The Mortician's Daughter: One Foot in the Grave

I love getting in on the ground floor of a new series. This book was soo awesome. I read it in one night and could not put it down. This book has YA romance, paranormal and a mystery all rolled up in one.
Riley and Hayden were amazing characters. Riley is a grim reaper and helps ghosts go into the light. As I had just read an adult book with a grim reaper in it, I was able to look at both of these books and really could not decide which one was better. Riley's character was pretty spunky and I love that she didn't let people walk all over her. Hayden was a dream guy and I can't wait to see what comes of this romance. There was a pretty neat twist at the end that I saw coming about midway through the book but I bet a lot of people will be surprised by it. This was a fun read and I can't wait to read the next books coming out.

Riley has always been an outlier as a daughter of a mortician . It’s not easy to avoid the stares and the whispered voices in the halls. Those voices are not those she’s concerned with, rather they are the voices from the grave. They are unsettled and in need of her special talents to rest peacefully. But being a teenage girl in a new town and navigating both the spiritual world and the living world is a tall order and each comes with its own dangers...



I love this book but was very torn on what to give it ratings wise. Struggled between a 4 and a 5 star review but I am a little stringent holding out for perfection. I cannot wait to read more in this series and see what becomes of it. C.C. Hunter has quite a talent for relatable characters and a gripping storyline.

A wonderful new series by C.C. Hunter, One Foot In The Grave keeps the theme of being able see ghosts found in the Shadow Falls series. Riley can see dead people (lol). Being able to see ghosts definitely doesn't make life easy for her as she tries to balance checking if her father is an alcoholic, friends, school and trying to remain happy and sane. After seeing a handsome young man/ghost, she has to add keeping herself from falling in love with a dead man onto that list. As she tries to bring justice to a young woman's ghost, the young man and her grow closer, even if they could not be any farther apart.
I love a lot of C.C. Hunter's writings, and I enjoyed One Foot Under as well. It was a really good weekend read. It was nothing too meaty, but it was a fun binge read and was very entertaining. Although this was not my all-time favourite novel by her, I found it was still very much worth the read. Riley is a spunky and determined main character. She was well rounded but vague enough I feel like many young women could empathize and feel engaged with her. I found the romance to not be overly overwhelming, but it was quite sweet. There were many similar elements in this to the Shadow Falls series, and fans of one will probably like the other. I personally loved One Foot Under as a binge read and give it the rating of FOUR AND A HALF STARS OUT OF FIVE!!!

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. I was in no way compensated for this review.


I was beyond ecstatic to learn that C.C. Hunter had a new Paranormal YA series coming out! One Foot in the Grave is the start of The Mortician’s Daughter trilogy. This time, our heroine already knows of her connection to the paranormal, she can see and talk to ghosts! I love me a good ghost read! Possibly because The Mediator series was one of the very first Paranormal YA series I read eons ago and I loved the possibility of a romance between a living human and ghost! It has it problems, but you still can’t help but rooting for there to be a way!

Not only does this story have the possibility of a cross-dimensional romance, but there’s also a murder mystery of sorts afoot! But I’m getting ahead of myself! The story begins with Riley trying to settle into her new surroundings at the second move she and her dad made in the past two years. She’s beginning to suspect her father is a closet alcoholic but hasn’t been able to prove it yet, but since he lost his last two jobs and she’s seen other signs that could be the result of drinking too much. Then it happens, a ghost comes to Riley begging for help! She wants Riley to find her ring to give to her family. But then a funny thing happens, yet another ghost appears, only this time, he looks different than the usual sort of ghosts she sees, but he’s still clearly not of the living. Hayden is just different.

I was actually rather surprised by how quickly things started to develop between Hayden and Riley. Sure I expected romance between them, the cover description gives us that much of an idea. But man, I felt like it just happened so quickly. Add in that there also happens to be another guy, Jacob, at Riley’s school who has a crush on her and you have the makings of one awkward love triangle! Lol! What will eventually come to be final though has yet to be seen at this point, though I am pretty sure I will be heartbroken either way!

It’s not long though before the first ghost reveals that she didn’t die by accident, she was murdered and she wants Riley’s help to get her killer put behind bars. Though it doesn’t exactly come out that way. It was while Riley was trying to find the ring that she ended up running into the murderer. And now he has set his sights on Riley.

