The Grim Assistant (Tales from the Grim #1) by Jodi Hutchins

The Grim Assistant by Jodi Hutchins

My Rating: ★★★

I received a copy from NineStar Press through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Samantha spends her early mornings surfing and the rest of the day delivering mail. The rest of her time is spent pining over her friend, Lauren, and supporting her sister while she goes through a bad divorce. Life is as simple as it can get when there’s drama surrounding a divorce until Sam drowns while she’s out surfing one early morning. Waking up in the space between life and death, Sam is given a choice by a Grim Reaper: stay dead and move on to wherever her spirit is meant to go or return to life. She chooses life, but there’s a catch to this deal. Sam must aid the Grim Reaper, Margo, in ushering difficult spirits onto the next phase of the afterlife.

Told in narrating perspectives, we follow Sam and Lauren through their lives. I think the story would’ve been better if it was either told with a single narrator or in the third person. It’s not that the first person is bad, because it isn’t, but Sam and Lauren have the same exact voice. If the shift in narrators didn’t clarify who was speaking, it would’ve been confusing until I saw the setting.

I did struggle with telling some of the characters apart in the early chapters because they were so similar that I thought a few of them were the same person based on how they spoke and acted. I kept confusing Sam and Lauren’s best friend, Jackie, during Lauren’s perspective during the early chapters. On the plus side, the characters start coming into their voices around halfway through, but they did blend into one another for several chapters early on.

I thoroughly enjoyed the supernatural aspect of the book. I see books following Grim Reapers often, so it was exciting that they were at the forefront here. Sadly, we didn’t see too much in that world for much of the book since Margo was very tight lipped until later. Once things got rolling, I was fully absorbed in the story and excited to meet new characters and see more into the supernatural world.

I was a little sad when I got to the final chapter, but I think I’ll stick around and check out the next installment. Similar voices aside, it’s a nice, fluffy paranormal romance that’s mostly fun to read. I’m looking forward to seeing the characters continue to develop as well as see how Sam’s supernatural crash course continues to go.