Not Your Run of the Mill Vampire Story

The Radleys by Matt Haig


My rating: 5 of 5 stars

 I loved this book, but how do you classify it? It's not paranormal fiction, but not your run of the mill adventure/fantasy story either. Having read so many of the nice-girl-meets-and-falls-in-love-with-vampire or slightly-unhinged-girl-hunts-vampires type books, I really enjoyed something a bit different.


The first thing that struck me was that it is written in the present tense; unusual, but it works. Along with the very short chapters, this gave it a happening-right-now feel which kept the pace fast and had me eagerly turning pages.

It's a really funny book, with lots of great one-liners. Will and Peter made me laugh out loud, especially their memory of getting the department store Santa Claus for Christmas.


Although Harper got a lot more than he bargained for (or deserved), it was satisfying to see the bullies getting their comeuppance and seeing Clara and Rowan sorting their lives out. There is so much potential for these characters to develop further and I wouldn't be surprised to read more about them in future books by this author.


It's a lovely book with simple themes of love, money, family life and secrets and teenage worries with a brilliant twist.


I've not read anything by Matt Haig before, but will certainly look out for more by this author.


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The Laughing Corpse

The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I enjoyed this book just as much as, if not more than, the first.

Anita's character really develops in this book. I love the internal discussions she has with herself knowing that she is refusing to believe and accept everything that she is. LKH does not have me screaming at Anita as much as I do other strong female characters, as although Anita takes on dangerous tasks and gets into compromising situations, she does play it safe sometimes, for example, when she takes Jean-Claude (Mmmm!) with her to Tenderloin or when she takes the police with her to Dominga Salvador's.

I love Jean-Claude, so was pleased to see his character developing in this story. This is where I was screaming at Anita to stop turning him down, although I understand why she does and in fact it does fit her character to admit her desire for him, but refuse to act on it.

Dominga Salvador was fantastic: scary, powerful and unpredictable. I loved the contrast between harmless nice old granny to evil voodoo priestess. It was almost a shame to kill her off, she was such a magnificent character with so much potential and I would have enjoyed reading more stories with her - definitely an opportunity for a spin off there!

These stories have a good pace and keep you reading for more. They seem to be following a trend of strong female gets into something deep, has to solve the problem, kill the baddies and watch her back in the meantime. I hope LKH varies the structure slightly for the next book, as although these kind of stories by nature are slightly predictable, they need to stay fresh to keep the reader hooked on the series.



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Guilty Pleasures

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had read & heard mixed reviews of this series, so I picked it up with an open mind and I really enjoyed it.


I liked the characters. The main character, Anita, is likeable. She reminded me a little of other strong female characters, for example, Georgina Kincaid in Richelle Mead's Succubus series, but that didn't spoil it for me as Anita is different in many ways too. I laughed out loud at how blunt and brutally honest she was sometimes and liked the way she wasn't afraid to admit she was really scared - that made her realistic. I didn't see much in the way of character development in this story, but I expect she will develop as the series goes on. All the characters were great. The other characters like Jean-Claude and Edward, who I hope we see more of in the next book, are interesting and written in a way that we find are drip fed a little about them at a time making us intrigued to know more.


The pace is fast enough to keep me turning pages to find out what happens next, but there is enough detail and description to allow me to build up the scenes in my head.


If I had to complain about something, it would be that Anita sometimes repeats herself, using phrases like "peachy keen" too close together.


Will I continue with the series? Indeed. I have already started book #2.


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Surprisingly disappointing

This Side of the Grave by Jeaniene Frost

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I read this book after just finishing Shadowfever by KMM, who is admittedly a hard act to follow, but I'm afraid 'This Side of the Grave' was my least favourite book of the series so far.

I just didn't find it very exciting. The plot was okay, but there were no major surprises and I'm unsure I would have kept reading if I hadn't already read and enjoyed the others in the series. At times I felt like I had missed a few pages, as it skipped to a new scene leaving out too much detail in between, making the plot confusing in places.

There was some character development, but not a great deal and the new characters which were introduced were nothing special.

The big fight scene at the end was the first time while reading this book that I was really engaged by the story and didn't want to put it down.

Despite my disappointment, I look forward to the next book, which, judging by the taster in the back of this book, promises to be more interesting than this one.






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Witching Hour?

As I write, I am sitting in the dark with rain lashing outside my window and thunder bellowing.

"And the rain is brain-coloured.

And the thunder sounds like something remembering something." STAN RICE

Reaching page 106 of 'The Witching Hour' by Anne Rice, the only thing making me put this fantastic book down is the size of the text, so small I am straining my eyes to read, which is spoiling the reading experience. So, I went on a hunt to find this book in a larger print version (hardback or Kindle).

Starting my hunt at Amazon, as I invariably do, I was disappointed to find there was no Kindle version. Clicking the link to tell the publisher you'd like to read this book on Kindle, I took a cyber-stroll down to Ebay.

Before I continue, which is unfortunately always inevitable, I feel it important to affirm my open mindedness. Rarely judging people by the expressed opinions of others, I prefer to make my own judgements based on my experiences, which often earns me the 'I think you are mad, but I'm not going to say it, because mad people are unpredictable.' look from people.

My Ebay search turned out to be much more interesting than I had expected...

There were several different formats of The Witching Hour, but shortly after browsing the search results, I had forgotten that I was there to find a book. I had been distracted by these:

Having spent many of my teenage years being bitter and cross, ready to take revenge on the world, I am now surprisingly calm and understanding, believing that "everything happens for a reason" and "when one door closes another one opens." So I find it hard to empathise with anyone who would buy a spell for breaking up a marriage or make someone obsess over them. Why would you want someone to fall in love with you, knowing they didn't really love you? It makes me sad that people are desperate enough to want to do it.

Curious, I wondered what sort of feedback buyers left; whether they were happy or disatisfied with their purchases. After reading these, I really wasn't convinced.

I am more inclined to believe the results are from a change in the buyer's thinking- i.e. If you have taken action, you feel more positive about it.

But, assuming for a moment that it did work, I considered what spell I would buy...

This one is tempting...

and as a Twilight & True Blood fan, I quite fancy trying this one...

possibly combined with this one...

(if you are an Eric fan, you will appreciate this!)

But I finally decided, after wasting spending some time deliberating, that this one would be the best one for me...

I won't be trying any spells. The control freak in me says no to anything I don't understand (including politics and blue food), but before I had finished on Ebay I was yet again distracted by the sponsored links...