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    Death's Daughter
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    Death's Daughter
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    Death's Daughter
    Audiobook9 hours

    Death's Daughter

    Published by Penguin Random House Audio

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Buffy fans will go wild! She was Tara on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Now she's the author of Ace's hottest new series- killer novels featuring Calliope Reaper-Jones, who doesn't want to be daddy's little girl anymore...Calliope Reaper-Jones so just wanted a normal life: buying designer shoes on sale, dating guys from Craig's List, web-surfing for organic dim-sum for her boss...But when her father-who happens to be Death himself-is kidnapped, and the Devil's Protege embarks on a hostile takeover of the family business, Death, Inc., Callie returns home to assume the CEO mantle- only to discover she must complete three nearly impossible tasks in the realm of the afterlife first.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateFeb 22, 2011
    ISBN9781101483374
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for Death's Daughter

    3/5

    212 ratings28 reviews

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    • 3/5
      The daughter of the Grim Reaper gets pulled back into the supernatural realm when her father is kidnapped.This book is a passable way to spend a lazy afternoon. The emotional tone is a little scattered but... what did you expect? There is a character who turns out to be two people — one who is assuming someone else's appearance — and the dual personality didn't strike me until it was pointed out in the narrative because the main character was cycling through witty repartee, fatal injury, self-doubt, bravado, and lust with enough frequency that I wasn't expecting consistency out of any other character, either.I liked the nerdy references to various non-human characters from different mythologies. Kali ("black, dark coloured") calling the protagonist "white girl" is pretty clever.
    • 2/5
      When I saw that Amber Benson was writing novels, I knew I had to check them out. I loved her foray into writing comics, after all. I was lucky enough to pick up this book at a bookstore that was going out of business and it only cost me 90 cents.I'm glad I didn't pay more.This is chick-lit disguised as fantasy, which I am totally all right with. What I'm not all right with is the gamut of plot holes. And the over-writing. There were a lot of passages that went something like this:I could use a hotdog, I thought to myself."I could use a hot dog," I said out loud.[Note: not an actual passage from the book.]I kept wanting to hurl the book away because it happened so often.The premise is this: Calliope wanted a normal life and out of the family business, so she put a forgetting charm on herself so she wouldn't ever have to deal with her past again. But when her dad is kidnapped, it's up to Callie to go through some video-game-esque challenges to get him back. Oh, and her dad is the Grim Reaper.The plot had spark, or it could've been really engaging. I don't know why it just seemed to fall apart. I've read a lot of complaints about Callie's character, saying she's whiny and shallow. Well, wouldn't you be whiny if put into some of the situations she's been in? And I think her shallowness is needed for the story - there wouldn't be one without it. I was fine with Callie as a character, I just cringed at some of the writing, and rolled my eyes at the rest of the story.I only read this because Amber Benson wrote it. The reviews would've scared me away otherwise (and with good reason) and never would've touched it otherwise. I also picked up the sequel [book: Cat's Claw] and I feel like I made a commitment to read them both when I had her sign them for me a few months ago at Midtown Comics. I still believe in Amber, because she has many talents, I just hope her writing gets better.
    • 3/5
      I liked this book--the audiobook was read by the author, who did a nice job with the narration. It was cute and sometimes funny, although the main character was occasionally annoying and a bit mercurial--although most of us probably are, from time to time. ;) I liked the idea--Death is kidnapped and his daughter must reluctantly take up the job. Other characters were interesting and fun. The plot was convoluted (not in a bad way) but sometimes seemed to wander off-track. Very much a mixed-bag for me. If you like light urban fantasy and quippy dialogue, give it a try!
    • 2/5
      When I saw that Amber Benson was writing novels, I knew I had to check them out. I loved her foray into writing comics, after all. I was lucky enough to pick up this book at a bookstore that was going out of business and it only cost me 90 cents.I'm glad I didn't pay more.This is chick-lit disguised as fantasy, which I am totally all right with. What I'm not all right with is the gamut of plot holes. And the over-writing. There were a lot of passages that went something like this:I could use a hotdog, I thought to myself."I could use a hot dog," I said out loud.[Note: not an actual passage from the book.]I kept wanting to hurl the book away because it happened so often.The premise is this: Calliope wanted a normal life and out of the family business, so she put a forgetting charm on herself so she wouldn't ever have to deal with her past again. But when her dad is kidnapped, it's up to Callie to go through some video-game-esque challenges to get him back. Oh, and her dad is the Grim Reaper.The plot had spark, or it could've been really engaging. I don't know why it just seemed to fall apart. I've read a lot of complaints about Callie's character, saying she's whiny and shallow. Well, wouldn't you be whiny if put into some of the situations she's been in? And I think her shallowness is needed for the story - there wouldn't be one without it. I was fine with Callie as a character, I just cringed at some of the writing, and rolled my eyes at the rest of the story.I only read this because Amber Benson wrote it. The reviews would've scared me away otherwise (and with good reason) and never would've touched it otherwise. I also picked up the sequel [book: Cat's Claw] and I feel like I made a commitment to read them both when I had her sign them for me a few months ago at Midtown Comics. I still believe in Amber, because she has many talents, I just hope her writing gets better.
    • 2/5
      Death's Daughter is about Calliope Reaper-Jones, a 24 year old girl working as an assistant living in New York City. She is a perfectly normal girl except for the fact that she's Death's daughter. specifically her father is the CEO of Death and when he, Callie's older sister, Thalia, and all of the members of the executive board get kidnapped, Callie must step up to the plate to not only save them but to also take over as Death.

