Blog Tour, Review, and Giveaway--Seventh Grave and No Body

We are so stoked to be a stop on Darynda Jones's blog tour in celebration of the release of Seventh Grave and No Body, which hits shelves and e-readers tomorrow! Natalie has already devoured it, and loved it. Check out her review below, as well as an excerpt from the book. Then enter Darynda's giveaway, vote for the Saucy Wenches for the Blog Of The Day, and gear up for tomorrow's release.

Seventh Grave and No Body:  

Twelve. Twelve of the deadliest beasts ever forged in the fires of hell have escaped onto our plane, and they want nothing more than to rip out the jugular of Charley Davidson and serve her lifeless, mangled body to Satan for dinner. So there’s that. But Charley has more on her plate than a mob of testy hellhounds. For one thing, her father has disappeared, and the more she retraces his last steps, the more she learns he was conducting an investigation of his own, one that has Charley questioning everything she’s ever known about him. Add to that an ex-BFF who is haunting her night and day, a rash of suicides that has authorities baffled, and a drop-dead sexy fiancé who has attracted the attentions of a local celebrity, and Charley is not having the best week of her life. A tad north of hell, a hop, skip, and a jump past the realm of eternity, is a little place called Earth, and Charley Davidson, grim reaper extraordinaire, is determined to do everything in her power to protect it. 

We’re doomed.

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Meet Darynda Jones:

NYTimes and USA Today Bestselling Author Darynda Jones has won numerous awards for her work, including a prestigious Golden Heart®, a Rebecca, two Hold Medallions, a RITA ®, and a Daphne du Maurier, and she has received stellar reviews from dozens of publications including starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist, and the Library Journal. As a born storyteller, Darynda grew up spinning tales of dashing damsels and heroes in distress for any unfortunate soul who happened by, annoying man and beast alike, and she is ever so grateful for the opportunity to carry on that tradition. She currently has two series with St. Martin’s Press: The Charley Davidson Series and the Darklight Trilogy. She lives in the Land of Enchantment, also known as New Mexico, with her husband of almost 30 years and two beautiful sons, the Mighty, Mighty Jones Boys. She can be found at www.daryndajones.com.

Follow us through the jump for an excerpt from Seventh Grave, Natalie's Review, and your chance to win great prizes!

Excerpt: 

Still covered in duct tape, he turned on his side to face me, his flesh straining against the binds. 
“You would tell me if something were wrong, right?” 
“What do you mean? Of course, I would.” 
“So, if you knew something could happen to you, you’d let me know.” 
Where was he going with this? “Yes. Nothing is going to happen to me. Well, unless the Twelve get ahold of me. Other than that, I should be fine.” 
He nodded in thought. “Reyes, what is it?” 
“I think you keep secrets from me.” 
“You keep secrets from me,” I said, teasing. “Seems only fair.” 
He leaned forward and nibbled on my ear. “We can decide who gets to keep secrets and who doesn’t later. Until then, want to do it?” 
“Reyes!” I said, appalled. “You just had your arm nearly ripped off at the shoulder.” That and the fact that a grown man asking me if I wanted to “do it” was hilarious. 
“We can still do it.” 
I giggled. “No, we can’t.” 
“I’m very creative with my mouth.” 
“I am well aware of that.” 
“You should sit on my face.” 
A bubble of laughter escaped again. “I am not sitting on your face. Oh, my god.” 
“Just sit on my face. I’ll make all your dreams come true.” 
“You really need to practice humility,” I said. “Humility is overrated.” 

Natalie's Review:  

Books and cookies must be devoured!

Gluttony: habitual greed or excess in eating. Or in the case of this particular Wench the sin of Gluttony is rooted from her consumption of books. Shhhh don’t tell anyone but from time to time I’ve been known to polish off a box of Twinkies in the same way Charley loves to polish off a pot of coffee. However if mass amounts of reading is a sin I don’t want to be pure. In fact I’d be happy to be locked up in Hell with Reyes as my jailor….so sinful…so HOT! Since 2010 I’ve noticed that when it comes to reading and starting a new book, especially the next one in a series that I adore, I am ravenous with desire to read all of it as fast as possible. It is so intense that when I have access to the book of my desire I read at a rate that is more like an all encompassing possession than reading. Often times my reading resembles that of someone who is in the throes of gorging on cake or other copious amounts of food. When Seventh Grave and No Body by Darynda Jones came into my possession I went to town like Augustus Gloop tried to go to town on that chocolate river in Charley and The Chocolate Factory, or again, the way Charley consumes her beloved Coffee! I wish I could say I completed the book in its entirety within the first few hours of having access but my desire to read at warp speed does not match reality. I did however read the novel so fast it was more like I inhaled the whole brilliant and humorous mind of Charley Davidson/ Darynda Jones without taking the time to notice all the fine details. 

The reason for my extensive introduction to Seventh Grave and No Body has a lot to do with how thoroughly engrossed I've been in my reading that I totally forgot plot points from Sixth Grave on the Edge. I know that forgetting plot points is a horrible terrible unforgivable sin and I do not deserve to be locked up with Reyes as my jailor…shame on me! I mean I really totally 100% spaced out and forgot the Grand Canyon sized cliffhanger that was at the end of book 6. For those of you who read book six and remember the details you know that it was a cliff that has our favorite Grim Reaper unable to drink the nectar of the Gods…coffee. I’m still trying to figure out how I could totally forget this fact. Even if key points were forgotten a refresher is quickly given and I was brought back up to speed in the first chapter of Seventh Grave and No Body. For the start of the book finds us on an investigation with Charley, Reyes, Agent Carson, and Charley’s ex-BFF and the newly crossed over Jessica. It is in this car that we see Charley’s irritation with Jessica and are reminded that for the sake of her little coffee bean that is growing that she is not drinking her beloved coffee and far more irritable because of it in the most humorous of ways.

Someone needs to shake some sense into Charley!

In Jones’s if-it’s-not-broken-don’t-fix-it style we find that in Seventh Grave and No Body our beloved heroine has a rather full plate to balance. Charley, as always has two types of investigations going on--one regular and one paranormal--all while trying to figure out the history and nuances of what being the Grim Reaper truly is. The difference for Charley this time around is that she has to do all of the above while dealing with changing hormones, caffeine withdrawls, and an overly possessive affianced Reyes. Being invested into this series for seven books, I feel as if the characters are members of my own family and I love and adore Charley as if she were my sister. There were points in the book that I just wanted to reach into the pages and smack her silly, just as there are days that I want to smack some of my own family silly with the choices they make in life. When those moments popped up I would just make myself breathe. After my calming deep breath, or mouth full of Oreos, I found that I was grateful for Jones staying true to character, even if I did not want Charley to do action x, y, or z. 

I find as I am writing this review that I am struggling to accurately express my feelings for the book because of my love and devotion to both the characters and the author. I don’t want our Wenchy readers to think that I was disappointed, as that is far from the truth. The book is well worth devouring while at the same time I feel a little bloated as if I gorged on too much of my favorite comfort food. Just like my favorite comfort food, though I've had too much for the moment, I will be back for more. I look forward to book eight and will always keep coming back to get my Charley fix. 

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