New Vamp, Needs a Job

source: http://books.google.com/

Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs
Publisher: Pocket Star
Author: Molly Harper

If I pick up a book and it doesn't grab me right away, I will download the electronic version from my library's website and load it onto my cell phone. Books on my cell phone help me pass the time away at the service centers, doctors' office, restaurants, and other times when I am without my knitting to keep me busy.

You know those times, when I find myself uttering "I can't get this hour of my life back."

Usually, it takes a few weeks to get through a book in this format.
First, I have the excitement for reading a new book and then the let down when I realize that I have read this character type already. This story gave me that "I have read this before" feeling initially.
I did have to pick the book up a few times to get through it after my initial disappointment...

What happens when a children's librarian becomes one of the blood thirsty undead?

Jane Jameson followed all the goals she created for herself.

1. Complete highschool with high grades from Half Moon Hollow and attend college elsewhere.
2. Put all those brains to work by obtaining master's degree in library science.
3. Demonstrate your skills by organizing a thriving young readers program in your hometown's public library.

What could go wrong?
How about being fired from said job and replaced by the town pyromaniac?
Or getting sloppy drunk at the local bar using your severance gift certificate?
And finally dying in a drive-by shooting from a blind-drunk deer hunter after falling face-first into a ditch?
In that span of time when the dying Jane reflected on her life and its inevitable, undignified death, she is given a chance at un-death by a mysterious stranger.

This is her story

Jane has a slightly caustic sense of humor tempered with Southern hospitality. Like any vampire book reader, I find the sharp-tongued heroine to be literary joy-stealers. They are so prevalent in the genre that I just don't care to know why they are so contrary. While not an original character flaw, in this book I found her taunts, barbs, and sarcasm to be very entertaining. Read it for yourself.
Jane on taking a job at her mother's place of employment:

..Mama took at part-time job at A Stitch in Time, a shop that sold fabric and quilting supplies. In the five years she had worked there, I'd received quilted vests for every birthday and Christmas.

I hope this gives you some idea of what I was dealing with.

I couldn't visit my mother at the shop for more than a few minutes at a time. I had allergic reactions to fabric sizing and old women asking me when I was going to settle down. Working there would be my damnation to whatever circle of hell is dedicated to busybodies and fabric artists. 

The book has many colorful characters. Zeb the male best friend. Gabriel the sexy, mysterious vampire sire. Dick Cheney, Gabriel's foil. Andrea the blood surrogate. Missy the aggressive vampire realtor. The mother she "lives" to disappoint. The father who honored her with the horrible middle name. The sister that pretends she does not exist (even before her death). The grandmother who loves all of her husbands to their horrible deaths. And the ghost of a dead aunt who wears funny slogan t-shirts in her spirit form.
The story follows:

Jane and Gabriel's efforts to forge a relationship beyond that of child and master.

Jane's negotiations with her family regarding the delicate nature of inheritance property when the dearly departed doesn't have the good sense to remain dead.

Jane's complicated efforts of learning the intricacies of the vampire community while being accused of vampire murder and debauchery.

Good for Jane that she is a practical new vampire.
For example, when she receives bottled blood from a stranger she checks the safety seal before drinking it.
She is going to be all right.

I did enjoy this little novel by Molly Harper.
It gave me tons to laugh over and an atypical mystery for a vampire romance novel. The author wove a long story with clues just about everywhere.
Once I let go of my expectations for the book, I found a hilarious story I couldn't put down or wait until the sequel.

This of course was difficult for me since I had loaded the book onto my cell phone. I found myself reading it in bed, at red lights, during my lunch hour, and during the short walk to my office from my car.
According to the author's website there are three current books and a fourth book planned.

My score = B-

From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris

This is another installment of the Sookie Stackhouse series, a series which spawned the creation of True Blood on HBO, by the way. Now, I started watching True Blood when it first began and I was totally sucked in...get it? hee hee hee... Anyway, I put off reading the books for awhile because, as we all know, the books and movies/television series that are based off of books never align properly. I liked the show too much to risk 'ruining' it by reading the series...until after the second series when I finally broke down and started reading them. I'm not going to spout off about which is better, that's rather irrelevant for this forum and for my own part, I like them both.