      Callie is joined by Jarvis, her father's faun executive assistant, Runt, one of Cerebus' pups, Clio, Callie's younger sister, and the mysterious Daniel, who is the self-proclaimed devil's protege. Callie will have to go through hell and back, completing the three tasks that must be done in order to wear the crown of Death, clear her good name, and save her family.

      I thought this book would be better. I liked the character, Callie, in the short story that was in An Apple for the Creature. In that, she was smart and highly capable. In Death's Daughter, she was very immature, whiny, incredibly selfish, and dumb. All the time I was reading, I was thinking too myself: "why should I care about her?" I get that she was not a hero but she didn't invoke any empathy from me.

      Why was she so sex starved? I get being attracted to men but it was literally every guy she wanted to molest. WTF? It grew very tiresome very fast. Callie had no redeeming qualities about her and, with exception of Jarvis, Kali, and Runt, all of the characters were annoying especially Daniel. What was his point?

      Callie's character was self-aware which was supposed to be endearing but it became fustrating because she knew that she knew better. I think Benson might have been influenced by her Buffy days to create a character like Buffy season one: very pretty, not to academically smart but noble. But Buffy was 16 and Callie is 24. In my opinion, Callie lacked Buffy's heart.

      Be that as it may, I still have hope for Callie, still judging from the short story, that she grows up and becomes more responsible. Hopefully, the whininess and the sex craze will stop in the other books.
    • 3/5
      I wanted to like this one more than I did for the love of Amber Benson. It ended up keeping me entertained in the end. The main character just isn't very likable. She likes to smart off, but she's not very witty or clever. I wish it was about her little sister, or maybe the faun butler, seriously, he was my favorite character.
    • 4/5
      Having read several other series along these lines I was preparing for a major case of boredom. I wasn't bored at all and even laughed. Did I think the lead character in need of some major therapy to deal with her issues? Yep. Was she annoying and useless at times? Yep.

      So why on earth did I give it a 4?

      Because she redeemed herself. Repeatedly. Like any human struggling with serious issues who is really working to get well, she made progress even if she would regress to her old comfortable behavior. She had awakings about her behavior that changed how she perceived herself. And she was fully aware that denial was not a river in Egypt.

      That doesn't mean in places I didn't want to slap her silly and say either "Oh shut up and do it" or "Think you Twit" but the book was written well enough that is exactly how I felt. Why does that get praise? Because I have read other similar books where I have just thought "Oh who cares? Honestly, what a bunch of dribble and what a Whiner and Moaner"

      The story line is interesting. The characters are interesting. And nicely, there is no stupid major cliff hanger that must be continued until the next book so you "must" buy it to finish the story. Is it a series? Yep. Does the story feed into the next book? Yep. But there is no pathetic attempt to carry you into buying the next book. The threads of the story tie up nicely in this one. The next one is just added enjoyment. Refreshing after some series I read.

