Saturday, January 16, 2016

Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs by Molly Harper


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?


Where to Buy



Molly Harper is usually a good choice when you're looking for something light and humorous with perhaps a bit of suspense thrown in, and this book is no exception to that. With characters that are genuinely like-able, or at least in the like-to-hate category, it's a fun read that you rarely have to think too hard about. While some things are a bit predictable, much that happens isn't, and following some of the twists and turns is half the fun.



Jane is a quirky individual who doesn't really fit in with most of her neighbors in her small-town Southern home town, yet she loves the place all the same and has no desire to ever leave. Her unique personality puts her at odds with many, including many of her own relatives, and she more than once finds herself on the wrong end of small-town injustices. Still, she perseveres, and when her life takes a sharp turn into being an un-life she rolls with it and makes the best of things in a way that is uniquely her. Watching her oh-so-politely put people in their places is great fun.

Gabriel, Jane's sire and subsequently almost-boyfriend remains a bit of a mystery throughout. Much of this is because we are given everything from Jane's POV, and she doesn't really learn a lot about him aside from the facts of his life. There is a good deal we can infer about him from his interactions with her, yet much of it remains a guessing game. Hopefully we'll get to learn more about him in the subsequent books of the series.

Overall this book was pretty much what I expected from a Molly Harper book, and that's not really a bad thing. Her snarky sense of humor permeates it the way it does most of her books and keeps the dialogue fresh. You can never be quite sure what Jane is going to say to someone or how she'll respond to something, and she more than once takes you a bit by surprise here. A good intro to the series, it definitely has me wanting to read the rest to find out what happens next with Jane.

Fans of paranormal romance will probably like this one, though it's a bit more in the urban fantasy side of things than romance. It also has a good dose of cozy mystery thrown in as well. All in all it's an entertaining book that's well worth the read, and holds promise for the rest of the series.

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