Title: Beautiful Dead: Summer
Author: Eden Maguire [author page] [facebook]
Genre: Paranormal, Romance, Mystery
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher
Parental Advisory: murder, violence, stalking
Teachable Moments: co-dependence, dealing with grief

“After a while of lying on the floor testing out which bits of me hurt, I raised my head and rolled onto my side, then onto my knees where I stayed and groaned a while, arms still supporting me, my head hanging.  I felt like it was filled with heavy mush.”

Summary (from the publisher):
Six months have passed since the last Ellerton teenager died, but Darina is still traumatized by the stabbing of her own beloved Phoenix.  But there’s work to be done as Darina must now turn her attention to the shooting of Summer Madison — the beautiful and gifted, singer-song-writer with a heart of gold.  It’s been nearly a year since the random shooting in a shopping mall caused Summer’s meaningless death.

Summer left behind recordings of her wonderful songs and a deep sadness amongst high school friends.  Now Darina must act as Summer’s agent to track down the psychotic killer in a clear search for justice.  With the sound of Summer’s music constantly playing inside Darina’s head, recalling the wonderful months when she was alive and performing her first gigs, Darina, Phoenix and the Beautiful Dead are determined to catch the crazed killer.  And all the while Darina’s love for Phoenix continues to beat.

Opinion:
The third book in the Beautiful Dead series (focusing on Summer) is one that continues with the general premise of the previous two.  Darina, a living and breathing human, is charged by an angelic overlord with investigating the murders of four local teens.  Her efforts are all an attempt to keep them from being forced into a limbo-like place as opposed to heading off to heaven with everything and everyone they’ve left behind all squared away.

In Summer’s story Darina must investigate what the true circumstances were behind her former best friend’s murder.  She is also tasked with providing some level of closure to friends and family.  In this way, the book is not any different than the two before.  Darina is given marching orders by Hunter, the investigation makes it’s usual twists and turns, Darina relates to friends and family and then the mystery is solved to whatever positive or negative end.  Pretty formulaic all things considered.

Having said that, I enjoyed the book.  I continue to find the characters likable — though admit that Darina was far more whiny in this book than the others.  I was worried the whole book would be about her grief over Phoenix but thankfully it was short-lived.  Hunter is still a controlling jack-ass but there are times where he’s shown to be human which makes his other less appealing characteristics more bearable.

If I had one complaint about this book it would be that despite the fact that the story centered around Summer there was a surprising lack of participation by her character.  Very little time was spent interacting with her.  Sure, there was loads of talk about her but I was surprised there was little time spent with her.  This is made more disappointing since her story was one that had a lot of power behind it.  As a rising star she is tragically taken away too soon in what is thought to be a random act of violence.  I won’t divulge the particulars because that is where all the mystery elements come in but I will say that had there been more focus on Summer there could have been some really great opportunities for teens to learn about violent actions.

The romance between Darina and Phoenix is still going strong.  They have a few hiccups but overall they are as in love as ever.  It seemed a bit more angsty and amped up than in past books but I’m not surprised by that since the next book in the series is the focus on him and their ultimate parting of ways.  Summer’s story built in some good tension and yearning for them that will definitely influence what I presume will be a pretty tragic and emotional culmination to the series.

The Beautiful Dead isn’t heavy lifting by any stretch but it’s not fluff either. It has an interesting premise, a decent mystery component and relatable characters.  I continue to enjoy this series and I’m interested to see where the last book takes me.