Trying to Live with the Dead
Author: B.L Brunnemer
Series: The Veil Diaries #1
Genre: Reverse Harem, Paranormal, Fantasy, YA, Romance
Format: Audiobook
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Hi, I’m Alexis Delaney. I’m your average 17-year-old girl. Except I can see the dead. And talk to the dead. And push them away and, well, help them move on. So..okay, I’m not your average 17-year-old girl. For years I’ve been struggling to survive the souls still roaming around. The shitheads always seem to find me. Moving from town to town every few months never helped either. More dead just always find me. But things are changing for me now. I’m moving in with my uncle Rory and cousin Tara. I’m finally going to be able to do normal teenage stuff I’ve been missing out on. Right? Well, if this one bitch of a ghost could leave me alone on campus that would be great. Especially since I haven’t told my new friends about my abilities. Can you believe this? Five good looking guys practically adopt me on my first day of school, and I still think they’re a bit nuts for it. Now if I can only just keep my life with the dead from mixing with my normal life, everything would be great. Yeah...I don’t see that happening either. But I’m going to give it a shot. Who knows? It might work.
my review
I received a free copy for an honest review.
Trying to Live with the Dead is a huge victory for me as a reader, because of it for once, was not a disappointment despite being so different from what I am originally used to. For those who are not aware, one of my all-time favorite tropes (especially with romances, relationships, and reverse harem) is a hate-love relationship. I love the combination of a good true slow-burn mixed with some hate. For me, that’s a formula for a romance to go crazy for. I did my research well for this book. I made absolutely sure that this book was a true slow burn. Although I did have my suspicions that this would be different…it still surprised the heck out of me. I love enemies to lovers, so I am not used to friends to lovers at all. Imagine my surprise when I realized that this book would be the latter instead of the former. However, one thing that would make me strongly recommend it to all readers is its slow burn. It’s so hard (and it really shouldn't be) to find a series where the author truly took their sweet-American time in building a good romance. Now, I appreciate that, but then you’ve to go that authors who went a little bit overboard *cough* Chris Cannon *cough* and ended up only having the “true” trope being a couple to like, 4 chapters of the laster book (I mean, like, are you kidding me). This author not only took her time, but also did it because she know she would continue the series for a very long length, so there would be plenty of time where our OTP(s) spend time together as true couples just as much as when their relationships were developing, which I cannot express my appreciation for. Another thing that surprised me (in a good way) is Alexus herself. Alexus is the epidemy of a (too) empathetic protagonist, but somehow…for the first time ever, it didn’t make me hate her. I don’t know if I’ts because she didn’t let this empathy get her to do ridiculously idiotic decisions (it probably is because of this) or her not-too-overboard with, or her (all-too) relatively obsessive nerdy and tom-boy side despite also being…not a tomboy. The guys were also…I liked them. I liked them. And they are not bad-boys, leaders, or jerks from a hate-love relationship. Those who don’t know me that well as a reader would have no idea how big of a deal this is for me. I liked them. AND THERE was NO HATE-LOVE RELATIONSHIP. This just proves why authors should do this kind of true slow burn more. They make any romance trope worth it. So far, the book didn’t’ seem to me to have the problem I see a lot of reviewers discussed in further books of not prioritizing the “supernatural” aspect of the book (in other words, the fantasy part being too replaceable). I saw a lot of development here, especially regarding her powers. But this book still had the typical…b-word the girl that we see I every book with teenagers ever. No offense, but those people should get themselves fertilized because of how toxic they are and how many there are in the world. That kind of people *cough* Jessica *cough* is actually wasting the resources of this earth by being alive. Even when this book had the typically bully-is-not-going-to-be-bully-because-we’ve-got-a-protagonist story-line, I did get the sense it’s not too overboard. So be careful B.L Brunnemer, don’t make it too important in the story, we have enough of that in YA literature. Just focus this on Lexie, her guys, her life, and her powers, alright? To sum up my reaction to this book:
I have to say, I am very, very impressed *thumbs-up*. My Rating: 4.7/5
about the author
B.L. Brunnemer has been a devoted reader since she was young. As a child, she was instantly attracted to horror stories. The plot, the suspense, the action. She loved it all. Which, as she grew, branched out into several other genres. But a strong female character always caught her eye. Through the years romance became a big part of her reading. Then she found the Young Adult/New Adult genre. But she had a problem. She never found the romance between most characters to be realistic enough for her. At least in the paranormal romance section. So, she decided to fix that. She'd been writing for years already and had always struggled to finish a manuscript. Until, she decided to write what she wanted to read. B.L. Brunnemer doesn't have any other publications at this time. She's just a woman, who loves a good story with great characters. And she hopes you'll love them too.
