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• **** "Viva Las Vampires" by Jennifer Ashley.
  Meredith Black is writing her second nonfiction book about vampires (which she doesn't believe exist), and visits the Transylvania Castle as part of her research. So when owner Stephan Erickson invites her up to his penthouse, she assumes it's for an interview.
  
  Stephan, however, is a vampire, and he believes Meredith is the one who'll become his blood slave and restore his power.
  
  It was an entertaining story, but I had some trouble relating to Meredith. She waffles back and forth too much, and at the end, she's all sad about something it's in her power to change.
  
  
• ****½ Bring Out Your Dead by Katie MacAlister.
  Ysabelle is a zombie counselor with a French-mangling spirit guide named Sally. As if that weren't enough to ensure chaos, Dark One (vampire) Sebastian has informed her that she's his Beloved (soulmate). But Sebastian has a past with Ysabelle's friend Noelle, and he's out for revenge, part of which he's planning on taking out on a teenage vampire. Plus, due to various factors, there's extra paranormal activity at the moment.
  
  So Ysabelle is under attack from all directions--trying to keep "her" zombies from degenerating, convince Sebastian he's mistaken, protect the teenage vampire, save her friendship with Noelle, deal with the influx of imps, all punctuated with Sally's frustrating and inconvenient advice, delivered in pseudo-French.
  
  I'm not doing a good job of explaining the sheer chaos surrounding Ysabelle. Just when she's making headway on one issue, three things happen on other fronts while she's distracted. It's kind of like watching a roomful of toddlers, where as soon as you pull one down from climbing the curtains, one's playing in the cat box and another is stuck between chair rungs, and a fight is breaking out in the corner. In other words, a fast-paced, fun story.
  

• ***½ Lucy and the Crypt Casanova by Minda Webber.
  Lucy Campbell is the host of the Twilight Zone talk show--paranormal journalistic fluff. But she wants to be taken seriously as a journalist, so when she discovers there's a dangerous Ka Incubus in town, she pursues the story.
  
  Much to the frustration of her ex, vampire detective Valmont DuPonte, who's on the case and knows how much danger she's in.
  
  From this perspective, Lucy didn't deserve the respect she wants--she blunders into situations and might as well paint a target on herself. She's the kind of stubbornly TSTL heroine you find in horror movies--naively certain that whatever happens, she'll be okay, just because she wants it to be. On the plus side, the story took place in San Antonio, which was a nice treat.

Labels: 3.5 stars, 4 stars, 4.5 stars, books, ParanormalRomance

// posted by Darla @ 5/10/2008 11:34:00 AM