Ruby has fled to Boston to get away from a bad relationship. She has no job and little money, so when she finds a furnished apartment in a somewhat seedy part of town she takes it unaware that it is already occupied.
Ruby is a great protagonist. She’s smart, tenacious, and doesn’t frighten easily. She’s also a pretty good detective. I liked the mystery within a mystery aspect of the story. You’ve got the one regarding who shot the nearby neighbor and then the one about Cordelia, Ruby’s “roommate.” It’s a well crafted whodunit that kept me guessing right up to the end. A haunted mystery without the horror. 4.5 stars

Another solid entry into the recent fiction category of “unprofessional women detective mysteries.” It’s been a popular trope the last few years and I’m enjoying every one of them.
Cordelia is a ghost, still hanging around her old apartment after her - suicide? Murder? Accidental death? She’s currently helping the current tenant solve the murder of the neighbor across the hall. It ends on a cliffhanger, so I’m assuming we will revisit Cordelia’s own death in the next installment?
Thanks to Olivia Blacke, St Martins Press/Minotaur and NetGalley for the advance readers copy!

The description sounded so fun, a ghost and the new unsuspecting roommate must team up to solve the death of their neighbor. While sure I get that they can be opposites the extent that it was pushed was a bit much. Some aspects of the book were well done and thoughtful. Then others treated the reader like a toddler who couldn’t read the room. In the end, this was just a slightly average read.

Set in Boston, this book follows Cordelia, a ghost with limited powers, and Ruby, her new tenant, as they try to solve a murder in their rough neighborhood. Despite the “paranormal mystery” label, the supernatural aspect is minimal, with Cordelia barely able to communicate, and the Boston setting feels generic. The characters’ personalities are overemphasized (tall, serious Cordelia vs. bubbly, petite Ruby) to the point of repetition. While the twist at the end is surprising, the detective work feels unconvincing, relying more on luck than skill. Despite an intriguing premise, the execution missed the mark, and I won’t be following the series further.

would classify this as a cozy mystery and I did enjoy it. I liked the characters and the mythology behind becoming a ghost. The writing itself was good and I would definitely read the next book in this series. My hopes for improvements on the next one: better pacing, a more interesting mystery, and not every single man calling women “sweetheart”. Nothing really happened for a large portion of the book and then it felt like the clues were really heavy-handed. The big cliffhanger at the very end of the book was something that had been obvious since the second chapter BUT it’s still a story I would be interested in reading.

I received this from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

This start to a new series is my favorite yet from Olivia Blacke. Back and forth perspectives between ghost Cordelia and the new inhabitant of her apartment, Ruby, readers really get a sense of both characters and I can't wait for more books in the series to investigate some untied up threads. Sometimes in paranormal mysteries, things get a little too convenient as the paranormal element solves parts of the mystery that couldn't be solved without them, and while Cordelia definitely led Ruby to some evidence, it didn't fully drive the story. Looking forward to more!

Oh my gosh, this was so much fun! A ghost woman who died at around forty years old and a human girl of twenty couldn't've been more unlikely friends let alone sleuthing buddies, but Ruby and Cordelia made it work.

I loved these two characters and really got a kick outta Cordelia and some of her comments she made even though she knew Ruby couldn't hear her. I enjoyed how the chapters took turns being first person told by one of the two main characters. It was easy to keep track of who was telling since the chapters were labeled either Ruby or Cordelia.

I absolutely can't wait to read the next book because of how this one ended. No worries though, the current murder was wrapped up nice and neat but there's always been a question in my mind and Ruby addressed that. We’ll have to see what happens next.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book provided by St. Martin/Minotaur Books via NetGalley, and my opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed reading A New Lease on Death. The story was slightly dark but funny. Olivia Blacke did a great job with this story.

I will definitely be looking for other works by Olivia.

happy release day to A New Lease on Death!

