Early to Death, Early to Rise

Book 33 of my 2020 Reading Challenge

read from April 19 - 25

Early to Death, Early to Rise

by Kim Harrison

Book 2 of the Madison Avery series

Summary (via Goodreads)

published 2010

Madison Avery's dreams of ever fitting in at her new school died when she did. Especially since she was able to maintain the illusion of a body, deal with a pesky guardian angel, and oh yeah, bring the reaper who killed her to his untimely end. Not exactly in-crowd material. It's amazing that her crush, Josh, doesn't think she's totally nuts. 

Now Madison has learned that she's the dark timekeeper, in charge of angels who follow the murky guidelines of fate. Never one to abide by the rules, she decides it's time for a major change to the system. With the help of some unlikely allies, Madison forms a rogue group of reapers who definitely don't adhere to the rules of the heavens. 

But as she grapples with the terrifying new skills that come with being a timekeeper, Madison realizes she may not be prepared for what lies ahead —unless she gets some seriously divine intervention.

My Opinion

4 stars

You MUST read the first book (Once Dead, Twice Shy) before reading this because there is no recap and the story jumps right in where we left off.  I'm glad I read the first one recently and will look into getting the third one ASAP.

I lose myself quickly so it's a great distraction but that doesn't mean I loved it.  It relied too much on what I call the "Dan Brown effect"...it looks like a character is backed into a corner but turn the page and a brand-new character conveniently shows up to save the day.  The new characters convoluted the story a bit and took away from what I was looking forward to the most from the end of the first book (3 characters going to school in a fish-out-of-water situation).

The review is coming across more negatively than I felt about it.  I think it's because when I was enjoying it I was absorbed and not taking notes so the only things I jotted down were things that took me out of the story.  All in all, I'd recommend it to a YA audience or even a higher juvenile fiction reader; there is no swearing other than maybe a "damn", the fight scenes don't have graphic violence, and there is no sex.