding “heck yeah, it does,” and in fact, this book drove my love for this series up another notch or two, which I wasn’t sure was even possible.

The events that occurred at the end of book one have had some profound aftereffects on Wes which, in turn, were the catalyst for every single thing that happens in this story. There’s a Murphy’s Law nature to everything, and Wes is at the not-dead center of it all. Burke continues to do what she did so proficiently in Not Dead Yet: coming up with surprises and creative ways to make this world and its supernatural elements fresh and exciting, and keeping readers on our proverbial toes through all of it. I gasped in surprise and awe on more than one occasion, and felt all the emotions coursing through Wes while he struggled with the secret that was tearing him apart from the inside out, and it was doing a more than capable job of coming between him and Hud, as well as Evan and Lexi too. The truth will always out, and when it did, it was as impactful as Wes feared it would be, upping the angst factor that was already present in the story from the start.

At the heart of Wes and Hud’s relationship arc is their past, how they ended decades before, and the lack of any sort of real trust to speak of between them at this stage of their second time around. They are still a work-in-progress, but events in this book bring them closer together in another profoundly romantic turn. I love them both as individuals and as a couple, and I’m not at all obsessed* to see what shape Wes’s magic will take and the effects, if any, it will continue to have on everyone—Hud and Evan in particular.

*That’s a lie. I’m incredibly excited for the next book in the series and to see where the author takes her characters from here.

Creative imagery and engaging storytelling once again complement the suspense and the mysterious occurrences in Give Up the Ghost. These characters have quickly earned a place in my lexicon of faves, and their creator has too. This is some impressive and fun-tastic paranormal fiction, given to bouts of heartwarming moments and beautiful romantic turns. The perfect storm for a good binge reading session.

You can buy Give Up the Ghost here:
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