Rating: 
Summary: Katie goes a vampire hunting with hysterical results!!
Review: Miranda is Witch...um, I mean a Wiccan (the new age Politically Correct term) and she decides to use her powers to help her two friends find romance, passion and something to set their hearts to racing. Roxy is a 24-year-old virgin saving herself for Mr. Right and believes in the Moravian Dark Ones (obviously a take off on Best Selling Carpathians from author Christian Feehan). She just spent the night fighting off Mr. Eight-hands Octopus so she is ready for an adventure more to her taste. The other, Joyful, is going steady with Bradley the bore. They welcome Miranda's aid, even though it is with a nervous twitter. Miranda summons the Goddess to find the perfect mate for her friends in an evening of wine and conjuring a la Witches of Eastwick. And like Eastwick's witches they get more they bargained for. Miranda foretells Roxy will meet her true love before the moon rises and sets again. Joy is ready to giggle until her turn comes. Miranda warns Joy will take a trip. Well duh? This does not impress Joy because Roxy and she are leaving to go to Czech Republic the next day. But when Miranda cautions a child of darkness will cross Joy's path, Joy gets the shivers. Miranda stresses Joy should not be swayed by his dark ways, however, there is another - one who stands in the shadows behind him. He is the one she should fear. Her immortal soul was in the balance, so she must choose wisely. As the ladies arrive in the Czech Republic, they land smack in the middle of a Goth Festival - nightly till 2 a.m. for a week. Since everyone is dressed as a vampire and vamping around, how is Joy to tell the real Carpathian...hum, I mean Moravian Dark Ones for the imitation one? Is it Dominic in his Chris Lee cape, white makeup and the fake fangs? Or it is the sedate and commanding Raphael St. John? Roxy, the expert on Dark Ones, swears Raphael, while being definitely attractive, is not a vampire. After all, everyone saw him drinking a beer and every well-versed Moravian expert knows the Dark Ones cannot drink anything but blood until after The Joining. Only, Roxy believes Dominic IS a Dark One while Joy thinks he is nothing but a high-camp ham. Also, she witnesses Raphael dumping his beer in a potted plant when no one was looking! Dominic is the head of the troop of so-called vamps going to Goth Fairs all over Europe entertaining, and it is clear he is Raphael's boss. Within minutes of first meeting them, Joy and Roxy learn there is a trail of dead women leading from town to town in the wake of the Vampire Troop. Is Dominic or Raphael really a vampire and preying on the women who come to the festivals - just like Roxy and Joy - or is it the strange Tanya who seems too possessive of Dominic and is caught lurking around Roxy and Joy's hotel rooms? Or maybe the quiet Christian who causes Joy to see visions of vampires? If matters were not getting so heated up - with Dominic suddenly taking an interest in Joy - much to Roxy and especially Tanya's distress - Joy would laugh at everything, equating Dominic's vamp imitation on par with Grandpa of The Munsters. I mean when a man in white makeup and fake fangs threatens to fulfill all your darkest fantasies, no matter how extreme, would you really take him seriously? Joy feels the sexy, amber-eyes Raphael is the real vampire, though Roxy will hear none of it. Despite this suspicion, Joy cannot help but fall for Raphael - LITERALLY, several times!! So what is a gal to do?? Join Joyful as she clumsily learns the ins and outs of dealing with vampires - fake and real - in this warm and funny tale. Katie Macalister gives you a howling good time - as she always does - lovingly poking fun at the Vampire genre and the fans who devour them. Coming soon is Sex and the Single Vampire and I cannot wait!!
Rating: 
Summary: Funny but.....
Review: Ok read - the banter and dialog was well written and fun.
The mystery was on the light side- no great surprise when the villain is unmasked or when the hero's secret is revealed. The first person perspective that the book was written in was distracting to me- I have one word for steamy sex written in first person- ICK!
Rating:
Summary: Who needs enemies when you've got Roxy?
Review: Ok, so Macalister's story was cute and at times really amusing. But it had major holes and some INCREDIBLY annoying secondary characters. Roxy made we want to smack her on page two and the feeling never dissapated, and the "vampires" - by page 100 I was wondering if this was supposed to be a spoof, if these people were cardboard cut-outs or something. And my number one problem is the hero's "secret" and the heroine's willingess to "help." There is no earthly reason he couldn't tell her, and the fact that he made such an issue out of it made the actual revelation a let-down. And if I was in love with someone as head-strong and stupid as Joy, I'd run as fast as I could in the other direction. I't one thing when the heroine insists to be her own "alpha-female," and another when she acts like a fool. Joy was a fool. But nevertheless I was happy for her in the end, and I am curious how she's going to go about finding Christian's "Beloved."