The thing about the Sookie books is that the main character is, well rather annoying. The stories are good but Sookie just irritated the hell out of me. The whole whiny, bad things happen and it's really not my fault, and inability to accept responsibility was just irksome all the way around. However, this book finally shows us a maturing Sookie who, while she is still prone to tantrums and whining, at least recognizes that she is being silly or overreacting, etc. This more fully developed Sookie does have several adventures (gosh being a bartender in a small town is rough!) per usual.

So, we have issues with the local Were community (attempted takeover) that Sookie finds herself stuck in the middle of. We have issues with the vampire community (successful takeover) that Sookie is again smack dab in the middle of and we also have sidelines with Tanya, Sookie's brother Jason, her roommate(s) and Bob the former cat, and to top it off, Sookie meets her Fae great-grandfather and her cousin Hadley's child (who appears to have the same abilities as Sookie).

The storyline is, as always, entertaining and fast paced. I found myself tearing through this book and that dreaded "just a few more pages" that turns into "oh crap it's 6am already!" definitely popped up. The Sookie books, as a whole, are all similar in that way. Most of the stories I've finished in a day and even when Sookie is acting like a total 'tard I still look forward to reading the next...

Overall the Sookie Stackhouse novels are a fun read. They aren't terribly deep or challenging but the are perfect for light entertainment. I am definitely excited to see what happens with this new, wiser Sookie.

PS--the third season of True Blood starts in a couple of weeks so I'm not sure when I will be reading the next book in this series...

A Bloody Job Under the Moon

Hey O-Gluers!

Are you ready for this?  It's a TWO-FER!

I read A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore AND Under the Blood Red Moon by Mina Hepsen.

So, yeah, it won't be double the length, because it's already 10:30 and I want to go to bed at a reasonable time.

Ok, so A Dirty Job is great.  I like it a lot.  It's funny, self-effacing, witty, and weird.  Charlie Asher becomes a minion of death, which means he collects the objects people put their souls into when they die.  And then evil creatures are trying to take over San Francisco.  There's lots of back story and fun stuff happening and interesting characters.  I don't feel like talking about it.  It is my assertion that the greater majority of the readers of this blog have either read books by Christopher more or in fact read this very book.  So, I'm really not concerned about rehashing the plot.

I just want to ask.  Is it ok for a writer to intentionally niche himself?  Moore writes books that have a similar flavor.  They all have flashy covers, goofy protagonists, and supernatural themes.  So it's an equation that works for him.  So many writers do this, and I'm not sure that I like it.  I mean, he's good at it, so he should keep doing it right?  Or should he try to push himself as a creator of imaginary worlds?  Or are most writers limited to a niche by the type of talent they have?  Because I don't think Moore would have sold many books with poetry, or memoir, or serious novels.

He's a goofball.  And you have to love him, or at least let him amuse you. Like a court jester:

Right on cue.

So, on to Under the Blood Red Moon.

Not a bad first dip into the chilly pool of paranormal romance.  Not a bad go round.  So, it's ridiculous, I mean we have a half Russian princess half English nobility lady named Angelica.  She doesn't really want to get married, but wevs, she has to support her brother with the heart condition ( I don't know why this was necessary except to provide additional dramaz to the part of the book where people were getting drained of blood by rouge vampires and the brother was freaking out.)

So, Angelica is looking for a hub-sand.  Wooo.  But it's HARD FOR HER because she can read minds.  She can hear what everyone is thinking.  All around her.  It makes it hard for her to go to balls, because it makes her crazy and woozy.  And so she hid behind a bush.  Because that made it better.  Sheesh, bushes stop the mind reading.  There's GOT to be a good innuendo in there somewhere.  All of a sudden, she sees this captivating guy.  Woah.  Come to find out, he reads minds too.  So she's ceaselessly attracted to him and has to find out all about him. She meets him and he shows her how to block out all the voices from her mind.  It's like night and day.  One day she is crippled socially, the next day she's gallivanting about and all because of this charming irresistible dude who changed her life... blah blah blah.

Obviously, he's like a 500 year-old vampire.  They flirt around for about half the book.  He's looking for a slayer and the rouge vampire.  She is trying marry this human guy but she can't get Alexander out of her head. We get to the last 1/4 of the book before anyone has any sex at all.  For all the skin and lips on the cover there really should have been dozens of sex scenes.  But they do the nasty once (at the end of a vampire ceremony), and because in 18th century England there are no rubbers, she's showing the next day.  Well, she's showing this sooper secret mark that tells you and everyone reading something REALLY IMPORTANT.  But I'm now going to tell you, because I don't want to deny you the scentilating last 15 pages of the book where the author scrambles to have a final fight scene, marry everyone off, and explain all the prophesies that were fulfilled in the making of this baby.  Seriously, packed a lot in there at the end, not entirely comfortably.

