Name: Dirt Nap
ISBN: 9781642471021

Carolyn Elizabeth

Will love survive when death hits close to home?

Dirt Nap

Izza

4.5 stars | this is such a great series with amazing characters! I need more.

Jude Silberfeld

This book is making me very happy! I was looking forward to it, and I’ve written not long ago about second novels sometimes being a little (or more) disappointing because they’re really hard on authors. Dirt Nap escaped that curse beautifully. It has everything I loved in Gallows Humor, only better.

First of all, it is not a standalone and you should definitely start with Gallows Humor. I’ll try not to spoil that one too much – it’s a mystery/romance and both MCs’ names are in the series title so you already know they’re going to end up together, and alive.

Autopsy maestra Corey Curtis is being farmed out to her former mentor, forensic anthropologist Amanda Marsh, to retrieve a decomposing body underneath a house. The crime scene is right on the opposite side of the lake from Dr Thayer Reynolds’ home, where Corey is spending more and more. Corey’s injuries from the fall she took in Gallows Humor (I’m still trying not to spoil, you’re not making it easy, Carolyn Elizabeth…) have left her with debilitating migraines and muscles spams, and the fanciest yellow glasses. She’s so relieved to be rid of the cast on her arm that nothing else really matters right now, except how much she loves Thayer. And then there’s that thing with the corpse I mentioned above.

You know me, Star Wars nerd, so I was already giddy by the second or third page, I was all “Ha! Classic Han Solo move there, Thayer!”, which was confirmed when I turned the page. Carolyn Elizabeth’s sense of humour and love of pop culture work so well for me, it’s like candy.

Everything worked for me here, actually, not just the funny stuff. The thriller was gruesome and thrilling, the romance romantic.

I love that all the most important characters are flawed and make mistakes but they’re all good people (IRL I’d say their heart is in the right place) and that’s why they like one another. I’d like them too, whether it’s Corey, Thayer, Rachel, Collier, Steph (she’s a newcomer, Collier’s partner), Cinnamon (who calls their kid Cinnamon? It seems to suit her though, I wish we’d see more of her), Lilian… I love the unlikely friendship Corey and Collier share, my heart broke for them at some point, but I have hopes for their future. And I love love love Corey and Thayer, as individuals and together.

One of the things that amaze me the most about this book (it was also true for Gallows Humor) is the brilliant way the author mixes romance and the grisly aspects of the mystery side. Honestly, there were paragraphs detailing the state of the corpse found at the beginning of the story that I wish I had not had to read – they were necessary, nothing gratuitous or complacent – so this is not a light read by any means. Yet at the same time, there’s more romance and heartwarming instances (and sexy scenes) than in some romance novels I have read.

This second book confirms Carolyn Elizabeth’s talent, and her third book can’t come soon enough. I’m hopping up and down with impatience already. Lucky for me, I have a huge TBR list to keep me busy in the meantime…

I received a copy from the publisher and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

Though still suffering side effects from the injuries she sustained in a serious fall, Corey Curtis is off restricted duty and back at work in the morgue. Within hours of cutting the cast off her arm with a bone saw she’s asked by her former mentor to assist on a body recovery. Now she’s elbow deep in decomposing human remains and a suspicious death that hits far too close to home. Just when her relationship with Dr. Thayer Reynolds has reached a new milestone, the new case tests Corey’s limits while Thayer struggles with a difficult situation at work. Corey’s impulsive nature has her hurtling down an all too familiar road with trouble around every corner. The only thing keeping the wheels from totally coming off is Thayer’s unwavering love and support. But when the investigation comes full circle, everyone is caught off guard…threatening a most unhappy ending. Picking up minutes from the end of Gallows Humor, Dirt Nap is the second Corey Curtis and Thayer Reynolds romantic thriller.

Thayer and Corey are one of my favourite couples and that probably explains why I think of Carolyn Elizabeth’s books as mostly happy.

Even though this one begins with a reminder of Corey’s injuries from Gallows Humor and a grisly crime scene and is full of gory and crawly details. I just love the relationship between the two women and I love Lori Prince’s voices for them. I’m not as convinced with her men’s voices in this book, but I didn’t really mind. And my heart totally melted each time Thayer talked to Corey, even more than in the first audiobook.

As I wrote in my review when this book came out last January, this is exactly what I hope from a sequel: it’s like the first book in the series, only better. And the audio was just as good.

Dirt Nap

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