Olivia Blacke’s books are some of my favorite cozy mysteries, + this book is no exception! I loved the premise of the book, the friendship between Cordelia + Ruby, + the supernatural element to the story! this was such a great read, + I can’t recommend it enough!

thank you to @netgalley, @minotaur_books, + @oliviablackeauthor for my advance copy! #anewleaseondeath

A New Lease on Death is a cozy mystery set in Boston during the winter time. Cordelia Graves is a ghost with a new roommate who never stops talking. Ruby Young is a young 2o something trying to start a new life and ends up in the middle of a crime scene. Together they try to unravel the mystery of the neighbor across the hall (Jake). One of the many set backs is that Ruby can't actually see or hear Cordelia resulting in some humors missteps.

The first half of the book had similar humor to Finlay Donovan and Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies as Ruby and Cordelia learn to work together. Unfortunately, I thought the last half of the book dragged on and was predictable. The foreshadowing for Cordelia backstory seems heavy handed just to be set up for a sequel and I thought that was pretty unsatisfying.

I love the cover art.

I've never read a book like this before, so unique and clever! I was hooked from page 1 and can't wait to see what this unusual duo get up to next!!

Cordelia finds her neighbor, Jake, murdered in front of their apartment building. He is outside in the snowy Boston weather with no shoes or coat on. Cordelia wants to investigate but unfortunately she is also dead. Cordelia has to enlist the help of the new resident of her apartment, the annoying Ruby, to do all the hard questioning of suspects. Can this unusual duo work together to find out what happened to Jake? Will both women get A New Lease on Death after realizing that ghosts are definitely real?

I love the idea of combining a ghost story with an amateur detective tale. However, the mechanics of what Cordelia can still do and how she communicates with the living are clunky at best and distracting at worst. Hopefully, this is just an issue with this introductory book in what is obviously intended to be new cozy paranormal mystery series. I did spend the entire book missing the easy camaraderie of Sarah Booth Delaney and Jitney. Even the flirty mystique of 1940s Private Investigator Jack Shepard and his human foil, Pen, of the Haunted Bookshop series seemed more believable to me than the dynamic here.

Overall, A New Lease on Death is a fun cozy mystery, but the pacing is slowed by the task of introducing all the characters. The two main characters’ many insecurities were annoying, rather than endearing, too. 3 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for providing me with an advanced review copy.

A great premise for a mystery series. Ruby moves into a furnished apartment in Boston after leaving home because of a cheating ex. The previous renter, Cordelia Graves committed suicide in the bathtub. Or did she??
Cordelia is now a ghost who eventually communicates with Ruby after her neighbor is killed and they set out to solve the murder.
There is humor as well as sadness. Cordelia is constantly learning how she can interact with breathers, as she learns to call us from another ghost.
Ruby is only twenty, so she is just learning about life. The book ends on a cliffhanger so I will certainly be watching for the next book.
This was a fun book and a good mystery.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the EARC. This is my honest review. It was a fun read.

***ARC received from Minotaur Books and NetGalley, opinions are all my own. Thank you!***

A New Lease on Death is a new cozy mystery by Olivia Blacke. I’m going to be honest, I’ve never really read anything classified as cozy mystery but I found this a delightfully sweet read.

Cordelia is dead, a ghost haunting her apartment when she gets a new roommate in very much alive Ruby. These two women are very different, not just in age by in personality. I liked how well they played off each other even if their communication was just a few simple words. Ruby is bubbly and outgoing while Cordelia is more reserved and the age difference cast Cordelia as more of a protective older sister caring about helping Ruby get going out on her own. They do have a very sweet dynamic and as the story switches between their points of view we get to see the unique struggles of learning to live with a ghost. The secondary characters are not as well fleshed out and I wished that we had gotten to know Shannon a little better but they do have their own unique personalities in how they interact with Ruby.

While the book focuses mostly on the murder mystery part of it I really liked getting to spend time in Cordelia’s chapters as we get to learn more about how the ghost word works in the book. Why are some ghosts still around, how are they able to interact with the real world particular their interactions with electronics and her interactions with other ghosts. I do hope that any other books explore this more in depth as I found that more interesting that the mystery.

