The Undead: Playing for Keeps by Elsie Elmore Pages: 274
Published by Curiosity Quills Press on September 3, 2014
Genres: Love & Romance, Paranormal, Young Adult
Source: ecopy from Author
When an undead woman with serious de-comp issues stalks sixteen-year-old Lyla Grimm, her hope of rescuing her rock-bottom reputation takes a back seat. Especially once Lyla’s new talent of resurrecting the dead draws the attention of Eric, a Grim Reaper with a guitar and a chip on his shoulder.
While Lyla navigates the gossip-ridden halls, Eric works to gain her trust and discover why Death’s clients aren’t staying down. If she passes on her gift, his death-messenger destiny might be altered. But the closer he gets to Lyla, the less sure he is of his plan. The dead are way easier to deal with than the living.Gossip explodes, the Grimm family implodes, and desperation sets in. Death wants the gift and a soul. Lyla and Eric face hard choices with hidden consequences. Sometimes life’s choices aren’t really choices at all.
The Undead: Playing for Keeps is the story of a girl that can raise the dead with a touch. And as an added twist, her family is the owner of the town funeral home. I thought that was a hilarious twist to the story. Because the daughter has no idea that she is the one bringing the dead to life, and the funeral home is getting into all sorts of trouble because the corpses keep going missing! And in a small town word gets around pretty fast.
Lyla was an easy girl to like. I have no idea why she was such a social outcast. She really only had one friend and the other kids at school either avoided her or made fun of her. I thought it was BS. She is a sweetheart, but I guess high school kids don’t need a reason to be mean. I felt bad for her, and I totally understood why she was so skittish about everything,. It took her a long time to warm up to Eric, and I really admired that about her.
Eric is a reaper that shows up in town to find out who is raising the dead. What he doesn’t expect is Lyla because people are turned into Samaritan (which is what she is) but they aren’t already them. She is a special case. (which you will find out about in the story) Lyla is the main character of the story, but it is told in dual narrative between her and Eric, and as an added bonus we got to learn a lot more about his background. I wasn’t expecting that at the start of the story and it took a while to dig into his past, but we do get to see glimpses.
I’m not sure if there is going to be another book or not, but it would be kind of cool if there was. The end of the book got really crazy and I would love for someone to kind of rehash all of that in the next book, if there is one. I think there is still a lot the author, Elsie Elmore, can do in this world of reapers and Samaritans. The Undead: Playing for Keeps is an interesting paranormal young adult read. If you are a fan of reaper books, this is a fun take on them that I think you will enjoy.
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kindlemom1
Okay I totally think I would love the whole raising the dead thing and then of course the shenanigans about your family owning a funeral parlor and you have no idea you are the one making the bodies go missing! This sounds like it was a fun read and perfect for those in between reads we all need to just have some fun reading once in a while.
Michelle @ Book Briefs
It was a pretty cool concept. You are right, sometimes it is good to read a fun book in between some of the others. I have been in a bit of a slump lately. I have liked all the books I am reading, but I haven’t loved loved any in a few months. I am still waiting to find the book that will knock my socks off!
Let me know if you have any recs!
Kara Lauren
I usually like social outcasts in these novels too, maybe because I am one! hehe I will be adding this book to my tbr list 🙂
Kristi Van Howling
This book sounds interesting so I’m going to add it to my TBR list.