Member Reviews
Incredibly entertaining and silly (I say that lovingly). All the characters we meet were great and you get attached easily. I can tell this series will be different than the other books from Lucy I have read, but I am really looking forward to continuing the story!
Lucy Score is my go-to for fun, funny, and realistic writing. I liked the premise of this book with Riley Thorn, a divorced psychic, teaming up with a ladies man of a detective. The characters were well-written and developed, which I have come to expect and love of Lucy Score's books. In addition to the main characters' chemistry, the side characters made me laugh out loud. All in all, The Dead Guy Next Door is a fantastic beach read. I greatly enjoyed the mystery-romance. I plan on reading the next novels in this series.
A nice, normal life. Is that too much to ask? For Riley Thorn it is. Divorced. Broke. Living with a pack of elderly roommates. And those hallucinations she's diligently ignoring? Her tarot card-dealing mom is convinced they're clairvoyant visions. Just when things can't get worse, a so-hot-it-should-be-illegal private investigator shows up on her doorstep looking for a neighbor...who turns up murdered.
Nick Santiago doesn't play well with others. Unless the "others" are of the female persuasion. Wink. He's a rebel, a black sheep, a man who prefers a buffet of options to being stuck with the same entrée every night, if you catch his drift. When the pretty, possibly psychic Riley lands at the top of the list of suspects, Nick volunteers to find out whodunit. Only because he likes solving mysteries not because he wants to flex his heroic muscles for the damsel in distress.
All they have to do is figure out who pulled the trigger, keep the by-the-book detective with a grudge at bay, and deal with a stranger claiming he was sent to help Riley hone her psychic gifts. All before the killer discovers she's a loose end that requires snipping.
This book is such a great start to the Riley Thorn series. I enjoyed the dynamics between Riley and Nick. This book was adorable and hilarious. I enjoyed it the entire way through. Such an easy book to read and to follow along with.
Thanks to NetGalley and That's What She Said Publishing for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Lucy Score always writes such fun and clever stories!
I loved the dead guy next door, Riley and Nick were the cutest together. Nick is a very handsome and brooding private investigator meanwhile Riley is experiencing clairvoyant visions that she doesn’t want. I thought that it was well written, and fun! There are so many fun characters and I loved it when all the roommates got together. Their banter and camaraderie were endearing. I thought this was the perfect romcom that had a touch of humor, wackiness and also romance and I thought this is a perfect book where you get a little bit of everything. I enjoyed it a lot and cannot wait to keep reading this series.
This story was so fun! Equal parts contemporary fiction and murder mystery, with a dual pov, paranormal/psychic main character, and a romantic opposites attract subplot…this book has everything. The pacing was great, the story was funny, the side characters were a blast. I can’t wait to read the next installments.
This is a fun mystery! The story is so funny, and the characters are super fun and quirky! This book was very entertaining, and I stayed up too late to finish it! I am glad that it's just the beginning of a series and I have so many more books to look forward to.
The story is about Riley Thorn, a woman who has ignored her psychic gift for nearly her whole life. The women of her family all have some type of psychic gift; however, Riley feels like her abilities are not reliable and somewhat defective. Riley is in a rut in her life, surviving day to day by going to an unsatisfying job, coming home to a crowded house full of elderly folks she is not related to, and with no love life to speak of. Then, one day a man named Nick Santiago comes knocking on her door looking for her neighbor Dickey.
Thanks to her gift and perceptiveness, she sees through Nick's excuse right away. Shortly after, she has a vision that Dickey is going to be shot inside his apartment. Riley does everything she can to prevent the murder, to no avail. Then, Riley is drawn into the investigation, and chaos ensues. I really loved the hijinks that Riley and her housemates are involved in, and I love the variety of characters in the story.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good mystery with a lot of humor.
Book Review
Riley Thorne Series by Lucy Score includes:
1.The Dead Guy Next Door - features Dickie the neighbour found dead next door
2.Corpse in the Closet- features glitter bombs
3.Blast from the Past - features the mystery surrounding Kellen’s sisters disappearance
4.Body in the Backyard - features Griffin aka asshat ex
What Its Got
✅Meddling, shining star seniors
✅Banter, humour, wit, apt descriptors, visuals that embed themselves on your psyche
✅Psychics
✅Dogs
✅Mansion/flophouse
✅Police chases, breaking rules and procedures
✅Guys flexing their testosterone
✅Girls flexing their badass selves
✅Sneaking and stalking
✅Asshat ex husband
✅Enemies to lover
✅Forced proximity
✅Found family
✅Disability rep
✅ Free spirits and stick in the muds
Cast of crazy characters
MMC- Nick
FMC- Riley
Burt the dog
PIs - Josie, Brian
Mansion - Fred, Mrs Penny, Mr Willicott, Lily
Psychics- Blossom, Wander, Gabe
BFF- Jasmine and Kellen
Channel 50- Griffin, Bella, Chris
Thoughts
📕 I loved way each book starts off the same way- with a current event depicting a crime/victim - Then - the book shifts to the past building up to the present timeline
📕Score’s characters are epic! I want to be Mrs Penny when I grow up- this book is bursting with cocktails and shit disturbers and profound chaos in the BEST way
📕 Nick Santiago can be my protector anyday
📕 this series feels like a TV show Cocktail - think a shot of Superstore, a shot of Murder She Wrote with a bit of a Reality tv chaser mixed in
📕the reader is so swept up in the characters shenanigans and solving the mystery that the romance takes a back seat- until a carefully crafted burst of sexual energy and activity reminds us that our MCs have needs
Overall
Binged all 4 books in 2 days!!! I would easily
Keep reading more books about these characters
Thanks to @netgalley and @sourcebooks for my digital ARCs in return for an honest review. Opinions expressed are
My own!