      The next book? Sure I'll read it. I want to see if the work she did in this one pays off and she grows up.

    • 3/5
      Being a fan of Benson's acting, I was excited to try out her book....while I enjoyed the storyline overall (thus the 3.5 stars), I found it very hard to connect with the main character, Calliope. She's flippant, fairly shallow, and whiny, which didn't lessen as the story went on. I can't relate with females who are engrossed with shopping, name brands, etc. having never understood the attraction to those things in the first place and that was a bit of a turn-off for me personally. I hope if there are more books featuring Calliope Reaper-Jones, she'll have grown a bit from her experiences as Death.

      That being said, her pop culture references were fun and made me laugh, the story line, while fluffy at times, was enjoyable to read and I will definitely read more of her books after this. Favorite characters included: Jarvis, Daniel, and Clio....hope to see more of them again!
    • 2/5
      I admit that I picked up this book entirely because of the author's turn as a beloved character on Buffy. I did not have very high expectations, and the book exceeded them, I suppose - but not by too much. The writing is competent and clear, the plot, while a little muddy at times, moves along at a reasonable clip, and it's definitely not the Terry Pratchett ripoff I expected when I read the synopsis.

      That being said, I am not sure I'll go out of my way to read the next ones, and there's really one reason. The main character is an unlikeable brat. She appears to be intended to be an unlikeable brat, so that worked out, I guess, but I still didn't find her brand-name-dropping and snide remarks about people's appearances particularly fun to endure. The character of Kali was entertainingly volatile and layered, but Calliope herself was just a drag. Possibly at some point in the series she grows up - until then, I'll probably take a pass.
    • 3/5
      Calliope Reaper-Jones has been content to live a normal life for the last three years. She lives in her New York City apartment, working too much and playing too little. One day at work, out of nowhere her father’s executive assistant tricks her and that memory-forgetting charm she put on herself – the one that let her forget the insanity that is her family – is broken. So much for that normal life… I mean how can anyone be normal when they are Death’s daughter, right?When Callie realizes that Jarvis was the one to ruin everything for her, she’s ready to tell him just how she feels about that, but when she finds out several executive members of the Death, Inc. board have been kidnapped, including her father and her older sister she realizes she has to go home to help out.Taking over the position of Death was not something Callie had ever intended to do – in fact she’d done everything she could to avoid it, but after being guilt-tripped by her mother, Callie agrees to take the reigns, assuming she can complete three tasks she’s given.Facing family members who believe the worst of her, monsters the likes of which she’s never heard of or seen before, and the world she’s only wanted to avoid, Callie has to accept unwanted responsibilities, fight the bad guys, and find everyone who has been kidnapped.Death’s Daughter was interesting enough, but it’s filled with positives and negatives. Basically, I liked it, but I didn’t love it. Why?Firstly, the writing – it just wasn’t consistent. At times the book was very easy to read, it was well written, even witty. The rest of the time though, I found myself struggling, wanting to put the book down and pick something else up. Things would go from this fast paced ‘don’t look away, we’re moving!’ to ‘pardon me, reader, but I appear to have found myself some molasses.’Secondly, the main character – I can’t decide whether I want to like her or hate her. Calliope had her moments, but all too often I found myself shaking my head at her whininess and immaturity.Regardless of the above two points, the story itself was pretty catchy. I mean, death’s daughter, who becomes death after going so far as to block her memory to avoid exactly that, c’mon! I know I was intrigued.Death’s Daughter boasts some really good characters, outside of Calliope. I absolutely loved Jarvis and Callie’s younger sister Clio. Kali, too, was one of my favorite characters, even if she did egg Callie on at times. There is also Daniel, whom I really liked once I figured out what was going on towards the end of the book, though I must admit to not being happy about his disappearance. I’m determined that he’ll be back though – he has to be.Bottom line, Death’s Daughter is an interesting story with some equally interesting characters, and also some negatives. While I won’t be waxing poetic about this one, I will continue the series to see what happens next – hopefully I’ll being seeing some growth in Calliope and maybe better writing…
    • 1/5
      I really need to remember that if I wouldn't want to hang around with the main character, I'm not going to enjoy the book. The girl is an idiot I would ditch in less time than it would take her to update her Facebook status. I'm assuming this thing was ghostwritten, as is normal for most books released by actors. I hate seeing an actor whose work I enjoy associated with something so puerile. I hope she gets some honest acting work again soon!
