My name is Madison Avery, and I’m here to tell you that there’s more out there than you can see, hear, or touch. Because I’m there. Seeing it. Touching it. Living it.

Well, if she believed in that stuff.

Madison’s prom was killer—literally. For some reason she’s been targeted by a dark reaper—yeah, that kind of reaper—intent on getting rid of her, body and soul. But before the reaper could finish the job, Madison was able to snag his strange, glowing amulet and get away.

Now she’s stuck on Earth—dead but not gone. Somehow the amulet gives her the illusion of a body, allowing her to toe the line between life and death. She still doesn’t know why the dark reaper is after her, but she’s not about to just sit around and let fate take its course.

With a little ingenuity, some light-bending, and the help of a light reaper (one of the good guys! Maybe), her cute crush, and oh yeah, her guardian angel, Madison’s ready to take control of her own destiny once and for all, before it takes control of her.

As a fan of Kim Harrison’s Rachael Morgan series, as soon as I saw this book I picked it up. Once Dead, Twice Shy is Ms. Harrison’s first attempt at a teen fiction series and it was extremely well written!

The basic premise is, Madison Avery goes to prom and ends up finding out her prom date Josh, only took her because of a request by her father. She leaves with “Seth” who turns out to be a Reaper. The convertable they are riding in flips over and though Madison doesn’t die, Seth kills her…kinda.

In the morgue, Madison “wakes up” and gets into a fight with Seth and ends up taking his Amulet which basically keeps her substantial on earth. As she trys to find Seth and get her body back, she goes through all sorts of issues with her Guardian Angel Grace, Josh and Barnaby her Light Reaper Trainer.

It started out a little intense, alot of description about reapers & time-keepers, which I thought may be a little “deep” for anyone under 16.  But I loved the way Ms Harisson didn’t dumb the book down to appeal to younger readers, but wrote at a level as to gain new teen fans and keep her adult fans involved with this series.

5/5 Stars