Review by Ronny
Series Name: Jane Jameson, # 1
Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs is a fun paranormal romance.
Favourite Quote:
Sparks. Hell, fireworks. The Fourth of July was exploding in my head as he slipped his hands under my jaw and pinned me with his mouth. When he pulled away from me, my hands were wound in his hair, my lips bruised and tingling pleasantly.
Book Synopsis:
Maybe it was the Shenanigans gift certificate that put her over the edge. When children’s librarian and self-professed nice girl Jane Jameson is fired by her beastly boss and handed twenty-five dollars in potato skins instead of a severance check, she goes on a bender that’s sure to become Half Moon Hollow legend. On her way home, she’s mistaken for a deer, shot, and left for dead. And thanks to the mysterious stranger she met while chugging neon-colored cocktails, she wakes up with a decidedly unladylike thirst for blood.
Jane is now the latest recipient of a gift basket from the Newly Undead Welcoming Committee, and her life-after-lifestyle is taking some getting used to. Her recently deceased favorite aunt is now her ghostly roommate. She has to fake breathing and endure daytime hours to avoid coming out of the coffin to her family. She’s forced to forgo her favorite down-home Southern cooking for bags of O negative. Her relationship with her sexy, mercurial vampire sire keeps running hot and cold. And if all that wasn’t enough, it looks like someone in Half Moon Hollow is trying to frame her for a series of vampire murders. What’s a nice undead girl to do?
Review:
This book was a hoot and a half to read! If you are a fan of the Sookie Stackhouse, aka the True Blood series, then give this book/series a try. There are slightly similar vibes between the two. In the world that Molly has created, vampires, werewolves, and other paranormal beings have come out to the world, and now there is this slightly uneasy truce that has settled over society. Unlike the True Blood series, this world has a lighter, funnier tone to it. Like Sookie, the main heroine in this series, meets a vampire for the first time and her world is turned completely upside down. Now, where this book differs from the True Blood series is that Jane, the heroine, is actually turned into a vampire by Gabriel, her main love interest. The circumstances surrounding her decision to be turned are comically funny and something that would only happen in romance land. So, where Sookie was interacting with the paranormal world as an outsider, Jane finds herself a part of this world and has to learn how to live within it.
This book is bonkers and wild in the most delightful way. It is intended to be a fun read that gently pokes fun at darker paranormal romances. I really do applaud the author for taking a chance and pushing those traditional boundaries that often define what a paranormal romance is. This book and series could have been a big miss, but in my opinion, this book is a huge success and does a great job at injecting satire in what is normally a more serious, darker sub-genre. The dialogue is witty and fun. Jane is a bit of a trivia nut, which often leads her to blurt out useless information at random times, creating comic relief in those slightly more serious situations. A lot that happens in this book is wild and banana pants crazy. All I have to say is just enjoy the ride, don’t think too hard about what is unfolding on the pages. This isn’t a book that you need to be overanalyzing. You are supposed to just sit back and enjoy the ride.
There is a bit of a mystery that is unfolding as the story progresses. Poor Jane, who is already struggling with learning how to be a vampire, seems to be attracting an unusual amount of danger and dead bodies. I really enjoyed the mystery/danger elements in this book. I couldn’t get who the “bad guy” was and was really entertained by those parts of the book. The paranormal world that the author has created in this book is well thought out and interesting. The author did a great job at putting her own spin on vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural beings.
Jane is interesting. We meet her when she has hit rock bottom. She was just fired from her dream job as a librarian, and instead of a severance pay cheque, they gave her a gift certificate for potato skins at the local bar. Jane does what anyone would do in that situation: she goes to the bar and gets drunk. That is where she meets Gabriel, who turns out to be a vampire. Then after a series of events, Jane finds herself turned into a vampire. Jane doesn’t necessarily grow much in this book, and that’s because she doesn’t need to. Her journey in this book is centred around her learning how to be a vampire and function in this new world she finds herself living in. Jane is also a really enjoyable character to hang out with. She is quirky and fun. I love watching her hang out with her best friend Zeb and her great aunt, who is a ghost that lives in her house.
The romance is a slow, slow burn one. Things between Gabriel and Jane don’t necessarily progress at breakneck speed, and this book isn’t over the top spicy. There are a lot of almost moments between Jane and Gabriel, but before things can progress too far, they are always interrupted by something or someone. I don’t know who was more frustrated, me or the characters! For those who may not want something that is oozing with romance, you may enjoy the fact that for the majority of this book, the growing relationship between Jane and Gabriel often takes the backseat to something that is unfolding in the story. Which means there is more to this story than just romance and sex. I liked the chemistry between these two. I wish that things might have progressed a little faster, but this is the first book in the series, so I understand why the author paused the progression between Jane and Gabriel.
Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs is a wild, bonkers ride of a paranormal romance that was a hoot to read.