    • 4/5
      This fits firmly into the realm of chicklit meets paranormal, the main character is your average chicklit character and her twist is that while you meet her as a fashion obsessed, ditz, she's actually Death's Daughter, under a forgetting charm, and now she has to come home and save the day before someone else takes the job and her family loses their immortality. She didn't really feel as old as she's pitched, more teenage than anything but then again, with immortality how long would the teenage and early twenties mentality last?It's not a bad read but somehow I didn't really care enough about the characters or what was happening to them. It was engaging without really catching my full attention.
    • 4/5
      Was looking for Among The Ghosts and found this. Happy accident. Calliope Reaper-Jones, struggling New York assistant, would love to be a runway model. Romance would be nice as well. She is startled out of her peaceful life by a series of events that reveal she has been under a forgetting spell. She is actually the middle daughter of Death. She goes back home to find her father and older sister who are missing. In the meantime, the position of head reaper can't be empty. Calliope must prove she's worthy of filling the position and has to successfully perform 3 tasks or else her family's position and their immortality is at stake. Looking forward to reading Amber's follow-up, Cat's Claw.
    • 3/5
      When I heard Amber Benson of Buffy fame (she played Tara) was also a writer, curiosity got the better of me and I had to pick up the first book in her series about Penelope Reaper-Jones, yes, you guessed it, Death's Daughter.Well, picked up is not quite accurate, unless you call downloading it to my ipod and then picking up my ipod "picking it up". Still.So. The book. Liked the concept. But that was about all. At the beginning of the book we find Penelope trying to make her way in New York's coveted fashion world but stuck in a dead end job at a Home and Garden publication. She has put a forgetting charm on herself so that she could leave all the Death stuff behind, but it is broken by her father's satyr assistant, a fashion-conscious Englishman/goat with a snarky sense of humour. It turns out that her father and all the board of directors at Death, inc. have been kidnapped and if Penelope doesn't step up to the plate to replace her dad, her family will lose their immortality.But to be death, she has to complete three tasks, assigned to her by a board of Gods. And she isn't the only one after the job. Enter death's minion Daniel, who has been promised the job by Satan.It read a little bit like an adult, pantheistic version of Percy Jackson and the lightning thief, but with way more running commentary and product placement. Penelope's soliloquizing got a little bit much (especially since Benson had no problem actually using that verb to describe her musing, along with philosophizing - for example: Benson could have used a better editor, I philosophized). But the story was fast-paced and funny in parts. Sort of a chicklit is the grim reaper book. You've got your Prada shoes and your monsters and your heroine who is worrying about said Prada shoes when she is in the middle of a desert in hell.
    • 3/5
      When a Forgetting Charm is needed to have a normal life, obviously Calliope should know better than to believe "normal" would last forever. Family always keep track of their own - and when Death gets kidnapped and you happen to be the daughter of Death, be sure that the higher beings will come to fetch Calliope to take over the business until her dad is found. But taking over is no easy matter - Calliope must complete three tasks to prove her worth, or else forfeit to the Devil's protégé who may not have Death's best interest.I enjoyed death's daughter, but I didn't totally fall in love with it. I could not quite grasp Callie as a person - what made her tick, why she insisted on a "normal" life, what motivates her to exist, anything beyond the here and now of her predicament. That said, I loved the world that Amber Benson built for Calliope to discover. There is a richness that leads to many possibilities and quirks that I cannot wait to see what is in store for Calliope! The quest-like nature of death's daughter sometimes feels slow, but it does pull every random thread together into one big finale where all the wolves in sheeps' clothing finally get unmasked.
    • 1/5
      I may try this again later, because I'm not sure how fair this review can be, based as it is on about 40 pages.The concept was certainly engaging. The main character is the daughter of the devil, and the blurbs assured me she had a great task coming up. But I found her absolutely charmless. I struggled on for a bit, but had a great deal of trouble with the character's attitude towards other women. Mean, mean, mean. Weight was the go-to insult, with age coming in at a close second.So as a fat, older feminist, this author just hit all my "wrong" buttons. It's back on my to-be-read shelf, but I suspect it'll just gather dust until I get around to selling the books I don't want.
    • 3/5
