Love, love, loved this one! It was a slightly different vibe than the previous books but that's because there has been so much growth. I couldn't put it down, start to finish, it was amazing. Darynda Jones is a master and she just gets better and better.

Charley and her supernatural and ragtag crew are hanging out at an abandoned convent awaiting the birth of her daughter and trying to avoid hellhounds and Satan. Never ones to sit around and do nothing, Cookie and Ubie are getting married, Charley's rooting out Satan's spies and solving a missing persons mystery for her FBI friend Kit, all why trying to figure out hellhounds and why there's so many dead people on the lawn. Jones continues to move the series in a more serious direction, and more emphasis on an upcoming battle with Satan. The missing teenager seems to be only a minor storyline, and many of the funny moments from earlier books are missing as well. While it gets easier and easier to get attached the main group of characters, and Jones doesn't hesitate to throw in killing off characters, I definitely miss the humor of the earlier books and the everyday cases that don't stretch the imagination quite as much as ghost gods from another universe and an epic showdown with Lucifer.

I swear there is no least favourite books in this series.

I love Eight Grave After Dark just as much as the previous books. I love the writing, the story and the characters.

I can't wait to read the next book.

I really love this series! I love Charley's personality, she is hilarious! Some advice.. never let your dark hubby go into a hell dimension.. you might not like how he comes out. As if that wasn't enough someone is attacking humans that are sensitive to the paranormal.. Charley is going to come out fighting and she will not stop until it does! You must read this series in order!

Kind of enjoyable. The snark, as always is there, but this story is a little convoluted. I feel sorry for Charley, this chick just can’t get a break, bad and worse are always happening to her. This so far is my least favorite of the series. Charley has to live in a old convent (sacred ground), has Beep, takes a trip down below, loses Beep, mentally breaks and ends up in Sleepy Hollow, NY, where a really bad and previously dead guy resides. And then we have the “God’s”, turns out Charley is a God, there are ghost gods, seven gods, etc. my head is spinning.

And another book completed in my favourite fantasy series. I have recommended the series to so many people and everyone is really enjoying them.

Review:

Since I read all of the Charley Davidson in one long run, yes, I had not read any of the series yet, I decided to write one review for the previously released books and one for the last book in the series.

First let me say, these are wickedly awesome books! Loved the story line, the writing and the characters. For me it was great to read them all at once and a little sad, since there will not be anymore. One of the things I loved about the books was Charley and her balls to the wall, help whoever, whenever she can attitude. Now that sure got her in lots of trouble, but it was so much fun to read. I loved the snarky witty dialogue and the quotes at the beginning of each chapter cracked me up. Now, it is not all fun and games in this story, there were points when I was crying and points I was on the edge of my seat with the action going on. I have to say on the whole this is one of the best and most well-rounded series I have read where I was not once bored or wanting to put down a book.

I am not sure what this Author has coming next, but she has me on the hook for whatever it is.

5 Big Stars for all of the books in the series

*I voluntarily read reader copies of each book provided by the publisher for review.*

Charley is nine months pregnant and cannot afford to be fighting off the demons after her and Beep. So, she takes herself to a convent where the demons should not be able to get to her. But safety comes at a cost. With help from her motley crew, including her not so evil stepmother, Charley must solve the many mysteries that come her way and try to manage the chaos as it comes. Book 8 sets the stage for book 9 and does an excellent job of keeping Charley's avid readers happy.

This Charley Davidson novel took a different turn. Lots of "WOW" moments and action.
I loved this book and the cliffhanger ending!

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Shelby – ☆☆☆☆☆
So, where does the Grim Reaper and the Son of Satan go when they are being hunted by hellhounds? Consecrated grounds, of course!
Do they go alone? Of course not!

Welcome to the eighth book in the Charley Davidson series. This installment is jam packed with events, even though our band of friends are basically trapped in an abandoned convent.

Nine months pregnant and Charley just can't stop doing what she does so well. When she can't go to investigate the case, she brings the case to her. Of course, her snarkiness is present, along with Reyes’ overprotectiveness, Cookie's sweetness, and Osh's cool.

The one oddball character who has a huge role in this story is Denise!?!?

Book eight was not what I was expecting at all! I loved this one, with all the craziness that occurs: crying, closet ghost and nun ghost (yes, please!). Not only the are the departed interesting, but the progression of the storyline really shocked me. Of course there are more secrets, and answers, and more questions, but really, this was more than I was ready for.

What could possibly happen next?


Erica – ☆☆☆
Obviously Eighth Grave After Dark is the eighth installment of the Charley Davidson series. I suggest strongly against reading out of order. I'm rating on my entertainment value outside of my malfunction with the way Charley is now being written.

What I have to say next, I assume you're now at least a seven-book veteran of this series, and I need to get this off my chest in order to continue to enjoy the series. I need to let it go, so I have to get it out to do so.

I've come to the conclusion that I have to just outright ignore the fact that Charley is devolving both mentally and emotionally, but most importantly, devolving in intelligence and morally. Outside of rare bursts of rational thought, Charley behaves as someone who should be institutionalized for her own protection, but especially for the protection of those nearest and dearest to her.

