A Review of Love Fang by Susan Blexrud

Can a handsome vampire and a beautiful dentist make love work? LOVE FANG is ablaze with zip, charm, suspense and romance. Susan Blexrud’s novels are so addictive that they are like a scrumptious chocolate cake, one bite, and you’re hooked!

Title: LOVE FANG
Category: Paranormal Romance
Reviewer: Michele R.
Reviewer Email: Deseng@crown.net
Author: Susan Blexrud
Publisher: DCL Publications
Release Date: November 2008
ISBN Number: E-book 978-1-921347-70-2
Author Homepage: http://www.susanblexrud.com/
Rating: 5 Fangs
Format: E-BOOK


John Wright, a devastatingly handsome vampire, is wracked with pain. One of his fangs is infected and it hurts like the dickens! His housekeeper, Doreen, contacts a dentist for him. Luck is on her side when she finds one that is open in the evening. He jokes that she had better not be a brunette with green eyes, but Doreen insists. Does John’s keen vampire sense suspect something?

Dr. Lauren Marsh, a gorgeous, compassionate woman, receives an emergency phone call to examine a man’s tooth. She is taken aback when her hormone’s leap to life at the sight of him in her office the following night. She rationalizes to herself that her life is way overdue for male companionship. Her dog, Smokey, provides company but heck, she needs some male bonding in her life. Her assistant, Rosetta, is wary of him when they first meet. She suspects something is amiss and wonders what’s up.

When John gets a whiff of Lauren’s scent, he realizes he is in trouble. Instantaneous reactions course through his body. He has to have his tooth taken care of but why does she have to be so beautiful and smell so good? He asks her out on a dinner date, and Lauren accepts without hesitation. What does the future hold for the couple who have enough sexual chemistry to light up Orlando, Florida?

Susan Blexrud’s story, LOVE FANG, is an amusing, gritty, fast-paced romantic tale of a vampire who falls for a lady dentist. John can’t stand the pain anymore in his infected fang so he has his brassy housekeeper, Doreen, find a dentist with evening hours. She is his all-around housekeeper with attitude to boot! When the pretty dentist works on his tooth, the close proximity of their bodies start their libidos dancing and more! It was fun to see how Lauren’s assistant, Rosetta and Doreen connive to get John and Lauren together! I loved Lauren’s little dog, Smokey. With his cute personality, he almost steals the show! Ms. Blexrud creates smart, amusing characters that bristle with believable sexual electricity. LOVE FANG is a wickedly delicious vampire tale that should not be missed!

A Review of Dead If I Do By Tate Hallaway

Ahhh, yet another series to add to my never ending list of must read books.

The Garnet Lacey series by Tate Hallaway seems to be quirky, different, and amusing all while showing us the foibles that tend to happen while walking on the darker side of life.

Dead If I Do is the fourth book in the Dead/Garnet Lacey series and the first book that I've read by Tate Hallaway. The other books in the series, which I must now add to my to-read list include Tall, Dark and Dead ; Dead Sexy ; and Romancing the Dead.

The main character is Garnet Lacey a Wiccan witch who is possessed by the dark Goddess Lilith who decided Garnet's body was a good place to take up residence. If Garnet gets upset or something crazy happens, Lilith will come out and she likes to cause damage.

Garnet is currently planning her wedding to her alchemist vampire fiance Sebastian who has a perpetual teenage dhampyr son her doesn't seem to like the thought of Garnet and Sebastian getting married. So he insists upon raising his dead zombie, witch mother turned vampire from her grave. She promptly curses Garnet and Sebastian's wedding which wreaks havoc on everything. The bridesmaid dresses get changed from stylish silver sheaths to salmon pink monstrosities with huge butt bows, the band cancels, the baker quits and the trouble just keeps coming. Add to that Garnet's own ex, Parrish shows up. She still has the wedding ring he gave her in her jewelry box. Yeesh! Oh and did I mention Garnet's parents, Minnesotan Norwegian decent hippie farmers are in town?

Dead If I Do is an interesting read full of twists, turns and OMG what is going to happen to this poor couple next anticipation? Will they ever make it to the altar or will the curse prevail?

I love how Hallaway adds in all the paranormal elements and the craziness that they cause but also throws in very real life situations that we all may face; like parents that don't share your opinions but want you to see their way of thinking, ex boyfriend/girlfriend issues that come up and the troubles they cause especially when you still have feeling for them or ties to them-like a child (Sebasitian's dhampyr son, who likes to get in the way and insists on living with Garnet and Sebastian). Then there are the complicated though welcome and worthy relationships with friends both near and far.

And you thought your wedding planning was a disaster. Poor Garnet gets hers cursed but still struggles on.

