A Match Made in Hell (Nicki Styx, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

by Terri Garey (Author)
Key Phrases: black hankie, scrying mirror, Psycho Barbie, Blue Dahlia, Keith Morgan (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A brush with death and a brief trip to the hereafter left vintage clothing store owner Nicki Styx an unwilling ghoulfriend to the dead. She can see and hear spirits, and boy, do they want to be heard! Luckily, her new boyfriend, sexy doc Joe Bascombe, is there to help, especially when Nicki faces her latest ghost, a woman in pink sequins who holds the key to some family secrets.

Unfortunately for Nicki, it turns out that there are more skeletons in the family closet than she thought, including a twin sister and a mysterious house full of spirits and surprises. Things go from bad to worse when the devil himself shows up, determined to lure Nicki from Joe's side. Will she give in to temptation and sell her soul (or someone else's) for one incredible night?

Demons may be a ghoul's best friend, but with this particular hottie, it could be a match made in hell!

About the Author

A Southern girl with an overactive imagination, Terri Garey grew up in Florida, always wondering why tropical prints and socks with sandals were considered a fashion statement. She survived the heat by reading in the shade and watching cool shows like the The Twilight Zone and the classic gothic soap opera Dark Shadows. Born too late to be a hippie and too early to be a goth, Terri did the logical thing and became a computer geek.

Balancing a career with marriage and motherhood convinced her that life was too short to rely entirely on the left side of her brain. Quirky ideas about life among the undead began to replace the dry logic of computers. Deciding imagination was her best weapon in the war against reality, Terri dove even deeper into the world of the unexplained, and started writing her own demented tales from the dark side. Dead Girls Are Easy is her first novel, to be followed by the sequel, Where the Ghouls Are. She still lives in the Sunshine State with her husband and three children, and still refuses to wear tropical prints or socks with sandals.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Avon (June 24, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061136166
• ISBN-13: 978-0061136160
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #57,807 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 2 in The Nicki Styx Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ghoulish Delights, July 7, 2008

By	Justine Greene "fairiediva" (Panama City, FL United States) - See all my reviews

Nicki Styx is back, bigger, bolder & better than ever, in the sequel to Dead Girls are Easy which comes out on June 24, 2008. You meet Nicki & her band of merry misfits in Dead Girls; in A Match Made in Hell, you meet more of Nicki's family & you learn about her birth mother & the circumstances surrounding her adoption & the reason why she was split from her twin sister. Yes, we can all quote Darth Vader, now...."So, you have a twin sister."
Nicki is just as off-beat & saucy in this book as she was in Dead Girls. However, Ms. Garey gives us a keener sense of who Nick is, & how she is dealing with her abilities to commune with the dead. If anything, Nicki is more "real" in this story, & therefore the reader gets pulled into this story right out of the gate. You get a sense of the tale in store for you with the first line, "Too many freaks, not enough circuses." We gain a better insight into Nicki's mind set & continuing struggle to make sense of her life, within the frame work of her new abilities. One of the best aspects of this would be seeing Nicki as a fully formed person, who is at times understanding, grumpy, humorous, cantankerous, stubborn, loyal, sexy & very, very human. At the end of the day, I found myself wishing Nicki really did run a funky vintage clothing shop around the corner, where I could spend too much money on fine fashions & grab a beer with her after the store closed for the night.
All of the core cast from the first book return in this romp through the ghost world. However, the addition to the group who is most interesting would have to be Kelly, Nicki's long lost twin sister. And just to make things interesting, Kelly is the estranged wife of Nicki's boyfriend, Dr. Joe. She returns to Georgia to finalize her "unfinished business" & meet her sister, Nicki. Kelly is Nicki's opposite in so many ways, that the contrasts play up the similarities you do see, and reveal two very interesting, and self possessed young women.
This strange turn of events ultimately leads the group to Savannah for a run in with a Horny Devil, a malevolent Country Club Wannabe Blonde Ghost, & family skeletons revealed. But of course, in Nicki's family, the skeletons aren't necessarily kept in the closet. The interplay between Nicki & Kelly really makes this book. The plotting is tightly paced & the character interaction is often hilarious. I found myself laughing out loud a few times as I devoured this book. (Luckily, I am accustomed to strange looks, so this aspect of reading this book in public did not bother me.) I can honestly say that I can't wait for the third installment; You're the One that I Haunt, next year. In the mean time, Nicki & her buddies will just have to haunt my bookshelf.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Match Made in Hell , July 1, 2008

By	M. Nix "Joyfully Reviewed" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Nicki Styx enjoyed her life where her worries were keeping up with fashion, her boyfriend and her vintage clothes store. Now she still worries about them, but to quote a movie - she sees dead people. This time Nicki is lead to an accident where one woman is severely injured. The woman turns out to be not only her boyfriend Joe's soon to be ex but also Nicki's twin.

This leads Nicki to discover that she has family she never knew existed and a spooky old house. While trying to deal with the unexpected entrance of her twin sister and more spirits, Nicki learns that the Devil himself has decided he wants her too. Nicki, her boyfriend Joe, her best friend Evan and his partner Butch, all make the journey to discover Nicki's past and of course to defeat the Devil.

A Match Made in Hell pits Nicki against the Devil himself. This time Nicki, Joe and friends not only have to deal with the family Nicki didn't know she had but also the Devil and some of his friends. Joe has told Nicki that he was divorcing his wife who left him, but neither expected her to turn up injured or to be Nicki's twin. The antics and mishaps that Nicki and Joe have to deal with had me enjoying a tale that could have been dark but instead was light and humorous. A Match Made in Hell reminded me of that favorite movie you put in when you want something fun and feel good. Of course Nicki and Joe made it through all the challenges thrown at them and were still together and a bit stronger for them. Along with Evan and Butch who I just had to mention.

A Match Made in Hell is the perfect book for people who want a book that shows the lighter side of paranormal. While this is the second story in the series, I felt it could be read as a stand-alone. However, if you fall for Nicki and company then you might just want to go back and read the other.

Jo
reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nicki Styx is a strong four star series, July 2, 2008

By	S. McCullough "pacey1927" (Indianapolis, IN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

After loving "Dead Girls Are Easy", I eagerly awaited this follow up. Here Nicki meets her twin sister Kelly for the first time. Kelly is Nicki's boyfriend Joe's ex-wife, so relations are tense for the sisters from the get-go. In this story, Nicki meets not only her twin sister, but the birth mother who gave them all up and some other family members. Things aren't what they seem, and the ghosts show up routinely. Another new character makes an appearance and threatens to take away everything Nicki ever held dear. It also make her "do unto others" mentally reach shaky ground. The mysteries are a good one, the ghostly spirits enjoyable, even the rotten ones. The writing here is wonderful and the book unravels at a good pace. The follow through may actually have been more entertaining than the first volume. I am taking off one star because of an odd plot twist, that really didn't work for me at the end. Can't say more without giving something away. But still this was a fabulous book and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone.