A New Lease on Death by Olivia Blacke is a solid start to a new cozy mystery series. With multiple point of views , one of them being a ghost, said ghost and her much alive roommate play amateur detectives to figure out the truth behinds their apartment neighbors death. A range of character personalities and typical cozy mystery type antics makes this an enjoyable one.

This book was so much fun. A really lovely cozy mystery. I thought it was well structured and I liked the dual points of view, especially since one was from a ghost. I really liked Cordelia and Ruby’s relationship, I think they are really good for each other. I can’t wait to find out what happened to Cordelia herself so I’m looking forward to the next one!

Be sure to look out for this entertaining ghost mystery! Quirky characters, cozy mystery, and ghosts. Perfect spooky season read!

And the ending allows for a potential series!

I really enjoyed this one!

Rating: 3/5

ARC provided by NetGalley

Publishing date: 10.29.2024

Short and sweet cozy mystery. Not too much depth to it, wish they had solved both murders in this one instead of dragging it to the next to start a series. I don't think this was really my thing, everything was a bit too see through (buh-dum-psst! It is a ghost book!)

This was a fun cozy mystery told from multiple POV with some comedic shenanigans. The recently departed Cordelia hasn't really departed, she still lingering in her apartment with the new tenant, Ruby. Cordelia thinks she's committed suicide, but doesn't remember it. When their neighbor is killed they both decide they need to catch the killer.

I loved the dynamic between both main characters. Cordelia take the eccentric Ruby under her wing to help get her life on track and try to keep her safe. Cannot wait to read the next installment.

I received this advance review copy from NetGalley & the publisher for my honest review.

This was an entertaining quick read for a fun paranormal cozy mystery. I would say this isn’t my normal genre so it took me a bit to get into it, but overall I had a lot of fun with it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minatour Books for the ARC.

This book is about a woman (Cordelia) who everyone thinks has committed subside. The apartment manager doesn't even clean out the apartment before renting to someone new (Ruby). Cordelia is a ghost who manages to be involved in Ruby's life still. Another neighbor is shot and killed too. Cordelia doesn't think it's just a mugging on wrong, but murder. It's rather comical how the two work at figuring out what actually happened.

I like this book. I enjoyed how Cordelia and Ruby end up working together for the common good. I would read more in this series as this book ended on a cliffhanger.

Thank you to Olivia Blake, NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Publish Date: October 29

"Death is only the beginning in Olivia Blacke's A New Lease on Death, a darkly funny supernatural mystery that introduces an unlikely crime-solving duo.

Ruby Young's new Boston apartment comes with all the usual perks. Windows facing the brick wall of the next-door building. Heat that barely works. A malfunctioning buzzer. Noisy neighbors. A dead body on the sidewalk outside. And of course, a ghost.

Since Cordelia Graves died in her apartment a few months ago, she's kept up her residency, despite being bored out of her (non-tangible) skull and frustrated by her new roommate. When her across-the-hall neighbor, Jake Macintyre, is shot and killed in an apparent mugging gone wrong outside their building, Cordelia is convinced there's more to it and is determined to bring his killer to justice.

Unfortunately, Cordelia, being dead herself, can't solve the mystery alone. She has to enlist the help of the obnoxiously perky, living tenant of her apartment. Ruby is twenty, annoying, and has never met a houseplant she couldn't kill. But she also can do everything Cordelia can't, from interviewing suspects to researching Jake on the library computers that go up in a puff of smoke if Cordelia gets too close. As the roommates form an unlikely friendship and get closer to the truth about Jake's death, they also start to uncover other dangerous secrets."

An apartment haunted by someone named Cordelia? The Angel fanatic in me is appeased.

My thanks to Net Galley and St Martin s Press for allowing me to review this arc.

I really enjoyed this. 20 year old Ruby Young moves into an apartment where the previous owner Cordelia kills herself. When Ruby s neighbor Jake is found dead, Ruby finds herself teaming up with the ghost of Cordelia to solve Jake's murder.

Fun, easy, light mystery read. Recommend!

Fun story with some delightfully quirky characters. I enjoyed the chemistry between the main character and her resident ghost. I can't wait to see what mystery they solve in the next book (this has to be a series!)

what an ending! i cannot wait for book 2! while i always love comedic mysteries, i wasn’t expecting to enjoy this book as much as i did. i was worried the ghost aspect would make it too corny or unbelievable, but everything was so well-written and i had so much fun with this book! the characters were great, everything tied together so well, and it was the perfect october read!

Cordelia and Ruby have become roommates, though Cordelia is dead and Ruby does not exactly know she is there. But when another apartment renter ends up dead on the front stoop, Cordelia sets out to find his killer and enlists Ruby to help.

I thought this book was adorable. I have never read anything with this premise before and I really enjoyed this type of cozy mystery!

Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3 stars. Thank you to netgalley, St. Martin's press/Minotaur for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Unfortunately, it just didn't grasp my attention for long and it took forever for me to get back to in order to finish the book and leave a review.

4.5 stars. I enjoyed this start to a new cozy series and really hope it continues so I can find out what comes after that cliffhanger!

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Minotaur Books for this advanced copy. You can pick up /a New Lease on Death on October 29, 2024.

If you're a fan of Only Murders in the Building but want a paranormal twist, this is likely the book for you! I unfortunately wasn't much in the mood for a murder mystery, so I put this one down, but I might pick it up again when the mood strikes. Interesting characters and fun shenanigans though!

I thought this was so cute! The premise was not like anything I've read in the cozy mystery genre and I was intrigued. I found Ruby to be a little grating, but would definitely read the second book to give the overarching storylines a little more time to develop. Overall a fun, seasonal mystery that I would recommend to fans of this genre!

Cute, cozy ghost story mystery! This was just the type of read I needed in my life.

This book is told through 2 POV:
*Cordelia’s POV: a ghost still hanging around her apartment she died in. While alive, Cordelia was a 40-something single woman who kept to herself (usually with a bottle or two to keep her company). She’s still fairly new to being by a ghost and is getting used to having a roommate for the first time after Ruby becomes the new tenant in her apartment.

*Ruby POV: moved into Cordelia’s apt after she died. She’s 20 years old and looking for a new start in a new city. After a while she realizes she’s living with a real ghost, which doesn’t scare her.

Together, the unlikely duo attempt to solve the mystery of their neighbor’s murder.

This is narration heavy since Cordelia was a ghost and couldn’t talk to anyone directly. Ruby lives alone with no interaction with friends or family. Usually that bores me, but their inner thoughts were entertaining and humorous. The only thing I didn’t really like was how repetitive things got at times. It probably could have been a bit shorter.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. This review will be shared on NetGalley, Goodreads, and Amazon.

Pub Date Oct 29 2024

A surprisingly entertaining mystery. When Cordelia, herself a ghost, starts to talk to and work with her "roommate" in order to solve another murder there are many twists and turns. You'll find yourself enchanted by both characters and want to read through to figure out what happens in the end!

w Reader,

Hey look!  It isn’t a Christmas book. Yea! 

But this book is a different genre than my usual. It is not historical fiction, or cozy mystery, or fiction or even biography. This is in the supernatural mystery category. Now, I know that some of you might be turned off by that label, but I ask you to have an open mind.

The book opens with the death of Jake Macintyre. Jake lived in Apartment 4H. Jake is lying dead in front of the apartment building with a bullet hole in his head. Cordelia Graves is standing over the body. She notices that Jake is holding an expensive cell phone in his hand and comes to the conclusion that Jake did not die from a robbery attempt. Jake suddenly sits up. He recognizes Cordelia as the dead girl from across the hall from him. She assures him that she is the dead girl from across the hall. It takes Jake a few minutes to realize that he can see her because he is also dead. He is very confused. Cordelia urges him to come inside the building and after convincing him that he can walk through the front door, he realizes that he is a ghost but he doesn’t believe in ghosts, so he vaporizes. Cordelia is alone again.

Cordelia Graves is dead. She knows this but she also knows that she is still living in her apartment in Boston. Unfortunately, she is living there with a roommate. The first issue is that the roommate is alive and doesn’t really know that Cordelia is there. Ruby Young has moved to the city to escape a love story gone wrong. Her boyfriend was cheating and she decided that she had to leave town and move to Boston. She found an apartment that seemed to have someone’s things still there, but she could afford it and moved in. She is steadily killing off the house plants that were in the apartment.

The killing of the houseplants is driving Cordelia crazy. She doesn’t get what the problem is with this girl. Ruby figures out that Cordelia is living in the apartment with her and the two of them join forces to find out what happened to Jake. And maybe they will find out what happened to Cordelia. Cordelia doesn’t know and doesn’t think that her death makes sense. Through many rough starts, the two find they can communicate – not perfectly but they can exchange information.

Cordelia can find out things (by walking through walls) that Ruby can’t, but Cordelia cannot touch electronics because they blow up when she touches them. (They both learned this from experience.) So, they imperfectly work together to solve the mystery.

I liked this book. I enjoyed the interplay of the characters. It is a mystery written differently (at least for me) I recommend that you read this. I  think it is the first book of a new series.

Thanks for reading!

I was given an advance copy of this book in return for my unbiased review. The book will be published on October 29, 2024.

It was a cute mystery story. I really enjoyed the dual POV and the ghost was my favorite character.

It was a very repetitive story and that got old VERY quickly. We understand that Boston is cold and that the ghost was upset with the clothes she died in. It's okay to mention it a couple times but this was obsessively commented on.

It ended on a cliff-hanger, I'm not sure if I liked the story enough to read part 2.

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