Charley’s nonstop antics put everyone at risk – by everyone, I mean a UNIVERSE of beings at risk, because she's selfish and narrow-sighted.

For someone who is empathetic, meaning she feels as others are feeling, she is the most un-self-aware character in the Charley Davidson universe. All the characters are great, but Charley comes off as dimwitted, willfully ignorant, spiteful to a gleeful degree, and narcissistic in the extreme, to where only what she sees in her narrow scope matters. What looks selfless on the outside, is actually a god complex.

In this installment, Charley continues to treat Denise, her stepmother, badly. While I can empathize with Charley's past, evidently someone who is supposedly empathetic by nature, is completely incapable of empathizing with anyone. As a grown woman about to be a mother, she is making WORSE mistakes than what she survived as a child. How about LEARN from Denise's mistakes and NOT KILL YOUR CHILD before it's born?!

I mean, we can keep quibbling about Denise being terrified of you as you were growing up, as if that makes her evil incarnate, but let's actually deliver your child while its heart still beats, okay? I'd like to say Charley has no room to talk, but this victim mentality while creating her own set of victims is hard to swallow.

Talk about Mommy Issues – Beep should cut her mother out of her life for continually putting her at risk while in utero, dozens of times over the course of nine months, to the point her birth was during a near-fatal disaster of Charley's own making. The events that put Charley and Beep into that position were meaningless – the nun was dead, her attacker was dead, all it did was answer questions from decades ago, when NO ONE was asking the questions in the first place. IT. DID. NOT. MATTER.

NOT KILLING YOUR CHILD MATTERED.

Especially when said child was prophesied to SAVE THE WORLD.

Charley was hours away from giving birth, may or may not have had a broken rib she was hiding, and decided to wield a sledge hammer because how dare a locked door keep a secret from her. After all, Reyes was keeping secrets from her, and that is just not done... while she meets in the woods with a private investigator in SECRET, where she got the broken rib in the first place. Back to the sledge hammer. Denise slapped Charley, literally trying to slap sense into her stepdaughter, as she was putting Beep at mortal risk, and they astonishingly get angry at Denise, NOT Charley.

Is this an alternate universe? No, Charley has to unlock the secrets behind that door, hours before giving birth, while Satan's son is right there, a demon, Swoops, and many others. ANYONE is more capable at opening that door than Charley. Nope, Charley has to do it, just so she can say she is the one who did it. Her child's life? Who cares, right? Who cares if that broken rib pierces the sack and kills the baby, right? Because... a locked door is not allowed any secrets, because only Charley is allowed to keep secrets.

It may look cutesy on the outside, where we get a few chuckles, but let's get real. I can overlook just about anything, even the humor as Charley KILLS people, like so easily sending Jennifer to her death, but an unborn child is NO laughing matter. She can't even take herself seriously.

On a deeper level, something we haven't seen since book four, back when Charley had emotions outside of thinking only of herself. Charley is a god, and it makes me wonder how she ended up to be so emotionally, mentally, and intelligently stunted. All I felt was that she did NOT deserve the power she had, because whoever gave it to her was a moron. She has SEVEN gods embodied within her, and ends up being nothing but a series of one-liners and near-fatal disasters.

As for the rest of the cast of characters, in Charley's defense, they either enable her HORRIBLE behavior, humoring her because it's easier than telling her the truth or giving her tough love to better herself, or outright lie to her face. These disasters, with Charley running off because she has a death-wish, and apparently no love for her daughter's longevity, would be mitigated should ANYONE say anything about something of importance. But since this is first-person narration, if Charley knows, the reader knows, and to keep the reader in the dark, Charley must remain in the dark, but this only makes readers lose trust in Charley's ability to do anything even remotely rational.

Other than Denise, who may or may not have actually been Denise at the time, slapping sense into Charley, Osh is the only one who said it like it is...

"The way I see it," Osh said, "you got yourself into this mess. You can get yourself out of it."

End Rant.

After eight books of being thoroughly invested in the universe Jones has created, where I feel for all the characters and their plight, I have to know what happens next. I am praying that Charley shows some growth after what happened in the end of the novel, because the devolution of her character over the course of eight books has me not liking her. I have no idea why her friends and family put up with her, let alone like her as a person at this point. What's worse, power corrupts, and Charley finally comes into her powers.

Other than the near-death experiences while in an abandoned convent, over the course of a handful of days, not much occurs. Beep is born. My rant encompasses the attitude that was hard to ignore. From here on out, I will focus on only the other characters, the direction the world-building is leading, the unexpected, amazing humor and emotions the ghosts have to offer, and pray that a millennia of knowledge evolves Charley into someone even remotely resembling a functioning adult.

I love the Charley Davidson Books, and this was a good one - not the best, but good. The one thing that was a bit disconcerting is that Rafael is kind of portrayed as a wimp. This is so unlike his character in the previous books, and I really did not like it. In addition, Charley aka Dutch continues to defy him when she knows that it only means trouble and danger, and she really was not in a position to end up in situations like that. However, the book was still enjoyable and better than most other 'supernatural' novels out there!

