Books like Dead and Kicking

I loved the last two books in this series & I love this one too, but I'd be lying if I said that it didn't irritate me a little bit. Why? Well, I can't go into that without giving away mondo spoilers, but I'll try my hardest to explain.This book picks up about a year after the end of the previous book. Zack & Sadie have moved in together, but over the last few months they've been drifting apart. Sadie's dad just passed & she's been seeing his ghost at his house. If that's not enough, Zack's talking to an ex-girlfriend (who obviously still has the hots for him). When Sadie agrees to help clean out said ex's mother's house (the woman was a hoarder), Zack gets injured by a malice-filled ghost & Sadie discovers the corpse of a mummified baby...Where do I start with this book? First off, there's a new love interest introduced in this book. How do they introduce this character? By semi-assassinating the character of Zack Bowman. I say semi-assassinating because while Zack spends much of the book being a jerk, there is enough of a buildup to explain why he acts this way. It's just that honestly it all felt a little forced. It also doesn't help that the new love interest just isn't that interesting & his interactions with Sophie feels a little stiff & un-organic as well. I won't deny that I'm a little irritated that Roberts is introducing a love interest after seemingly wrapping up the "will they or won't they" plot point in the previous book, but I just didn't feel any real sparks between them. (And besides, I would have actually imagined Petrovich to be a better suited love interest for her- there are sparks between the two of them!) It also doesn't help that the plot point that introduced the two of them (a murder scene cleanup in a elementary school) felt really rough & unfinished. I can't help but wonder if Roberts' publishing company leaned on her to add a second love interest for Sadie- after all, such things aren't unheard of in the publishing world. (Patricia Briggs was pressured by her publishers to draw out the love triangle in her books.)Now what did I like about the book? I loved the amount of detail that Roberts puts in about the crime scene cleanup business & I loved the character of Maeve- she's honestly one of my favorite characters for the series. The suspense in this book was nicely done & as always, Roberts does a very good job at writing. It's just that this book didn't seem to "pop" like the other two books did.I will continue to buy & read Roberts' stuff as well as continue to recommend it to people, but I can't help but worry a little bit about the future of the series. This isn't a deal breaker, but one of the things I loved about Roberts' series was that the romance didn't seem like a big thing- that the mystery & ghost stuff were the main parts of the books. I guess all I can do is wait & watch.