Waking the dead by D.B. Sieders.
This is book 1 in the soul broker series.
Vivian Bedford is Down on her luck until Lazarus Darkmore a grim reaper seeks to recruit her as a soul broker. She has the ability to channel conscious energy from the living something no guardian or reaper can do. Her sister is disabled. Can Vivian protect her?
I really enjoyed this book. Great story and some good characters. Vivian was my favourite character.
I'm looking forward to the next book. 4*.

Vivian /Viv is almost at the end of her rope taking care of her severely disabled sister Mae. Vivian has had a hard life. Vivian is a loan officer. According to the doctors Mae’s condition is deteriorating quickly Vivian is driving and ends up in a car accident. Vivian manages to get out of her car and wonders why the car didn’t completely go in the ditch and she may have died. Viv noticed there was some commotion ahead of her and she walks slowly there and sees a man she believes in dying in twisted wreck and reached in and took the man’s hand and when she tried to pull away the man wouldn’t let go and the last thing he says to Viv is “ I’m sorry”. Viv didn’t know she and the dying man opened up a connection her and the world of spirits. Vivian now has the ability now to channel energy from the living and the dead. The the Grim Reaper Lazarus and she is afraid to not go along with his request. Then There is also a pair of Guardian Spirits Ezra and his apprentice Zeke offer to protect Vivian from the Reaper and help her come to grips with her new abilities. . Mae has also become a target for both Lazarus and Ezra as she is valuable for her store of living energy. Vivian must protect herself as well as Mae.
I had mixed feelings for this book. I liked how the author showed how hard it is mentally as well as physically on a family member taking care of a disabled family member especially one as disabled as Mae. But I felt like this book was a little too depressing to read at least for me. I respected the fact that Vivian didn’t just put Mae in a home and didn’t even want to return to work just to be there for Mae after what the doctor had said. But I also found this book confusing for me at times. My heart went out to both Vivian and Mae. I am not completely sure how I feel about this book except it was really dark for me. But I still wanted to finish reading this book and I did. But as I said I had mixed feelings.

Different than what I usually read, and that is a good thing. I am glad that I have a new author that I can enjoy. Vivian has had a hard life and unfortunately for her things just seem to get more complicated. This just shows what happens when fate meets destiny. The turmoil that Viv has went through makes it easy for some to make her question if she is good or evil. This book was full of some very interesting new ideas that I enjoyed reading. Thank you NetGalley and D.B. Sieders for allowing me to read and write an honest review of this book.

This book starts with a bang literally, with a car crash , and the action is pretty intense.I liked the main character Vivian and her devotion to her sister Mae,there was a lot going on as you would expect introducing characters and setting the scene in book one of a new series.I enjoy books in this genre when they are interesting and well written and this one was.I think it set the scene well for future books and I think the author is onto a winner with this,it was a good read and I enjoyed it .I voluntarily reviewed an Advanced reader Copy of this book and would like to thank the publisher and Netgalley .

I have not read by anything by this author before reading this book, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The premise sounded interesting, so I went ahead and requested it. What I found was a very well-written book with a unique take on (Grim) Reapers and Guardians. I found the characters mostly interesting and well-drawn. I really liked how Vivian was shown as the full-time caregiver and everything that comes with that. I think people don’t understand how exhausting, heart-breaking, and depressing it can be. I wasn’t even a full-time, just a part-time, caregiver and it is very difficult. However, I have to admit that this book was almost too depressing. The book didn’t have any humor in it at all to help alleviate some of the depressing tone of the book. I know in reality there may not be much humor, but to keep the book from being too sad, a little humor needed to be thrown in. Don’t be put off by this because I think the book is very much worth reading and I do look forward to the next one. Highly recommend! Thanks to NetGalley and City Owl Press for the e-copy of the book. This same review will be posted on both Goodreads and Amazon.

Waking the Dead caught my attention by the cover and the synopsis. So I jumped in.

Vivian is involved in a really bad car accident/pile up. She stumbles upon a victim, that’s about to pass. But during that moment something happens to her, that forever changes everything.

I wanted to really love this. But it is written in the Third POV and it was really difficult for me to connect with the characters on an emotional way. On the other hand, I feel that it was a really cool concept.

I don’t think I even really liked Vivian. She was very all over the place and jumped to conclusions frequently. The Soul Brokers that are on her side, seem to speak in riddles. They don’t give her all the information about what's going on in their world. Only certain things, which in all honesty would drive me crazy. There is the whole good vs evil going on as well.

Overall, I give this Two Boundless Stars. it was okay for me.

I received this book from Netgalley as an early release copy.

At the start of this book I found it a little confusing and jumpy, and there are still bits towards the end that I'm still not fully sure what happened in.

That said, I liked the characters though it was hard to tell who was supposed to be good and who was evil. I also was weirded out slightly by the main character's relationship with Zeke, mostly because he had a wife and son. I didn't mind so much by the end of the book though.

I found the frequent references and implications to women liking to cook and be domestic a little contrived and irritating and the main characters hard headed-ness was a drawback for me too.

However, this was an interesting book and a pretty good read though a little incoherent at times.

Depressing paranormal with trigger warnings for long term caregivers of severely disabled people. Harmful or suicidal depression mentioned several times. Uncomfortable romance with no lead up to engage me with the characters, therefore felt gratuitous sex was unwarranted and added little to the story for me. There was absolutely no "comic relief" in this grindingly morbid, sad novel. I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book for Netgalley.