Rant & Rave- Grave Importance by Vivian Shaw

 Hello everyone! 

You've made your way to my Rant & Rave for Grave Importance by Vivian Shaw.  

Grave Importance is the third book in the Dr. Greta Helsing series. Check out my previous post about the series for information on the first two books, but beware- there's spoilers. Dr. Greta Helsing is a doctor for all manner of supernatural beings- ghouls, vampires, vampyres (there's a difference), demons, mummies, banshees, etc.  In the third installment of her adventures, she is asked to take a temporary medical director position at a luxurious medical spa and resort for mummies. She discovers that something strange has been causing bouts of fatigue and dizziness in her mummy patients.  Needless to say, there's more going on than meets the eye. 

So let's rave:

I loved the way Vivian Shaw weaved multiple plotlines together to provide a seamless story.  Like her second book, I thought this book brought the plotlines together well.  I still prefer the story of the second book, but, in my opinion, this novel does a better job of hinting at relationships between different viewpoints.

I loved the inclusion of some actual medicine and Egyptian culture in this book.  It felt more like a dive into the day-to-day of a supernatural doctor, which is why I chose the series to begin with.  It connected the dots between magic, in this case based on Ancient Egyptian culture, and modern medicine.  This bridged a gap that, until this book, was kind of overlooked.  

And some ranting:

Similar to the first book, I feel like the resolution of the story was a little too "out of nowhere."  It felt almost like Greta got herself into something that was too big for her to solve, so Vivian Shaw wrote a cop out for her to get out of it.  I can't really elaborate on this without major spoilers, but if you read the books, I think you'll agree with this part of my assessment.

I like the voice of this book.  It's rational and evaluative, but snarky, with some humor thrown in.  I know, this isn't ranting, but bear with me.  I've found that this is hit or miss with readers of the series.  Here's the real ranting- I wish that the voice varied a little more between characters.  It felt obvious to me that all the characters were penned by the same person.   

And some final announcements:

My next book will be Witches Steeped in Gold by Ciannon Smart.  This book comes from my rival-themed Owlcrate box.  These boxes are always an exciting part of my month! There is rarely more than one item in the box that I don't use or enjoy in some way, which was a reservation I had about getting the boxes, and I highly recommend them (and no, they aren't paying me to say that). 

A friend of mine from my time in the Peace Corps, Danielle Timmons, just published a memoir called God, Love and Mototaxis. I've read it and, with the exception of a few grammatical errors, it's a good, fast read.  It's available on Amazon for anyone that's interested in supporting her on her latest venture. 

If you are getting notifications for this blog via email, you will stop receiving email notifications for new content in July.  Since I'm not particularly tech savvy, I can't figure out how to export your email addresses to a list I can use to continue sending emails.  If you'd like to continue receiving emails, please let me know your email address, either in the comments section or in person.  Once your address has been added to the list, I will delete the comment, so don't worry about it being online forever.

Dana