There was definitely an air of danger to this story once it’s revealed who the killer is. It was positively frightening because he was one seriously bad dude. And when a serial rapist sets his sights on you, well, it naturally makes for intense and scary reading!

Then there’s also the fact that Riley is trying to prove her dad is drinking and confront him about it. There’s a good deal of drama in this story as well in that scope of things. Add in the conflicting feelings over two boys, one dead, one alive and you pretty much have one rockin story in your hands!

The ending to One Foot in the Grave gives you a sense of conclusion to the murder mystery and yet still packs a punch with one whopper of a cliffhanger! Granted, I did sort of see this one coming once some things were laid out for us to know. I made a guess and it turns out I was right!! And man, I don’t envy Riley for the troubles she will be having in the books to come!

One Foot in the Grave is the perfect paranormal read! There’s ghosts, there’s mystery, there’s romance, there’s surprises around every turn and there is still more to come! This is going to be one delightful series! I can already tell!


Overall Rating 5/5 stars

The Mortician’s Daughter: One Foot in the Grave by CC Hunter- Riley lost her mother when she was four years old. She lives with her father who is a mortician. She’s been attending her new school for less than two weeks and knows only a few people. They have moved twice lately due to her father losing his jobs. Riley is worrying about whether or not he’s an alcoholic or depressed. Riley gets visits from ghosts of the people her father has helped prepare for burial. The visitors need Riley’s help and until she helps them they keep visiting. I have a soft spot for Ford Mustangs and it’s cool that Riley has a Mustang and deals with the car’s maintenance and mechanical issues with her dad. The more I read, the more I realized how complicated Riley’s life is. I don’t want to give anything away, but the story just kept getting better and better. The dynamic characters are interesting and the suspense grows in intensity and I was on the edge of my seat as the story ended! I want the sequel now!!! 5 stars for pure supernatural entertainment!

Riley is a typical teenage girl with typical teenage problems, but Riley is also a girl with atypical problems. Riley is the daughter of a mortician and she also happens to be able to see ghosts. She struggles with being seen as a freak, navigating her love life, the possibility of her Dad drinking too much and being hated by the popular girls in school. Teenagers will easily relate to Riley and the other teens in this book. The narrative is realistic even with the supernatural aspects. This book is a real page-turner and I cannot wait for the next book in the series.

Review: 5 out of 5 stars

One Foot in the Grave is the first book in The Mortician’s Daughter series by C.C. Hunter. I have adored everything that I have read by this wonderful author so I was eager to dive into this and it didn’t fail to disappoint.

Our MC is seventeen-year-old Riley Smith, the daughter of a mortician who seems to bring the ghosts home with him much to Riley’s annoyance as she has the ability to communicate and see the dead as well as help them to resolve their issues and move on.

Riley was such a great character, she has never fit in at school because of her father’s occupation and her mother died when she was four years-old but she is ready for a new start in her new school and to start afresh. It is her second move in a short period of time as her father keeps losing his jobs, she believes as a result of him being a closet alcoholic but she hasn’t been able to prove it.

When a ghost comes to Riley, she realises that he is very different to the others, he looks different and is more ‘real’, he is also very clearly hiding something but she can’t stop her growing feelings for him the more time that they spend together clearly knowing that there can be no future between them.

I thought Hayden was great and I was able to guess his story from the beginning but I wanted to know more! I loved his interactions with Riley but I never felt a romance was a possibility especially when there was someone ‘living’, Jacob Adams that was paying her attention. It was a strange love-triangle.

The story also follows a ghost who has come to Riley begging for help to find her ring to pass on to her family but Riley soon realises that she didn’t die by accident and when she stumbles across the location she also stumbles across the murderer who has his sights now on Riley.

There was a lot going on in this book which made for an exciting read! Between Riley’s feelings between two boys, her father’s issues, her ghostly problems, a serial rapist with Riley on his mind; it was entertaining and mysterious with a great cast of characters. The ending has also left me eager for the next book in the series, Two Feet in the Grave.

If you are after a mysterious, entertaining and well-written paranormal YA, I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to EverAfter Romance via Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review One Foot in the Grave.

Quite a good read for a new series. Enjoyable and looking forward to the next book.

CC Hunter has a new hit series on her hands! One Foot in the Grave has a strong cast from more than one dreamy male lead, a got your back best friend, and mean girls that we love to hate. Can't wait to read the next one!