As some of you may have noticed, I am behind on my own reading challenge – for shame! Well it’s all George R R Martin’s fault, because I’ve been reading A Song of Ice and Fire (currently about a third of the way into book 4) so my reading attention has been diverted. Allow me to rectify that now.

deathI’ve just finished reading Death Most Definite by Trent Jamieson and I must say, wow, what a cool book! No lack of action, some intrigue so sneaky you aren’t really aware it’s happening until late in the story, the always awesome doomed romance (that you totally want to have work), and solid humour the whole way through.

There were some seriously hilarious parts where I had to stifle the laugh out loud urges so I didn’t wake up the rest of the family.

The story is about Steven de Selby, a Pomp (think death angel, Japanese Shinigami, reaper what have you, but entirely human apart from their ability to help move souls on to the afterlife) who is shot at in the Wintergarden Food Court and the only reason he survives is because a (cute) dead girl warns him moments before. Now Steven has to figure out who is attacking all of the Brisbane pomps and why. Oh, and survive too.

One of the things I loved most about this story was that it’s based in Brisbane so I knew virtually everywhere that was being discussed. This created a great connection for me because I could visualise settings much more vividly that ‘some town in America’ or ‘some medieval village’. In my opinion there aren’t enough stories set in Brisbane ;p

I really enjoyed how the romance was played out too, from initial attraction, to growing emotions, to awkwardness because yeah you can’t hide it anymore – oh and by the way if I touch you I’ll send you to the afterlife so we’re doomed from the offset. Love it. I’ve read a few books recently where the relationships didn’t spark for me (none of the books have been Aussie, hooray!) and I’ve realised if I don’t believe the romance then a lot of the character begins to fall flat for me and a great story is intimately tied to character.

The pace in Death Most Definite also has good velocity. I am currently obsessed with book velocity (as I’ve personally dubbed it), because if I’m not dragged along, caught in the tail wind I find myself going off to work on my own writing, or play a video game, or you know, tidy the house ;p. I don’t have much free time between work and raising a child, so if there’s not enough velocity the book loses out to Etrian Odyssey or editing. That’s probably another part of why I fell behind.

All up I loved the book and am looking forward to finding the time to read the sequels. Oh and here’s my Goodreads review if you’re curious