‘The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires’ Half Moon Hollow #2 by Molly Harper

From the BLURB:

Iris Scanlon, Half-Moon Hollow’s only daytime vampire concierge, knows more about the undead than she’d like. Running all their daylight errands—from letting in the plumber to picking up some chilled O neg—gives her a look at the not-so-glamorous side of vampire life. Her rules are strict; relationships with vamps are strictly business, not friendship—and certainly not anything else. But then she finds her newest client, Cal, poisoned on his kitchen floor, and only Iris can help.

Cal - who would be devastatingly sexy, if Iris allowed herself to think that way - offers Iris a hefty fee for hiding him at her place until he figures out who wants him permanently dead. Even though he’s imperious, unfriendly and doesn't seem to understand the difference between "employee" and "servant," Iris agrees, and finds herself breaking more and more of her own rules to help him - particularly those concerning nudity.

Turns out what her quiet little life needed was some intrigue & romance—in the form of her very own stray vampire.

Iris Scanlon likes her life to be organized, clean and managed. It comes after a life of curveballs – like her parent’s sudden death, and becoming her younger sister, Gigi’s, sole guardian. So in all things, Iris prefers organization over chaos . . . Which is how she fell into her current business, Beeline. It’s all about management and arranging other people’s lives for them; vampire’s lives, to be more precise.

Iris is a personal daytime assistant to all of Half Moon Hollow’s vampires – she takes care of those pesky labourers who insist working daylight hours, and delivers bloody snacks. Then there’s the occasional oddball request, like dietary condom requirements. But those are as curvy a curveball as Iris can handle these days, thank you very much. That is until she, literally, stumbles across Cletus 'Cal' Calix, passed out and poisoned on his own kitchen floor.

As it would turn out, Cal is a vampire who specializes in finding and figuring things out. He has been called to Half Moon Hollow to investigate a slew of incidences in which humans have been attacked by otherwise friendly vampires. Cal was suspecting poisoned blood so, lo and behold!, when he finds himself poisoned he knows he’s on the right track . . .  unfortunately, advertising his near-undeath experience (and rescue by Ms. Scanlon) would be the quickest way to derail his investigation.

So Cal comes up with a plan. A plan to stay with Iris Scanlon, lying low at the (very) humble home she shares with little sis, Gigi. While there he’ll continue conducting his investigations, in secret, and with minimal distractions (like some pesky villain trying to kill him). The one thing Cal didn’t exactly count on was Iris becoming a very pesky, pretty, and perfectly delicious distraction. . .

‘The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires’ is the second book in Molly Harper’s ‘Half Moon Hollow series’, a spin-off of her ‘Jane Jameson’ series.

Oh, wow. What a shock. Molly Harper has written yet another brilliant and hilarious chuckle-fest of epically awesome proportions. Colour me surprised . . . Or, not, sine I decided about six books ago that Molly Harper could do no wrong and was physically incapable of writing anything subpar. ‘The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires’ is just another notch in Harper’s continually impressive comedy belt.

Iris Scanlon is a familiar face, to those who are making the trek from ‘Jane Jameson’. She was the wedding coordinator who helped tone down Jane’s matrimonial farce from horror-story to love-story in ‘Nice Girls Don’t Bite Their Neighbours’. And she was mentioned in the first ‘Half Moon Hollow’ spin-off ‘Driving Mr. Dead’, Miranda Puckett worked as chauffeur for Iris’s Beeline company. So Iris is long overdue for her page-time, and let me tell you she was well worth the wait. . .

Iris is a really interesting character and old before her time. She’s had to grow up fast, since her parents died leaving her little sister, Gigi, in her care. She doesn’t have a lot of time for things like fun, relationships or relaxation. Her Beeline business is barely breaking even, and even though Gigi is her top priority, university fees are creeping ever closer. So when Cal proposes the ludicrously dangerous proposition that he hide out in her home, along with the lucrative offer of monetary compensation, she agrees, but only begrudgingly.

Iris and Cal were fantastic together. He’s very much a stone-faced, no-nonsense investigative vampire. In fact, he was a Spartan in another life (or, as Iris likes to think of it, his life was like the movie ‘300’ – complete with flattering diaper-wear). Iris, on the other hand, while very straight-laced and organized, is also a chocolate-hording, pop-culture referencing tour-de-force. She’s hilarious, and when paired with Cal’s straight-guy they get a fantastic routine going and some wonderful repartee. They’re especially interesting because, while Iris works for them, she hasn’t ever really spent a lot of time in the company of vampires. She’s inordinately fascinated by Cal’s many stories of years gone by;

“You’re telling me that the guy who wrote the Iliad is a vampire?”
“Yes, and he has been writing all these years. He makes a very nice living out in Los Angeles, working on television shows.”
“If you tell me that Homer wrote for Two and a Half Men, I will throw myself out of that window.”
He chuckled. But I noticed that he did not answer.

Funny as they are, Cal and Iris’s laughs are only matched by their heat. These two are adorable; an unlikely, opposites attract can’t-deny-this-feeling-any-longer relationship that’s seriously hot when it gets going.

Iris and her sister, Gigi, are the other laugh-riot of this novel. They’re a nice change from the other sister relationship Molly Harper writes, between Jane and Jenny – who have battled about everything from Jane’s vampirism to who gets their grandma’s estate once she dies. Iris and Gigi only have each other left, so they have come to treasure one another and create this great amalgamation of a sisterly relationship that’s sometimes parental but mostly about them being best friends. And they share some of the best scenes in the whole novel, like the following debate about Iris’s unhealthy, blind obsession with Gerard Butler;

“I have an inappropriate loyalty to Gerard Butler,” I grumbled, shutting the door behind us.
“OK, but did you have to buy it on DVD?” Gigi chuckled.
“It was a Christmas gift. Uncle Clark grabs the DVD with the silliest cover and wraps it,” I shot back, climbing into the driver’s seat of the Dorkmobile. “I am willing to admit that Gerard Butler has single-handedly murdered the romantic comedy.”
Gigi snickered. “Gerard Butler took the romantic comedy to an orgy, accidentally strangled it during an air game, panicked, and dumped its body in the woods.”
I stared at her, gobsmacked. “That may be the funniest thing I've ever heard –” I spluttered. “How the hell do you even know what an air game is?”
Gigi preened. “Just because you put the parental locks on HBO doesn’t mean I can’t get around them.”

