Death Benefits Max Logan Series Book 1
Paranormal Romance
The Wild Rose Press
June 22, 2016
170
Max Logan's insecurities have consumed her to the point she has allowed them to skew her perceptions of people and circumstances. She has grown progressively more bitter, sarcastic, and solitary since her divorce and feels as though she has spent a lifetime getting the short end of the stick through no fault of her own; still she trudges on.
Things can always get better, right? Of course, it's hard to cultivate optimism when she finds herself dead, the victim of a D.I.E (Death in Error) caused by an overeager Grim Reaper in Training. She brokers a deal to be sent back to Earth as a temporary substitute for the Superintendent of Spiritual Impediment.
Can a girl who can't recognize her own problems rectify the issues of the living impaired? Or will she discover that concentrating on their issues gives her a new perspective on her own?
Reviewed by: Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Review Team
Thirty-five year old Maxine Logan, previously Maxine Logan McCoy, is divorced from her proctologist husband and living over her father’s garage. Of course, the fact that it is a five car garage means that her apartment is nothing to sneeze at. She has a half sister Denise and a stepmother. When her mom died and her father remarried her stepmom Gail, she resented her and made sure that Gail knew her feelings. Now divorced she has become reclusive, sarcastic and bitter. Everything is someone elses fault, never her’s.
In spite of her finding her husband with a woman in their favorite restaurant and his continuing words of denial, she feels she is right and he wronged her. So now her proctologist husband is in her words “a professional asshole.” Max has an opinion about everything and it usually is unkind. I cannot resist repeating some of the things that come out of her mouth, such as, “being the black sheep in the family isn’t so bad, after all black is slimming. “If it weren’t for mood swings, I’m not sure I would get any exercise at all.” The only household chore she loves more than laundry is standing on a chair in the living room and letting the ceiling fan whack her in the head repeatedly.” I do relate to some of the things she thinks.
After falling in the shower, she awakens to find herself in the Office of Central Processing. She is dead. It seems that her name is not in the data base because the Grim Reaper in training took her by accident. She is a Death in Error. Now she refuses to accept that she cannot go back and that she “died by soap.” So she accepts the position of temporary Superintendent of Spiritual Impediment, meaning she has to help those who have unfinished business and need to tie up loose ends.
With no training and just a book of instructions, a book with one written page that states “Life and death are much the same. Neither comes with an instruction manual.” she meets her first ghost who needs help. This position will eventually teach Max about herself, but for better or worse? Her sister and stepmom want her to be part of their lives and so does her ex-husband who seems to still care about her, the question is will she change enough to accept them?
This was a very funny book at times and was told in first person. But putting the humor aside it also had an underlying story about seeing ourselves for who we actually are. This is the author’s debut book but I find it hard to believe because it was so good. I never lost interest in the story and couldn’t wait to find out the outcome for Maxine, live or die, or reunite with those she has turned away from? This is definitely a book that I recommend highly.
*Winner: 3rd Place – Best Paranormal Romance Series – 2015 PRG Reviewer’s Choice Awards
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