Anyways, lacking on the sex, but not a bad story.  Although, from a feminist perspective, Angelica was screwed until she got screwed by sooooper old vampire uber alpha male.  No way she was going to save herself or enjoy life without a man.  Just not an option.  Some of the plot devices were really transparent.  Like, "I see what you did there, Hepsen."  Get this, Mina Hepsen is a pen name.  The author's real name is Hande Zapsu from Turkey. Personally, I don't see how Mina Hepsen is really all that much better than Hande Zapsu.  Zapsu is kind of an awesome last name.  Zap.  Zapsu.

Righto. That's that about that.  I've got a couple more PR books from the library.  It's going to get magical in here.  Enjoy your week, Okra-Gs.

Archangels can kiss me anytime

I must admit it. Paranormal romance is amazing. 
I really love Vampire books.  Blood and sex ~ sounds like a hell of a party.  I am getting into werewolf books. I like pack thinking.   Biting definitely belongs in romance.  Alien saga novels are quaint but not exciting.  But angel books have potentials. 

Archangel's Kiss continues the story of the Guild Hunters saga as its the third story. 
The heroine of Angel's Blood, Elena Devereaux has transmorphed physically.  Her relationship with the archangel, Raphael, will define her continued existence. These major life changes thrust our pale headed hunter into a tricky world of angel politics and culture. 
It is a hell of a tale.

This review will spoil the reader for the Angel's Blood.  the events take place one year after the conclusion of that novel.  I will try to lessen the effect of the spoilers. 

In Angel's Blood, we meet Elena Deveraux who  is hunter born. She can scent vampires. A necessary skill as a guild hunter, a bounty hunter for vampires. In this world, vampires are enslaved to the angels that crossed them over for one hundred years. Many do not like the arrangement. The guild hunters retrieve runaway vamps for their angel masters.
This video should explain everything (if you know German)...

There you go.  A recap of the first book. 

In this book, Elena wakes from a year long coma and must learn to walk, fight, and fly.  Yes, she wakes up as an angel.  And she has to attend angel school with angel children.

I like Elena.  She doesn't make a series of stupid or bad decisions. She isn't so head strong that she ignores the advice of those smarter than herself. Kudos to Nalina Singh, the author for not turning her into a bitch full of "why the fuck did she do that"  moments.  

The author must have a degree in fashion design.  She explains angel couture in ways that made me imagine her wearing the garments as she wrote the book.  As a girl, I paid close attention to footwear descriptions, even when they contained references to knives and blades. 


There are a set number of archangels in this world.  There are always the Cadre of Ten.  At the end of Angel's Blood, the ten has been reduced to nine.  The lesser angels are expecting to position themselves to be raised to archangel status while the Nine consider the sanity of its oldest member, Lijuan.  Lijuan has organized a ball in Elena's honor.  The mystery behind Lijuan's graciousness and her necromantic hobbies means that Elena will need to be strong by the time of the party.  In addition, to the looming party, there is the inevitable power plays by the lesser angels who see Elena as Raphael's Achilles heel.  They strike out against her as she prepares her body and mind to live amongst angels. 

Singh doesn't lay out good and evil for the reader. Good and evil are related to history and nostalgia.  Ignore it.  Think morality and ethics.  Imagine the morality of a 2000 year old angel and a 50 year old angel.  Power gains with age while the angels ability to empathize with humans lessens.
In the relationship between Elana and Raphael, her archangel lover, the age differences is more than 2500 years.  He is a powerful archangel, she is a fledgling angel who can barely fly.  I loved where this went.  Singh wrote her as a warrior not some pretty pale haired angel.  She didn't not take anything away form Elena in this book.

This is how the story begins.
In angel culture, the two angels would relate as fledgling to headmaster. The other angels refer to Elena as Raphael's pet.  In human culture, they would be man and woman.  Perhaps, soulmates.  Can Elena wrap her head around these Alpha and submissive roles? Can Raphael accommodate her need to be loved as an equal? And where is she going to keep her weapons hidden in her wing modified clothing? 

Singh loves her readers because she spends time with the couple as they develop their relationship.