      An interesting concept, but not very well executed. The premise is promising: Calliope Reaper-Jones is the daughter of Death and wants nothing to do with the family business. But she has to leave her life of attempting to break into the New York fashion industry when her father is kidnapped. She must complete three tasks to become Death so it'll stay in the family and solve the mystery of who abducted her father. I don't mind books that have informal narration, but this one took it to the point where it discredits the author. Calliope would often make an observation in the narration to the reader and then say the exact same thing in her dialogue. There were too many "like"s and "totally"s for me as well. Good try, but not the best.
    • 3/5
      The main character has an annoying inner voice. In my opinion, she obsesses about fashion way too much, and has the story happen to her. I feel that she grows over the course of the book, but not quite enough to make being stuck in her head completely enjoyable. I still had fun though, it was great between homework sessions. No brain strain at all.
    • 3/5
      It was ok. Not great. The main character seemed pretty immature for someone over the age of 16. There were situations where she'd spout off some cheezy dialogue that might have sounded ok on Buffy but seemed pretty dumb coming out of an adult's mouth in a life-and-death situation (or say, talking to God... or the devil... or really anybody you just met). I think the author was trying for spunky but got inane instead... (also it sounded kind of like what a grown-up thinks an idiot teenager would say... so rang a bit false, especially since her thoughts were more believable than her words). But if you just ignore what comes out of her mouth and skim through it's a pretty easy read. Didn't hurt my brain one bit, but not a keeper.
    • 4/5
      Not a bad book. It took a little bit to get into it, since there is a little bit of a 'chick lit' feel or flavor to it, and I'm not the biggest fan of chick lit (I seemed to have totally skipped over it during my teen years, went right from Hardy Boys to the gooey gory-ness of Kathy Reichs and Beverly Conner etc.)But, back to the book. Once the book gets flowing it's a well written and well plotted (very tightly plotted I think, or at least that's how it seemed, since at the end I was thinking about the clues that were in the first part of the story that by the end were revealed as foreshadowing).Most of the characters are well flushed out and written so as to provoke some sort of response from the reader from annoyance (Really, Callie's sooo out there in her own world that she doesn't know who Cerberus is? Ookkkay), or like with Jarvis, who I wound out wanting to both punch and hug at the same time on occasion, or Daniel, I'm still not sure I like Daniel's character, but it was a well written one and it'd be interesting to learn more of his story.Anyway, I liked it. It's not a long or short read, it's not pretentious, and even though the main character seems to know nothing of the world the author does.There was only one thing that totally and utterly freaked me out every time I picked up the book and looked at the cover. My book edition had the blueish cover with the title in white and yellow author name, and literally every time I picked it up what went through my mind was, 'why is Elizabeth Vargas on the cover of this book'
    • 3/5
      Calliope "Calli" Reaper-Jones has had a Forgotten Charm put on herself so she can lead a normal mortal's life in New York City, trying to break into the world of fashion. The Forgotten Charm has made Calli forget about her family and her past. But Jarvis, a faun and her dad's assistant, shows up one day, breaks the charm's spell, makes her remember everything and tells her that her father, who is also know as Death, has been kidnapped.A reluctant and unhappy Calli heads to home to fill her father's shoes but finds that she has to complete three seemingly improbable tasks before she can become the head of the family business, Death, Inc. While Calli tries blundering her way through these tasks, she runs into competition for the job with Daniel, who happens to be the Devil's Protege and super model sexy.For the most part I enjoyed reading Death's Daughter, especially since it had a bit of a Buffy feel to it. There were plenty of fun characters, a lot of snarky and funny dialogue, overall entertaining. I like how Hell and Death, Inc. were run like corporations including a board of executives, definitely not my usual idea of either. Calli was sarcastic and hilariously funny at times, and her speak-before-thinking personality gets her into plenty of jams while trying to complete her three tasks for the job of Death. The downside of this book was as times I found Calli too long winded in her self-dialogues with herself and she had a few misplaced tantrums, especially when the book was a pivoting point. All in all, I like Death's Daughter well enough to read the next book. I just hope some the rambling is toned down and I find a little more grown up Callie in Cat's Claw.
    • 4/5
