Review of ‘The Mortician’s Daughter’ by Nan Higgins

This story was okay lesbian paranormal book, but not really for me. I’ve only said a million times how much I love paranormal anything, but I’m also picky because I do love this category so much. Unfortunately, this story had too many things that I just didn’t care for.

I’m not sure if I read the blurb wrong or what but I did not expect the feel of this story. I thought this was going to be a darker, creepier, ghost story. Even reading reviews that stated this story was different than might be expected, I still didn’t realize it would feel so young. The main characters are 22 years old and they could have easily have been 16. This whole book screams Young Adult, not New Adult from the ways the characters acted, to the control the parents had. The only part not YA was one explicit sex scene that felt like it was thrown in to make this an adult book. I like YA and I think this book would have worked so much better if it really was YA.

Besides the characters not seeming their age, this book hit a paranormal pet peeve of mine. I hate, hate when the main character is special, chosen, or life is about to change forever and they know nothing about it but everyone else around them knows everything. It happens way too much in paranormal and fantasy books and it drives me nuts. The character is sitting there knowing their life has changed forever, but no one will answer their questions. If someone actually gives information to the main, it comes out in dribs and drabs with no one answering any important questions which causes the main character to be in danger since they know nothing about anything important.

One way for a character to learn some information is by going to a magic, paranormal, or powers learning school. That is what Higgins used in this book. I don’t mind the schooling aspects, I mean Harry Pottery made it into an art form, but the schooling has to be exciting and for me, it just felt very flat. It was just a way to info dump instead of being interesting or fun. Everything about this new world was very on the surface and it felt like a missed opportunity to dig deeper.

I prefer to have some romance and love in my paranormal stories, but this was a disappointment too. It was insta-like before the characters exchanged more than a few words and then the “I love yous” popped out after only a few days. There was no real chemistry and no build-up. I guess they liked each other because they had to spend time together? It seemed like romance out of convenience more than two women actually connecting. Maybe it could have been cute if this was a YA book and more of a connection was formed, but instead, it felt really flat.

This is a book one of the ‘Death Singer’ series. Sometimes a book one in a paranormal or fantasy series can be tough since it has to build a different world. I could see Higgins really turning around the series in the next installment since there are some good ideas here. If she could age the characters, dig into their relationship, and do more actual ghost wrangling -not enough happened on that end so I was stuck with the waiting room of ‘Beetlejuice’ in my head the whole time- if Higgins can work on these few things I could see this series getting a lot better. Higgins’ other book, ‘London Undone‘, has great reviews so I have faith that she can turn this series around. This book wasn’t for me but I haven’t thrown the towel in on the whole series yet.

A copy was given to me for an honest review.