Title: Pushing Up Posies
Author: Eve Langlais
Narrator: Troy Duran
Series: #1 in the Grim Dating series
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Eve Langlais (January 7, 2021) Audio published by Eve Langlais (January 11, 2021)
Source: Hoopla
Rating: ☕☕☕1/2
Synopsis: Netflix and Chill takes on a whole new meaning when Posie starts dating the Reaper.
Poor Brody. As reaper leader for the Canadian guild, he and his crew don’t get as much work as other countries until the Dark Lord gives them a new mandate: Establish a dating service on Earth that will facilitate the meeting between citizens of Hell and humans with the end goal being babies.
In other words, become a pimp.
It’s a cruel demotion for a reaper who just wanted to guide souls to their final destination. He is dying to return to Hell, until he meets the stubborn woman living across the hall.
The Devil wants Posie mated, but she is resisting all attempts. What will it take to make her see the light?
And how will she react when she finally discovers that death has been knocking at her door?
My Thoughts: When I finished this audio book, I was adamant in my OMG I loved this book so much! 4 Stars! Totally 4 stars...maybe even 4.5! Once my finished book satisfaction (i.e.: frenzy) wore off a bit I recognized this short book wasn't maybe as fantastic as I initially thought. Sigh.
The Good, The Bad, and Everything Else: So typically, I discuss the plot (although briefly) and the characters before spending a line or two about the narration but Imma strike that, reverse it, and state upfront...I think Troy Duran's narration stroked all my buttons and boosted my book euphoria into "This is the best book I've ever read!" proportions. So, our black robe shrouded Grim, Brody Reaper, has a deep voice. Thanks to Troy Duran, Brody has a melt your panties off voice. Of course, that probably is just Duran's natural voice and, in that case, the next 3 books in this series are going to have male protagonists who are sure to create panty puddles as well. I'll keep this in mind when I read them and won't fall for the book euphoria that each one will surely create. Am I done talking about the narration yet? Nope, but here is my last thought on the subject. I might even go so far as to say I would seek out a book just because Troy Duran is narrating. Of course, it better be a spicy romance because if it's a thriller him narrating a series killer's thoughts might just ruin things for me.
Now for the regular part of my review.... Character wise. Neither Brody nor Posie are very fleshed out. Posie is Canadian who apparently has agoraphobia maybe anthropophobia (fear of people for those who don't want to stop reading this long enough to open up another window to google) and potentially a fear of not being able to apologize enough but then that might just be a Canadian thing (according to the book anyway)(oh and Eve Langlais is Canadian so I'm thinking she should know)(Can my Canadian friends please let me know if this is true...are y'all predisposition to apologize for everything?) Other than those things we know about Posie we don't know much more. We do learn why she is the way she is but other than that Posie might have just been plopped down in somewhere Canada a fully formed if not mildly cracked human being (with only one facet of her past life being told to us because I'm assuming this one factor is the only thing, we need to know about Posie's past.) Brody is as much a mystery as well. We only get one part of his past life and that was the part that led him to his death and his subsequent life of a Reaper. So why did I like this book so much with characters not even fully dimensional characters? Troy Duran. No! Didn't mean to mention him again. Maybe it was the way the book was plotted out? Maybe.
The Plot or the premise of the story if you will. Lucifer is pissy because the number of his ranks are getting smaller. He blames the humans and their medical science with birth control and the Plan B pill being at the top. He needs higher numbers, so he decides to start a pimp service. Not really. it's a dating service where he matches humans up with his current ranks (reapers, demons, minotaurs, whomever happens to have a penis and is team Hell) to make evil little babies to join him on his quest for chaos and evil fun. What I found I liked about this book as a whole was Hell wasn't all bad, Lucifer wasn't all evil, and angels were kind of assholes.
There were a couple spicy scenes and a couple really fun scenes where Posie got a backbone and told off a couple of angels.... well, an angel and an Archangel, Raphael, to be precise. The ending, although quick, was good as well leading to my end of book euphoria belief this was an epically great book. It's not but it's fun, short, and spicy (especially if you listen to it!)
In a Nutshell: See all the above. If you're still not sure if I'll be reading more...um listening to more of these books maybe reread the first paragraph in my The Good, The Bad, and Everything Else section.
