*****Kelly’s audio review of Brighter Than The Sun*****

TITLE: BRIGHTER THAN THE SUN
SERIES #:  Charley Davidson #8.5
CHARACTERS: Reyes Farrow
AUTHOR: Darynda Jones
NARRATOR: Lorelei King
RUN TIME: 3 Hours & Minutes
PUBLICATION DATE: October 06, 2015
ORDER LINKS: Amazon| Audible  | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:

All his life, Reyes Alexander Farrow has suffered the torments of the damned. Only one thing has given him hope: the woman who radiates a light that no mortals can see; a light that only the departed can see…

Told from his point of view, BRIGHTER THAN THE SUN chronicles the first time Reyes ever encountered Charley, and how their relationship has been the one thing that can either save him or doom him.

REVIEW PROVIDED BY: Kelly
NUMBER OF HEARTS: 5

I have to start the review by telling you that BRIGHTER THAN THE SUN is not your typically Charley Davidson book.  This is not the light hearted fun full of Charley antics story.  When I received this book to review I was given a warning that this book was dark.  Very dark!!!  If you read the excerpt below you will get a glimpse of how dark, sad and heartbreaking this story is.   Fans of Charley’s series already know some of what happened to Reyes as a kid but in Brighter Than the Sun we unfortunately get an upclose and personal view of his world as a kid.  

After reading BRIGHTER THAN THE SUN, I can safely say that I love Reyes even more than I did before.  Reyes lived through hell in his childhood.  It was beyond heartbreaking to read/listen to his back story.  It was heartbreaking to read/listen to him when he first meets Charley.  It is heartbreaking to read/listen to the things that happen to Charley.

It was great to see just how much Reyes loves Charley.  How much from the first moment of Charley’s life that Reyes was there.   This story was beyond heartbreaking to suffer with Reyes, but seeing Charley though his eyes and to learn just how important she is to him was wonderful.

Ms. King does an amazing job of reading this story to us as always.  I am looking forward to the next installment of this series.  

Charley & Reyes fans will enjoy this story even if they need to make sure to have a good supply of tissues close by.  

Disclaimer:  I received a complimentary copy of this book from MacMillan Audio in exchange for an honest review. This review is my own opinion and not a paid review.

Excerpt

I’m curled in a corner of the basement, shivering like a little bitch and licking my wounds from the latest encounter, when I hear my sister crying at the door. I try to assure her I’m okay, but the edges of my vision darken and a beckoning light appears in the distance. I collapse and drift toward it. Weightless. Ethereal.

I always drift toward it.

Not literally. I’ve been locked in the basement by a psychopath. I don’t get out much. But mentally.

You should probably know that even though I’m twelve, the circumstances of my existence are not normal. The things that happen to me are not normal. The things in my head are not normal. And the light that I’m drifting toward, the warmth I feel from it, the . . . forgiveness for all my abnormalities, is as abnormal as I am.

I’m three the first time I see it, and in a very similar state. I follow it. I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and drift toward the white-hot pinprick of light burning the back of my eyes. The closer I get, the brighter it becomes until, just when I think I’ll never see again . . .

. . . she appears.

This tiny being peeking out from between a lady’s legs. I don’t know what to think at first, besides I shouldn’t be looking between a lady’s legs. But she is dying, the lady, so I figure it’s okay. I wouldn’t look at her bad anyway. My head doesn’t always work right, but even at three, it knows not to look at a lady bad.

Anyway, she’s shaking. The lady. Not shivers like if she’s cold, but deep shakes like if something’s wrong. Her head is thrown back and her body is stiff. The nurses hold her down as a doctor pulls at the light. At the thing. The tiny being that was in the lady’s belly, and suddenly it all makes sense.

Not the light, but that whole “Where do babies come from?” thing.

It’s disturbing, but not so disturbing as the lady. One of the reasons my head doesn’t work right is because I feel what others feel. Could ever since I was a kid. A littler kid. I can feel other people when they’re mad or pissed or in pain. That’s how I know when to stay away from Earl. When to run and hide. It doesn’t always work, but it’s damned sure worth a shot.

But right now, I feel the lady’s pain and it hurts and I almost leave if not for the light. I try to catch my breath once more. To be near it. Near her. Just a little longer.

She comes out in a whoosh of baby and liquid and a light so bright, I can hardly see—and I’m mesmerized. Then the pain stops and I can breathe normally again. The lady is still. A solid, constant note sounds in the room, and people gather around her and the baby. Everyone except the man holding the lady’s hand. He is doubled over. His shoulders shake, and I realize the people around the baby—most of them, anyway—are dead. They’re people from the past come to see the light. Ghosts. Whispers.

Their faces are full of wonder, but they are blocking my view, so I push them aside and drift closer. She is wailing like babies do. Then she sees the lady. Her mother. The woman standing beside the doctor, looking down at her. I’d never seen anything like the emotion in the mom’s expression, and I think how it must be love, because it’s soft and caring and tender.

I’m glad for the baby and sad at the same time. The mother touches her face. The baby’s. Tells her to be strong. Stronger than she was. Then she kisses the man’s bowed head, and I think about how I didn’t know ghosts could cry. Then she does the impossible: She steps into the baby’s light and is gone.

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January 6, 2016

THE DIRT ON NINTH GRAVE 

Charley Davidson #9

Preorder here: Amazon | B&N 

In a small village in New York lives Jane Doe, a girl with no memory of who she is or where she came from. So when she is working at a diner and slowly begins to realize she can see dead people, she’s more than a little taken aback. Stranger still are the people entering her life. They seem to know things about her. Things they hide with lies and half-truths. Soon, she senses something far darker. A force that wants to cause her harm, she is sure of it. Her saving grace comes in the form of a new friend she feels she can confide in and the fry cook, a devastatingly handsome man whose smile is breathtaking and touch is scalding. He stays close, and she almost feels safe with him around.

But no one can outrun their past, and the more lies that swirl around her—even from her new and trusted friends—the more disoriented she becomes, until she is confronted by a man who claims to have been sent to kill her. Sent by the darkest force in the universe. A force that absolutely will not stop until she is dead. Thankfully, she has a Rottweiler. But that doesn’t help in her quest to find her identity and recover what she’s lost. That will take all her courage and a touch of the power she feels flowing like electricity through her veins. She almost feels sorry for him. The devil in blue jeans. The disarming fry cook who lies with every breath he takes. She will get to the bottom of what he knows if it kills her. Or him. Either way.