      Calliope (Callie) Reaper-Jones has been hiding from herself. No, really, she had a forgetful spell put on her so she would forget her family. But one magic cupcake later, she is back to herself and in the middle of a family drama. Her father, the Grim Reaper himself, and the entire board of Death, Inc. have been kidnapped. Now it is up to Callie, (and a few other supernatural creatures) to claim the title of Death and save her father and the rest of the board. OK, reviewers, lighten up. First this is chick lit. Callie is a wonderful chick lit heroine. She is supposed to be obsessed with clothes and stuff. Mostly I found Callie a fun character. And of course, the hell hound puppy is irresistable. I also found her family interesting. The world is a bit confusing but I hope that the next in the series will help clear up some things.
    • 3/5
      Calliope Jones is living a dreary single life in the big city when she starts seeing things. Big, monstrous scary things. And if that weren't enough, she's just received a summons home to deal with a family crisis - her father's been kidnapped. That's bad. What's worse, he's Death, and her family wants her to take over the family business.Sex in the City meets Bridget Jones Diary. It's faintly cute, and has its moments, but its not exactly a highly polished first effort. Fans of Katie MacAlister or Mary Janice Davidson fan may find something new to like here.
    • 3/5
      I didn't jump to read "Death's Daughter" because I had read some of the negative reviews and was hesitant. Then I read the reviews for the second book in the series "Cats Claw" and those seemed for positive. Since I have always thought the plot sounded unique and promising, I went ahead and started "Death's Daughter". The plot is different...Calliope Reaper Jones in the next in line for her dad's job as Death. She never wanted anything to do with the family business so she put a forget charm on herself several years ago and has been living a nice, normal existence. Then one day she is summoned home and told she needs to complete the three tasks to officially take over as Death because her father and sister have been kidnapped. If there is no one to take over, the entire family will be turned mortal again. That means whoever is holding dear old dad, could soon find themselves able to murder the immortal man. Calliope finds herself in quite the adventure, meeting some very memorable side characters, including a mythological goddess, a faun, a hellhound puppy named Runt, the devil and even the big man upstairs Himself. The plot and good side characters made the book what it was and is the reason I gave the book three stars. I really enjoyed the first third of the book, but by the middle of the story, I found myself confused as Calliope finds herself through back and forth between Hell and other places in the blink of an eye and nothing is very well explained. It just got chaotic and not in a good way. The last two tasks Calliope had to complete to get the official Death title, were ill explained and I was actually cloudy on how at least one of them was completed even after backtracking and trying to find the explanation. The ending was again more positively put together and I found myself fairly happy with the resolution. Calliope, as others have said, is really a whiny, crybaby. The first few sets of bawling and running away from the big bad scary stuff, was even endearing and made her feel real (I for one would certainly cry, and run away from the scary stuff!) but it really started to wear and bog the story down. She really did cry about every other chapter at least. From what new reviews of "Cat's Claw" say, this seems to have been remedied by that book. I certainly don't find "Death's Daughter" to be one of the better urban fantasy/paranormal books I have read but it was okay and I enjoyed it overall more than many of the other reviewers seemed to. I may buy and read "Cat's Claw" if I find it cheaply somewhere, but its not something I am going to purposely hunt to find.
    • 2/5
      This book was a read for a RL SFF book group. It is an urban fantasy book that takes fantasy/horror elements and makes them true and places them in the modern day real world. It is also written by a celebrity, from the Buffy TV series. It is her first book alone. She really shouldn't have bothered, its awful.Let me say that the mechanics of the writing are good. The story is a quick read, that flows well. It is understandable, if only the story it was telling was enjoyable, and the characters were believable. The writing was why I rated it 2 stars instead of lower.I read urban fantasy, so I don't object to the book because of the sub-genre. The big problems are the main character and the back story of the magic element, and the actual story itself.The main character, Death's Daughter, Calliope, is a twenty something dingbat who acts like she is a brain damaged 15 year old. She is stupid, shallow, and self-absorbed, and very boring to read about. She whines all the time, about everything. One of the standards in this type of book is about difficulties in life and personal relationships the main character has, the problem is that if this isn't handled well, it is not humorous, cynical asides that further characterization, but annoying, selfish, whining that makes you want the character to die, horribly.She is also an emotional basket case: she wants to left alone, wants to be allowed