3.75 ⭐️ I had a great time reading this book and I really enjoyed the humor. However, It just felt very rushed at the end and not finished. (I know it ends on a cliffhanger) I felt there was something missing. It just seemed very easy & predictable and surface level. I didn’t feel super hooked to any of the characters and was hoping to get some more aspect on Cordelia as a ghost. I wanted more of her ghostly things. She seemed to discover something and move on. I wanted to know more about it. Overall, a cute read but really missing a lot for me.

3.75 stars.

This is a cute cozy mystery, the first in a planned series. It has a unique premise with a young woman teaming up with a middle-aged ghost to solve a murder. It’s written in an easy to read style.

A pleasant read but at times I found it slow and I wasn’t really invested in the characters.. For me, this one did not stand out in a clear way in the crowded cozy mystery space.

Thanks to the publisher for this complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for the digital ARC of ”A New Lease on Death” in exchange for my honest opinion. This was an entertaining read and I liked the unique perspective of a ghost helping to solve a murder. The story moved at a good pace, I enjoyed the cast of characters, and there was a good amount of humor mixed in as well. I would definitely read more books in this series as it ended with a nice segue into the next book.

This was an enjoyable read - the first of what I hope is a long series.

Cordelia Graves is still living in her Boston apartment despite the fact that she died several months ago. The apartment's new tenant, Ruby Young, is getting used to the fact that the apartment ghost is clearing moving things around.

When neighbor Jake McIntyre is murdered outside the building one night, Cordelia enlists Ruby's help to figure out who did the crime.

This was funny and entertaining, as the pair figure out a way to communicate, and try to understand why Cordelia disappears from time to time.

We also get to root for Ruby, newly transplanted in Boston, and in need of a job, and a friend and a steady way of life.

I found the characters fun, and I look forward to reading more of these in the future.

Thank you Netgalley & St’. Martins Press /Minotaur Books foe an eARC ♥️♥️♥️

I'm Obsessed with This Ghostly Duo!

IThis book masterfully blends humor, mystery, and heart, making it an absolute page-turner.
Meet Cordelia, a lovable ghost, and Ruby, her quirky roommate-turned-sleuth. Their unlikely friendship is the stuff of magic, despite Ruby's inability to see or hear Cordelia directly. Their creative communication attempts had me giggling and rooting for them.
The whodunit mystery is expertly woven, with paranormal twists and ghostly rules that add depth. Boston's atmospheric setting only adds to the charm.🤩
"A New Lease on Death" checks all the boxes:

Cozy mystery? Check! ☑️
Ghostly crime-solving? You bet!☑️
Unlikely friendships? Absolutely!☑️

This debut promises fantastic series potential. I'm eagerly awaiting Cordelia and Ruby's next adventure.♥️

Rating: 5/5 stars

And... I've found another amazing book series to obsess over🥰

I am a big fan of this author's Record Shop Mysteries and was happy to see she had started a new series. The two main characters are Cordelia, who has passed and now is a ghost and Ruby, a younger person who is now living in Cordelia's apartment. Through a creative means they " meet" and become an unexpected duo to solve a murder mystery.
I have to admit that I did not like this one as much as I love the authors other series. In general I am not a paranormal person. It is just me and I do believe many readers will love this book.
Thanks very much to NetGalley, St Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review this book. In exchange for my honest review.. The release date date is October 29,2024

Former me was not a cozy mystery fan. Lucky for recent/present me, former me has become more flexible with age and experience. I now appreciate a good cozy mystery to keep the brain working, with less explicit violence and trauma than full-strength mystery/thrillers. [The caveat here is that some serious issues are glossed over or treated casually, which may be hurtful to some readers. Content warnings include alcohol abuse, infidelity, domestic abuse, gambling, suicide, and murder.]

A New Lease on Death is so funny that my laughing distracted my partner, who tends to do all the driving on our road trips. I refused to share much with him, so he can enjoy reading it himself once it's published. I might even reread it . . . with my ears. I didn't guess Jake's murderer in advance, which is rare. I wasn't entirely satisfied with the ending, both in terms of the content and the cliffhanger. The flipside is that there's a sequel to anticipate!

This book is so funny. Cordelia is dead. Her new roommate is a chatterbox who can't even hear her. The neighbour across the hall winds up dead and the fact he was shot in the head indicates it was murder. But how does a dead person get the answers she needs to solve the crime? The results are hilarious and very unexpected in places. The dual view points add to the unexpected twists and Cordelia and Ruby have very different ideas of who might have commited the crime and why. And the fact that Cordelia's attempts to discuss her ideas never work out as planned just add to the fun.

I'm very happy to see that this will be a series. Can hardly wait to read the next one!

👻 A New Lease on Death - Olivia Blacke

3 ⭐️ - This book reminds me of the shows, The Good Place and Not Dead Yet or the movie, Over Her Dead Body! I like the idea of funny, “not gone yet” spirits being friendly. Think Casper if you will.

