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The Graveside Bar and Grill
by
Darynda Jones
urban fantasy in a Kindle edition that was published by 1001 Dark Nights Press on August 23, 2022 and has 118 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include First Grave on the Right, Second Grave on the Left, Third Grave Dead Ahead, "For I Have Sinned", Fourth Grave Beneath My Feet, Death and the Girl Next Door, Fifth Grave Past the Light, Sixth Grave on the Edge, Seventh Grave and No Body, Eighth Grave After Dark, The Dirt on Ninth Grave, The Curse of Tenth Grave, Eleventh Grave in Moonlight, The Trouble with Twelfth Grave, Summoned to Thirteenth Grave, A Good Day for Chardonnay, "Grave Robber"
This novella, 13.7 in the Charley Davidson urban fantasy series set in New Mexico, began with Charley and has spun-off to her and Farrow’s daughter, Elwyn Alexandra Loehr. The couple focus is on Sia and Donovan St James.
My Take
I do love those epigraphs at the start of Davidson’s chapters. And I want some of those on T-shirts!
Well, the start certainly has caused “us” to travel far and wide. Elwyn got lost on one of her wanderings, as a five-year-old, and returned as a teenager. She, um, was gone for three days, earth-time. And now she’s back, only Jones is using third person dual protagonist points-of-view from Donovan’s and Sia’s perspectives. Elwyn is very much in the background.
Donovan cracks me up when he describes giving five-year-old Elwyn coffee because it’s the only thing that calms her down.
That scene in the bar when Reyes is flirting with a couple of ladies was too funny. It makes me want to go back and start the series all over again. The weird bit is who the Brazilian girl really loves.
It’s an interesting concept of Zhou and her people being elemental spiritual remnants. Makes me wonder if Jones is on drugs. I also gotta wonder why Jones didn’t make this story more dramatic with the “adventures” of the others of Sia’s family, besides Benji.
I’d say it’s more action-packed, although the characters are interesting in that we learn what some of the core characters have been doing. It’s interesting enough that I only superficially questioned some of what was going on, until I started to think (yeah, who knew I could do that!):
- If they take over a dying body and its memories, wouldn’t they “be” that person?
- Why does Sia use “Sia” as her human name?
- Considering the centuries Zhou/Sia spent imprisoned by Kursch, you’d think she’d be more aware of his tricks.
- As for needing to find new bodies? I can understand why one of them probably has to, but why all the rest?
The Story
Sigh . . . Sia is in lust with Donovan . . . damn human hormones. But when Benji calls in panic, Sia must run. She can’t let Kursch find Elwyn — she’d be a feast for him!
Only Elwyn has tasked Donovan with keeping her safe.
The Characters
The incorporeal Zhou, a.k.a. Sia and Mocha Cappucino, is a ka-zhouah, (the wraiths from Summoned to Thirteenth Grave, 13) who took on the dying Dr Lucia “Sia”?? Mirabal and her memories. A doctor who takes care of Elwyn’s “merry band of misfits” and claims to have gone to school with Charley.
Her “family” of the past twelve centuries is mostly trapped in the Void. Five of them escaped and spread throughout the world. The five includes Benji, who found a loving family, the Hendersons and their two daughters who think “Benji” hung the moon and another who’s inhabiting a pastry chef, Pamela Dubois, in Asheville.
Donovan St James (he has a son) had been part of the Bandits, a motorcycle club, until he became one of Elwyn’s protectors. Now he runs the Graveside Bar and Grill, a biker den. Fellow Bandits include Michael, who is the bouncer, a biker with shady ties to the mafia, and Eric, who is the server.
The Merry Band of Misfits, a.k.a. Team Beep
Garret Swopes, a bounty hunter, is their leader and Elwyn’s primary guardian. He’s recently started up a relationship again with Marika (“The Graveyard Shift“, 13.5); they share custody of their son. Artemis, Donovan’s beloved dog before she became a ghost, is a Rottweiler who had been protecting Charley and now protects Elwyn. King Henry VIII is one of the Twelve, twelve hellhounds who also protect Elwyn.
A god destined to save humanity, Elwyn Alexandra Loehr, a.k.a. Teacup, Beep, is the suddenly teenaged daughter of Charley Davidson, a.k.a. Elle-Ryn-Ahleethis, the Grim Reaper who is also a god, and who is married to Dr “Reyes” Alexander Farrow, who is the son of Satan and brother to Jehovah, and became human for Charley. Charley is a fill-in bartender for Donovan, although she and Reyes are filthy rich . . . and own Elwyn’s favorite coffee shop. The Loehrs are the family Farrow had been meant to be raised by. Now they’re raising Elwyn.
Kursch is a soul-eater who manipulates minds and who had captured Zhou, Benji, and company when he destroyed their world. He’s been keeping them in a different dimensional plane, a.k.a. the Void and Marmalade (Summoned to Thirteenth Grave). “Farmer Jane” is a zombie.
Background info
The ka-zhouahs are spiritual elementals whose world was destroyed by Kursch.
Charley and Reyes had focused all their life energies on creating a haven for their daughter and have been existing in the heavens, keeping an eye on her (Summoned to Thirteenth Grave). Shade demons possess the bodies of the mentally ill and cause them to be violent.
The Cover and Title
The background of the cover is black with golden orange filigrees gradating up to medium royal blue filigrees, reflecting the colors used in the publisher’s / series’ name in a gradating blue to black and back again. Donovan’s tattooed hands, his iron bracelet, and his skull ring are coming through the zeroes in “1001”. Below that is the title and series info in turquoise. Below that is an info blurb in the golden orange as is the author’s name immediately below it.
The title is where it all begins, at The Graveside Bar and Grill.
