Fangs for the Memories (Half-Moon Hollow #4.5), by Molly Harper

Format: e-ARC, 86 pages

Publisher: Pocket Star

Published: November 2, 2015

ISBN: 9781476794549

Genre: Paranormal romance

Back cover blurb: How did Andrea and Dick Cheney fall in love? Join Half-Moon Hollow’s favorite couple for a trip down memory lane—to a time when Mr. Wainwright was newly dead, Jane Jameson was a newbie vampire, and a budding paranormal romance was not yet uncorked…

Half-Moon Hollow’s supernatural social event of the season—Zeb’s Titanic-themed werewolf wedding—is coming up, and Dick Cheney (not that Dick Cheney!) needs a date. But Andrea’s had enough of clever, handsome, and rakish to last a lifetime, and Dick Cheney is certainly not the sort of man you bring home to mom (not that Andrea’s deadist parents are speaking to her ever since she dropped out of college and became a blood surrogate.) Shameless, relentless, roguish, with a Stetson-worthy swagger, a naughty sparkle in his eyes, and a constant smirk—oh, and fangs—no, Dick is the last person (er…vampire) Andrea wants to date.

But the infuriatingly irresistible man who lives quietly on the edge of a criminal underworld knows exactly what he wants, and once he surprises Andrea with a thrilling hot and dirty kiss behind the paranormal bookshop, she knows what she wants too: Dick. All it takes to ignite their unconventional courtship is a near-undeath experience that confronts Dick with a choice between turning Andrea, losing her forever, or tapping into his countless shady resources).

My review: I’m a big fan of Dick (TWSS) and he just became even more lovely in this wee story about how he won Andrea’s heart. Full of the usual Harper humour, this is set just days after Mr. Wainwright’s death and shows how Dick came to Andrea’s rescue after a council-endorsed feeding goes bad. I loved everything about it, especially find out more about Andrea’s past. Just wish it was longer!

***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them. ***

My rating: 5/5

Amazon

Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs, by Molly Harper

Format: Kindle Edition

Published: March 31, 2009

Publisher: Pocket

Back cover blurb:

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?

My review:

This book was a laugh riot from start to finish. The snark was dialled right up to 11, and Jane made me snicker out loud so many times I lost count.

Set in a world very much like that of Sookie Stackhouse, where vampires are out in the open and drink synthetic blood products, children’s librarian Jane finds herself unemployed and undead all in one day, the latter thanks to a drunken hunter who mistakes her for a deer. She is “saved” by the hunky Gabriel, about whom I wish to know much, much more. He is a bit like Sookie’s Bill, a civil war-era gentleman who is deliciously naive in the modern manner of speaking (like another favourite character of mine, Leif in the Iron Druid series) but loves talking about books and knows how to please a lady, if you know what I mean.

Jane, though, is a bit of a walking disaster, having gained herself a nasty enemy on top of having a dysfunctional family and a best friend with a new, “different” girlfriend. The potential for humour is endless with material like that, and Harper capitalises at every turn. This was very close to a five-cupcake read for me, and only isn’t because I found the denouement a little unsatisfying and rushed. However, I’m very eager to read the sequels and find out more about yummy Gabriel.

My rating: 4.5/5