Fastening the Grave

Kali James, Book 1

By: L.A. McBride

Narrated by: Maria McCann

Two things are impossible to walk away from: death and vintage clothing. Trust me. I've tried.

Moving across the country and opening a costume shop was supposed to be my chance for a normal life. What I wanted was a fresh start, one where the biggest danger would be a carelessly wielded sewing needle.

What I got was the ghost of a murdered reporter demanding justice, a power I can’t control, and a new goat-shifter BFF hell-bent on trouble.

Now, my hunt for the killer threatens to expose a supernatural community determined to safeguard its secrecy at any cost. My only chance to survive is to embrace the legacy I’ve spent my life running from.

Fastening the Grave is the first book in the Kali James series, featuring a reluctant necromancer who finds herself in a world of werewolves, vampires, and ghosts. If you like your urban fantasy with quirky characters, a side of supernatural mystery, and a dose of slow-burn romance, this is the book for you.

©2022 Lisa McBride (P)2023 Lisa McBride

Lovely writing

I really loved the quality of the writing in this. There were a few instances where I thought the author could easily pull off a more literary-style mystery if it suited her fancy.

The story itself (stakes and pacing) was somewhere between a standard paranormal mystery and a cozy mystery. I happen to like both genres quite a bit, but I’d gone into this expecting a UF-focused story and got something with a much slower pace. The end of the summary says, “If you like your urban fantasy with quirky characters [and] a side of supernatural mystery …” and I think the book is actually the reverse of that. It’s a paranormal mystery with a side of urban fantasy. There’s a lot of amateur sleuthing; she spends a lot of time chatting up suspects, sneaking into places she shouldn’t, and ferreting out clues. She’s basically a busybody (I say this with affection for the cozy genre) heroine who is nosing her way into a police investigation. If you go into this expecting an action-packed urban fantasy romp populated by supernatural creatures, you really won’t find much of that until 2/3s into the book. The goat shifter BFF mentioned in the summary? The main character doesn’t even know her friend is a shifter until the book is nearly over.

I’m not sure if this is all an issue of the book not starting in the right place, or if the book would have been fine as-is had it been packaged as a paranormal mystery instead of an urban fantasy.

Because I liked the writing style so much, I’ll keep an eye out for book 2. I’m hoping that since Kali is aware of the supernatural community by the end of the book, that the sequel will have more of the urban fantasy vibe I was hoping for with this one.

Pretty good

Story was good and I think the narrator did good too. It kept my interest enough that I didn’t stop the book all the way through

Don't waste money

I think the story line would have been good if you can get past the droning of the extremely boring voice of the narration