Berls
Written on Jun 15, 2016
Charley Davidson, Grim Reaper extraordinaire, has taken centre stage for too long. It's time for Reyes's side of the story . . .
Discover how Reyes met Charley; from Reyes' point of view: a Charley Davidson novella
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, this novella 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.
'Hilarious and heartfelt, sexy and surprising...I'm begging for the next one!!' - J.R. Ward
'If you enjoy Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum, you will certainly enjoy Charley Davidson' - Suspense Magazine
'I am furiously envious of Darynda Jones and rue the day she came up with this concept, damn her eyes. First Grave on the Right kidnapped me from the first paragraph' - Mary Janice Davidson
'Rollicking humor, sizzling sexual tension and a spine-tingling mystery.' - Kresley Cole
- ISBN10 1250090202
- ISBN13 9781250090201
- Publish Date 6 October 2015
- Publish Status Active
- Imprint St. Martin's Press
- Format eBook
- Language English
Reviews
kimbacaffeinate
Written on Dec 4, 2015
Melanie
Written on Oct 6, 2015
My review and an extended sample of the audiobook are posted at Hotlistens.com.
Brighter Than the Sun is completely different from any Charley Davidson book you’ve ever read/listened to. For one, it is told from the point of view of one, Alexander Reyes Farrow. Two, it doesn’t have all the snark and laugh out loud moments we have come to associate with the Charley Davidson series. This story is a prequel of sorts of Reyes as a child going through his time in prison.
It was interesting seeing his side of things as he grows up. How he sees Charley and everything he does to protect Kim. You also see how he becomes such close friends with Amadore. From the time he is little, he can tell if a person is going to hell or not from just one look and what is the first action that causes them to take that path. I can’t imagine what that could do to a kid. Add on to that what Earl Walker was doing, and you can see how Reyes ends up the way he does. It is actually really amazing that he is as good as he is.
Listening to this story, told entirely from Reyes’ POV, really adds to the Charley Davidson series and I feel is a must read/listen to any person in the series. If you are new to this series, this is not a place to start. It will not give you a good feel of series at all. The actions that take place go through First Grave on the Right, so you could read it anywhere after that book and not be lost.
Narration
I’m really glad that they decided to stay with Lorelei King for this narration. I know some people might have decided to get a male narration, since it is told entirely from a male POV. King’s voice of Reyes is so engrained in my head, it would’ve been really weird to have someone else do the narration. She did a great job as usual, but then I think she is one of my favorite narrators. I mean, she pulls off this book with ease, and it is a mostly male cast. I started out listening to this series, actually because she was the narrator. I will always go straight to audio. I can’t recommend it enough.
I’d like to thank MACMILLAN AUDIO for the advanced copy of BRIGHTER THAN THE SUN in exchange for an honest review.
EBookObsessed
Written on Oct 3, 2015
I give this a begrudging 4 stars. I can’t give it less since it was enjoyable, but overall the story lacked…it just lacked. It gave you a tiny glimpse of what’s going on in Reyes’s head, mostly involving scenes with Charley, but it could have done so much more. Not that the Charley Davidson series is heavy literature, but this novella was a bit of a fluff piece.
If you are a fan of the series there is no doubt you will spend the $3.99 and grab a copy, if nothing else just to enjoy a few more pages with your favorite characters. Let me point out that I seem to be the only one who had any problem with it. I see 5 star reviews all over the place and beaming headlines of its awesomeness. Yet, I still find myself disappointed.
Brighter Than The Sun tells a story that we already knew but this time from Reyes’s viewpoint. I have read a few companion stories like this one, told from another viewpoint, on what is a first person POV series. The point was not just to fill in scenes that we already knew from another point of view, it was to develop the inner mind of the other important character. To learn more about them and see their world and what made them. Honestly, I didn’t need to have one of the violent attacks on Reyes as a child documented in detail. I just felt we should have had more than “recovering from another attack by Earl.” We saw his sister Kim try to help him after the attacks but not enough of their interaction to feel the connection we know is there. We see Reyes meet Amador, who is his best friend, but no in-depth scenes showing how or why their bond grew.
Even when Reyes goes to prison for a few years, we hear very little of his time there except a brief accounting of the story of the attack when he got there and issues already told to us by the Warden to Charley from the series. There is nothing additional added to fill out the character of Reyes during his hard years in prison. There is actually a line that says “so all that keeps me busy for a couple of years.” Nothing. No poignant prison story barely even anything from when Amador becomes he cell mate for four years.
This story actually ends where the Charley Davidson series begins. So we don’t get any Reyes who as on the run after escaping from prison. What was he trying to do? Where did he go? What was he thinking? Why didn’t he just run? Was he clearing his name so he could be with Charley?
This story does point out the one thing I consider to be a flaw to the time line. Reyes knew when Charley would be born on earth and made sure he was born first. He was there at her birth as The Big Bad, looking like we always think of Death, cloaked in a black robe. From Reyes’s POV, we know he is only about three years old and he doesn’t want anyone to see him so a three-year-old cloaks himself in a robe which ends up terrifying Charley and makes him look 6 feet tall? Have you ever played hide and seek with a three year old? They duck behind a lamp or cover their face with their hands and think you can’t see them. This three year old makes himself look like the killer from the Scream movies. I originally thought that once Charley was born and Reyes sees her, Reyes was then born on Earth. That made sense to me but it would have made him 9 months younger. Maybe Darynda didn’t like the idea of Reyes being physically younger than Charley. I am certain he would have pulled off a more mature 9 months younger.
I was surprised to find that Reyes believed he made up Charley as a coping mechanism for his brutal young life and didn’t realize any differently until he met her face to face in that alley after she broke the window.
Maybe I was expecting too much from a 112 page novella from a lighthearted Urban Fantasy series. I would have like to see more of what made Reyes into the man he was, rather than just the mindless pawn son of Satan doing what he was told. I have read enough romance novels to fill in the Reyes blanks on the scenes with Charley. I wanted to know more of what happened to him when his focus wasn’t on Charley.
Received an ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review.