Title: The Graveside Bar and Grill
Author: Darynda Jones
Series: Charley Davidson #13.7
Just happy to return to Charley’s world
I would like to thank Darynda Jones and Dark Nights Press/Evil Eye Concepts, Inc. for allowing me to read a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. Also thank you to Tanaka Kangara at Social Butterfly PR for being the go-between and providing assets.
I did my best to avoid spoilers, but if you want absolutely none whatsoever . . . why are you reading reviews?
Hmm. So. I didn’t realize this would be focused on Donovan (leader of the biker gang that’s been wrapped around Charley’s finger since early in the series) until I began reading. I just knew it was a Charley novella (nuff said, right?). I can’t say I needed a follow-up for Donovan; I liked his character but wasn’t particularly attached to him. But I’ll take it.
First, I advise you to read or reread Thirteen before reading this. Also Graveyard Shift. Just so circumstances and events are fresh in your mind. I wish I’d known to reread them; it’s been a hot minute, and I was a bit lost until the narrative reminded me of things.
So not long after the events of Graveyard Shift, teenage Elwyn (we’re apparently not calling her Beep anymore) asks Donovan to drop everything and look after a woman named Dr. Lucia Maribal, or Sia for short (I assume that’s where “Sia” came from; the woman has several different names, which is apparently a requirement for characters in this series). The doc, who is the self-designated primary for Elwyn’s band of misfits—and no, we haven’t met her yet, stop wracking your brain to remember who she is like I did through the first chapter—is acting “distraught” suddenly, and on Elwyn’s whim Donovan abandons his life and business to stalk the doc and try to figure out what’s up with her.
It was an okay little story. Again, while I liked Donovan and the bikers, I didn’t particularly care about them, so this doesn’t have a huge impact on me. Sia and Donovan’s relationship was way too underdeveloped for me to believe they fell in love, more so that Donovan was already in love with Sia, but it’s of little consequence. The mystery subplot was rather self-derivative, felt a little been-there-done-that, and the villain was pretty easy to defeat (though it was entertaining to imagine ;).
But, if you’re just looking for a shot of Charley to get you through this long-ass wait for Beep’s—excuse me, Elwyn’s—trilogy, then, like me, you’ll probably find this novella was satisfying enough.
The end result of the climax, as pertains to Donovan, was incredibly satisfying, and a long time coming.
(P.S., ignore faulty story-logic, such as that the doc, as guileless as the day is long, likely visited the compound more than once, and not one of the supposedly super-observant people living there ever noticed she could see paranormal entities, such as all the poochies.)
Darynda hasn’t had a Facebook Live session to update us in a loooong time (not that she’s accountable to us), so I have no idea what’s next in the Charley world. I’ve heard nothing more about the cookbook or Cookie and Bob novella (though she was working on a novella while at a hotel on July 9, so maybe . . . ?). I hope we’ll get the first book of Osh and Elwyn in 2023, but 2024 wouldn’t surprise me. Otherwise there’s the third and final Sunshine this December, and Darynda’s still dinking around with that second Betwixt trilogy, which was originally supposed to be completed this fall but which hasn’t even begun yet. Thanks to life, I imagine.
Overall . . . I miss Osh. Like, bad.
Great review. I loved this series, but it’s also been a while since I read the books.