This book dragged for me. We have Margo, who's a broken so she sees her dead boyfriend. She's unlikeable and manipulative. I only really connected with her when she was talking about losing her mom and what that was like that for her. Throughout the entire book she is a dead serious teen detective that falls for her late dead boyfriends brother. Hank is a funny and interesting character. I like that he cares so much about the people around him

I really enjoyed this mystery set in Lazarus, Nebraska. It's MC is Margo, who lost her mom and her boyfriend Hank. Hank is still around as a ghost though and he's there to help Margo solve her mom's murder. The characters were great. I loved the little romance that didn't happen between Boyd (Hank's younger brother) and Margo, and the spirituality of the afterlife was awesome. I loved that the ghosts ended up in a movie theater with Egyptian settings, and would walk up the staircase to heaven.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC Copy.

This book really surprised me and wasn't like anything I thought it would be. I very much enjoyed the thriller with the sprinkle of supernatural in there as well. Though the characters aren't very flushed out they are still interesting. The plot kept me going throughout the whole book. I did not catch the twist at the end because of the different things thrown it. Overall I do feel like it a great first book for Maryanna Melloan Woods and a good mystery book for someone who doesn't want something too scary.

A small town supernatural whodunit! Once I started Lazarus I knew I would have to finish that night! Hank and Margo our your main characters stuck in a small town the only catch is one of them is a ghost. I loved the characters and the story line. The cover was what initially drew me in, read this you won’t regret it!

Margo is the daughter of the police chief. She loves her dad. Hank is her boyfriend. Hank helps
Margo to try to solve who killed June. June was her dad’s secretary and treated Margo like her own daughter when Margo’s mother died. Margo is determined to find out who killed June. When her dad has a heart attack that almost killed him, Hank was telling him not to die. Hank knows that Margo needs her dad. As Margo goes on trying to figure out who killed June, she discovers several secrets that makes her worry that she won’t be able to solve the mystery or perhaps get kill. Will she be able to survive?

A mystery novel with secrets that are also surprises for the town of Lazarus. There is also some romance, ghosts, death and grief in this novel. It is at times a sad novel but also happy. I liked Margo’s spunk to keep going forward in solving June’s death. I also liked how Hank tried to help her even with his limitations. The ending is excellent. I think the author did a fantastic job of writing this novel.

A unique story line with original characters that pulls on your emotions throughout the whole book.
Lazarus is the name of a small town in Nebraska that is the perfect back drop for this murder mystery/ investigation by a young woman and her boyfriend...who happens to be dead. Their interactions with each other while she tries to figure out who killed a local woman are skillfully written. Maryanne Melloan Woods has spent the time and energy to give us a story line that only leaves us with one question. Is there another book coming?

Even if it's well written the story didn't keep my attention and it fell flat.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

This book...was everything. Sure, there were a couple of things that were not perfect. All loose ends got tied up, but some had pretty lame or anticlimactic endings. That being said, at least all of them were tied up. And the thing about this book is that it hurt my heart in some visceral way, but it also filled me up again. The number of times I laughed or smiled at something a character thought or said was too many times to count. If you want a book about grief and young love, with a big mystery and a fun supernatural element, I could not recommend this enough.

I think not everyone will have the experience of losing someone they loved romantically through death at a young age, as was the case in this book. I think almost everyone, however, will understand Hank's experience of not being able to have someone you love from a young age anymore. To have someone taken from you and your heart. Sometimes, our hearts don't want to let go but, as Hank said, "You're sixteen and I'm dead." Life never works out how we want it to.

I desperately want more from these characters. A prequel about the main characters falling in love? A Delia and Boyd story? Literally any plotline you could think of, I just want it so bad.

All I can say is that I devoured this book whole.

Lazarus is a book where the reader is on the edge of their seat! I love the way the author writes from each character's point of view as the twists and turns of the story intertwine together. I laughed and cried and could not put this book down! The writing is smart, descriptive, and spot-on a great mystery novel! A must read!

I love when this publisher releases and new book and have thoroughly enjoyed every single one of them. Unfortunately, Lazarus wasn't for me. The blurb and premise of the story sounded amazing but the execution didn't live up to it. I couldn't connect with the characters and found them both rather irritating. I hate when characters try to talk to the reader (as in let me tell you how I died....) This was a turn off for me and although I persevered, I ended up only reading the first 20% before I put the book down.

I really wanted to love this one as much as I have all the other books by this publisher, but it just wasn't to be.

Fun - ad funny - read! The mystery kept me turning pages. Paranormal element is light and deftly handled which will open the reading audience up to contemporary realistic fans.

CW: Some ableist language in ARC.

The plot: Margo and Hank are teen detectives (and boyfriend/girlfriend) in tiny, god-forsaken Lazarus, Nebraska. They have a profoundly deep relationship; the only hitch is that Hank has been dead for two months.

The pair team up to solve a local murder, with Margo doing the everyday gumshoe work and the late Hank spying on suspects unseen. At the same time, Margo attempts to solve the cold case of her mother’s murder seven years ago. As her quest becomes more perilous, Hank will try to protect her, anguished that he cannot do more as she finally battles the sinister forces that killed her mother.

Lazarus is a cute YA novel. I thought the teens were believable in a good way. The mystery was slightly unpredictable but also believable. It’s overall a good, easy read. I think fans of cozy mysteries will enjoy this book.

This book took me and shocked, suprised and wrapped me in a blanket of tears. A great story about the afterlife, letting go, lose and how to cope as the death and living. Each of the characters are so well written and the story doesn't let you go. The end is bittersweet and I expected it to end that way.
I like that we don't know how Margo will continue living, that way the reader can give her their own story.

Lazarus is a nice steady mystery that delves in to the toll solving it takes on the two protagonists. It's an easy read, a great escape for a few hours,

Lazarus's mystery is more about how it affects our dual protagonists than actually solving the mystery, which becomes a problem when both end up feeling fairly static.

Thanks to the publisher for providing a digital ARC of Lazarus in exchange for an honest review.

Though I absolutely adore the concept of Lazarus, I feel like the aspects the synopsis promised to highlight are where this actually fell flat.

Lazarus's mystery is more about how it affects our dual protagonists than actually solving the mystery, which becomes a problem when both end up feeling fairly static. Could I tell you anything significant about their personalities? Not really. Do I know what they love about each other that caused their "profoundly deep relationship"? Probably not.

It's a really cool concept, but Lazarus never really trusts the reader enough for it to work as a mystery, or even a romance story. You can't have either without clues and subtext and Lazarus refuses to do anything without explicitly stating exactly what's going on, why it's going on, and exactly what each of our protagonists thinks about it.

Veronica Mars meets Encyclopedia Brown for the digital age. Two teenage sleuths solves crimes in this clever caper sure to engross even cozy mystery fans