ARC Review: Death, Doom and Detention by Darynda Jones

Death, Doom and Detention
by: Darynda Jones
Release Date: March 5th/13.
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Source: E-ARC from Publisher via Raincoast Books
Death, Doom and Detention on Goodreads here.
Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads:
The normal part of Lorelei MacAlister’s life didn’t just slip away quietly the day Jared Kovach came to town. Nope. The normal part of her life shattered. It exploded. It burst into a gazillion shards of fleeting light.

It went out with a bang.

Goodbye normal.

Hello dark and eerie.

While her best friend, Brooklyn, is focusing all of her energy on helping Lorelei hone her abilities, Lorelei is dealing with the reality that Satan’s second in command has taken up residence inside her body. Oh, and the fact that she has a crush on the Angel of Death. But what a beautiful death it is. If those weren’t bad enough, something sinister has come to town and it wants nothing more than to hear Lorelei’s dying breath as it strangles it out of her. Thank goodness the gang has a supernatural champion. But what happens when the only being who can save them switches sides midstream? How can a group of misfits capture one of the most powerful beings ever created? And will they find out how to bring Jared back to them before it’s too late?

My Thoughts:
Classic "bridge" book.

Before I get into my review I just feel the need to point out how the cover for this book makes much MORE sense than the cover for Death and the Girl Next Door. Just saying...

Now when I say "bridge" book, I'm referring to the "in-between" instalments of a series, the fillers between the introduction and the climatic conclusion. That's just how Death, Doom and Detention felt for me.

The beginning starts off with a bang, explaining how Lorelei came to be the "host" of a demon- the Satan's second-in-command to be exact. While I would recommend reading this series in order, I think you would be able to read DDD without missing a beat, because Jones does such a fantastic job of summarizing the events the plot and characters of this series within the first couple of chapters of this instalment.

I must admit, I was very frustrated with the lack of progress made with regards to Lorelei and Jared's relationship. Even though they both have strong feelings for one another, Jared has promised to keep his distance out of respect to her grandparents wishes, and I can understand their concern, you know, because he's the Angel of Death and all, but I was so hoping that we'd have more steamy moments between these two.

While we don't get much progress between Jared and Lorelei, we do see a lot of progress with Lorelei's sidekicks, Brooklyn and Cameron, and man is she lucky to have these guys on her side. I seriously wonder if my bestie would be willing to risk her neck for me as much as these guys (I'm gonna go with no haha).

Jones introduces a new mystery in book #2 in the form of a new and "mysterious" high-school boy, and much of the book is spent with Lorelei and her gang sitting around her room discussing possible plans of action, and less, well, action. Jared's definitely not himself in this book, and I think this is what really irked me about this instalment, because I LOVE this man and I would have loved more action scenes in which he gets to be the hero- But not to fear, I think we're gonna get A LOT of these scenes in book #3 Death and the Girl He Loves. Fingers Crossed!

That's not to say that there's no action at all. In fact, the action really picks up in the last few chapters which leads to a KILLER cliffhanger ending. After reading the ending of DDD, you know Death and the Girl He Loves is going to have an ultimate showdown of Good vs. Evil- so excited!

While I had mixed feelings about this instalment, I definitely plan to continue this series, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a quick paranormal YA read. And if you've already read book #1, than you know you've got to continue Lorelei's story!

Happy Reading!!!