I enjoyed "A New Lease on Death" by Olivia Blacke. The relationship between Ruby and Cordelia was interesting. Some of the things that Cordelia was able to do even in the afterlife was quite impressive. The 'open' ending, I didn't much care for, However Goodreads is listing this book as "Supernatural Mysteries #1", so I'm hoping that the next book in the series will continue where this one left off. I thought there was too much focus on Jake's watch, that never played out in the story (unless in upcoming books) that detracted from the plot. I would love to see a follow-up as to where Ruby and Cordelia go from here. I would also like to see who the permanent tenant of Jake's apartment would be. Overall, this was a fast-paced read that held my interest.
Thank you to Olivia Blacke and Netgalley for this ARC.

Thanks for allowing me to read this ARC! While I am a big fan of mystery/thrillers generally, I didn’t love this novel. I had a hard time feeling for the characters and felt that the dynamic between them wasn’t great (probably because one of them is dead and they can’t properly communicate!). I would be interested to read other books by the author but probably won’t continue this series if another is written.

Thank you net Galley for the ARC. This was a fun read with a really interesting twist on solving a murder mystery. Cordelia and Ruby are a fun duo to follow. They weren't wrong when they said it was like the Charlie Daniels series by Darinda Jones. There's no romance here just two new friends... roommates really trying to learn to communicate and solve a murder. Told in second person it took me a few chapters to get used to their voices. There's also the wickedly funny difference between a Gen X and Millenial. Poor Cordelia. Please buy this when it comes out in October...it was a fun read and I can't wait for book 2!

This was a new twist for me...the book opens with Cordelia sitting on a snowbank,, possibly sitting there for minutes or hours, waiting for Jake to wake up. What? Suddenly, he does, as a newly formed ghost, and we discover that Cordelia is also one. She is hoping for a friend, but because of Jake's inability to believe in ghosts,, he blinks himself out. As Cordelia returns to her apartment, (even though it now has a human renting it named Ruby) she is determined to find out how he died. This leads to a funny, sometimes unbelievable story of the friendship between Cordelia and Ruby, learning to communicate with each other and working as a team to solve the mystery. We learn a lot about Cordelia's background, but not about what caused her to end up dead in the bathtub. Looks like this might be disclosed in a second book, which I would be interested in reading. Thanks, NetGalley and St. Martin's press for a chance to read this book.

Book Feature
A New Lease on Death
Olivia Blacke
Publishing: October 29, 2024
Rating: DNF

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for my digital copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

What happens when a girl moves into a fully furnished apartment in a kind of crappy neighborhood? She finds out the ghost of the woman who lived their before her is in the apartment still. And the neighbor across the hall gets murdered. Can the ghost and the new girl work together to solve the murder? Can they learn to communicate with each other?
Ok. This sounded like a pretty good book that I was really looking forward to! I got about 38% through before deciding to DNF it. There was so much potential here!
I was starting to like the contrast between Ruby(the new girl) and the ghost (Cordelia), but it was WAY too slowly paced for me. I felt like very little had happened. The plot kind of bobbed and weaved, but not in a fluid way. I don't know, maybe I'm being too harsh but there wasn't enough information to keep me invested, to keep me reading to find out more. Instead of being fed enough good stuff to keep me hungry, I was being fed undercooked oatmeal and I didn't want to keep eating anyway, so no harm, no foul. Ok that was kind of mean, sorry.
If slow burn mysteries (is this a new genre?? 🤔) are something that interests you, throw this on your radar for October.

#stmartinspress #netgalley #anewleaseondeath #paranormal #supernatural #dnf #bookreview #honestreview #canva

I, unfortunately, could not make it through this book. While I found the premise really compelling--a ghost and the current occupant of her former apartment team up to solve a murder, sure!--I found myself too annoyed by Ruby and Cordelia and very disconnected by the story, so I DNF'd around 20%.

Fantastic cozy mystery. Excellent characters and fun plot! Will definitely read more from this author!

I loved this! 10/10 such a fun read! I love a good cozy mystery, and if that is what you are looking for, you found the right book! The characters were enjoyable and I loved how the plot continued to flow throughout the book!

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC! I loved the idea of this book and felt like it had a lot of potential to be a fun thriller but it kind of fell flat. I didn’t really get that page turning thriller feel that I’m use to reading. It almost felt slow and the build up just wasn’t there. By the time we got to whodunnit, it wasn’t a shock or surprise as much as it was, oh ok. I felt like the buildup of the characters was also a little lost in the book, like we knew the characters background but it’s almost like we didn’t see enough depth to their personality or character. Again, I loved the premise and felt like they left the book open for another in the series. Overall, I’d probably still read it again but still hope that some of these changes are made to make it reach its potential.