Rating: 
Summary: McAllister ruins a decent vampire
Review: Okay, after Men In Kilts I swore I'd never read another Katie McAllister, but then I found this book in my To Be Read pile. I *like* vampire romances - but I seem to dislike McAllister's writing intensely. So - I gave it a try anyway. Well, just as with Men In Kilts, I cannot fathom how on earth any man alive could possibly like the heroine, let alone fall in love with her. Joy is infantile, incredibly irritating, has a motormouth that just won't shut up (it's amazing how her equally irritating, motormouth friend Roxy gets a word in edgeways), continually adds two and two to make twenty and generally gets in the way at every turn. I'd think any sane man would be running away from her as fast as he could - but no. Two decent men, and one hammy pretend-vampire, fall in love with her. Puh-lease! The book is supposed to be about Joy and Roxy on a hunt for vampires and ending up in a Goth festival and finding some - or maybe just one. Well, the false trails McAllister laid didn't work for me; I knew which character would be the genuine vampire as soon as he was first mentioned, and I was right. No suspense there. Then there's Christian - or CJ Dante, author of the vampire novels Roxy quotes at every breath. He is the only interesting character in this book - and stupid Joy fights him off to be with Raphael instead. Okay, I still don't know what Raphael sees in Joy anyway, but even with a book written in the first person, so we get full and detailed insight into Joy's thoughts (definitely TMI at times), it's not clear - other than lust at first sight - why she *loves* Raphael. She certainly likes Christian and is very drawn to him - and why would she be able to share his thoughts if she's completely indifferent to him? Oh, and there's the sex scenes. Why, oh why, does Joy have to babble her way through them? And why on earth do her moronic, inane ramblings not put Raphael off her permanently? Not to mention Christian, who we are told is able to see into her mind at all times - including when she's intimate with Raphael. Definitely TMI here, and about as exciting as yet another of Joy's tedious, unfunny monologues. We also have - again - the stereotypical one-dimensional jealous-bitch woman, not to mention sundry other uninteresting characters, not to mention the over-the-top Miranda the witch - sorry, Wiccan. Blech. And then there's the scene right out of Phantom of the Opera. Once it began, I suspected exactly how it would play out, and I was right. Exactly according to the book/musical. Does McAllister think her readers don't know the original? I did like Christian, and would like to know what happens to him - but not enough to torture myself through another exposure to McAllister. wmr-uk
Rating: 
Summary: What a welcome relief for vampire fans!
Review: Thank you, Katie Macalister, for showing that it is possible to write a story about magic, vampires, and love that doesn't sound like some goth teenage girl's fantasy. Macalister takes the stereotypical sexy vampire lover routine and turns it on its stake...I mean head with this intelligent and well written tale. Macalister tells an incredible story while at the same time not taking her story too seriously, and the combination leaves the reader with a book full of delights, frights, and and mystery.
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money
Review: Thankfully I checked this book out of the library. Since I hadn't been impressed by "Noble Intentions", I didn't want to take a chance buying this one. I can read about anything, but this was such drivel I just skimmed over the book. From what I read, the writing was poor, the characters annoying, and the "love scenes" insipid. I won't waste my time with another book by this author.
Rating:
Summary: Well, I wasn't THAT impressed
Review: The book had a good plot and a lot of potential. However I found the heroine annoying. She talked SO much! There were lots of places where the plot didn't make sense. And the characters did dumb, unlikely things. Nice possibilities for a sequel, though. If you like this type of book, try Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series.
Rating:
Summary: A Girl's Guide to Vampires
Review: The premise of this story is very original; it is the execution execution that bothers me somewhat. I believe that the catty, whiny relationship between the to women slows the story and is at times aggrevating. If I had to listen to either of them back biting each other over the period of friendship they professed to have, I would have to run screaming from the room. However, the story begins to get good again when the actual tracing of the vampire begins. I liked the men in this story very much. they were not too overblown, but I found that I wanted to find out what will happen to Christian in the future.
Rating:
Summary: A different kind of vampire story
Review: This book is a different, funny, kind of vampire story. There was many time when I just laugh out loud. The heroine is silly but lately I have heard that the 30ty are the 20ty so that make the 20ty the teen. The heroine acts like a teenager/20-something. Being a 20-something I can tell you that sometime I don't feel like an adult or a child. So I liked Joy I could relate to her.
This book is not the usual vampire novel. It's a fun read. Of course there are some dark scenes. What vampire's story wouldn't be complete without them? I really can't tell you more about it without ruinning the story. I hate it when people do that. If you like knowing more just read of the other reviews.
Pippin
Rating:
Summary: More serious moments, please.
Review: This book was hilarious...and very, very annoying. Macalister is obviously extremely witty and creative. Her characters are well-written, and her plot has great potential. The problem is, her story runs joke after joke. They're seriously funny jokes, but they soon begin to grind on the reader. I ended up flying through the last 75 pages of this book because there was no longing to savor each scene. All the sexual drama and story intrigue was completely overwhelmed by Joy and Roxy's non-stop banter and investigative incompetence.
I'd like to find out what happens to Christian, but not enough read another story like this one.
| 
