A New Lease on Death is an entertaining cozy mystery with characters that are quirky and ghostly.

Cordelia tragically departs this world and returns as a ghost. ( that's a learning experience for her)

Her death has been classified a suicide.

Ruby is the new tenant and she soon realizes that she is not alone.

Then the unthinkable happens and together they team up to solve a murder.

I laughed out loud at times and I absolutely loved Cordelia.

Twists and turns with an ending that will surprise you.

A New Lease on Death has great potential for a great new series and I cant wait to meet up with Cordelia and Ruby soon.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for the privilege of reading and reviewing A New Lease on Death.

I loved this book so much! This story was so heartfelt with plenty of elements of mystery. I have been on a cozy mystery kick lately and this definitely worked for that. I cannot wait for this story to continue. Ruby and Cordelia are both extremely relatable characters in their own ways. I love watching them discover how to communicate with one another and help each other out. Cordelia is a complicated and extremely interesting character. I cannot wait to see where her afterlife goes and just what all these secrets are she is keeping. Ruby is messy and very real. I appreciate watching her character grow and mature having been in her shoes before. The mystery was also well flushed out and I did not guess what the outcome was. I also really liked how it was not necessarily linked to Cordelia's death and that that is still a mystery we need to find out. I definitely recommend this one!!

This book starts off strong with a really fun setup: a ghost and her living roommate teaming up to solve a murder. I was hooked right away after meeting Cordelia, the snarky ghost, who made me laugh out loud. Then we meet upbeat Ruby, who I also really enjoyed. Their banter had me laughing throughout, and the way they form an unexpected friendship while trying to solve a mystery is entertaining.

The ghost angle adds a nice twist, giving the story a unique vibe while keeping things light even though it’s a murder mystery. The humor really shines, and the characters are easy to like and root for. The only downside for me was that some parts felt very repetitive, which made the middle drag a bit. It didn’t take away from the overall story, but it did slow things down.

That being said, the ending totally made up for it. It left me wanting more, and I’m excited to see where the story goes next. If you’re into a mix of humor, mystery, and a touch of the supernatural, this book is definitely worth checking out!

Thank you to Netgalley and St Martin's Press for an eARC of this book!

This was a fun and entertaining cozy mystery, and the first in a series. I haven't read a book like this before, and I did enjoy the dual points of view and the characters. Not exactly memorable, but I would read the next in the series when it comes out.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC of A New Lease on Death!

This was a fun read as a new apartment tenant pairs up with the former tenant, who by the way is a ghost, to solve the murder of the tenant across the hall, who is not a ghost because he didn't believe in ghosts. The mystery itself had plenty of red herrings and kept me guessing, and the resolution was satisfying. Cordelia (the ghost) has secrets yet to be unveiled, and Ruby, the living tenant is flighty and funny. Everything's set up for the sequel and I look forward to it.

I loved this book! The story line was very original and the characters were great. I love a mystery and this book delivered on that. The end left me ready for the next book!

ARC Book Review!

A new lease on death by Olivia Blacke


3 / 5⭐️


I swear I could FEEL the Boston cold while reading this book. The author portrayed it vividly. The story was not what I expected at all and the “who done it” was shocking.

I do wish the author had put trigger warnings on this book though. It was heavy on the topics of violent murders, suicide, adultery and topics related. The overview of this book was a bit misleading as it didn’t indicate any of that but lead the reader to believe it would be a lighter fluffy read






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Wow, I loved this book! It was the perfect kind of book to kick off my spooky season reads this year! There were laughs and there was mystery, all with a paranormal twist.
👻
I loved the pacing right up until the last couple of chapters, honestly. The ending felt a bit rushed to me, but otherwise it was an enjoyable, quick moving story. And somebody else please tell me that last page also screamed SEQUEL! to them - it wasn’t just me, right?
😱
Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for a free digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

After a devastating breakup, Ruby (a bubbly 20-year old) moves to Boston in search of a fresh start. She thinks she's hit the jackpot finding an affordable, fully furnished apartment, but quickly discovers she has a roommate in the form of Cordelia (a 40+ year old ghost with a penchant for houseplants and romance novels). Initially, Cordelia wants to scare Ruby off, but the two quickly team up to solve the murder of Jake, a neighbor from their building.

The book was a bit slow and repetitive in areas. While I liked the chapters switching between Ruby's and Cordelia's POVs, but their constant communication issues became tiresome. However, this is the first book in the series and I think there's room for improvement. The author writes a couple of other cozy mystery series and those have received good reviews. This book ends on a cliffhanger, so readers will want to continue on to find out more about Cordelia's past. I would recommend this to any cozy mystery fans who like a dash of the paranormal.