There is a murder mystery going on and it isn’t just a secondary story even if it wasn’t my favorite part of the story but that is just me. As with any good mystery there are a lot of false flags that all make sense with who the characters are and how they are interacting. Any of these could lead to the murderer and the book handled them well.

For someone that doesn’t normally reach for a cozy mystery I really did enjoy this book and would love to read more of Cordelia and Ruby.

Twenty-something Ruby Young can’t afford much, but she finds an apartment in Boston to rent. It’s far from perfect, but it’s home for now. The apartment comes complete with a ghost, not to mention a dead body on the sidewalk in front of the building.

The ghost is the previous tenant, Cordelia Graves, who died a few months before Ruby took over the apartment. The dead body is her next-door neighbor. Cordelia and Ruby are on a mission to find the killer. It’s not easy for Ruby to work with a ghost since she can’t see or communicate with her. The two of them find unconventional ways. They must be on the right track of a murderer since Ruby is being threatened.

This is an entertaining and unique story. Ruby and Cordelia are fun characters. They make for an unusual sleuthing team. The storyline is intriguing and kept me guessing. I was quite surprised at who the culprit turned out to be.

I did find some spots to be a little slow, but it did keep me laughing. It's filled with dark humor. Ruby and Cordelia’s antics were amusing. Although the murder mystery is solved in this book, there is a continuing thread carried over into the next book. I’m looking forward to reading that one.

I’ve read one of this author’s other cozy mystery series, Record Shop Mysteries, and love it. This one has the potential to be another good series.






FTC Disclosure: I voluntarily reviewed a free Advance Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.

A nice series start…

A year or so ago, I had a review copy of Olivia Blacke’s A Fatal Groove, which is the first in her Record Shop mystery series. I liked that book, which is practically the epitome of a cozy. So when I was offered a review copy of A New Lease on Death, which is the first in Blacke’s Supernatural mystery series, I grabbed it. And I enjoyed A New Lease even a bit more than A Fatal Groove.

To start with, in spite of its cute cover, it’s not a cozy. And although I like cozies, a few can go a long way. Instead, A New Lease is a little grittier, dealing with some difficult situations – which would, however, be spoilers if I provided details here. You’ll recognize them when you see them. And the paranormal elements also make you think a bit. What would you do if you ended up as a ghost, unable to communicate with those who are still alive, and not knowing anything at all about how the ghost thing works? Which sounds like a few living people I know. Which may be the point.

Luckily though, for our resident ghost, Cordelia Graves, who apparently committed suicide in her apartment’s bathtub in a rather bleak part of town, the next inhabitant of the apartment is Ruby Young. Ruby’s an almost terminally cheerful 20-something, who has dealt with a nasty breakup with her cheating ex, “Jerky McJerkface”, by leaving the comfort of her large family in Baltimore to make her way on her own in Boston. In cold cold Boston! It’s wintertime, and Ruby doesn’t have much money – for food, or heat, or warm clothes.

Shortly after Ruby moves in, however, Cordelia-the-ghost somewhat ironically discovers a dead body. Her former neighbor from across the hall, Jake Macintyre, has been shot in the head, not far from the entrance to their apartment building. And although Cordelia tries to pass along some of her hard-learned lessons on how to be a ghost, Jake vanishes shortly after he dies. The overworked police assume it is just a mugging, but Cordelia doesn’t think so, and neither does Ruby. The two form an unlikely alliance to investigate, and as they do, they form an equally improbable friendship.

As I was reading the first few chapters, I struggled a bit with A New Lease on Death. Cordelia seemed stiff (pun intended 😊) and unlikeable, Ruby’s situation was dire, and I’ve never been a big fan of cold winters, even just in books. But as Cordelia and Ruby figured out how to communicate (at least some of the time), as their investigations started to dig up clues, and as they started to care about each other – well, I got hooked. And by the end of the book, I felt quite sad that it was ending.

I want to thank Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the review copy. I also note that there are a few unresolved bits-and-pieces towards the end that bolster my hopes for another book to come. And finally, BTW - even though the book is grittier than the cover, I still like the cover a lot!

