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Quick Info
Graveyard Shift

• Author: Jenn Burke
• Publishing House: Carina Press
• Release Date: 04.11.2019
• Series: Not Dead Yet
  book 3
• Genre: Paranormal, Romance
• Diversity: Mental Health (depression, possible PTSD), POC
• Trigger Warnings: Gore, Racism, Violence
• Rating: 5/5 Stars

Blurb
Graveyard Shift

Shifting Into High Fear

Ghost/god Wes Cooper and his not-life partner, vampire Hudson Rojas, have settled into cohabitation in an upscale part of Toronto. So what if their hoity-toity new neighbors haven’t exactly rolled out the welcome mat for the paranormal pair? Their PI business is booming, and when a suspect they’ve been tailing winds up in the morgue, it’s alongside a rash of other shifters in apparent drug-related fatalities.

Now Wes and Hudson must connect the dots between the shifter deaths and an uptick in brutal vampire attacks across the city. Throw in a surprise visit from Hudson’s niece—who may or may not be on the run from European paranormal police (who may or may not exist)—and guardianship of a teen shifter who might be the key to solving the whole mystery (if only she could recover her memory), and Wes and Hudson have never been busier…or happier.

But when a nightmare from Hudson’s past comes back to haunt him, their weird, little found family is pushed to the brink. Mucking this up would mean Hudson and Wes missing their second chance at happily-forever-afterlife…

This book is approximately 74,000 words

The Queer’s Review

I am not okay.

Like, at all. Take a look at the blurb again. That first sentence? That’s the mindset you have to get into before reading the the third of Not Dead Yet.

I mean, I was warned. I was warned more than once and I thought I was prepared.

I thought wrong.

Omnious much? I know. But you need to have that feeling of danger that is lurking in the corner of your eye. Feel the fear. Breathe it in and don’t let it out. Check if you’ve got enough comfort food. Check again.

And then begin.

If you’re like me you may end up thinking it’s not that bad in the beginning. Like, it’s bad and I was slightly distressed but I could deal with it.

Especially because the whole paranormal family is just so fucking cute with each other. So. Fucking. Cute. And fun. How do you expect me to remain sane when Hudson makes jokes like that:

And what kind is that? Tall, handsome, Spanish?

“Bloodsucker.”

I prefer ‘toothily endowed’.

(kindle pos. 638

And then he gets even cuter. I’m so proud of him? See what a loving family you have chosen yourself can accomplish.

And then comes the suffering. There is the kind of stories where you suffer but you’re happy. I don’t think you’ll be happy during this suffering. I might fear for your sanity if you’re happy during it.

I actually had to put done Graveyard Shift more than once, yell a little bit on Twitter about it, and then I went grocery shoping to escape all the feelings. I was never this confused and not myself while shopping for groceries. Not even while running a fever.

Then I build two bookshelves – not from scratch, but still – because I still couldn’t face the suffering. But I managed to finally finish reading and then I kinda just sat there a little.

Bookish Thoughts

I mean, I can’t say “all was well”, but… in a way? Maybe? But only if I don’t think about it too much.

It also helped that I reread the exclusive short story Jenn did for Queer Books Unbound. And you should too, regardless of if you’re processing Graveyard Shift around christmas or in the heat of summer. Maybe read it twice.

Disclaimer

I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.