In addition to the Cadre of Ten, to which Raphael belongs, he has his own group of Seven warriors whom he trusts with his life.   We met the blue winged angel, Illium in the previous book.  Singh, has a weakness for a man's eyelashes.  She projected that weakness onto Illium. He must have the sexiest eyelashes in literary history.  The other six members of his Seven make an appearance in this book.  The Seven include both sexy vampires and sexier angels.  Yummy.   I am hoping there will be more exploration of the Seven in succeeding books. 

I can't end this review without admitting the following.  I was anxious to read some high flying angel sex scenes.  You can look for them yourself.  I am not telling anything.


You can find an excerpt here but be careful, this is the second book of the series.

Murky Tale of a Super Minority: The Gilda Stories

When I read a review of Jewelle Gomez's The Gilda Stories, I had great hopes for it.  Where else have you ever encountered a black, feminist, female, lesbian vampire?  Where else have these adjectives come together into a story of meaningful interactions between immortal beings?  Please, give me some other examples.  I was under the impression (based on this dubious review) that this book was a well hidden gem of a novel, obscured from public view by more "popular" vampire tales, like Twilight.  Ha!

The Gilda Stories is not a bad book.  I have read much worse books.  However, I would not recommend this book to anyone.  The entire first chapter refers to the protagonist as the Girl.  Capital "G".  (Personally, I think a capital in this sense is a tired literary technique of drawing attention to a character.  But the entire chapter is about the Girl... so why force the reader to be shocked by the word Girl so often... totally unnecessary and, frankly, ungrammatical.)  The writing in the first chapter is also aggravatingly murky.  I had to reread paragraphs.  Now, I know in some instances rereading is necessary, like when you are reading philosophy.  Rereading paragraphs in a novel should not happen unless you are rereading the entire novel.  I just couldn't get what Gomez was trying to say the first time.  Yeah, I remember thinking during the first chapter that I might not make it.

So, the girl, or pardon, the Girl is a run away slave in 1850 who gets adopted by lesbian vampires (vampires seem to be capable of playing for any team they feel like).  The one vampire is called Gilda... but then goes to true death, so the Girl becomes Gilda (thank god).  There are something like 8 chapters, and they are all pretty long. (And you know how I feel about long chapters.)  But each one is set in a different age and place. (Because vampires are immortal, ya dig?)  So, we get to see American history develop through Gilda's eyes.  It's vaguely interesting.  And her interactions with other vampires are vaguely interesting.  And the writing was decidedly less murky after the "Girl" nonsense was over.  And there was a bit in the middle where they were trying to trap a rogue vampire named Fox that was truly entertaining.

But mostly it was exhausting.  Every chapter was in a different time, a different place, Gilda would have a different profession (hair dresser, brothel owner, jazz singer, author, etc).  And you would have to read several pages to know where her friends and lovers were and whether they were okay or not.  It's a lot of work for the reader.  A lot of thinking.  Puzzling.  Not quite understanding this particular version of vampire mythology.  There was a nice part of it.  The good vampires were able to leave some thing with their victims in return for the gift of blood, like a good feeling, good dreams, help with decisions, a mental push in the right direction.    It was a nice sentiment.

After the chapter where Gilda was a world famous writer, the writing, (ironically?) started to go downhill again.  Plus, the dates started to plunge into the future, 2020, 2050... yeah, it got a little ridiculous.  You could tell Gomez was trying to tie the book up nice.  She mostly managed to tie it up oddly.  Suddenly, there's Hunters (again with the caps, gah!) who trap vampires and use their blood to make rich greedy people live forever.  And the world has been ruined, people are moving Off-world.  She escapes the Hunters and moves to South America.  It's real cute.  They vampires will save the world.  Whoop-ti-do.

Like I said, it wasn't a bad book, but the same concept could have been done a lot better.  The black, feminist, female, lesbian vampire needs another chance, far away from an author who is trying to be profound.  And the sex scenes weren't even that good.  And while I still would have rather read this than Twilight, I think I would at least have a handle on what was going on in Twilight.  This is what I get for believing books reviews written by random bloggers... hmmm. =)

So long and thanks for all the fish!

Dancing with Werewolves by Carole Nelson Douglas

"It was the revelation of the millennium: witches, werewolves, vampires, and other supernaturals are real. Fast-forward thirteen years: TV reporter Delilah Street used to cover the small-town bogeyman beat back in Kansas, but now, in high-octane Las Vegas--which is run by a werewolf mob--she finds herself holding back the very gates of Hell. At least she has a hot new guy and one big bad wolfhound to help her out..."


