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!

I loved this book. Paranormal mysteries are one my favorite genres, and this one did not disappoint. Ghostly Cordelia and human Ruby team up to solve the murder of someone in their building wreaking havoc, and finding a friendship along the way. I can’t wait to read their next adventure.

Rounded up from 3.5 stars.

Ruby Young lives in an apartment in Boston where unbeknownst to her, she has a ghostly roommate, Cordelia Graves. the previous tenant. Cordelia considers Ruby an interloper, but when Jake - the neighbor across the hall - is murdered, Cordelia doesn't think the police are interested in investigating. Cordelia makes herself known to Ruby and through alot of miscommunication, the two bond as they investigate Jake's death.

The story starts slowly and the relationship grows sweetly. This is not a case of your average citizen suddenly being a better investigator than police. Instead, two women figure out how to communicate with the shared interest. I liked learning about the people in their lives through the eyes of Ruby and Cordelia because of their different experiences, and in fact, learning about Ruby and Cordelia as they got to know each other.

I'd consider this a cozy mystery, and a light read. I thought that it would be a one and done for me, but by the end I was interested in the continuation of their story. Quirky characters and I'd definitely recommend it more for cozy readers than mystery. Good premise and entertaining if you stick with it.

Thanks for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

I was really excited to dive into Ruby Young's new Boston apartment adventure—a ghostly murder mystery with a quirky roommate sounded right up my alley. And at first, it was! The dynamic between Ruby, who’s alive and full of energy, and Cordelia, her ghost roommate, made for some fun interactions. Their banter, along with Cordelia’s frustration over being stuck in the apartment after her death, gave the story a fresh start.

But as the book went on, I found myself losing interest. The mystery behind their neighbor Jake’s murder, which seemed so promising, ended up feeling a bit weak. I kept waiting for the plot to pick up, but it never really did. What also threw me off was that the book was advertised as having dark humor, but it leaned more heavily into dark, serious themes. I was hoping for something lighter.

That said, there were definitely things I enjoyed—like the creative ghost mechanics. I loved the idea that ghosts avoid touching living people because it’s painful for them. It was a unique spin that added some depth to the supernatural world.

If you like slower, cozy mysteries with a bit of a darker twist, you might enjoy this. It just wasn’t quite what I was hoping for but I think the series has a lot of potential, and I’m curious to see where the author takes it in the next book.

Very fun, dual perspective mystery between a girl and her ghost roommate! Had such a fun time with this mystery, will be perfect for the fall season.

A NEW LEASE ON DEATH is a surprisingly warm, quirky mystery with the kind of ghostly twist that feels more fun than unsettling. There’s an intergenerational (and paranormal) friendship between the two characters that feels somehow very…real. They’re roommates - one the living tenant, one the tenant that died in the apartment months earlier. We’re invited to get to know the two women as they unravel the sudden death of their neighbor and it’s an engaging and somehow lighthearted read. There’s a cliffhanger here so I suspect there will be a series, and I would very happily continue to follow these two unconventional amateur sleuths. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy. All opinions are entirely my own.

Thank you to Net Galley for my arc of this book!

I’m always a sucker for a murder mystery. And this book delivered with a little dash of spooky factor with ghosts.

I normally try really hard to figure out whodunnit, but this time the ending completely got me! I didn’t catch it at all. And I LOVE when that happens. If a book can bamboozle me, I’m in.

If you need a book to kick off spooky season and the ‘ber months, then look no further. Grab a pumpkin spice whatever of your choosing, grab a blanket and snuggle up with this cozy ghost mystery!

Also that ending 👀👀 I’m ready for book 2 yesterday

What a clever idea for a book, and what contemporary writing. I felt like it picked up on today's technology (frying phones and tech when Cordy was nearby), making it a really smart, new twist on a ghost story.

Overall a good read, but did I miss the part explaining why Cordy wasn't constantly drunk and drugged, because that's how she apparently died? Or did she not die from that, and we'll learn that in the second book. Speaking of second book, I knew all along Cordy wasn't murdered. I do have a bit of a beef that it was left as an aha moment to be a cliffhanger at the end of the first book. Cliffhangers are such not-cool moves by authors....

Other than that, this was a unique and fun book.

This was a fun book!

The main character being dead added some interesting layers to the story.

I loved the characters and the pacing. The mystery element was fun. The relationship between the two main characters was heartwarming and I loved seeing the growth.

The premise is so interesting and unique; I love the physics of the afterlife and the dynamics of when breathers can or can’t see/hear the dead. I look forward to more of this.

I’m a little salty that we didn’t get full wrap-up with the secondary mystery here, but I can see the purpose of that in terms of building the story for a series. Bring on the next book!

I would recommend this book to readers of Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs, and Kim Harrison, and maybe some of Nora Roberts’ more supernatural titles, like Mind Games. To clarify: this is a relationship-driven story but not at all a romance, even though these read-alikes I chose are more romancy.