The Dead Guy Next Door by Lucy Score is a delightful and humorous tale that captivates readers with its charming characters and well-crafted writing. The story unfolds like a cinematic experience, drawing readers in with its fast-paced plot that keep me hooked from beginning to end. The characters are both endearing sweet and relatable, making it easy for me to become emotionally invested in their journey.
This was fun and gave me vibes of early Janet Evanovich! I don't know if I would continue with the series but I did enjoy this.
Lucy Score strikes again! Her novels are always so much fun! I loved the story. It was goofy, fun but still griping in a way that made it impossible to put down! Can’t wait to read the rest of the series!
The Lucy Score books are so fun to read! I love this series and flew through all of them so fast! These are perfect for summer. Really enjoyed them!
Riley Thorn is a psychic but learning to hone her skills. She is divorced, broke and living in a house with elderly room mates when she has vision of her neighbor being murdered.
Her neighbor actually does get killed. In a bizarre chase to try and catch the killer she stumbles on Nick Santiago a private investigator. The sparks fly between these two instantly. He wants to be her fake boyfriend/fiance so he can learn more about the residents and try and solve the case. The relationship banter is funny and all the residents trying to help leads too many shenanigans. The rescuing of the dogs was my favorite part.
This book was hilarious and light hearted and a fun read. It is first in series and I can't wait to see what happens next with Riley and Nick.
Five stars
This book was so fun, entertaining and just all-around good time. It was completely different from other books by Lucy Score that I have read. It had the great aspects of a cozy mystery, with close a meddling family that added some many laugh out loud moments, the supernatural elements of being a psychic added to the fun of solving this murder mystery, and finally adding in some romance with spice just pulled this book together. This book was just an enjoyable time that took my mind to a funny captivating time as soon as I opened it. The only thing I will say is the romance and relationship development was a little fast in development but did not take away from this book for me. There is forced proximity, fake dating, and one bed trope which Riley and Nike could not get enough of them together. I would highly recommend this book if you're looking for a murder mystery, hilarious moments and romance, this is a story to definitely check out.
I received an ebook, via Netgalley. This review is my own honest opinion.
I loved this book so much. It is fun and witty while having a very well thought out plot. Its a bit lighter on the romance angle than LS's other books, but it still hits your in the feels with the Nick and Riley chemistry.
I love reading anything by Lucy score! Her books are fun and the characters don’t make unnecessarily dumb moves to further the plot. That being said even though I love her books, this series is one of my least favorite!
Really loved the characters but the story was a little meh. It was mostly silly and the love story annoyed me because really nothing was holding them back besides their own dumb hang ups. I did love the characters and the dialog was amusing as well. Overall, it was pretty good but not the best. I will read the next in the series. I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I've had this series in my TBR for some time now. When I received an ARC for book 4, I figured I better get started on books 1-3! And boy oh boy what and adventure! This book has everything! Hot muscular tattooed MMC? ✅ Hilarious boundary-less octogenarian roommates/found family? ✅ Cozy murder mystery? ✅ Slow burn romance? ✅ Car chases and fight scenes? ✅ And best of all,; smart, strong, sassy heroine? Did I mention she's psychic? Yeah, got it all.
You know how some books are hauled as "laugh out loud funny?" Yeah, I don't get that. I've never found a single book that actually delivered that, until today.
Such a fun and light read! I will that it probably could have been about 50-100 pages shorter and still had a great effect on me.
This book also had no business being this funny! The romance was also very subtle and I just wanted MORE.
Can't wait to read the rest of the series!!
This book was my first full length novel by Lucy Score, I had read her Hope story and loved it.
I was ecstatic when I got this! So many of my bookclub friends love her but I unfortunately did not finish it.
This book was a whirlwind of events, making it feel perhaps a bit too extensive, resulting in some parts feeling like filler. A concise could’ve made it a smoother read. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the reverse grumpy sunshine dynamic and appreciated the diverse, unique characters. Riley Thorn, our FMC, being a psychic who rejects her powers, paired with Nick, the MMC, an investigator, made for an intriguing premise. Overall, it was a fun read!
Thank you to the publishing company and the author for providing an ebook in exchange for an honest review 🫶