Ferryman by Claire McFall

I should preface this post by saying that I read a different book about the afterlife that...didn't quite do it for me. So I went into Ferryman a bit more hopeful, and in some ways it delivered.

I'll talk about things I liked first.

I liked that this book showed the afterlife as a different place, separate from the world of the living. I liked that there were real dangers the main characters had to face. Rather than leaving the conflict as all internal (dealing with the sort of person the main character was, for example), there were plenty of external obstacles to overcome.

I did like this book more than the previous one, so trust me, it was an improvement.

However.

I didn't like that the romance became the central plot of the story. I didn't like that the main characters fell in love so quickly, and with so little reason or motivation. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against romance books. I do like the romance to make sense and flow naturally, though, and this...didn't quite reach that level for me.

I think part of my problem is I like the idea of writing my own afterlife book at some point, and while the landscape and dangers in this one are more along the lines of how I would write my own book, it still wasn't quite how I would do it.

This book is the first in a trilogy, and normally I would feel obligated to keep reading (unless I absolutely hated the first book). However, I don't have as much time for reading as I used to, and with so many other books to read, I'm no longer forcing myself to read an entire series if I wasn't absolutely in love with the first book. I also picked this one up believing it was a stand-alone, and was a bit disappointed when I learned it wasn't.

(Side bar: I like series, but I also like stand-alone books. With so many books vying for my attention, I prefer reading stand-alone stories so I can cross them off my TBR pile and move on to the next. When I discover what I thought was a stand-alone is actually part of a series, instead of diminishing my TBR pile, it feels like I'm just adding a ton more books to it. I like to know ahead of time if a book is part of a series so I can choose when I'm ready to make the commitment to read the entire thing.)

All right, now that that's said: a part of me wants to read the next book to find out what happens, but another part of me just wants to move on to the next book in my TBR pile. That's what I'd planned to do initially, and I didn't absolutely love this book, so I wouldn't feel that bad just ending the story at book one.

Final verdict: this wasn't a terrible book, but it wasn't the best. I was interested enough to keep reading, so it could be fun if you're looking for a romance story.

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