Name: Liz Carpenter's review of Grave Reservations by Cherie Priest
Item: Grave Reservations
Rating: 3
Author: Liz Carpenter

Cherie Priest

A psychic travel agent and a Seattle PD detective solve a murder in this quirky mystery in the vein of Lisa Lutz’s The Spellman Files and Charlaine Harris’s Aurora Teagarden series. Meet Leda Foley: devoted friend, struggling travel agent, and inconsistent psychic. When Leda, sole proprietor of Foley's Flights of Fancy, impulsively re-books Seattle PD detective Grady Merritt’s flight, her life changes in ways she couldn’t have predicted. After watching his original plane blow up from the safety of the airport, Grady realizes that Leda’s special abilities could help him with a cold case he just can’t crack. Despite her scattershot premonitions, she agrees for a secret reason: her fiancé’s murder remains unsolved. Leda’s psychic abilities couldn’t help the case several years before, but she's been honing her skills and drawing a crowd at her favorite bar's open-mic nights, where she performs Klairvoyant Karaoke—singing whatever song comes to mind when she holds people’s personal effects. Now joined by a rag-tag group of bar patrons and pals alike, Leda and Grady set out to catch a killer—and learn how the two cases that haunt them have more in common than they ever suspected.

A Novel

Grave Reservations

Liz Carpenter

Enjoyable, interesting premise, but ultimately too chaotic with too little actual character-building or humor to make it a compelling read. 

Kate B-L

Lacey Feigl

Leda has always had a sixth sense in the form of premonitions. When she accidentally saves the life of a police officer by using her talent, he asks for her help. He’ll pay her to look at an older unsolved case with the hope that she’ll be able to have a premonition that will help him find the killer. As Leda sees more about the suspect the more she puts herself and those she loves in danger.

Grave Reservations is 289 pages long and took me five days to read.

I realllllllly hope this becomes a series because Leda is absolutely delightful. I’m giving this book a 4 out of 5!

Thank you, Atria Books, for sending me this copy!

Here’s to the adventure of finding a novel novel!

Lacey

Marisa Aurigemma

3.5!

I really liked the plot and concept of this book. I enjoyed the characters, but none of them really had any depth to them. Just surface level qualities. I saw that this is going to become a possible series (another book coming out this year) so I think I will give it a shot. I didn’t dislike it enough to never read anything like it again. I guess I’ll see if the second book will be a lot better or the same in November!

Lynn Braden

When travel agent, Leda Foley rebooks Seattle PD officer, Grady Merritt on a different flight from Florida back to Seattle, he thinks she's bonkers until the flight he was supposed to take crashes on the runway in a ball of fire.  He realizes from what she said to him on the phone that she must be at least a little psychic and asks her to help him solve a cold case that has been bothering him for months.  Leda sees this as an opportunity to not only help to solve a crime, but maybe in the process, she can get Grady to look into the murder of her fiance.  As she builds her skills as a psychic and investigates with Grady, she finds more than she bargained for and may just be putting herself and the lives of her many unique friends in danger.

Grave Reservations is a fairly predictable mystery with a few twists and turns thrown in along the way.  We get a well developed picture of Leda as a clumsy psychic that has been deeply hurt in the past and is just now working through those feelings.  The other quirky characters in the story are not as completely fleshed out but show promise if they continue to appear in future books in this series.  Overall, Grave Reservations is a light, easy to read mystery that can easily be read in one sitting. 

Taylor Sedona

Thank you to Artria Books & NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of Grave Reservations by Cherie Priest in exchange for my honest review.


To say that I was excited and felt lucky to be approved for Grave Reservations is an understatment. While I had never read anything by Cherie Priest, everything about this book, from the title, to the perfect cover, to the description, drew me in. Thankfully I was not disappointed. 

The perfect mixture of a mystery and a cozy mystery Grave Reservations follows Leda, a not so reliable or proficient physic, who is trying to make it as a travel agent. What better way to secure business than by stopping your client from getting on a plan that explodes on take off? Detective Grady Merritt knows that it was more than just good service that saved him, and he's ready to become a repeat customer. Grave Reservations perfectly shows what could happen when a physic and a detective partner up to solve a cold case or two.

The characters and atmosphere are both strong contributors to what made this book so strong and enjoyable. Leda and her cast of eccentric but lovely, bar dwelling friends are the perfect balance to widowed Grady and his younger daughter. You come to care for the characters and their goals, while enjoying the perfect atmosphere of Castaways Bar and all the magic it can hold. Klairvoyant karaoke was such a fun concept, and even had me tearing up a bit. Priest's side characters are also extremely strong and enjoyable which is really something that elevates a book for me. 

Priest's writing style was very strong, and easy to jump into, as she enjoyably wove together, mystery and intrigue, but also emotional connection and a lot of depth in Leda's backstory. The plot was easy to follow, while also building in pressure really well throughout the book. I really enjoyed the way that Leda's physic flashes and break throughs were intertwined with the actual detective work being done.

However I do think Grave Reservations could have benefited from an extra chapter or two to more neatly tie up the story. I hope that this is the first installment in a series or else I will be slightly disappointed in the rushed and open ending. I look forward to reading more that Priest writes either way. 

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I would recommend it to anyone looking to take a break from heavy mysteries. It was funny, smart, intriguing and kept me hooked until the very. I give this 4.5/5 stars.

Liz Carpenter &
Grave Reservations by Cherie Priest

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Liz Carpenter &
Grave Reservations by Cherie Priest