Book Review: How to Date Dead Guys by Ann M Noser

Name:  How to Date Dead Guys

Author: Ann M. Noser

Publisher: Curiosity Quills

Note: This ARC was provided to me in exchange for an honest review by the lovely Curiosity Quills!

Summary: Quiet college sophomore Emma Roberts remembers her mother’s sage advice: “don’t sleep around, don’t burp in public, and don’t tell anyone you see ghosts”. But when cute Mike Carlson drowns in the campus river under her watch, Emma’s sheltered life shatters. 

Blamed for Mike’s death and haunted by nightmares, Emma turns to witchcraft and a mysterious Book of Shadows to bring him back. Under a Blood Moon, she lights candles, draws a pentacle on the campus bridge, and casts a spell. The invoked river rages up against her, but she escapes its fury. As she stumbles back to the dorm, a stranger drags himself from the water and follows her home. 

Instead of raising Mike, Emma assists the others she stole back from the dead—a pre-med student who jumped off the bridge, a young father determined to solve his own murder, and a frat boy Emma can’t stand…at first. More comfortable with the dead than the living, Emma delves deeper into the seductive Book of Shadows. Her powers grow, but witchcraft may not be enough to protect her against the vengeful river and the killers that feed it their victims.

Review: How to Date Dead Guys is centrally focused on Emma Roberts who is currently a college sophomore. She is a bit of a quiet girl; some might even call her a nerd. She’d rather by studying or reading a book than out enjoying the college partying scene. I can’t lie—she is my kind of girl. But even though she is reserved and studious, she isn’t your average college student. See, ever since she was a little girl she could talk to dead people; her “imaginary friends”. I don’t know about you but I don’t know many people who can talk to the dead. Despite this fact she has maintained a fairly normal life. But this quickly changes for Emma.

Insert Mike here. He’s a boy that attends Emma’s college that she has feelings for. And in an unfortunate turn of events, Mike drowns in the campus river after a night of partying and the only one there to witness what happens is Emma. This is when Emma turns to The Book of Shadows uses witchcraft to cast a spell to bring Mike back from the dead. Only, it's not only Mike that she brings back from the dead. Among those that she brings back are Sam, a pre-med student who committed suicide; Jake,  a fraternity guy that is obnoxious to Emma; Bernard, an older fellow who simply wants the chance to check in on his wife, Claire since his death ; and Steve, who is unsure of how he died and searching for answers.

At first I had a bit of a hard time getting into the book. The first third to half of the book were a bit of a struggle for me. For some reason I just couldn’t get into it. There was a lot more dialogue than is normal for me, but eventually I got used to that. Once I hit the halfway mark in the book it started to pick up pace and I began to enjoy it a whole lot more. Even though there was a slow start, I enjoyed some of the twists and turns that the story had. The investigation into Steve’s death and trying to figure out what happened was actually one of my more favorite parts of the storyline. There were a lot of people to learn about, especially with their deaths and what they were back from the dead to try to accomplish.  If given the chance I think that most people when they pass have a lot of unfinished business, so this really shed a light on all of the loose ends that don’t get tied up so neatly when someone passes.

As I mentioned, I really enjoyed the second half of this book and although I struggled through the first bit, I did still enjoy it and would give the second book a chance once it’s released.