to make decisions, wants help, and then resents it when it is offered. She is obsessed with fashion and brand names, so that the book reads like a product placement script, and she is only concerned about how she looks and the nearest hot guy. She can't see a male her age without having the hots for him, wanting to have sex right there and then, and simultaneously hating him.This may be a realistic portrayal of some type of teen girl, but they are not characteristics that make for interesting reading for an adult. This book is not marketed to YA or teens, but to adults in the SFF section.The back story is not even introduced until well in, when you are already asking how this all works. When you are thinking about how it all hangs together, you are not focusing on the story. Not good. The problem is that Death is a modern tennis playing man with a 30 year old wife and 3 daughters, 2 of whom are in their 20s and one is still in high school. Did I mention they are all immortal ? Okay, so how are they so young and recent? Death is as old as life, so how are they not as old, especially if they are immortal ? There is some mumbo-jumbo about god and the devil agreeing on a committee to confirm Death the person - huh ? In the offspring of the current Death there is one that has the birthright to be the next Death - but if they are immortal, why do they need more than one ? Her father has renounced her birthright for her (when she was a child) to protect her from those who want to be Death for the power and immortality. If someone else can renounce it for you, what does it matter if you have this magical birthright or not ? If you are immortal as she is (as one of Death's family), how can someone hurt her ? Why would he raise her magic-free so she is clueless about even simple things like getting around in the magical realm ? AND AGAIN, IF DEATH IS IMMORTAL, WHY DO THEY NEED A SUCCESSOR ?None of it makes sense.The actual story is supposed to be a mystery, of who kidnapped Death and all his minions, including her older sister ? Calliope has one short interview with a magical cop and he decides she is the perp, even though she had been away from her family living under a forgetting spell. There is no attempt to set up or solve the mystery realistically. Other characters are shallow and stereotypical. Her mother, younger sister, and family lawyer automatically believe that she is the guilty party, that she conspired with the devil, after treating her as inept and brainless.It is all set up to stage colorful fantasy scenes and battles. Benson uses Indian and Greek mythology for her magical realm. Its interesting, but its all about Calliope completing challenges to be confirmed as Death, not in trying to find out who kidnapped them, or where they are ? The villain at the end could have been Santa Clause, there was so little set up.So much of the story was not connected well, or explained how A led to B that meant C had to happen.It just was an unpleasant experience that I wanted to end as quickly as possible. The only interesting characters were the Hell Hound Puppy, and the goddess Kali.Will NOT continue with this series.
    • 5/5
      Three years ago Calliope Reaper-Jones put herself under a nice and comforting forgetting spell. Gone were the days of dealing with the craziness of the family business, Death, Inc. All Callie had to worry about now was finding the perfect man on Craig’s List and finding organic dim sum for her boss.One bite of an organic cupcake later and Callie is right back in the middle of the family drama. Her father’s right hand man, Jarvis, has come to notify Callie that her father and older sister have been kidnapped. Callie being next in line must assume the role of Death or her family losses their immortality. But it’s not as simple as being the second oldest, Callie has to complete three tasks in order to take the reins and she has a competitor for the job… the devil’s incredibly “hot” and irresistible protégé.I got a total kick out of this book. It’s very different from the usual fantasy/paranormal story lines and it was funny to boot. Among the characters Callie had to face off against where, a psychical detective, an evil sea monster, a bitter Goddess and the devil himself.This was the first of a new series featuring Callie. It was a faced paced read and I look forward to many more books in this series. Highly recommended for urban fantasy or supernatural fiction lovers.
    • 2/5
      From the start of this book, I felt the author was not connected to her characters. I felt as though I was a observer, and that the story was lacking the punch of a great story. I did not finish the second half of this book.
    • 2/5
      It took me a couple of tries to complete this book. I think it might have worked better geared to a YA audience because the main character is in her early 20s, very immature, with speech that sounds like a teenager, "I am SO going to be unhappy if you do that--NOT." The transistions between scenes are often times a little abrupt, but at other times the main character spends a lot of time thinking over things that she and the audience should already know. That said, I gave it a star because there were some creative and amusing moments like the scene with the Bollywood dancer assassins.