Ohhhhhh, Molly Harper. I have such a literary crush on this gal, and with every new book I just fall a little more in love. ‘The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires’ continues the love-fest.

5/5

'Driving Mr. Dead' by Molly Harper

From the BLURB:

HELL ON WHEELS

After failing as a magician's assistant, a photographer, and most recently, a bride, Miranda Puckett takes a position as a driver for Beeline, Half-Moon Hollow's premiere vampire concierge service.

Miranda's assignment? Driving Collin Sutherland, the world's most fastidious vampire from Washington to Kentucky, so he can deliver a mysterious black case to Council official Ophelia Lambert.

Collin, a paranoid, aristocratic vampire with a debilitating fear of flying, refuses to let the case out of his sight. Miranda needs this time on the road to decide whether to permanently cut her ties with the fiance that had an "emotional affair" with a childhood pal, but Collin’s neatnik tendencies are driving her around the bend. The man acts as if leaving a fast food wrapped on the passenger seat is reason for a full-on CDC de-contamination scrub-down of the car. All she can do is promise to stop intentionally doing the things that make his stiff upper lip twitch with irritation.

As more and more mishaps occur on the road trip from hell, Miranda and Collin work together to meet his delivery deadline. Hotel rooms are destroyed. Beloved cars are defiled. And somewhere along the line, client-driver hostilities become snarky flirtation.

Will Collin and Miranda make it to the Hollow in one piece? And if they do, will Miranda leave old, safe relationships behind for something new and well, just plain weird?

Serial rolling-stone, Miranda Puckett, is on the first day of her new job for Beeline – driving vampires cross-country as their personal chauffer. And her first client has perfect timing – providing Miranda with some much needed Washington-to-Kentucky driving/thinking time to sort out her ever-destructive life and butt-dialling ex-fiancé.

It’s just a shame that Miranda’s maiden voyage is with Collin Sutherland. A pretentious, reclusive, up-tight vamp with sixteen-pages of instructions for his chauffer and a silver suitcase that he refuses to talk about.

This is going to be one long road-trip to Half-Moon Hollow . . . and along the way there will be car-boobs, muggings, MC Hammer and Hawaiian shirts. Oh, joy.

‘Driving Mr. Dead’ is the 160-page novella set in Molly Harper’s ‘Jane Jameson’ universe.

What is the appropriate reaction when one of your favourite, funny authors writes a special little novella treat set in her established-series universe? Why, fan-girl squealing – of course! And let me assure you, Molly Harper’s ‘Driving Mr. Dead’ is entirely deserving of your peals of squeals!

Harper introduces us to Miranda Puckett – employee to daytime vampire concierge, Iris Scanlon, who readers met in ‘Nice Girls Don’t Bite Their Neighbours’, and who has her own spin-off book coming out this month called ‘The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires’. Miranda is a wayward soul with itchy feet and an ever-changing résumé. She has been a cruise ship dogsbody and magician’s assistant but her favourite job of all was as professional photographer. In recent years she has tried squeezing herself into a life that pleases her parents – as paralegal and fiancée to the white-picket-fence good boy, Jason. But that’s all gone up in smoke after Jason’s discovered text message, professing his love for his best friend (and Miranda’s maid-of-honour), Lisa. Miranda has taken the chauffeuring job at Beeline, partly to reconnect with her crazy-wild-card roots, but also to take a week or two of space and decide if she can accept Jason’s apology and re-proposal.

Miranda’s first client is Colin Sutherland, a vampire with a silver suitcase, anal-retentive sixteen-pages of chauffeuring instructions and “more issues than National Geographic”. Miranda and Colin get off to a bad, finger-breaking start, and things just get worse from there . . .  but as the miles tick by and the ludicrous bad-luck keeps knocking them around, Miranda starts to shed Colin’s many pretentious layers and get to his deeply hidden sexy centre.

I loved this novella! And I mostly loved it because it’s so Molly Harper. Honestly, I can’t think of any writer I'd trust more with tackling a hilarious, cross-country vampiric road-trip. She just had to write this because there’s nobody else more qualified. Period.

And she does such a darn good job! As if anyone needed proof that Harper has an untapped resource in exploring the ‘Jane Jameson’ universe, beyond her hilarious vampire-librarian heroine, ‘Driving Mr. Dead’ will assuage you of any lingering doubts and get you suitably excited for ‘The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires’. Of course, a few ‘Jane’ favourites make appearances – but I won’t spoil who because their random pop-up is just too delicious!

Miranda and Colin absolutely steal the show in this buddy-road-trip-plot-gone-awry. They are exact opposites; she the wild child free-spirit, accident-prone cool chick. While he’s a stuffy recluse, with some serious old-world appeal;

Last but not least, there was the fact that he was gorgeous in a tortured Byronic, Edward Rochester-meets-Lucius-Malfoy sort of way. He made me want to climb him like a proper British tree, for no other reason than that wrinkling his clothes would annoy him severely and, I hoped, provoke him into spanking me. He made me dizzy. He made my ears ring.
Wait, no. That was my phone.

I love anything and everything that Molly Harper writes. This novella is just the cherry on top of an already brilliant, established paranormal comedy series that keeps readers in blushes and chuckles. Brilliant!

5/5

'Nice Girls Don't Bite Their Neighbors' Jane Jameson #4 by Molly Harper

From the BLURB:

Just as Jane Jameson’s unlife seems to be stabilizing, fate sinks its fangs firmly into her butt. Despite her near-phobia of wedding planning, her no-frills nighttime nuptials to her sexy boyfriend, Gabriel, are coming along smoothly. That is, until she turns a fatally wounded teenage acquaintance, and the Council pronounces her responsible for the newborn vamp until he can control his thirst.

Jane’s kitchen barely holds enough Faux Type O to satiate the cute teen’s appetite and maintain Gabriel’s jealous streak at a slow simmer. As if keeping her hyperactive childe from sucking the blood out of the entire neighborhood isn’t enough to deal with, the persnickety ghost of Jane’s newly deceased grandma Ruthie has declared war on the fanged residents of River Oaks. Suddenly choosing monogrammed cocktail napkins and a cake she can’t even eat seem downright relaxing in comparison.

Tensions inside the house are growing…and outside, a sinister force is aiming a stake straight for the center of Gabriel’s heart. Most brides just have to worry about choosing the right dress, but Jane fears that at this rate, she’ll never make it down the aisle for the wedding all nice girls dream of…

Things have been quiet around Half-Moon Hollow. Zeb has settled into parenthood with his werewolf wife, Jolene, and they are happily being driven mad by their twins. Dick and Andrea have tied the knot and are still enjoying wedded bliss (so long as no one mentions the probability of Dick turning their basement into a ‘man cave’). Even Jane Jameson’s high-strung older sister, Jenny, has mellowed and been getting along swimmingly with her vampiric sibling.

And as for Jane? Once considered a spinster with limited shelf-life, Jane has adapted and thrived as a vampire . . .  with the help of her lover and sire, Gabriel. Now Jane and Gabriel are settled into a comfortable and committed relationship;

We were settled, as so many people were when they reached their thirties. It had just taken Dick and Gabriel a while to get around to it. We spent weekends at my house, watching movies, the babies asleep upstairs in the old nursery. You’d think a bunch of supernatural creatures would find this boring as hell, but after two years filled with blood, heartache, hostage crises, and death, a quiet movie night seems downright decadent.
Sometimes I marvelled at how grown-up we’d all become, and then Dick would recite a sixteen-stanza penis-based epic poem, and I'd take it back.

So with everything so settled at River Oaks, it seems the perfect time for Gabriel to pop the question (again) and ask Jane to be his wedded wife from here to eternity.

Now Jane is organizing an undead wedding, and reaping the rewards of bridesmaid vindictiveness. So of course it’s the perfect time for everything to go wrong.

First her Grandma Ruthie dies. Then Gabriel gets a creepy stalker. And to cap things off, Jane is witness to the murder of her old babysitting charge, all-American teenage boy, Jamie. Jane decides to save Jamie’s life by turning him into a vamp, and takes Jamie on as her sire.

Half-Moon Hollow isn’t so sleepy anymore. Jane is sire to a sullen teenage boy. Gabriel is on some homicidal redneck’s hit-list and to top it all off, Jane has a wedding to plan!

‘Nice Girls Don’t Bite Their Neighbors’ is the fourth book in Molly Harper’s hilariously magnificent ‘Jane Jameson’ paranormal comedy series.

It has been so long since the last ‘Jane Jameson’ book (2009!) that when this fourth instalment landed in my hot little hands, I took my time and savoured the reading . . .  especially because Molly Harper has no more Jane books planned. Instead she has two spin-off books coming out, the first of which is ‘The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires’ in August, which features a character we meet in ‘Neighbors’. And while Jane and her gang will feature in the spin-offs, Harper hasn’t got any more Jane-only books planned.

Going into this book, knowing it’s a finale of sorts, means that readers have heightened expectations. There are a few loose ends that need tying – like Jane’s Grandma Ruthie harbouring old resentments, and Gabriel finally popping the question to Jane and getting an affirmative answer! What I wasn’t prepared for was all the curveballs and ‘OMG’ jaw-droppers that Harper throws on as icing on this finale cake.

Jane siring her old babysitting charge, Jamie, is hilariously and awkwardly awesome. Jamie is a hot young high-schooler, and all-American teenage God who is cut-down in the prime of his life, right before his old babysitter’s eyes. Luckily vampire Jane is on hand to sire him. . .  but with siring comes many responsibilities. Jamie moves into Jane and Gabriel’s home at River Oaks (not exactly conducive to their sex life). Jamie is not being allowed to see his good Christian parents for fear he might eat them. To top it all off, Jamie has all the usual surging teen hormones. . .  now with vampire reflexes and blood-lust.

Jamie’s death has Jane seeking advice from vampire council member, Ophelia, yet again. This teenage vampire is all kinds of creepy – doubly creepy is the immortal teen’s instant infatuation with Jamie. Not to mention that Jane discovers a little secret Ophelia has been keeping. . .  in the form of her young vampire sister, who she turned some three hundred years ago. Little vampire Georgie makes Damien from ‘The Omen’ look like a boy scout;

“Does someone need a nap?” I asked, patting her head.
“Does someone need to be defenestrated?” she retorted, whirling on me.
I have to admit that having those little china-doll eyes narrowed at me sent a chill down my spine. So I did what any sensible person would do when confronted with a miniature killing machine . . .  I leaned closer and provoked her.
I smiled in that saccharine way that drove Jenny nuts. “I don’t know what sort of low-rent vampires you’re used to dealing with, but I know exactly what ‘defenestrated’ means. And if you think you’re strong enough to push me out a window, bring it on, Pocket Vamp.”
Georgie’s lip curled up as she ground her tiny baby fangs together. The tension in her face suddenly snapped, and she turned to Ophelia.
“I like her,” Georgie said as Ophelia handed her a handheld game unit.

Reading Molly Harper is always a bit of a health hazard . . .  because she will leave you in stitches, every single time. Seriously, side-splitting is an understatement. Harper brings the big laughs when Jane has to plan her wedding – from dealing with her insane mama to accepting the inevitable hen’s night backlash.

Everyone’s favourites are back – Gabriel, Andrea, Dick, Zeb and Jolene. And everyone is revelling in Jane’s wedding planning discomfort, not to mention her siring hits and misses. Gabriel and Jane are steamy as usual, and equally sweet are newlyweds Andrea and Dick. Molly Harper also introduces a few newbies to the series – like human vampire wedding-planner Iris Scanlon, who is the protagonist of the August spin-off book.

‘Nice Girls Don’t Bite Their Neighbors’ is a brilliantly funny send-off for our girl, Jane Jameson. I’m going to cross my fingers that Molly Harper writes more Jane-centric books. . .  but Harper has proved with her ‘Naked Werewolf’ series and contemporary romance stand-alone that she has a lot more up her sleeve than just Ms Jameson (fabulous as she is). I’ll miss her, but this was a great goodbye for ‘Jane Jameson’, and I do look forward to the promising spin-off books.

5/5

August 2012

'The Art of Seducing a Naked Werewolf' Naked Werewolf #2 by Molly HARPER

From the BLURB:

Baring It All

Generations of werewolves have been secretly residing in a secluded valley a stone’s throw from Grundy, Alaska. So when a snooping Outsider comes to Grundy to investigate rumors of lycanthropic shenanigans in the area, the valley’s pack alpha, Maggie Graham, resolves to chase him away, even if doing so takes a quick bite on the butt. What a pity that researcher Nick Thatcher turns out to be so drool-worthy, and that his kisses make Maggie want to sit up and beg. Maggie just can’t seem to convince Nick to leave . . . and even worse, she can’t convinceherself to stay away from him. Cross-species dating is problem enough for a harried alpha female, but on top of that, a rival group of werewolves is trying to move into the valley. With interpack war threatening, Maggie can’t afford to be distracted. Combining romance and a career can be tough for anyone; for a werewolf in love with a human, it may be disastrous. . . .

Maggie Graham knows her place in the pack hierarchy – it’s comfortably on top, bossing everyone else around. As the Alpha of the Grundy Alaskan werewolf pack, Maggie literally has the furry world on her shoulders. Ever since her brother abdicated the pawed throne, Maggie has had to be local sheriff, judge and jury to her little wolf community. So when an anthropological zoologist with Trekkie tendencies comes sniffing around, hunting for ‘werewolves’, it falls to Maggie to interrogate and run him out of town.

It just sucks that Nick Thatcher smells so darn good, and happens to have a whole sexy professor vibe that gets Maggie’s engine revving. It’s also bad timing that Nick turns up right when Maggie’s aunties are dropping boulder-sized hints about match-making and mating for life...

‘The Art of Seducing a Naked Werewolf’ is the second book in Molly Harper’s ‘Naked Werewolf’ paranormal romance series.

I loved the first book in this series, ‘How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf’. That first book concentrated on the romance of exiled-Alpha, Cooper, and his human mate Mo. In ‘Seducing’, Cooper’s younger sister Maggie is the first-ever female Alpha and coasting in her leadership role when a handsome spanner is thrown in her works, in the form of Nick Thatcher. Wolfy hilarity ensues. . .

In ‘Flirt’, Maggie was a combative and prickly character – angry at her brother for abandoning the pack, and disgruntled at her impotence in the testosterone-filled pack hierarchy. I wasn’t sure how I'd like her as a protagonist, let alone a love interest, given her somewhat mean disposition. But Molly Harper has written Maggie as whip-quick, ballsy chick. I loved how strong she was and unremorsefully cocky. She’s a fantastic protagonist, and utterly unique in the paranormal romance genre;

“Look, Mags, I'm not any happier about him being here than you are. But I think we should take a more subtle approach than your usual ‘bite first, bite again, keep biting until they’re too busy bleeding to death to explain themselves’ method.”

“It if ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” I shot back.

Nick was the perfect Beta to Maggie’s Alpha. He’s no wimp, but I loved that his nerdy obsession with fantasy and werewolves made him well-suited to Maggie’s overbearing personality. Nick was hilarious; referencing Star Trek and Doctor Who and just being generally geeky-gorgeous. Harper writes a bit of a dark back story for Nick, which felt under-developed and seemed to halt mid-way, but overall I loved him and I adored him with Maggie.

Molly Haprer has her tongue firmly in cheek throughout a lot of the ‘Naked Werewolf’ series. I love that Harper adopts a funny-blasé attitude to a lot of werewolf mythology, allowing her to answer and explore a lot of interesting lore. She explores pack dynamics, mating rituals, the possibility of other were-animals . . . while also answering a lot of regular, every-day questions associated with turning furry. These conundrums are the sort of thing only a comedic writer can explore, in all their unperturbed hilarity;

You would think it would be weird to see your male relatives running around naked all the time, but really you stop noticing. It’s sort of sad, really. You’ve seen one penis, you’ve seen them all.

I had to stop saying that in front of my mother, because she said it was something a hooker would put on a business card.

If I have any complaint about this instalment, it’s that Harper appears to have wrapped the series up in two books. There was a strong possibility of two werewolf characters, Samson and Clay, getting their own books and romances . . . but Harper effectively nixes that idea by the end of ‘Seducing’, which is a shame. Samson was Podunk-hilarious; while Clay had an intense, smouldering thing going on . . . I would have loved it if this series continued on past two books to encompass their HEA.

Molly Harper is the queen of the funny paranormal romance. She absolutely excels in the ‘Naked Werewolf’ series – writing irreverently funny and furry romances. I wish the series was going to continue past these two books, but I can’t see that happening with how Harper neatly ties-off ‘The Art of Seducing’. Still, this was a wacky-gorgeous series and it cements Molly Harper as one of my all-time favourite authors.

5/5

'How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf' Naked Werewolf #1 by Molly HARPER

From the BLURB:

Northern Exposure

Even in Grundy, Alaska, it’s unusual to find a naked guy with a bear trap clamped to his ankle on your porch. But when said guy turns into a wolf, recent southern transplant Mo Wenstein has no difficulty identifying the problem. Her surly neighbor Cooper Graham—who has been openly critical of Mo’s ability to adapt to life in Alaska—has trouble of his own. Werewolf trouble.

For Cooper, an Alpha in self-imposed exile from his dysfunctional pack, it’s love at first sniff when it comes to Mo. But Cooper has an even more pressing concern on his mind. Several people around Grundy have been the victims of wolf attacks, and since Cooper has no memory of what he gets up to while in werewolf form, he’s worried that he might be the violent canine in question.

If a wolf cries wolf, it makes sense to listen, yet Mo is convinced that Cooper is not the culprit. Except if he’s not responsible, then who is? And when a werewolf falls head over haunches in love with you, what are you supposed to do anyway? The rules of dating just got a whole lot more complicated. . . .

Mo has had enough. She’s had enough of wheat germ, hemp, protest signs, and communal housing. Her mother and father may still be free-love hippies, but she has long since grown out of their smothering parenting. Mo needs boundaries, so she moves to Alaska. In the dead of night she packs up her house and leaves Mississippi and her parents behind.

Not only is the remote town of Grundy thousands of miles away from her folks, but Mo has plenty of rough and rugged suitors to choose from in this town that has a severe female-shortage. But Mo really just wants to figure out who she is away from her overpowering parents before she embarks on a new relationship . . . so it’s a good thing that the only man in town who revs Mo’s engine is Cooper Graham – the grumpiest, surliest, most unpleasant man she has ever come across.

Mo settles into her new town and excels in her role as resident fry-cook at the local diner. All the while Cooper sets her nerves on edge . . . he’s so anti-social and awful, it’s just a shame he’s also a babe.