Ruby Young, fleeing from a bad relationship, packs up everything and moves to Boston. She rents an apartment on the rougher side of town, where the rent is cheap, and she is able to get the apartment fully furnished thanks to the fact that the previous occupant committed suicide in it, and all of her belongings are still in there. There is something else that comes with the apartment - the ghost of Cordelia Graves,, the previous resident. She has been hanging out with Ruby (without her knowledge of course) for awhile when the neighbor across the hall gets murdered. He is shot in the forehead and left for dead on the sidewalk outside their apartment building. Cordelia wants to find out who murdered Jake, but obviously she can't do anything about it - at least not without the help of her roomie, Ruby. So Cordelia clues Ruby in to the fact that she has an invisible roommate, and through trial and error they team up up to do a little sleuthing of their own.

This book was so much fun. I loved both Cordelia and Ruby, and their antics were delightful. Cordelia fried any electronics she got close to, so there was definitely a learning curve trying to find a way for them to communicate. The mystery kept me guessing, and I loved how the book ended setting it up for the mystery in the next book in the series. I am already looking forward to that one! If you enjoy paranormal mysteries, or even just mysteries in general, then you should definitely check this out.

Ruby Young is new to Boston. Fresh off a difficult breakup she has a new fully furnished apartment that came with a few things she wasn't expecting. First was malfunctioning electronics, next was a dead body outside, and last but not least, a ghost. After her death Cordelia decided not to leave her apartment. She was not happy to have a new roommate. While exploring one evening she came upon the body and ghost of her former neighbor Jake. Cordelia becomes determined to find out what happened to Jake. Through trial and error she finds different ways to communicate with Ruby and enlists her in this mission.

I had a great time with this book. I loved the interesting ways the author came up with to have Ruby and Cordelia interact. There were so many funny moments balanced with some more serious themes. Both women had interesting and distinct personalities. I enjoyed the mystery aspect. I also liked that we got set up for the likely next book. I look forward to seeing where the story goes. Olivia Blacke has another cozy mystery series that I'm excited to dig into while waiting for the follow up.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ALC in exchange for an honest review.

The Cozy Mystery genre, in all its varied forms (books, tv shows, movies), is one of my absolute favorite things in the world, so I was beyond excited to receive a digital arc of Olivia Blacke's newest release, A New Lease on Death.

It's billed as a lighthearted, cozy murder mystery, with a paranormal spin. From the blurb, I was expecting ghost Cordelia and Ruby, the human who moved into her apartment, to have this great, hilarious adventure as they attempt to solve a murder together, filled with hijinks and silly antics.

Now, with all this going for it, I ended up DNFing it. It took me three tries to get as far as I did, and I only got to Chapter six. This book and I did not connect. I didn't find it funny. Or cheerful. Set in a bad neighborhood in Boston in the middle of winter, it was the last thing I wanted to picture while reading, curled up all cozy on a nice Fall night. Cordelia's voice read as flat and deadpan, while Ruby came across as a hyper, overexcited teenager.

I know there needs to be a setup in the beginning, but information doesn't generally get repeated endlessly. Seriously. I lost count of how many times Cordelia mentioned that Ruby had killed ALL of her plants, except one or what could she have done differently to stop Jake from disappearing. Etc.

I know I'm in the minority here and a lot of people are going to enjoy this one. I wish I could've felt the same.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Olivia Blacke, and Netgalley for an advance digital copy. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

2 Stars

Recommended for fans of:

Cozy Mysteries, Mysteries, General Fiction, Women's Fiction

Ruby got a great deal on an apartment in Boston. She soon finds out that is because the previous owner committed suicide and her ghost is still around. Good think Ruby thinks it is exciting to have a ghost around. This was a funny, irreverent book but so much fun to read.

This book is quirky and grabs the reader from page one. Ruby and Cordelia are characters that readers just love to take in and see a glimpse into their lives. They play of each other perfectly and even though most the time they can’t interact except through occasionally poetry magnets you can tell they are still connecting and reading each other in other means. The way this book ends has me thinking that there may be another book in the series, and I can’t wait. This is a dynamic duo that I need to read more of.
Thank you so much to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.