I loved this entire series so much I read the entire thing back to back. Charley Davidson is fascinating, and has jumped to one of my favorite Urban Fantasy Heroines ever.

Don't try to pick up this book as a standalone, it definitely needs to be read in order. This picks up directly from the last and ultimately ties a bunch of things up. I don't like spoilers, so I don't do them, however my questions about Denise are answered from the last book. The problem I have with this particular book is the continuing doing things behind each other's backs for the sake of the other. Charlie and Reyes just continue to keep things secret from each other, I can understand Reyes, he thinks she'll leave him, but what's up with her? She's very pregnant and continues to act irrationally knowing what's trying to destroy her and ultimately her child, it's getting irritating. I enjoyed the wedding and the supporting characters contributions. Overall the ending was a wow, didn't see some coming, but as soon as Mr. Wong showed up at the monastery I knew I was right about him.

Eighth Grave After Dark was a mix of emotions that ended in a heck of a cliffhanger. While it started out slower than usual I have no complaints because of all the revelations and events. This book was a treat to read and I am starting the next book immediately.

I read and reviewed a copy courtesy of NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, all opinions are my own.

Grim reaper Charley Davidson does not take well to being cooped up, even more so when she's heavily pregnant, but right now she has no choice. Cloistered away in an abandoned convent for her own protection from the twelve hellhounds hunting her down, frustration is getting to her , and as if that wasn't enough something seems to be very wrong with Reyes, and he is definitely hiding something from her,. The only distraction is the silent ghost of a young nun, who seems to be trying to tell her something, and if there is one thing that will keep Charley busy, its a mystery to solve.
Another exciting installment in the series, where we finally learn some more about Charley's powers and background before a shocking finale that will leave readers begging for the next book.
I read and reviewed a copy courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

My least favorite book of the series.

1. Omnipotent character. The powerful baddie of the last seven books was swatted like a fly.
2. Long, bitter, family arguments.
3. The increasing physical near-violence of Reyes towards Charlie.
4. The cases were too simple.
5. The characters’ petulant and petty lies.
6. Worst of all, not a funny book.

Eighth Grave After Dark
By Darynda Jones

4 stars.

Darynda Jones fiction series combining action, supernatural and romance. Featuring Charley Davidson: part-time private investigator and full-time Grim Reaper. Charley sees dead people, and it's her job to convince them to "go into the light." But when these very dead people have died under less than ideal circumstances (i.e., murder), sometimes they want Charley to bring the bad guys to justice.

Charley Davidson has enough going on without having to worry about twelve hellhounds hot on her trail. She is, after all, incredibly pregnant and feeling like she could pop at any moment. But, just her luck, twelve deadly beasts from hell have chosen this time to escape onto our plane, and they've made Charley their target. And so she takes refuge at the only place she thinks they can't get to her: the grounds of an abandoned convent. Of course, if hellhounds aren't enough, Charley also has a new case to hold her attention: the decades-old murder of a newly-vowed nun she keeps seeing in the shadows of the convent.

Add to that the still unsolved murder of her father, the strange behavior of her husband, and Charley's tendency to attract the, shall we say, undead, and she has her hands full…but also tied. While the angry hellhounds can't traverse the consecrated soil, they can lurk just beyond its borders like evil sentries, so Charley has been forbidden from leaving the sacred grounds. Luckily, she has her loyal team with her, and they're a scrappy bunch who won't let a few thirsty hellhounds deter them.

While the team scours the prophesies, searching for clues on the Twelve, for a way to kill them or at least send them back to hell, Charley just wants answers and is powerless to get them. But the mass of friends they've accrued helps. They convince her even more that everyone in her recent life has somehow been drawn to her, as though they were a part of a bigger picture all along. Their presence is comforting. But the good feelings don't last for long because Charley is about to get the surprise of her crazy, mixed-up, supernatural life…While not my usual genre, I found the books engaging and face paced to keep me picking up title after title.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing a review copy in return for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

#NetGalley

Reviewed by Heath Henwood
www.books-reviewed.weebly.com

ARC Kindly provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have read these books over and over and over, and everytime I read them I fall more in love with it. The only thing that frustrates me is the waiting in between and for the ultimate fight, other than that and is like an addiction.

I am too sad to see this series over, but something tells me this will not be the end at all.

If you haven't read this series, start now, it is just amazing!

Thank you for the early copy.

I recommend this eighth novel of the series to fans of urban fantasy. I never tire of following this character as she solves mysteries and deals with her powers.

Mr. Freaking. Wong.

So, it’s cold of me, but all I’m going to tell you about this one is that you finally find out information about Mr. Wong! And it’s so totally not what you’re expecting.

Totally worth the read and totally worth the wait.

If you’re new to the series, please don’t start here. Start from the beginning so you understand why readers need to know about Mr. Wong. If you’ve been reading, you finally get to know!

Next, please!!!

*ARC Provided via Net Galley