I wanted to like this one more. I was really intrigued by the concept of a friendly ghost roommate trying to help a “breather” solve a murder mystery. But as the book went on, it got slow. I felt like I kept reading and not a whole lot was happening. I kept waiting for something exciting to strike or a crazy clue to appear, but it just felt flat. MEH, I’m sad because I was into it and enjoying it when I started. This is a series and if I continue, I might be choosing the audios and zip through and keep up with it.

Thanks Netgalley and Minatour Books for the early ARC copy.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin press and Olivia Blacke for the ARC of A New Lease on Death.

This was a cozy mystery that is enjoyable for the easy read. I really did not connect to the characters in this book but still enjoyed reading the crazy adventures of them trying to figure out the who done it. I would read other books by this author in the future.

*Premature review* as I haven’t finished yet however I ABSOLUTELY adore what I’ve read so far and can tell it’s going to be a high rated read for me. I really appreciate the multiple POV between the living current resident Ruby and not so living past…current? resident Cordelia (love this name btw!!!!). They work together to figure out what in the heck is going on at the apartment building they live(d) at after their across the hall neighbor Jake is discovered with a bullet hole in his head outside the apartment in the snow…with all his belongings still, tho it’s been ruled as a mugging, Ruby and Cordelia are feeling otherwise. Especially after a journalist brings up a suspicious figure leaving after Cordelia’s ruled suicide. Very much looking forward to seeing how it plays out but needed to right this all out now!!! Thank you thank you for the opportunity!!!! (Will post full review with links upon finishing)

A cozy mystery to get you in the mood for October. I felt it was a little slow paced at times. I wish I could rate it higher because it was an interesting premise, but the execution of the book left it in the middle ground for me.

Thanks to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for this advanced copy of this book. A New Lease on Death is available on October 29, 2024.

Thanks to Minotaur Books for gifted access via Netgalley. All opinions below are my own.

Cordelia is a ghost who cohabitates with the girl who rented her apartment after her death. Ruby is a bit of a mess but seems to acknowledge her as a bit of an invisible roommate. That balance is disrupted as one of their neighbors dies under mysterious circumstances. Cordelia finds ways to communicate with Ruby and convinces her to investigate. 

I like a human / ghost sleuth story. The times where Cordelia and Ruby were figuring out communication and looking for clues were great. Jake's murder is solved but not in a way that made sense to me given the clues we were, it felt more of a stretch than I would like. But what annoyed me more was the unnecessary cliffhanger for a mystery that seemed easily solved in a parallel way to Jake's. I think if it had wrapped up cleanly, I would have rated it much higher and been more likely to read a sequel with these two. Now, not a chance.

My thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books/St. Martins Publishing for the ARC of "A New Lease on Death" in exchange for an honest review.
I can't say I fully embraced this whole heartedly, since it fell a little short in a few key areas. But mostly, I found it an entertaining read that kept me staying with it all the way through.
I guess you'd call it a Big City Cozy......unfolding not in a quaint little town but on the cold, snowy, sometimes violent streets of Boston. New 20 year old apartment dweller Ruby moved in to wipe out the memories of her 'jerkface' cheating ex. Quirky, cute and the world's worst job interviewee, she's got another problem - Cordelia, the 40-something previous tenant, hasn't vacated, unless you count committing suicide in the bathtub as vacating. Cordy's still inhabiting the apartment as a ghost.......and initially not thrilled with her new roommate.
And now the fun begins. Ruby and Cordelia, not only slowly establish a workable living (and dead) apartment sharing arrangement, but team up as oddball amateur detectives. Yet another neighbor of theirs, Jake, was shot dead on the street (and for some strange reason,, barely dressed), right in front of the apartment building. Ruby then has her hands full questioning potential suspects who can't quite figure out the paranormal oddities that occur all around her.
I was expecting a more generous helping of humor in a setup like this, but the author Olivia Blacke seems to ration it out in careful spoonfuls. The book devotes a huge amount of time to its own ghostly mythology that dictates the extent of Cordelia's abilities and powers.....a little too much of it and it slows down the pace. What I did enjoy, was the step-by-step building of friendship and the beginnings of affection between the two sleuths stuck in separate modes of existence. And their exasperating attempts to communicate with each other keeps a reader smiling - especially when they stumble upon the one way that actually works for both of them.
The expected showdown-finale with the killer comes in kind of a rush but still makes for an exciting, witty, and satisfying way for these unlikely detectives to close their first case.....and move on to the next.. I'll be there with them for sure, but hoping the next one streamlines the paranormal exposition and amps up the amusing byplay.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Olivia Blacke for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for A New Lease on Death coming out October 29, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author. I really love mysteries! I was excited to check this out. I’m not opposed to dark comedy. Normally, I would be obsessed with a book like this. But I think there was something missing for me. I didn’t connect with the characters as much as I wanted. I liked parts of the book. I would check out other books by this author.

After discovering her longtime boyfriend was cheating on her, Ruby decided she needed a fresh start and moved to Boston where she found a tiny, fully furnished apartment in a marginal neighborhood. She soon learns the reason why the apartment is fully furnished is because the previous tenant, Cordelia Graves, died in it. And Ruby is not sure Cordelia has left yet.