ARC kindly provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Cordelia is dead, a ghost. Ruby is an unemployed young woman who finds she has a ghost as her roommate.
Seems Cordelia is still hanging out in the apartment.
When their neighbor Jake dies from a gunshot Cordelia and Ruby team up to solve the mystery.
An entertaining cozy mystery read.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this book.

Took me a minute to get immersed in the plot, mainly because my usual method of deciding if I like a book involves caring if the main character lives or dies. This one is already dead. Now I am waiting on book two lol.

4 🌟

A cozy mystery with a ghost? Yes, yes please!

Everyone knows I love a good cozy mystery and so when I saw this Halloween-ish book, I had to pick it up. This was such a fun read that put me in the mood for all things fall!

Thanks, Netgalley for the ARC of this book!

Ruby is excited to rent a fully furnished cheap apartment in Boston. It doesn’t take her long to learn why it was furnished and cheap. The former tenant, Cordelia committed suicide in the bathtub. Plus the ghost of Cordelia still inhabits the apartment.
As Ruby and Cordelia learn to coexist together, they team up to investigate a mugging gone wrong of another tenant. An easy read that moved quickly with them solving the crime and leaving a clue into the next book. Thank you Netgalley and
Minotaur Books for the early copy. This review is my personal opinion.

This book was a decent read but the main characters didn’t feel full developed. I really liked the idea of a ghost and a person solving crimes together and I think that part was fun. This is clearly meant to be a series so hopefully the characters get more fleshed out as the story goes on.

I enjoyed the idea of this book but it felt like the pacing was off. I enjoyed Cordelia and ruby as separate characters but I didn’t get much development from either of them, as it felt more plot based. The cliffhanger at the end though blew my socks off!

3.75 stars rounded up.

I'm not normally a cozy mystery or amateur sleuth fan, but the paranormal aspect in this story intrigued me. The story didn't disappoint. Cordelia is a ghost, still living in her apartment with her roommate, the new tenant, Ruby. After the death of their next door neighbor, Jake, the two team up to solve the murder.

The amateur sleuthing aspect was believable because of the neighborhood, the police dismissing the case, and how he was killed. It didn't feel like they were stepping on the police's feet or trying to one up them.

I liked the relationship between Cordelia (in her 40s) and Ruby (in her 20s). Cordelia helped ground Ruby's character and I think Ruby helped Cordelia heal some of her trauma.

One murder gets solved by the end of the book but then you find out there's another one, which is why I suspect it's a series. The book left you on a cliffhanger that still felt satisfying and made me excited to read the next one.

I hope we get a lot of answers in the next book, specifically about Cordelia's brother, because that was a piece that didn't quite fit with the rest of the story for me. Either way, this was an interesting premise and the execution was well done. I enjoyed it and had fun.

“A New Lease on Death” is the first book in a supernatural mystery series by Olivia Blacke. In this book the reader meets Ruby, a new apartment tenant, and Cordelia, the former apartment tenant. Cordelia is now a ghost who through the powers of the supernatural is able (sometimes) to interact with Ruby’s physical world. When another person in the apartment is mugged - or is it murdered? - Ruby and Cordelia work together to try to solve the mystery. As this is the first in the new series, the ending does end on a cliffhanger - but it was one I suspected basically from the beginning of the book. I’d call this more of a “cozy mystery” opposed to a mystery thriller. I found this book to be a quick and enjoyable read. It did hold my attention, though I don’t know how much I really liked either main character (Ruby was a bit more flaky than I expected, but Cordelia had her own faults). I will say that I liked this book - and found the idea interesting - but I'm not sure that I need to re-read it, though if the next book floats across my radar, I might pick it up to continue the series.

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book and I am so thankful I was picked to receive an ARC!

The strength of this "A New Lease On Death" was definitely in the unique relationship between the two main characters! Getting to see two different perspectives made for some compelling scenes --- trying to figure out from Ruby's perspective what Cordelia was trying to say, and then in the next chapter getting to see what was actually going on in the behind-the-ghost-scenes.

While the mystery itself was plotted out and made sense, I did feel like a lot of the points were muddled and lost with the author trying to do too much. It became apparent by the end that the author was spending half the book setting up for a Book 2, and because of that, the mystery in Book 1 did suffer from the mixing of clues and plot lines.

Would recommend this for readers who are fans of multi-pov mysteries with a touch of paranormal.

This was really great. I've never read a paranormal mystery before and I really enjoyed it!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!