Gone to Dust

If you were dead, could you deal with it?

Okay, these super-trained men are not really dead, however they died in the eyes of the world, and there cross-over was brutal, that is, the leaving and returning to the living. They are now employees at Last Stop Mortuary, a cover for what their purpose really is. They are men who are top, or were, in their chosen careers, now using some really super technology to oust the men bent on destroying the world. The gravediggers operate as an elite team, working to fight terrorism.

So how does Miller Darling, a romance novelist, always on deadline (sound familiar, you writers?) hook up with these characters? The whole town is ogling the men who have been hired at the Last Stop Mortuary. Even the name of the town, coupled with the word, mortuary, gets me laughing and I managed to laugh all the way through except when I was on pins and needles--plenty of action and suspense!

There are scenes full of deep mirth and some very outrageous dialogue. One particular one has UPS ring Miller’s doorbell. She’s got a sign on her front door ‘Do Not Disturb’. Unfortunately, the deliverer needs a signature. Miller has been writing non-stop for three days, looks and probably smells like hell. She is right in the middle of writing an exquisite love scene, in tune with the total experience. Her novel’s characters are King Solomon and Queen Sheba. Here’s a small excerpt that just cracked me up!

She took his hand and kissed it softly, and then she joined him on the bed, sliding the sheet from his body and moving over him, so she was poised to take him into her. Their hands clasped and their gazes met, and he knew this would be a spiritual experience, that they would truly meld—mind, body, and soul—with their union.

His jaw clenched and sweat beaded on his skin as her heat enveloped him. And then her head fell back with a moan as she sank down on him. The world spun away as pleasure unlike he’d ever known surrounded him.

His vision dimmed and the incessant chime of a doorbell rang in his ears.

“A doorbell?” Miller Darling said, shaking herself out of the scene she’d been writing. “What the hell?”
She snarled and her head snapped up at the interruption. She was going to kill someone. No jury would convict her. The sign on the front door clearly said, “Do Not Disturb.”

Her ensuing temper lashed at the poor UPS man. Hysterical reading—a bit more excerpt:

“I don’t care if you’re delivering gold bullion or the electric pencil sharpener I ordered three months ago and never received. The sign says ‘Do Not Disturb.’ Do you know how long it’s going to take me to get back in the mood?”

His eyebrows raised and his mouth opened and closed a couple of times. “No?” he said, phrasing it like a question. He was starting to look scared. Good.

“That’s right. You don’t know, she said. “Lovemaking like that can’t just be performed on a whim. It takes preparation and the right frame of mind. I had the candles lit and the music playing, and she was about to ride him like a stallion. You’ve set me back hours at least. How would you lie it is someone kept ringing the doorbell right before you were about to have an orgasm?”

Hysterical, right? This type of book can either be offensive or just a riot to read, depending on the sensibilities of the reader. The whole town is a little bit off kilter, but charming and endearing.

Elias Cole, one of the men working for the mortuary is not only ogled by the town women, but he’s ogling Miller. As outrageous as she is, she’s just the sort of woman he needs. Elias has denied himself any permanent relationship, since his life is nothing he can offer a woman. The chemistry between the two of them is explosive. Elias has the control of just walking away, driving the hot-tempered, spit-fire writer crazy! She's tempted to write him into a story and knock him off!

Justin, Miller’s brother, considerably older than she is has been out of her life for a long time. She receives a couple of letters a year from him. But things heat up when she receives his finger and ring in the package delivered by that UPS man. Who better to talk this over with, is her friend Tess, who she tells everything. In book one, Tess married one of the ‘dead’ men, so she has connections to aid Miller to find her brother, but Miller doesn't know about Tess's secret new life.

One thing Miller believes in, is family. She's ready to go find her brother, with or without help.
You’ll want to indulge in this series, the whole thing, because the plot is unique, the humor is snarky, Tess and Miller, friends since childhood, will entertain and warm your heart. The men are brave with brawn and do what's right, not necessarily what they're told to do!

Book three, here I come!

Miller is a romance writer who is beautiful., eccentric, and a little crazy. Her brother was a SEAL but now he is out searching for Solamon's treasure. She gets a package in the mail with a finger and ring. She knows the ring was her brother's because it is passed down from father to son for generations. She runs to her best friend Tess, the mortician, and shows it to her. There was a letter from a drug cartel that wants her to bring the ring and her brother's letters or he's dead.

Elias is a dead man walking. He was a former SEAL but now he is one of the GRAVEDIGGERS. An elite ops group that fights terrorism and works in the funeral home. He has been attracted to Miller since he first saw her but his life is not his own and he wants revenge on the person who had him killed and brought back.

When Miller is almost kidnapped, the team saves her and Tess in the nick of time. Now she knows about them and their operation. She plans to meet the drug leader to get her brother back but the team can't let her go alone, so Elias is assigned to go with her. Against the orders of Eve, the woman who made them who they are and their boss. They are now on a race to save her brother and stay a step ahead of the cartel.

I absolutely loved this story. It's funny with some sexual tension, bad guys, a treasure and two people who can't stop the attraction between them. I could not put this story down. It'll will keep you turning the page till the very end.

*received a copy from netgalley *