Official complaint addressed to CC Hunter author of Young Adult series: The Mortician Daughter.



The plaintiff: Sophie owner of the blog Beware Of The Reader



Nature of complaint: broken Kindle and excessive blood pressure. Possible weight gain in the near future (once the plaintiff stops binging on ice cream). Circumstances leading to said damages: reading The Mortician Daughter.



Aggravating circumstances: CC Hunter hasn’t released the sequel yet while ending the first installment on an unbearable cliffhanger.

Plaintiff recording:

“I was reading The Mortician Daughter when it happened.

I fell into CC’s world right from the start.

Riley is a touching lonely teenager as she moved often due to her father’s inability to keep a job these last years.

She reminded me of Kylie as she is seeing ghosts. Riley tries to help them and the plot revolves around helping Aby, recently deceased to find peace.

Of course with CC Hunter’s stories there is a mystery behind the death and Riley embarks on a thrilling even dangerous adventure.

Riley has recently moved to a new town and is the new girl in school. I felt bad for her as she is lonely and is seen as a freak by the other kids due to her dad’s job. Him being a mortician guarantee stupid questions from other kids and them being repulsed by her. There was this really vindictive girl Jami who made her mission to bully Riley as she felt threatened. You see Jacob, muscled, cute boy and Jami’s ex boyfriends seems fascinated by Riley. It had to be expected as Riley is kind, caring, smart, gorgeous and good with cars. A teenage wet dream right?

To complicate everything Riley is followed by another ghost Hayden. Really really really cute boy with dark hair and blue eye. Think maybe Luca’s clone.

So I was immersed in the story, following all her drama and complicated life *what with seeing ghosts and helping them without people knowing it because she would have seemed bat sh@t crazy*. I really rooted for Hayden even if my heart broke as I knew that a ghost could never really be a boyfriend. Riley knew this and yet…

Then everything accelerated by the end with a huge stressing and threatening event when CC Hunter dropped THAT bomb on us (something I had guessed) and LEFT US HANGING DRY!!!!!!!!

I could not believe that I would not know how it would turn out before a long time!

Before realizing what I was doing I hurled my Kindle against the wall and it exploded!

I felt dizzy and saw spots. My hubs had to call a doctor as my blood pressure was through the roof.

Hours after I still feel sooooo frustrated that I am eating my frustration away in ice cream.”



Plaintiff final request:

“I do not ask for the replacement of my kindle, nor to be paid for the doctor’s visit. See, I can be reasonable. But what I ask of CC Hunter is THAT DAMN SEQUEL NOW! Ooops! Too loud?

As my mom told me we catch more flies with honey than vinegar I will rephrase and ask “CC would you please hurry and write the sequel at lightning speed? Maybe use me as a beta reader? Because it’s inhuman to write such enthralling stories just to let us lost and frustrated. Please? Pretty please with a cherry on top?”



I will even grant you 5 stars *I planned to anyway*



I hope to hear from you soon.



Sophie

*cue friends theme song* so that’s what they meant when they said your love life’s doa!

“One Foot in the Grave” tells the story of Riley, a young girl starting over in a new town and trying to navigate these changes with her widowed father who may or may not be an alcoholic, and who also happens to have the ability to see and talk to the dead. When a spirit comes forward with unfinished business and another joins the group who refuses to be helped Riley sets off to right the wrongs of the past all the while hoping not to end up on the other side herself.

Here’s the thing and it’s going to sound stupid so stick with me but my biggest critique for this novel is that it didn’t make me feel anything because it spent so much time telling me things instead of having them come about organically over the course of the book.

The characters are so flat or amped up just enough to be a perfect cutout or whatever their role is without any variation making them completely unique to this world. The mean girl is easily identified as the cheerleader with the hot boyfriend who ends her threats with “bitch”, the boyfriend never realizes he’s dating the early 2000s mean girl until she comes after the newbie, the main character needs to be brave and courageous so let’s call her a badass 14 times and say she looks good with a black eye early on in the story instead of actually making her do something worthy of the title, you catch my drift?

It’s all so dull and boring that I felt nothing over the course of the book, even the romance was off because it happens so fast and from the very beginning despite the bits of foreshadowing it’s got a few technicals no one ever acknowledges, it sits there lurking just off into the shadows of some conversations but there’s never a moment where the absurdity of the entire ordeal is ever addressed and I couldn’t suspend my disbelief enough to hang around for that ride.