If you want to see paranormal characters dealing with very real life situations in addition to all the paranormal hoopla they have to face, this is a book for you. You'll love it.

Review of Lady Anne and The Howl in the Dark by Donna Lea Simpson

4 Fangs for Lady Anne
Reviewed by CC Butterfly

Lady Anne is traveling to see her friend Lydia after receiving a plea of help from her. What she encounters on the way and after she gets there is nothing she expected.

"What the devil are you?" a new voice demanded. "And do you always come visiting at all hours and covered in blood?"

Well, she knows how to make an entrance, huh?

Donna Lea Simpson has written a compelling tale reminiscent of traditional Gothic romances and left me wanting to read more of her books.

This thriller is set in England portraying the life of nobility living in the country. Two friends are separated by miles but they communicate through letters, one desperately afraid the other one desperate to help her friend.

It is believed that a werewolf haunts the Darkefell Estates and the twists and turns and even a little unexpected romance and murder make this an intriguing book. Simpson starts right out grabbing your attention from the first page. Then she keeps you wondering what's going to happen next. The biggest question throughout the book is "Is there an actual werewolf running around the estate?" Read the book to find out.

The characters are a great mixture of personalities some likable, one quite likable.

Once you start this book you won't want to put it down until you finish the very last page.

I was a little disappointed in the ending, it wasn't what I expected but perhaps Simpson will continue the story in another book.

A Review of Death's Daughter by Amber Benson

3 Fangs for Death's Daughter by Amber Bensen

If you are a fan of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer (sadly in rerun land now) you probably know Amber Bensen best as Tara, Willow's witchy girlfriend. I had to get this book just because of that, well that and it's a paranormal read. I guess Bensen has been pretty busy since leaving Buffy but this is the first time she's popped into my radar so I haven't read any of the series of novels she co wrote with Christopher Golden.

I started Death's Daughter several times but it didn't hold my attention so I kept putting it down as new more exciting books fell into my hands. It's not that it's a bad book, because it's not, the writing style isn't bad either. I just think the voice didn't fit into my head very well. The protagonist was not a fit for me as an older woman (and by older I don't mean ancient, I'm only in my 30s but I am nowhere close to being so self absorbed and materialistic as the young 20 something Calliope Reaper-Jones).

Death's Daughter opens with Calliope Reaper-Jones a normal young woman living in New York City (yuck) hoping to work her way into the the fashion world but is instead stuck in the Home and Garden sector. She bemoans her fate the whole time, complaining about her life with interspersed longing for shopping trips to buy trendy high fashion clothing. She rambles (and I do mean rambles) on and on about her everyday life...blah. blah..blah. Then suddenly there's a dragon guarding the entrance to her building....what??? Then other weird things happen and suddenly there's a half man half goat (?) joining her in the ladies room at work telling her that her father has been kidnapped.

Suddenly it all comes rushing back to her, thanks to goat boy-Jarvis. She is Death's Daughter and now it's her job to take over Death Inc, deal with the devil and find her father. She had placed a forgetting spell on herself so she could live a normal life and not be part of her magical one. Boo Hoo. God, Calliope she bitches about her normal world and about her real one. She isn't happy with anything. Oh boo hoo I am immortal and it sucks! I am sick of that shtick. That got old after the 7th or 8th Anne Rice vampire novel (and no I am so NOT dissing Anne Rice, that is where my whole obsession with vampires started).

The whole book is a bit wishy washy in that teenager-young twenties melodrama stuff. All the things that make glad I am not that young anymore (if I ever was) and makes me want to stick a fork in my eye instead of dealing with many young people like that. Anyway, that's how the character in this book comes off with a little more substance and backbone but still not someone I'd want to hang with.

I think the whole New York, materialistic, label name dropping, and designer crap turned me off.

I did finally finish the book though. Pretty standard finish, kinda expected most of it. A few twists and turns I didn't see coming but the rest was uh huh and?

To be fair I think I am in a totally bitchy mood today because I don't feel good and I am taking it out on this poor book. Sorry, Amber. Sorry book.

To be honest I did not totally hate it. I finally got engrossed in it about half way through it just took longer than usual to hook me. I love books that grab me on the first page. To be really candid though, Kim Harrison's first Rachel book, Dead Witch Walking didn't grab me right away either. It took a chapter or two to pull me in, thankfully I kept at it because now the Hollows is one of my most favorite series ever.

Anyway, back to Death's Daughter. It was worth the read, but I won't be scrambling to read the rest of the books in the series. I am sure many die hard Buffy fans will probably skewer me for this review. Sorry guys. I love Buffy but I can't totally love the book just because an actress that played a role on the show wrote it.

OK, I am off to take more medicine and work on not being cranky. Fat chance at that today.