Cordelia is new at being a ghost, so she's excited when her former neighbor, Jake, joins her in the spirit world. But she is also concerned about what happened to him. And whether her new roommate, Ruby, is going to kill ALL her plants. She finally learns to communicate with Ruby and two become an unlikely detecting duo, trying to discover who killed Jake. Although his murder appears to be a robbery, the fact that he was outside in pajama bottoms and fuzzy socks during a snowstorm suggests he only stepped out for a moment. But Jake's tendencies toward womanizing and gambling provide too many suspects.

I can't convey how much I loved this book. The setting is perfect; Ruby and Cordelia are both relatable; and the premise is unique. I've read and enjoyed one of Olivia Blacke's other series, but this debut of a new series is utter perfection. I can't wait to see which direction she goes next, as there are numerous hints to other stories. How did Cordelia really die? What's the backstory with her brother? #ANewLeaseonDeath #NetGalley

In A New Lease on Death, Olivia Blacke introduces a quirky, genre-blending mystery led by an unlikely duo: Ruby, the living, apartment-killing tenant, and Cordelia, her ghostly roommate with a penchant for solving crimes. Blacke's story kicks off with dark humor, as Ruby moves into her Boston apartment only to discover Cordelia's spirit still “living” there. When their neighbor, Jake, is shot, Cordelia enlists Ruby to help solve his murder, leading to a reluctant partnership between the two.

The duo’s antics, Ruby's upbeat persistence versus Cordelia's sarcastic deadpan, provide some entertaining moments. However, the story's pacing and balance of humor with suspense sometimes fall flat, leaving the plot feeling uneven. The ghost-human partnership is a fresh take on the cozy mystery, but the novel could benefit from deeper character development to fully invest readers in their sleuthing adventures.

Overall, A New Lease on Death is an amusing, if occasionally inconsistent, read for fans of supernatural mysteries with a twist of dark comedy.

“A New Lease on Death” is the first in Olivia Blacke’s Supernatural Mystery series. A paranormal cozy, the book features two characters: Ruby Young, a young woman who moves to Boston from Baltimore and rents an inexpensive fully-furnished apartment, and Cordelia Graves, the former tenant of that apartment who is now a ghost, having died of a drug and alcohol overdose in her bathtub. Cordelia strongly believes that her neighbor across the hall was murdered, and the book is focused on her and Ruby’s efforts to investigate the neighbor’s death.

The book has an interesting premise, and the main characters are well-developed. The plot, however, moves very slowly as the author spends a lot of time explaining how Cordelia and Ruby are able to communicate with each other, and what ghosts can and cannot do. As a result, the mystery wraps up very quickly, and it is unlikely that readers will be able to solve it with the limited clues provided. I am interested in seeing how the series develops in the future, now that the groundwork has been laid.
3.5 out of 5.0 stars.

Thanks to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary advanced copy of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for the ARC of A New Lease on Death by Olivia Blacke.

Unfortunately, I’ve moved this one to DNF. After 2/5 into the book, I was struggling for it to hold my interest. The description sounded like a book I’d be interested in, but the plot just didn’t pull me in. I think it was too slow moving getting to the point of solving the mystery versus building up the dynamic between Cordelia and Ruby. For me, there is only so many times I want to hear about the struggles they are having communicating with one another. I also found myself confused on whose POV the chapters were from at times as they kept going back and forth, but it was not an every other one. Given I did not finish this, I did not rate this on Goodreads. However, one NetGalley I have to leave a rating in order to leave a review, so note this is not an accurate star rating as I did not complete the book, but only in what I finished to the point where I stopped reading.

A New Lease on Death is the first book of a new series by Olivia Blacke. I’ve read and enjoyed all three of the books in The Record Shop mystery series, so I was eager to try out this new book. I was not disappointed!

One similarity between the two series, besides the murder-solving aspect, is the depiction of friendships (or sister-ships) between the female main characters. One huge difference in the two series is that in A New Lease on Death, one of the characters is a ghost.

When Cordelia Graves died, her ghost lingered. She’s stayed in her old apartment because she really doesn’t have anywhere else to go. It’s a lonely, somewhat frustrating life (technology and anything with electricity tends to blow up when she’s around), and she’s really not happy when young bubbly Ruby Young moves into the apartment, especially when Ruby manages to kill all of Cordelia’s houseplants.

Ruby desperately needs a place she can afford to rent, so she takes the apartment as is—complete with all of Cordelia’s belongings. She is thrilled when she realizes Cordelia’s ghost still lives there.

At first the two women seem incompatible, both as personalities and as corporeal vs. incorporeal bodies. When their neighbor across the hall is murdered, however, they eventually find a way to communicate and cooperate as they work together to solve what the police quickly label a mugging. And along the way, they begin to uncover some of the missing pieces to Cordelia’s own death.

Blacke does a great job of blending character development, details about ghostly existence, humor, and a mystery to solve. I hope there are more books to come in the Supernatural Series!