First things first I have to warn you, there is absolutely no dancing with werewolves in this book. There is a brief scene in which our heroine dances with a (maybe?) vampire but that's it. I guess you really shouldn't judge a book by its cover, er title...

In this book, we are introduced to Delilah Street, so named for the street she was supposedly found on. Yep, we got us an orphan heroine so we know already that the mystery of her origins is going to come into play at some point (yawn). We get periodic flashbacks that offer glimpses into her childhood, she was raised in group homes with mean vampire/would be rapist boys and strange dreamlike impressions of painful penetration by some kind of metallic thing. This gives some meat to her early description (by a would be suitor-vampire) as 'frigid'.
Normally the back story wouldn't be that important this early but as the cataclysmic event that drives Delilah from Kansas to Las Vegas happens early on, it's useful to know. So, let's move onto the story itself shall we?

After a hard day of reporting on bloated, internally dissolved cows, Delilah heads home to watch a CSI-like program based out of Las Vegas. At the end of the show there is a cameo of a corpse who is a dead-ringer (pun intended) for Delilah. Worrisome isn't it? Could this be a long lost twin? Who is that woman with the maggot in her nose? Unfortunately Delilah has a date coming over so she can't investigate...yet.
Delilah's date is with a vampire coworker, he's the news anchor, and it doesn't go well. It goes so horribly wrong that he manages to steal her spot at the station and turn the weather girl (weather witch) against her. Delilah finds herself demoted at work and goes home to find her cabin/cottage reduced to splinters from a freak tornado that only touched down at that particular spot. What can she do but pack up to go to Las Vegas to track down the corpse extra from the television program? (As opposed to, I don't know, fighting for her job and maybe finding a new place to live in town??)

So Delilah heads off to Vegas where she promptly meets Ric, a dowser for the dead, who promptly gets his arms around her to show her how to dowse for water, which promptly leads to a psychic awakening in Delilah as they discover a murdered couple, dating back 40 years or so. Oh yea, it's all erotically charged and they sort of dry hump right then and there. 'Cause nothing is hotter than bludgeoned corpse visions right?
Ric also has a tip for her to get in to Hector's (producer of that CSI show with the dopplganger corpse) fortress-like home. She gets in, he thinks she's the corpse, who actually was a corpse and he then offers her a place to live on the grounds. Huh?
After a whirlwind exploration of Vegas and acquiring a giant wolfhound, Delilah is set upon by not one, but two gangs of would-be collectors. Apparently her resemblance to the corpse is enough to make people want to kidnap her to rent her out and/or kill her again on film. M'Kay...
So naturally Delilah moves in with Hector. Meanwhile she is starting her own PI business, gotta figure out who those corpses were right?

Quick sum up: we have a woman who has her latent psychic powers awakened by a man. She requires the protection of a man, to save her from other men who want to collect her. Oh, and she has a huge dog.

So Delilah heads off to track down the origins of these corpses, mixing in with all sorts of supernaturals in the process. We have the albino vampire (maybe?) who seems to be helpful. At any rate he tricked her into accepting a talisman that seems to track and protect her. We have the werewolf casino owner/mafia boss who kidnaps her to force her into a magic show. We have the magician and his creepy fae assistants. The magician helps her develop her special mirror walking ability while the fae assistants try to kill her, then help her escape instead. Meanwhile, she discovers that the female half of the corpse couple that she found with Ric was the daughter of the man who kidnapped her. Whew!

Sum up squared: Gets kidnapped. Discovers another latent ability with the help of yet another man. Runs back to Hector's safe house.

The bulk of the book focuses on the developing relationship she has with Ric. They even get to the point of sex. She can't lay back because of the trauma of her nightmares so to make it easier on her, she loses her virginity doggie-style. WTF?? Ouch! Good thing they are in love...already...

Towards the end Delilah goes back to the casino to get proof (via a photo) that the female corpse really is dudes daughter. By then she is speculating that the man was a vampire since in those days the vampire/werewolf war was in full swing (If you're wondering why I haven't mentioned that before it's because is so shrouded in mystery that there isn't anything to say about it). Guess what happens next! Go on, I'll wait...that's right, she gets captured again. This time it isn't going to be all fun and games like being forced into a stage magician show though, nope, this time they are going to take her out into the hills for hunting.
So she's out in the boonies in a houseful of werewolves and after some debate as to whether or not they ought to sell her or pimp her, she is set 'free' to run so they can hunt her down and kill her. Finally we get to see Delilah taking action! Oh wait, it's our albino vampires' (maybe?) talisman that gets her off the porch and a bit of a head start. So she's running, and running, and running (seriously, head start or no, who stays ahead of a wolf??) when, miraculously, she runs into Ric! Ric whips out his gun and starts shooting her pursuers, telling her to keep going...such a hero and all right? (gag) Finally she is cornered and (gasp!) she discovers another latent talent, all by herself even! She surrounds herself with ghost wolves which keeps her attackers at bay (heh, get it?) until the zombies show up to tear the werewolves limb from limb.
Wait a second here, where the 'eff did the zombies come from? Oh, look, there's Ric...not only can he find the dead apparently he can raise them as well! Yea for super powers!

Sum up cubed: Gets caught again, by the same bad guys as before. Discovers yet another hidden talent (all by herself even!). Gets rescued by a man.

After all that Delilah heads back to Hector's. And then...the story just ends!



So ultimately we have a heroine who is a weak, sexually repressed, co-dependent mess. She managed to alienate her audience (me) with all of her internal whining and the obliviousness of her actions. Toward the end of the book I was starting to hope that she would just die and get it over with...after all, how many times can one woman really expect to be rescued?? The only reason I finished it was because I wanted to find out what the deal was with the dead couple. Imagine my irritation when the story ends with nothing more than the identity of the woman. Seriously?? All that build up and it's just left as a cliffhanger?

I could deal with the identity of the CSI corpse left undiscovered, I didn't need to have the origins of Delilah's super-duper powers spelled out but I think I deserved a bit of closure in the 'mystery' that drove the storyline! Suffice to say, I will not be reading the next installment.

Verdict: Story FAIL.

Not Today or Even on Doomsday

Okra and Glue
Lori Handeland's Any Given Doomsday
I found wrote this review for a knitting forum back in January.
Not sure where to start.......
We meet a Elizabeth Phoenix, a psychic ex-cop who was raised in a foster home and has a huge chip on her shoulder.
Original… You were thinking that, right?
Now, I like urban fantasy and this was a great read. But the woman in me was left feeling abused by this story.  The not-quite feminist, quasi-liberal, closet conservative woman in me.

First, Phoenix’s foster mother is murdered and through her death she passes on these super special powers.
That was okay, I guess..
Dramatic event leads to serious life changes.  I watch Criminal Minds, I get it.

She cannot access this power and requires the aid of a MAN to help her become the ass kicking uberpsychic she was foretold to become. I don’t mean in some mystical Native American ritualistic manner. Because being left in the wilderness with just a knife is lame....

Oh wait, did I mention that she must seek out the incredibly handsome and underclothed Sawyer, a mysterious Native American skinwalker for psychic accession? Ever hear the story about the magical minority? Cliche’
So she leaves her job as a part-time waitress in a cop bar to go cross country.
If you are thinking sweat huts or smoking pipes, get your mind in teh gutter. That is right, he screws her so that she can become the One.

Besides, she really needed to get laid anyway and she mentions several times how long she has been without sex.
Guess what? As STD’s goes she has a problem. She is an empath and when she sexes up someone she gains their powers. See where this is going?

Every man in her life is an enigma. She can’t tell if they are good or bad so she screws them. Despite this clever tactic, somehow she manages to remain a sarcastic bitch to them even after she screws them.
Let’s talk about sex.
Sex kills. Sex enlightens. Sex enslaves. Sex empowers. Sex heals.
Seriously. She gets her sex on in this story and so do the male leads. Besides Sawyer there is Jimmy. A dampir, a human and vampire hybrid. Jimmy became her first love and her foster brother when they were kids. BTW, as it goes this dhampir has daddy issues.  Creepy…

When she encounters a Berserker, an angry bear-like warrior killer, in her bedroom….

…he rose. And rose. and rose. Yep, naked all the way down to his toes - a particularly long distance since I put him in the vicinity of six seven. And the adage of about big feet, big - well you know the one - this guy appeared to have invented it,

Overall the men help her, ignore her, use her and then disappear throughout the book.
After the big battle with the Jimmy’s blood-sucking relatives, does she regroup and meet with the other warriors for good? Hell no. She goes back to bartending. WTF!!!!

I really did not like Liz, sexually habits aside, she was a selfish, hard-headed bitch who walks into really obviously bad situations despite being a former cop and it worried me that she will whore herself to every supernatural creature in order to achieve the power needed to stop the apocalypse.

Did I forget to mention the fairy?

Dhampirs Need Love, Too.

Hey Okra lovers

As you may know, I tend to avoid violence. I am not entertained by it on the TV, the screen, my life or in a book. Science fiction violence on the other hand, completely entertains me.
I really like vampire violence. Their ability to fly and tone their killer skills for centuries usually makes them invincible. I am not one of those people who want to meet or be a vampire. I do not think that they exist. Zombies on the other hand scare the bejeebus out of me.

I had first heard about hybrid vampires creatures when I watched my first Blade movie. After that I read the Vampire Huntress series. The heroine’s womb is coveted by high ranking vampires. She is the only person on Earth that can bear a daywalker. I read the first four books before the mythology had my head spinning.

I went on to read the first three books of the Dark Series about the Carpathian vampires who are really not vampires. They are blood drinkers, yes, but not undead. Although their race is on the verge of extinction, they can have children and in the few books that I read the males were seeking out human mates. I stopped reading them when I realized that the author had an affinity for using the word “velvet.” I remember the days of the velvet paintings and I did not want to have those images pop in my head every time I read a chapter.

Anyway, I was intrigued by all the manifestations of half human and half vampire people.
Unfortunately, I watched Bloodrayne with high expectations of following a new day-walker. But she was called a dhampir. Despite the A-list and B-list actors the movie sucked cabbage, and I love Billy Zane in everything. There was so much cabbage sucking took place that I am confident to write “someone lost a bet.”

I wanted to scrub my eyes after watching the sex scene. Kristana Loken should be ashamed of the sounds she makes on screen.

The Night Huntress novels by Jeaniene Frost introduced me to a kick-ass dhampir with daddy issues. She lives to please her mother and earn her love but until she bleeds out her vampire blood, her mother will not truly accept her. I loved her and cannot get enough. What daughter doesn’t wonder if her mother is proud of her? How often has a mother told a daughter that she hates her boyfriend even those who are not demon-spawned vampires? I get her. I like her.

So, when I saw this book at the library last December, I had to read it.


The jacket read “Dorina Basarab is a dhampir—half-human, half-vampire. Subject to uncontrollable rages, most dhampirs live very short, very violent lives. So far, Dory has managed to maintain her sanity by unleashing her anger on those demons and vampires who deserve killing.”

I was hooked. I read the book in three days (I still had hooking and knitting to do). Dory is amazing. I liked the first person narrative but her descriptions of the fight scenes are incredibly confusing. The book is in the same world as the Cassie Palmer series which I have not read. I followed along just fine without the backstory. Even so, I will read the short story of Dory’s roommate in On the Prowl. The story introduces Dory and a reader can absorb some of the action in Midnight’s Daughter easier by reading the Cassie Palmer books. I had a few WTF moments that I could have avoided.

Dory is prone to blackouts. On one hand, as a literary technique it makes the author look lazy. On the other hand, I understood Dory’s coping mechanism a lot better. She has more than just Daddy issues. She has serious gaps in her memory that haunt her. Then she starts to have these flashback visions after drinking wine. I know. I was surprised, too. After living for 500 years, she still cannot hold her alcohol.

Her vampire kin wants to kill her on sight. Her roommate is missing. And she has just been summoned by her long lost father.
Leia had some Daddy issues....
In the first chapters she asserts to herself that she is independent of her father’s influence and is getting along just fine living in on her own working as a bad vampire killer. As the novel progresses, I understood that her relationship with her father has more layers than an onion. Dory wants us to believe that in order to find her missing roommate/best friend she will capitalize on her father’s need to have Dracula killed in exchange for his assistance. Nothing more….. Even though, the job is near impossible to complete, I wanted to believe her. In reality, she wants to rid herself the rages caused by her father’s cursed blood; she wants to define her role in the vampire world; and she wants to be recognized for it. I also thinks she wants to flirt with the sexy Master Vampire Louis-Cesare a little, too. She should just focus on killing Dracula.

At the end of the book, I giggled to myself thinking “this girl is an addict and doesn’t even know it.”