Review--Grave Memory by Kalayna Price

When the dead need to talk, Alex Craft is always ready to listen…

As a Grave Witch, Alex solves murders by raising the dead—an ability that comes at a cost, and after her last few cases, that cost is compounding. But her magic isn’t the only thing causing havoc in her life. While she’s always been on friendly terms with Death himself, things have recently become a whole lot more close and personal. Then there’s her sometime partner, agent Falin Andrews, who is under the glamour of the Winter Queen. To top everything off, her best friend has been forever changed by her time spent captive in Faerie.

But the personal takes a backseat to the professional when a mysterious suicide occurs in Nekros City and Alex is hired to investigate. The shade she raises has no memory of the days leading up to his brutal ending, so despite the very public apparent suicide, this is murder. But what kind of magic can overcome the human will to survive? And why does the shade lack the memory of his death? Searching for the answer might mean Alex won’t have a life to remember at all…

So I finally finished Kalayna Price's Grave Memory, just months before the release of the next one, Grave Visions on November 30th. Going into this one wasn't easy, since I haven't read the last one in forever. Seriously, I can't remember when I read it last and all the books in between that time...shudders.

But still, it was a fantabulusly great read! Luckily, the bits that needed recalling are mentioning in moments with Alex remembering this or that. I definitely remember her love life predicament. Loving both Death and Falin--two men she can't have, because one, Death has his own full time job that comes with rules and restrictions as to what he can do with "free time" and two, Falin is under the control of the Winter Queen. The only way Alex can be with Falin is if she submits to the Winter Queen's rule since she has Fae in her blood. She has yet to choose a "kingdom" to be apart of yet, and her time is running out.

Alex is getting herself back onto her feet after the battles she has already faced in the last two books. She and her newly reacquainted friend, Rianna, are setting up their own PI business. And their first case kind of falls into their laps unexpectedly. Or at least onto a car they pass while walking down the street. Yeah, it's that odd. A man apparently committed suicide by leaping off a nearby building and landing on top of a car. Dead, naturally. But when his soul rises from his body, Alex learns a thing or two from him. The most pressing being that he doesn't remember anything from the last three days before he took the fatal plunge.

When his widow comes to her and agrees to hire her, Alex is on the case. She soon discovers that a menacing ghoul is behind the suicides and it's creating more ghouls by proxy. And when someone close to Alex is infected and has mere days to live or else be turned into a ghoul themselves, Alex will do anything and everything to take down the first and "prime" ghoul.

Since my memory of the last book is practically nonexistent, it was a bit of challenge getting back into the swing of things here. I only got scattered recollections back as I read further along. But one of the more pressing long-term problems of the storyline is definitely Alex's love life! I can't remember who I was rooting for. First there's Falin, someone who Alex already had an intimate moment with previously and who she feels strongly for. But standing in their way of happiness is the Winter Queen and basically what she says goes, for Falin. So there's one wedge between one possible relationship. 

Then there's Death, and that itself already has the obvious wedge. But he's definitely a strong contender for Alex's heart. The main reason being that he's there for Alex even when he is forbidden to be so. I know I was all for both men, possibly less for Falin in the last book, but I was definitely liking Death all the more in this one. Still wished he had another name besides Death, but oh well!

This was definitely an action packed kind of read, because you think the case is simple. Try to find out what happened to this person and how he died. And then it leads to more previous deaths and more deaths to come! A whirlwind of suspense, I tell you! And then comes the time limit on the person Alex cares for and that adds a boatload of tension to the pacing!

All in all, a wonderful read! And the ending? Spectacular! There's a bit of cliffhanger, not really a jaw-dropping one, but more like one that goes "What the freak?" Shocking and surprising are the words to use I guess! Luckily there's just two and a half months til the next one! Yay for delayed reading! Okay, maybe not so because it definitely makes it harder to remember past events!

Kalayna Price is definitely a favorite author of mine! It was her other series, Novels of Haven that were one of my very first review books! So I am desperately eager for the third one in that series to release! But in the meantime I can enjoy her Alex Craft novels! I highly recommend these as they are fabulous Urban Fantasy novels in an open world where everyone knows of magic's existence to some extent. Knowing all its depths is another story!


Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars