In observance of the day…
Monster-of-the-Week: …our choice this week is Holly, the vampiric central character of Blood and Kisses (Vampire Love Book 1) by J.T. Blackfriars. Available on Kindle, this short e-book—it’s Part One of a promised series—was recommended to me by my pal Barry, who has described it as “Perhaps the best vampire tale since ‘Salem’s Lot.”
Perhaps it is. I confess I dragged my feet a little on the recommendation—the vampire chick-lit genre isn’t a great favorite of mine—but when I finally dug into it, I found it a blast. Holly, who lives right here in a convincingly-depicted Phoenix, hides in plain sight, telling anyone who asks that she’s a vampire, and everyone accepts it, assuming that she’s into role playing. She sleeps in a coffin, works at a convenience store and has friends with benefits, the benefits on her end including both sex and blood donation.
Blackfrairs does a wonderful job of playing by the very traditional vampire rules. Holly has to be invited into a home, said invitation can be effectively revoked, she has to avoid sunlight and she can even shape-shift into a bat (though Blackfriars, like other authors and filmmakers, declines to explain what happens to her clothes during these transformations).
What makes it a Valentine’s choice, you ask? Simple—in the course of the story Holly falls in love, and her choice is about as star-crossed as a lover could get…
But I won’t spoil it. Suffice to say that I’m in fan-girl tizzy, on the edge of my seat for the next installment. At $2.99, the book is a real find.