Took me a minute to get into the story and realize the main character is a ghost! From there it was an adventure...twists and turns, figuring out who murdered Jake and the perfect setup on what really happened to Cordelia. Come on #2!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGallery for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

Recently dead Cordelia is just settling into her new ghostly life when she discovers the murdered body of her neighbor on the sidewalk outside their apartment building. Searching for purpose and direction in her ghostly existence, she decides to spend some time solving his murder and bringing some justice to the world.

Enter Ruby, the young woman who "lucked" into Cordelia's apartment as it came fully furnished with everything Cordy had left behind. When Ruby discovers she's got a ghost on her hands, the two work together to solve the murder case.

I really enjoyed the world and rules that the author has created for her ghost to exist in and how they can communicate. This is an amateur sleuth case, with plenty of missteps and hijinks to find the clues and get justice for Jake. The characters

While the main mystery of this book is solved and things wrapped up for this first installment for a series, there's plenty of threads of the story to bring in the next volume and keep readers waiting for more.

A new lease on Death by Olivia Blacke arc review I received this advanced reader copy from NetGalley. This was a thrilling interesting paranormal mystery tale. I had a blast reading this it was exciting and suspenseful right to the very end had me guessing who done it. This was a unique twist on the mystery genre. So this book is told in dual points of view main characters. Ruby young just moved in a new apartment in Boston that has comes with odd new roommate the ghost of the deceased tenant who died in the apartment, and is haunting the building. Which is where we meet our other character Cordelia Graves so despite not being able to see each other the two strike up a friendship and become determined to solve the murder of there next door neighbor Jake who is mysterious murder outside the building. They make an odd friendship of living and death but begin to care about each other. Also they want to help bring Jake killer to justice so maybe to can both find peace. It was an interesting story a dark humor supernatural tale. I love mystery elements and the humor friendship the two girl have. The twist and turn kept me guessing who the killer was till the end it was great. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story. I would like there to be more with these characters since the ending was left opened I hope 🤞 to see more. Comes out on October 29, 2024 so check it out your love it .👻💚

This was my first time reading Olivia Blacke's work; it won't be the last. "A New Lease on Death" was a great cozy mystery. Despite some heavy subject matter, the overall book didn't feel heavy. Definitely looking forward to the next book in this series.

I'm a big fan of TV shows like Ghosts and Not Dead Yet. If you are as well, I think you'll love this one!

So you're giving me book 2 right? right?!

I loved the premise, I love Ruby and Cordy grew on me. I love that there's a larger mystery while the book has the secondary mystery wrapped up before the book ends and Ruby declares what any of us who have read these books before already guessed.

Why is Eunice so important? I need to know.

After watching Dead Boy Detectives this was perfect to fill the void. I loved the unique premise of Cordelia and Ruby solving the case together, but not being able to directly communicate. Ghost vs human and both have their perks when trying to solve a murder. Also, the cliffhanger?! Excited for the next book.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It is a fun, humorous and entertaining mystery. I liked the two different person perspectives. Ruby is the new tenet in the deceased Cordelia’s apartment. However, Cordelia is a ghost now and her neighbor was just found murdered. Ruby and Cordelia now team up to try and solve the mystery. I loved the various characters and the story kept me interested. It was a well written book and I highly recommend reading it.

Cute concept, well-constructed prose, good humor. While I stopped after chapter 1 (4%), this feels like an easy 3-4 stars and 5 for the right readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC.

A quirky, sort of comedic take on a cozy murder mystery despite tackling some more serious topics along the way. The story focuses around Cordelia, a recently deceased "ghost" who with the help of her apartment's new resident Ruby - try to solve the murder of their recently deceased neighbor.

While the story and premise had great potential, the pacing seemed a little off for me and seemed somewhat repetitive. I think what may have been lacking was character development as Ruby, and Cordelia have the possibility of being quite endearing. In the end, it was a quick read and I would recommend to someone who likes cozy mysteries with a supernatural trope.

Thank you to Minotaur Books, MacMillan and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy in exchange for my honest and personal review.

Overall this was a good cozy mystery but I found the main storyline far fetched and not believable . It seemed like I was reading a comedy version of the TV series using same premise
I found it slow and it didn’t hold my interest most likely because I don’t believe in ghosts
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review book

Love the cover but not a huge fan of supernatural so perhaps this wasn't for me. I didn't feel connected to the story even though the writing was good. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.