I was really hoping for a fun, slightly dark story with echoes of a Ghost Whisperer premise but sadly this was nothing but a dead end.

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing a copy in exchange for a fair and honest review**

3.75/5 stars

I downloaded this book as an ARC from NetGalley, only to find that I already owned this book after reading the first few pages! It wasn't so long ago that I've read it, so it's still fresh in my mind. It was great to know that our main character already had an understanding of her unique abilites, so the whole book wasn't just her freaking out over what to do, up to a certain point of course. She's the new girl in town, but she doesn't seem to be fitting well with the rest of the school population. She doesn't let it get to her, but the voices of the dead do. She has to somehow balance her real life with helping out the dead. The reason for my knocking down a star was the romance. I felt it devloped way too fast, like insta-romance and swooning. It was interesting considering the huge difference between the couple, but I would've liked it better if there was just more development between them so we can truly feel that they are falling in love. If the romance aspect took a bit longer to develop instead of rushed, I easily would've given this at least 4.5/5 stars. I really loved this book, but the romance took me away and left me rolling my eyes at points because it was too fast for the amount of time they've had together.

Thank you to Everafterromance for the arc of this book.
I really enjoyed it, it held me right from the start, I liked how the characters stories unfolded.
I didn’t like however, how it just ended, I know this is going to be a series but it just felt like it stopped mid sentence.

Okay... holy crap!
CC you've really outdone yourself this time. First of all I just got done reading This Heart of Mine, and made my mom listen to my incoherent crying about the book. Holy hell...

Where do I begin? From the beginning right? Well right away I fell in love with Riley. She's spunky, different, and well doesn't take any shit from anyone. What really got me was the fact her father was an alcoholic. It really hit home.. growing up in a home with an alcoholic wasn't easy, but it taught me a lot of lessons. Although the member of my family was open about it, he still tried to hide it from me. It hurt me to see someone I love go through a pain I couldn't understand. How can I help? What can I do?
I felt and shared Riley's pain through every moment of her struggles.

But let's get off this heavy topic... I seriously think CC has my perfect dream guy. (Now if she could really make him a real living person that would be perfect!) I'm all for Hayden. He's the total badboy/charming kind of guy, but there is a soft side to him. I love that side of him; getting to really know his pain as well reminded me of how I react to things. I try to shove my issues down until they explode. I want what's best for people even if it means hurting myself. I want to hold Hayden and give him all the love he deserves. I know Riley does too.

That ending though.. I'm going to be honest I DIDNT SEE IT COMING!!!!! I didn't think Hayden was Jacobs friend. It is still shocking me...

CC you manage to still amaze me and bring me knowledgeable lessons I can apply to my life. Your beautiful words bring me comfort and hope that life can get better and everything will be okay. Thank you for giving me this story!

I love everything C.C. Hunter writes and this was no exception! I miss her Shadow Falls world, but love this new paranormal world she is creating! This was a great book and I can’t wait to read the next one!

This was not as good as I hoped it would be. The main character, Riley, comes across young and immature for her age and the slang the teens use is way outdated. I was hoping for more depth in the character development, but the ending did make me curious to see what happens in the next book.

CC Hunter has a new hit series on her hands! One Foot in the Grave has a strong cast from more than one dreamy male lead, a got your back best friend, and mean girls that we love to hate. Can't wait to read the next one!

I really enjoyed this book. It had the perfect amount of teen romance and drama/mystery to keep the pages turning.

Quite a good read for a new series. Enjoyable and looking forward to the next book.

First of all, I have to say that I love C.C. Hunter's prior work and I was really excited when I got a chance to read this one. But once I started reading it, I was thoroughly disappointed. So many tropes and archetypes that I didn't really like. I tried to read it over and over again, but I just couldn't continue it.

Noteworthy experiences while reading this book: The characters! I seriously love them. They feel so real.

Check out author's other books or related books? Yes, try her titles The Shadow Fall series it's fantastic!

Recommend this book? Yes! A million times yes!!

