Review--Early to Death, Early to Rise

SEVENTEEN, DEAD, AND IN CHARGE OF HEAVEN'S DARK ANGELS--ALL ITCHING TO KILL SOMEONE.

Madison Avery's dreams of ever fitting in at her new school died when she did. Especially since she was able to maintain the illusion of a body, deal with a pesky guardian angel, and oh yeah, bring the reaper who killed her to his untimely end. Not exactly in-crowd material. It's amazing that her crush, Josh, doesn't think she's totally nuts.

Now Madison has learned that she's the dark timekeeper, in charge of angels who follow the murky guidelines of fate. Never one to abide by the rules, she decides it's time for a major change to the system. With the help of some unlikely allies, Madison forms a rogue group of reapers who definitely don't adhere to the riles of the heavens.

But as she grapples with the terrifying new skills that come with being a timekeeper, Madison realizes she may not be prepared for what lies ahead--unless she gets some seriously divine intervention.

Wow, I actually managed to read this in under 4 hours straight! I have to get to work soon but I think I have enough time for this review.

Early to Death, Early to Rise, is Kim Harrison's second novel in her YA series starring Madison Avery, the dark timekeeper as the cover flap described.

I cannot remember much from the first book since it's been a year already, but I recalled bits and pieces and I can say I was only mildly satisfied with this book. The writing was still awesome and the plot was pretty decent, maybe I just read through it too fast, but it seemed like not enough happened in the 200+ pages.

First off we don't get to see much of Josh and Madison. Really the whole book takes place in a day. One long day, the first day of school. And Madison is determined to stop a chaotic event from happening and preventing the death/execution of a hacker.

Someone is going to set off a virus into the hospital's computer system that will cause the deaths of some patients. Madison wants to prevent this from happening for the obvious reasons but also she wants to save the hacker from choosing this lifestyle otherwise they might have to be killed. Her motley crew wants to end it the easy way with a quick smiting, but Madison is persistent in saving this unknown person.

So she does what any normal teenage reaper does, she ditches the first day of school to go track this person down. Which is part is where Josh is put off to the side. Again, the book was just 1 long day, so it wasn't horrible not seeing Josh for so long, but he is her obvious love interest and yet he was only there for a few pages.

Madison also has strange new developments in her powers that may or may not be a good thing. They are weird, as are the majority of her powers/talents and she doesn't know what to make of them. Neither do Barnabas or Nakita.

It may be that since this is a YA, there isn't supposed to be a lot of development or something. I don't know. I liked Once Dead, Twice Shy, but for some reason I just expected that same edge in Early to Death, Early to Rise.

Again, not saying the book was bad, it was good. I just wished more could have happened. So if you read Once Dead, Twice Shy and have yet to buy this book, I would suggest waiting for the paperback or try going to the library. While I enjoyed it again, it just wasn't as satisfying as I would have hoped.

Now I have to get ready for work. Ugh...