How to Save an Undead Life

Originally posted on Squirtoon's Bookish Blog

How to Save an Undead Life is the first book in the Beginner's Guide to Necromancy series. It drops us in to a world where magic, as well as vampires and necromancers, definitely exist. It was a good read, and one I didn't regret picking up at all. Especially since it was on Kindle Unlimited.

The first thing I'm going to mention is the characters. Grier, Boaz and Amelie were well-written to portray their personalities, as well as hints of their past.

Grier held her own as a main character. She had a good balance of damsel in distress and go away, I can help myself, which I was thankful for. A character that's just a damsel in distress all the time is annoying, but so is a character that's so badass she never needs help.

Boaz took a little time to grow on me as a character. At first, he struck me as possessive and somewhat over the top in his pursuit of Grier, but he grew on me. Especially when you meet a truly possessive character a little later on. His relationship with Grier is fleshed out more as the book continues, and it really redeemed him as a character for me.

The best part for me was the world being built here. We get a lot of information, about High Society, Low Society, Necromancers, Vampires and all sorts in between. The information was interesting, and there wasn't too much of it that I was overloaded. I've retained most of the information too, which is something I don't normally do with the books that dump too much on you at once. Thankfully, this wasn't that.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The ending let me down a little. It left it flat, and didn't necessarily encourage me to read on. In fact, the ending kind-of just appeared out of no where. One minute, she's helping fix a broken nose, the next minute, The End. It kind-of sprung up on me out of nowhere. I'm still planning to though, because I enjoyed the characters, and the world the author has presented.

Plenty of mystery to go around in this one! Grier has been recently released from the hell hole of a supernatural prison, where she was drugged into submission. Accused of killing her necromancer mentor Maud, she has no recollection of what happened the night she died. Armed with her zombie parakeet, a haunted house and the two best friends she had to leave behind, Grier struggles to readjust to the real world. I enjoyed the haunted house! She was one of my favorite characters. Giving life to an object is difficult, but Hailey Edwards did it tactfully, utilizing the parts of the house with skill. Now I could have done without all the sexual tension, I rolled my eyes every time her childhood crush dropped hints, but I know there are readers out there who enjoy it. To be honest I just skipped those parts. The story line itself was great. I'm hooked and want more.

Because I'm horrible at writing reviews quickly, this is a quick little bit for the series as a whole.

The first book didn't totally buy me in, but enough that I decided to keep reading and I'm so glad I did. The romance was something I was worried about, but it ended up being beautiful! It is so well done and so healthy. I adore how they are there for each other and work to help each other and are willing to work on their relationship issues together and do better in the future. They are such goals and oh so adorable.
There is so much real life in these books– things change, we all grow up differently or have to change our thinking.

I adored all the characters here and I'm so, so glad fun side characters weren't completely left behind. Grier is amazing. I love how she slowly works through her trauma and it doesn't just magically go away. Her fears are real, trauma happened, that kind of stuff doesn't just go away!

I will say I wish the process for throwing Grier into prison was expanded on more, I feel like that is the only loose end.

I'm so glad I gave this series a try after not liking one of her other ones. This is so worth the read and I'll be trying more books by this author in the future.