Notes and Opinions: I was so upset when she ended the Shadow Fall series but I freaking love this book! When I reached the end, I felt lost. Like what am I suppose to do with the next book? CC Hunter write such strong female characters. Riley is who aspire to be like. Not afraid to do anything or get her hands dirty. Grief seems to be a huge focus in this book. She's also got to guys on her radar. One is not who he seems. How will she deal with being in love with them both? So excited for book 2!!

This title was reviewed by Rachael R.

Review: 5 out of 5 stars

One Foot in the Grave is the first book in The Mortician’s Daughter series by C.C. Hunter. I have adored everything that I have read by this wonderful author so I was eager to dive into this and it didn’t fail to disappoint.

Our MC is seventeen-year-old Riley Smith, the daughter of a mortician who seems to bring the ghosts home with him much to Riley’s annoyance as she has the ability to communicate and see the dead as well as help them to resolve their issues and move on.

Riley was such a great character, she has never fit in at school because of her father’s occupation and her mother died when she was four years-old but she is ready for a new start in her new school and to start afresh. It is her second move in a short period of time as her father keeps losing his jobs, she believes as a result of him being a closet alcoholic but she hasn’t been able to prove it.

When a ghost comes to Riley, she realises that he is very different to the others, he looks different and is more ‘real’, he is also very clearly hiding something but she can’t stop her growing feelings for him the more time that they spend together clearly knowing that there can be no future between them.

I thought Hayden was great and I was able to guess his story from the beginning but I wanted to know more! I loved his interactions with Riley but I never felt a romance was a possibility especially when there was someone ‘living’, Jacob Adams that was paying her attention. It was a strange love-triangle.

The story also follows a ghost who has come to Riley begging for help to find her ring to pass on to her family but Riley soon realises that she didn’t die by accident and when she stumbles across the location she also stumbles across the murderer who has his sights now on Riley.

There was a lot going on in this book which made for an exciting read! Between Riley’s feelings between two boys, her father’s issues, her ghostly problems, a serial rapist with Riley on his mind; it was entertaining and mysterious with a great cast of characters. The ending has also left me eager for the next book in the series, Two Feet in the Grave.

If you are after a mysterious, entertaining and well-written paranormal YA, I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to EverAfter Romance via Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review One Foot in the Grave.

Riley is a typical teenage girl with typical teenage problems, but Riley is also a girl with atypical problems. Riley is the daughter of a mortician and she also happens to be able to see ghosts. She struggles with being seen as a freak, navigating her love life, the possibility of her Dad drinking too much and being hated by the popular girls in school. Teenagers will easily relate to Riley and the other teens in this book. The narrative is realistic even with the supernatural aspects. This book is a real page-turner and I cannot wait for the next book in the series.

As many of you know, C.C. Hunter is a top author for me. So when I got the ARC, I dropped everything just read this book, and damn it was AMAZING! Except for the ending, it ended of such a cliff hanger I couldn't stand it, I need the next book like now!

Any way..... So Riley is the new girl right now. Which means she is starting over with no friends, but that also means they don't know who she is. They don't know what her does and that saves her from being the freak...for now anyways....

Riley is special. She helps ghosts, they come to her in need of talking, a favor, or something to help them get what they need in order to move on... They usually are easy cases, but this case may just put her in some serious trouble. A recent ghosts needs her to find something that was left in a park, when Riley finally agrees she stumbles across a man who isn't who he appears to be. Which then leads her into finding out her ghost was actually murdered and getting too close to the killer.

Her other ghost isn't like the rest. This one seems too real. He's sweet, cute, and she is falling for him. He can't see the other ghosts, he wants to be with Riley, spends time with her and even gets some kisses in. Riley tries to help him, to see if he will move on and at the very end she finds out who he really is and everything changes.

In between dealing with these ghosts Riley is pretty normal. She ends up making a good friend, a cute guy is interested in her, and even ends up with a black eye. Yup, just the typically teenage life.

The Ghost Whisperer+CSI+high school. Have you read One Foot in the Grave by C.C. Hunter yet? If not, start reading!

She thought she was in love with a ghost but it turns out to be not the case. Riley sees dead people...literally. They come to her with unfinished business and she helps them cross over. But talk about cliff hanger endings, argh I hate waiting...

review coming soon on THE LIBRARIAN TALKS http://thelibrariantalks.wordpress.com