But as events unfold, Mo uncovers a supernatural explanation for Cooper’s prickly personality ... heck, you’d be grumpy too if you were a self-exiled Alpha werewolf who was sexually frustrated by his new-found mate.

‘How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf’ is the first book in Molly Harper’s brand-spankin new ‘Naked Werewolf’ paranormal romance series.

Molly Harper is in her element in the paranormal romance genre. Anyone who has read (and loved) ‘Jane Jameson’ knows what to expect from this new series – a combination of sexy, supernatural silliness.

It’s pretty hard to talk about ‘How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf’ without referring back to ‘Jane Jameson’. Obviously, Jane Jameson put Molly Harper on the paranormal map. She tapped into a unique new genre with that comedic urban fantasy, and ‘Naked Werewolf’ owes a lot to the success of ‘Jane’. But while these two series share a genre, Molly Harper offers up a totally new take on her winning formula.

Mo is our leading lady in this new series, and it’s no surprise that she’s a laugh riot. Molly Harper is the queen of writing wittily observant femme fatales, and Mo takes the cake. Harper has given her the most unique and outrageous childhood – complete with hippie parents and commune-living. There are a lot of Freudian personality quirks to Mo that are being subtly explored by Harper, always with tongue-in-cheek humour.

I would say that, on the whole, Jane Jameson was more constantly-hilarious and generally quicker with the quips than Mo. Regardless, I loved her, especially when her relationship with Cooper got steamier. . .

Harper pokes fun at a lot of Alpha male stereotypes through the character of Cooper Graham. I love that Mo called him out on his rugged surliness, even after she learns that it’s all down to his werewolf nature . . . it made for many a funny repartee.

“Men always think they should be in charge of outdoor cooking.” I took the hot-dog package from him and skewered a few. “But the Y chromosome has been programmed with the ‘the blacker my food is, the more manly I am’ gene. I like my processed meats to be somewhere in the unnatural-nitrate-red range. Ergo I will handle the cooking, thank you.”

Cooper was quiet for a long moment.

“You’re trying to come up with some sort of ‘processed meats’ double entendre, aren’t you?” I accused him as I held the sticks over the fire.

“Yeah, you didn’t leave me a lot to work with,” he grumbled.

‘Jane Jameson’ was all about the vampires, but ‘Naked Werewolf’ shifts the focus onto a whole new crop of supernatural beings. But that’s not the only difference. ‘Jane’ definitely had a family focus as Jane and her family coped with her new vampirism – her mother, father, ghostly grandmother and awful sister all played pivotal roles throughout the series. ‘Naked Werewolf’ is more about the absence of family – Mo flees Mississippi to get away from her over-bearing parents, and Cooper has his own dark reasons for abandoning his pack to live life as a lone wolf. Whereas ‘Jane’ was all about learning to love your family (quirks and all) ‘Naked Werewolf’ is about the family we make for ourselves. Mo gathers new friends and makes a place for herself in Grundy, while Cooper finds his family in Mo.

I did have only one small complaint about ‘How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf’, and that was to do with the romance. I don’t think the romantic pacing was quite right. I thought that Mo’s discovery of Cooper’s werewolf was very out-of-the-blue. It seemed like one second she was oblivious, and the next the idea randomly popped into her head that Cooper was the very same werewolf (with blue eyes) that she’d seen lurking around outside her home. It was a very spontaneous and disconnected thought process that led to a rather rushed coupling. For me, it was a little too random, too soon. But that’s my only complaint.

What a shock! – Molly Harper’s new paranormal romance series is spectacular. Anyone who has read ‘Jane Jameson’ should not be surprised that ‘Naked Werewolf’ is another winning mix of hilarious supernatural shenanigans and steamy romance. Even when Harper swaps fangs for fur, she dominates in the paranormal comedy genre.

4.5/5

'And One Last Thing...' by Molly HARPER

From the BLURB:

Lacey Terwilliger’s shock and humiliation over her husband’s philandering prompt her to add some bonus material to Mike’s company newsletter: stunning Technicolor descriptions of the special brand of "administrative support" his receptionist gives him. The detailed mass e-mail to Mike’s family, friends, and clients blows up in her face, and before one can say "instant urban legend," Lacey has become the pariah of her small Kentucky town, a media punch line, and the defendant in Mike’s defamation lawsuit.

Her seemingly perfect life up in flames, Lacey retreats to her family’s lakeside cabin, only to encounter an aggravating neighbor named Monroe. A hunky crime novelist with a low tolerance for drama, Monroe is not thrilled about a newly divorced woman moving in next door. But with time, beer, and a screen door to the nose, a cautious friendship develops into something infinitely more satisfying.

Lacey has to make a decision about her long-term living arrangements, though. Should she take a job writing caustic divorce newsletters for paying clients, or move on with her own life, pursuing more literary aspirations? Can she find happiness with a man who tells her what he thinks and not what she wants to hear? And will she ever be able to resist saying one . . . last . . . thing?

I would say that Molly Harper is a friend-defining author. She writes the types of books that you proudly pass along to friends and if they hand them back to you after reading and say, “I just didn’t get it” or “I didn’t find her all that funny” then they’re ex-communicated. Cut-off and cut adrift! Molly Harper just inspires that kind of loyalty and passion in her readers... and with good cause!

Molly Harper is a chick-lit-romance-genius. I fell in love with her and her ‘Jane Jameson’ paranormal romance series. And in ‘One Last Thing...’, her first contemporary romance, I fall a little bit more in love/creepy-stalker-reader-infatuation with Ms Harper...

‘And One Last Thing...’ is a story of crushing blows and fist-pumping feminism. Lacey Terwilliger has become a cliché at 30 when she discovers that her husband, Mike, has been boning his secretary. In a fit of rage she e-mails a newsletter detailing Mike’s sexcapades to his colleagues, friends and family... and gets slapped with a divorce and lawsuit in the same day. Lacey’s wronged-woman rant goes viral and Lacey has to escape the media furore in the wake of her lawsuit. She decides to play hermit in her grandmother’s abandoned cabin where her solitary wallowing is interrupted by a handsome Hugh Jackman-lookalike called ‘Lefty’ Monroe.

It is at the cabin that Lacey finds peace, orgasms, acceptance, guilt and her literay voice...

It’s no secret that I love Molly Harper. Her ‘Jane Jameson’ series made her an instant-buy author for me, ‘And One Last Thing...’ reiterates why. Harper had me snorting and convulsing within the first chapter, and by the end of the book my stomach muscles were sore from belly-aching laughs.

How to describe Harper’s acerbic wit? She’s a little bit of everything I love and find funny; her characters speak a language I understand and march to the beat of a drum I can hear. Lacey and Jane Jameson’s sense of humour (which is ultimately Molly Harper’s humour) is a dash of Veronica Mars, a splash of Gilmore Girls, a head-nod to Joss Whedon and a salute to Tina Fey. Screw ‘whiskers on kittens’, those funnies are a few of my favourite things!

Molly Harper changes genres from ‘paranormal’ to ‘contemporary’ and loses none of her writing flavour. She seems to enjoy putting her female heroines through the emotional ringer; tearing them down only to make building them up that much sweeter to read. Lacey is absolutely put through her paces in the beginning of the book; lamenting everything about her marriage from Mike’s cheating, to their stilted love-life (he thought ‘racy’ was having sex in a camping tent). Harper also isn’t afraid to write what every woman thinks (at least once in her life) – everything from secretly despising ‘earth tones’ in the home, to navigating the purchase of a vibrator.

And then Monroe walks onto the scene.... right when Lacey is at her most emotional and irrational, a hunky Wolverine-looking next-door-neighbour is dropped into her lap and things perk up. Monroe and Lacey are H-O-T, but I mostly loved them because their repartee was high-notch and hilarious. They bounce off of one another effortlessly and their scenes are fantastic!

“I don’t hate my ex,” I protested. “I just want him alone, broke, bald, impotent, toothless, fat, and wailing and twitching in a twisted tiny ball of spastic misery.”
He shuddered. “Wow, that was visual.”
“You seem fine now,” I conceded. “Somewhat socially maladjusted, but fine.”
He smiled cheekily. “’I spent so many nights thinking how you did me wrong. But I grew strong. I’ll learn how to get along.’”
“Fine. Make fun of me. In case you’re wondering, this is why people don’t like you.”
“I’m not making fun,” he insisted, though he couldn’t cover his impulse to snicker. “But do you see how that damn song gets into your head?”

I especially loved Lacey because, whether true or not, I thought there was quite a bit of Molly Harper superimposed on the character. I don’t mean the cheating spouse thing (at least, I hope not!) – but part of Lacey ‘finding herself’ was her discovering she has a talent for fiction writing. We get to read Lacey slog through writing sex scenes, get over her fear of the word ‘penis’, navigate the scary terrain of literary agents and hammer out an entire novel. This was all a fascinating little glimpse into Molly Harper’s writing mind, a very revealing and interesting glimpse.

I also liked Lacey because the destruction of her marriage wasn’t a big, catastrophic event in her life. After getting over her initial shock and hurt, Lacey was able to step back and examine the pitfalls of her unhappy marriage and accept that maybe both she and Mike caused its downfall. It wasn’t any particular trigger that broke them apart, rather a down-ward slide into melancholy and disinterest. What killed the marriage was the ‘coasting along’ that eventually turned into a downhill battle. Yes, ‘And One Last Thing...’ is a fantastic chick-lit read with plenty of laughs, but Harper also uses the novel to discuss some big marriage ideals and disasters and question the whole institution. This is a book chock-full of funny, but with real heart and intelligence to back it up.

I’m not surprised that I loved ‘And One Last Thing...’. Molly Harper rules, and I am embedded in her fan-club. She writes funny like it’s nobody’s business, and her romances are lush to read. And as if that’s not enough reason to love this book, Molly Harper has a chapter entitled; ‘Even Jesus Hates Miley Cyrus’.... I want to cry a little bit at the brilliance.

5/5

Where are they now? ... Author updates

Charlaine Harris

Fans have been accumulating Sookie-verse updates via Charlaine’s responses on her message board. And there have been a *LOT* of hints dropped lately.

For one thing, a Sookie Companion is set for a February 2011 release. This sounds like a sort of Sookie lexicon, but will also include a short-story about Quinn (YAY!). Fans are speculating that this short-story will fill in a lot of the back-story for Quinn’s whereabouts between book’s #8 and #9. Fans are also speculating that this short-story will be as important to the overall Sookie series as ‘One Word Answer’ was to the premise of “All Together Dead” (the short story about Sookie’s cousin, Hadley).

The current working title for Sookie #11 is ‘Dead Letters’.

Ms. Harris has said that Sookie and Eric’s blood bond will be broken... but she doesn’t know when. She admits that the bond has caused her no end of grief and she sounds quite eager to be done with it. lol

Charlaine’s exact words: "Sookie will get plenty of sex when she finds her HEA, and she'll be very enthusiastic about it.” OH. MY. GOD! (definitely not Eric then?)

In further Charlaine Harris news...

Dynamite Entertainment is adapting Harris’s ‘Harper Connelly’ series into a graphic novel. The ‘Harper’ series is about a woman who, after being struck by lightning, is able to sense the dead. She can see the final snatches of their life and act as a sort of human ‘death detector’ to know where bodies are buried.
This is a rather dark series and will make for wonderful comic fodder. I can’t wait to see a graphic representation of my second favourite Charlaine Harris series. The release date is still TBA – but be sure to keep a look out for this graphic adaptation, and in the mean time give the ‘Harper Connelly’ series a read.

Diana Gabaldon

Her ‘Outlander’ graphic novel is nearly here (September 21!) and with the release of ‘An Echo in the Bone’ paperback, fans are given an eight-page full-colour sneak-peak at the graphic! YAY! As Diana said in her latest blog post, ‘The Exile’ is being touted as ‘Jamie’s side of the story’ – even though it’s told mainly from Murtagh’s perspective. But we will get Jamie’s insights, and learn things from Jamie’s POV that were missed because Claire was our narrator in ‘Outlander’.

I am frothing at the mouth for this graphic novel – Jamie in picture! ARGH!
Here is a link to the one-page sneak-peek of the Graphic Novel.

Patricia Briggs

I really loved the Graphic Novel adaptation of Patricia Briggs’s ‘Mercy Thompson’ series. It was called ‘Homecoming’ and was a visual prologue set before the events of ‘Moon Called’. If you are a die-hard Mercy fan (and why wouldn’t you be?) this was a great little back-story to how Mercy first met Adam, Stefan, Siebold (Zee) and got work in the Tricities area as a mechanic.

I *loved* the graphic novel – but general Amazon consensus wasn’t good, ending up with a 3/5 average rating. The negative feedback was mostly due to fan’s misconception about ‘Homecoming’ being a GRAPHIC novel and not actually the next instalment in the ‘Mercy Thompson’ series.

Well, Dabel brothers are giving ‘Mercy’ another shot – and this time it looks as though the graphic novel will be an adaptation of book #1 ‘Moon Called’.
The synopsis from Amazon:

Mercedes "Mercy" Thompson is a talented Volkswagen mechanic living in the Tri-Cities area of Washington. She also happens to be a walker, a magical being with the power to shift into a coyote at will. Mercy's next-door neighbor is a werewolf. Her former boss is a gremlin. And she's fixing a bus for a vampire. This is the world of Mercy Thompson, one that looks a lot like ours but is populated by those things that go bump in the night. And Mercy's connection to those things is about to get her into some serious hot water... Moon Called faithfully adapts New York Times bestselling author Patricia Briggs' first Mercy Thompson novel to comics. Prepare to see the fantastic characters and supernatural settings that have made her novels a hit with fans worldwide come to four-color life!

The graphic novel is being created by: Derek Ruiz (Adapter), Patricia Briggs (Author), Clint Hilinski (Illustrator).

I’m really looking forward to the graphic adaptation of ‘Moon Called’. Sure, it’s not a movie adaptation – but this way Dabel brothers can stay true to the story and dialogue, give Briggs’s characters a physicality that she is happy with and there won’t be any butchering of the story by movie-moguls looking to create a ‘Twilight’ replica with Jacob as the hero.

Some fans are iffy about the whole ‘graphic novel’ thing – but I say don’t knock it till you read it! This is just another dimension to the Mercy world and a great new way for fans to interact with the series. If you haven’t already, I would highly recommend you give first novel ‘Homecoming’ a browse, and definitely keep your eyes open for the graphic novel of ‘Moon Called’. You might be surprised by how much you enjoy reading one of your favourite urban-fantasies in comic-book form!

There also seems to be a comic-adaptation of the “Alpha and Omega” series floating around, but it’s not available in hardcover from Amazon. I really want to get my hands on a copy! I have found copies available for order from various online comic shops.

This adaptation seems to be following the plot of the first book ‘Cry Wolf’. This is the blurb:

A rogue werewolf is slaughtering humans in the Montana wilderness and Charles Cornick must find the killer before his crimes expose the pack to the world. But is the badly wounded Alpha wolf up to the task, even with his mate Anna at his side? Cry Wolf is the latest series of supernatural adventure by New York Times best selling fantasy author Patricia Briggs. Set in the same world as her popular Mercy Thompson novels, it's filled with beloved old characters and exciting new ones. Be sure to see what happens when Alpha and Omega come together!

There’s also a small photo of the cover-art for ‘Masques’ floating around on Amazon. But I don’t know if this is the official cover. ‘Masques’ was Patricia Briggs’s first ever novel, written in 1993. With the success of ‘Mercy Thompson’ Ms. Briggs has been being given the opportunity to do a few re-writes on ‘Masques’ and re-release with a vamped cover. The book does sound heavily fantastical (not so much ‘urban’) but ‘shifters’ are mentioned in the blurb. This new cover seems a clever tactic to give Mercy fans pause and consider trying some of Briggs’s other writing. I, personally, can’t wait to give ‘Masques’ a go.

Richelle Mead

Richelle Mead recently blogged about her ‘Dark Swan’ series.

This is her third series after ‘Georgina Kincaid’ and ‘Vampire Academy’, and probably her least popular (but equally amazing). For that reason, Ms. Mead’s publisher’s at Kensington decided to hold off on releasing the 3rd ‘Dark Swan’ book this year – amidst two VA books and one Georgina.
The good news is we will get a Eugenie instalment in 2011... The better news is that we might be getting the 4th ‘Dark Swan’ book right on the tail of ‘Iron Crowned’!

‘Iron Crowned’ from the BLURB:

Shaman-for-hire Eugenie Markham is the best at banishing entities trespassing in the mortal realm. But as the Thorn Land’s queen, she’s fast running out of ways to end the brutal war devastating her kingdom. Her only hope: the Iron Crown, a legendary object even the most powerful gentry fear…

Who Eugenie can trust is the hardest part. Fairy king Dorian has his own agenda for aiding her search. And Kiyo, her shape-shifter ex-boyfriend, has every reason to betray her along the way. To control the Crown’s ever-consuming powers, Eugenie will have to confront an unimaginable temptation--one that will put her soul and the fate of two worlds in mortal peril…

But ‘Eugenie’ fans should be prepared for a few shocks in ‘Iron Crowned’. In Ms. Mead’s own words; “We all know that the third book of a Richelle Mead series is the WTF? one, and Eugenie's no exception. That's all I'm saying.”
Eugenie has already gone through quite an emotional whirlpool with Dorian and Kiyo – not to mention she’s started a war in the Thorn Lands. I wonder how much more upheaved her life can get? Oh boy!

Gini Koch

Gini Koch is one of my new favourite authors and I have a heart-palpitating crush on her ‘Katherine Kitty Katt’ series.

Ms. Koch recently announced that DAW books have bought instalments 3 & 4 of her space-opera ‘Kitty Katt’ series!

So, the series order will be:

#1 – ‘Touched by an Alien’ - Avaliable NOW!
#2 – ‘Alien Tango’ - December 7th 2010
#3 – ‘Alien in the Family' – April 5th 2011
#4 – ‘Alien Proliferation’ – December 2011

‘Alien Tango’ in Gini Koch’s own words:

For Katherine “Kitty” Katt, Alien Super-Being Exterminator, anti-alien conspiracies, threats from outer space, and a couple of killer alligators are all in a day’s work. But internal alien schemes and some major romantic complications bring new meaning to the term ‘chaos and confusion’.

It’s been five months since Kitty joined Centaurion Division, working with the aliens from Alpha Centauri. She and Jeff Martini have grown closer as a couple and life looks rosy. But when an experimental spacecraft is mysteriously returned to the Kennedy Space Center, Kitty and the rest of Alpha Team are called out to investigate and are immediately embroiled in life or death situations that scream ‘political conspiracy’.

The team must survive repeated murderous attacks, remove a mysterious space entity from a group of astronauts, and avoid an unhinged woman with a serious crush on Kitty’s old high school boyfriend. And that’s all before the masterminds decide Kitty’s extermination is vital -- and take matters into their own hands.

I. Can’t. Wait.

Molly Harper

Molly Harper is a vampire comedy genius. Seriously. Her ‘Jane Jameson’ series was an absolute laugh-riot and a breath of fresh air on the paranormal romance scene.

There’s good news and bad news concerning Molly Harper. The good news is she has petitioned her publisher for a 4th Jane Jameson book. The bad news is she hasn’t received an answer from said publisher about a possible 4th book.... *YET*!

But the GOOD news is; Ms. Harper intends to post Jane Jameson short stories on her website – for fans, for FREE! That’s right. The first short story will be posted on July 1st this year! Don’t believe me? Here’s proof in Harper’s own words:

I receive a lot of e-mails asking when I will be releasing a new Jane Jameson book. And the truth is, I don't know. I'm not trying to mess with my dear readers. I've spoken to my publisher about a fourth novel, but nothing is concrete. Until I know something, I will post Jane short stories and updates here and at my blog. Expect the first short to be posted on July 1, 2010.

Thanks,
Molly

Don’t forget Molly Harper also has a stand-alone novel coming out July 27th called ‘And One Last Thing’. She’s an automatic-buy for me, so I already have this one on pre-order and am looking forward to it!

Lisa Kleypas

I've been lusting after Lisa Kleypas’s new contemporary romance series for quite some time. Thankfully we now have a blurb and cover-art (UK only);

‘Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor’ from the BLURB:

The Friday Harbor series of contemporary romance/women's fiction novels is set in San Juan Island just off of the Washington State Coast. The San Juan Island setting is romantic and varied, with rocky shores, sandy beaches, rich woodlands and pasture land, and the prosperous Friday Harbor area. The series is centred around the Nolan family, consisting of two brothers and a sister, the owners of an island vineyard and restaurant. The Nolans' mother Jessica has just passed away, and a mysterious stranger attends the funeral. He reveals that he is an illegitimate child Jessica had given birth to, and given up for adoption, before she married. This family secret leads to many new questions and challenge, which test the bonds of love and loyalty, and ultimately show the Nolans what family is all about.

The book comes out November 9th this year.

There’s are also whispers that Kleypas has a new stand-alone novel coming out in 2011 titled ‘Rainshadow Road’. I am intrigued...

Kelley Armstrong

Kelley’s ‘Darkest Powers’ trilogy came to an end this year with ‘The Reckoning’, and It was a fantastic conclusion to a delicious YA series. Armstrong answered quite a few niggling fan questions and also wrapped up her protagonist’s romantic entanglements in ‘Reckoning’. But she left the door WIDE open for more books in this universe (which is also her ‘Women of the Otherworld’ universe). A new trilogy set in the ‘Darkest Powers’ world will be released next year. This new book is called ‘The Gathering’ and will follow another bunch of genetically engineered teenage supernaturals;

‘The Gathering’ from the BLURB:

Maya lives in a small medical-research town on Vancouver Island. How small? You can’t find it on the map. It has less than two-hundred people, and her school has only sixty-eight students—for every grade from kindergarten to twelve.

Now, strange things are happening in this claustrophobic town, and Maya's determined to get to the bottom of them. First, the captain of the swim team drowns mysteriously in the middle of a calm lake. A year later, mountain lions start appearing around Maya's home, and they won’t go away. Her best friend, Daniel, starts getting negative vibes from certain people and things. It doesn't help that the new bad boy in town, Rafe, has a dangerous secret—and he's interested in one special part of Maya's anatomy: Her paw-print birthmark.

Jeaniene Frost

So, back in March of this year Jeaniene told her fanboard that she would be proposing more ‘Night Huntress’ spin-off books to her publisher. Namely, an Ian and Vlad book (possibly even a full series for Vlad).

No word since March on whether or not Jeaniene’s proposal was given the OKay – but I’m guessing her publisher’s will be waiting to see how Menchere’s spin-off ‘Eternal Kiss of Darkness’ sells before giving her the go-ahead.

I personally didn’t like Spade’s spin-off, ‘First Drop of Crimson’. But I have high-hopes for Mencheres’ book because I think he’s absolutely delicious! And I think Ian would make a GREAT protagonist – his cameo in ‘First Drop’ was pretty much the only thing I liked about that book. Vlad I’m not so sure about – I look forward to his appearance in the 5th Cat & Bones book (coming February 22nd 2011) but I’m not 100% convinced that he could carry his own series. Jeaniene has also confirmed that Vlad appears in ‘Eternal Kiss of Darkness’, but Ian does not :(

Sunny

I love this series. It’s paranormal erotica; beautifully written and constantly exciting. I love and highly recommend it. After the release of her second spin-off book, ‘Lucinda Dangerously’, Sunny sort of hinted that she was done with the ‘Monere; Children of the Moon’ series. I, and many fans, were saddened by the news. But Sunny recently announced that a new instalment to the ‘Monere’ series is set for a March 2011 release. Its title is ‘Mona Lisa Eclipsing’ and this is the blurb:

‘Mona Lisa Eclipsing’ BLURB:

From the time she was an orphan, Mona Lisa knew she was different. As a Mixed-Blood daughter of the Monère, she rules her domain in the Louisiana Bayou. But she’s about to become the hunted as her mind begins playing tricks, and no one is who they seem.
Roberto Carderas, a dangerous drug lord of mixed Monère heritage, arrives in Cozumel to eliminate a rival. But the jaguar-shifter has encountered a much more valuable prize on the island: Mona Lisa, the first female Monère he’s ever met—and one especially vulnerable in that she has lost her memory. Now, with all knowledge of her real life as stripped away as her efences, Mona Lisa can be manipulated into believing…anything.

Convinced that Roberto is her kind and sensual protector, Mona Lisa thwarts all attempts at her rescue—including those made by her desperate lover Dante. As Roberto’s devious scheme gets underway, Dante can only hope that the touch of his warm flesh will reignite total recall in the body and mind of the woman he loves. But escape for both of them could be as forever elusive as Mona Lisa’s past.