Morgan is one of Death’s minions. She runs her operations from a plush downtown office complex and takes pleasure in doing her job well and occasionally perving over the office IT manager. Jane is an IT manager. She knows that at some point one of Death’s minions will approach her so that she can officially choose her afterlife options, but she’s kind of surprised when the minion turns out to be her hot boss.
So this is half supernatural fantasy and half steamy romance. I’ve never seen a world built like this one and actually the world building was done really well. Not too infodump-y but still had enough information to give me a good idea of what the deal was.
This is an alternate universe where Death isn’t a skeleton in a robe with a scythe, but a hot chick. Her minion is a hot chick and so is the IT manager. The book is full of hot chicks, which is fine by me. I imagine some people might say that the hotness quotient is not representative of reality, but really we’re talking about a book where Death is a person and you pick your afterlife options using an iPad. So yeah.
The supernatural element was done really well. I think the reason for Morgan wanting to help Jane with her bucket list was super flimsy but I was so keen for them to get together that I was willing to overlook it. The romance element was done well also. There was plenty of slow burn and emotional engagement. Honestly, there wasn’t quite enough sex for me and a bit too much discussion as to why they couldn’t be together, but this is only a small complaint and didn’t detract too much.
There was one passage that really made me laugh when Jane and Morgan are in the English countryside:
If she lived here, she’d probably do nothing but walk around staring or spend her days lying down in the fields of thick grass.
This was hilarious because I live in the English countryside and I would NEVER spend the day lying in the grass because (a) it’s always either raining or has recently rained, (b) adders and (c) dog poo. Sorry to burst everyone’s romantic bubble of what the countryside here is like.
For me, EJ Noyes is an auto-buy author. She has absolutely reeled me in with her other books. I think If The Shoe Fits and Turbulence are still my favourites, but this is a welcome addition to my library!
I was given a copy of Reaping the Benefits in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the author, the publisher and Netgalley.
5 stars