Rating: 5 stars (Spotlight Review)
A Calliope Reaper-Jones novel …
When a bite of a magic vegan chocolate cupcake brings Calliope’s memory rushing back, she wants nothing more than to cast another Forgetting Charm on herself and to go back to her ‘normal’ life as a struggling fashionista in the home and garden magazine industry. Her father’s executive assistant, Jarvis, has other ideas. He’s been commanded to bring her back to her mother, and she can’t appeal his decision to her father, for he has been kidnapped.
Against her wishes Calliope is, quite literally, hauled back to hell and back into the world she ran away from three years ago. As Death’s only surviving and/or and non-kidnapped offspring of legal age, only she can save her family from certain death/eviction/loss of immortality by taking up the leadership of Death, Inc.
There is no simple ‘slipping’ into position, however, or signing on the dotted line. The Devil’s Protégé attempts to foil her at every turn, as he wants the position of Death for his own. And little did Calliope know when she agreed to step into her father’s shoes that she was signing up for three trials, assigned to her by three gods!
Absolutely riveting. I read this twice in two weeks.
Benson creates unforgettable characters. I loved the faun Jarvis: everything from his Fran Drescher attitude to the little touches like a child noticing his hooves in a coffee shop and how he reacted. The Devil’s Protégé’s overwhelming male ego comes across in every action and interaction, just as it should.
And that’s just the supporting cast! The reluctant Death’s daughter is a world unto herself. Ever-changing, she keeps you on your feet, and drags you enthusiastically through her adventures as she blunders and bluffs her way through her reluctant reign. I’m really looking forward to what Benson comes up with next.
A very multi-talented woman, fans of Buffy know Benson as Tara: she’s an author and actress, as well as directing and producing films. Death’s Daughter is her first solo novel. If you’d like to read some of her previous co-authored novels, try the Ghosts of Albion series with Christopher Golden. Wikipedia gives me hope for more Calliope Reaper-Jones novels, mentioning a three-book deal with Penguin Books, of which Death’s Daughter is supposedly the first.
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ISBN: 978-0-441-01694-5
Publication date March 2009, through Ace