How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf

Title: How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf

Author: Molly Harper aka Molly Harper White

Publisher: Pocket Book Paranormal Romance

Series: Naked Werewolf, Bk 1

ISBN: 9781439195864

Pages: 371

Obtained: personal copy - through some PBS swap (I can't remember which exactly)

Comments:

I've enjoyed Molly Harper's books in the past.  And I tend to enjoy books (or at least romances) set in Alaska.  I'd love to visit there; if I thought I could realistically handle it, I think living there would be great.  Of course reality and the way I picture things going in my head can be so vastly different. 

Anyway, the book started with those advantages.  Beyond that, Mo's background is just so different and strange, it would be hard not to be interested.  I love the way she manages to insert herself into the community.  And then you get to the paranormal werewolf thing.  I really enjoyed Mo and Cooper's relationship.

Overall, it was a really fun read.  I was definitely interested in reading more, too.  Unfortunately, the second book in the Naked Werewolf series, The Art of Seducing a Naked Werewolf, is about Cooper's sister Maggie, who I didn't care for.  So I'm hesitant, but I'm sure it'll be one of those books that makes me wonder what took me so long once I actually do read it.

Nice Girls Don't Bite Their Neighbors

Title: Nice Girls Don't Bite Their Neighbors

Author: Molly Harper

Publisher: Pocket Books Paranormal Romance

Series: Jane Jameson aka Nice Girls, Bk 4

ISBN: 9781451641813

Obtained: Library copy


Comments:

It's been awhile since I've read any of this series, so I didn't remember all the characters or past events.  I managed to get into it quickly enough, and found myself asking what took me so long?  I really do enjoy Molly Harper's writing and I especially enjoy the characters.  In particular, teenage newbie vampire Jamie was a fun addition to the story (this is different for me, because I'm not usually a fan of teenagers in stories unless its a YA book).

As for the story itself, Jane is getting married.  She's running her bookshop.  She's taking care of Jamie, she's trying to exorcise her grandmother, she's trying to find out who's been making attempts on her fiancees life... Sounds a little busy and chaotic, no?  All part of the fun that comes with Jane Jameson's life.  And of course it makes for fun reading.

Anyway, apparently this is the end of Jane Jameson's story.  It seems the stand alone The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires features a character that appears in this book as well as the same small town, Half Moon Hollow.  I'll be reading that, but I still think I'll be a little sad to leave Jane and her crowd behind.

Nice Girls Don't Date Dead Men

Title: Nice Girls Don't Date Dead Men

Author: Molly Harper

Publisher: Pocket Star Books Paranormal Romance

Copyright Date: 2009

Print Date: September 2009

ISBN:9781416589433

Pages: 376

Series: 2nd in the Jane Jameson series. The 1st book is Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs. The 3rd book, Nice Girls Don't Live Forever should be out January 2010.

Book Description (from back cover):

Forever a Bridesmaid, Never an Undead Bride

Once a devoted children's librarian, Jane Jameson now works at a rundown occult bookstore. Once a regular gal, she's now a vampire. And instead of a bride, she's an eternal bridesmaid — which leads her to question where exactly her relationship with her irresistibly sexy sire, Gabriel, is headed. Mercurial, enigmatic, apparently commitment-phobic vampires are nothing if not hard to read. While Jane is trying to master undead dating, she is also donning the ugliest bridesmaid's dress in history at her best friend Zeb's Titanic-themed wedding. Between a freaked-out groom-to-be, his hostile werewolf in-laws, and Zeb's mother, hell-bent on seeing Jane walk the aisle with Zeb, Jane's got the feeling she's just rearranging the proverbial deck chairs.

Meanwhile, Half Moon Hollow's own Black Widow, Jane's Grandma Ruthie, has met her match in her latest fiancé. He smells like bad cheese and has a suspicious history of dead spouses. But Jane's biting her tongue. After all, would a nice girl really think she has a future with a vampire?

Comments:

I ended up requesting the local library buy this (which makes me its first reader!). I really need to find out if there's a limit to how many I can request because oh what fun I could have.

Anyway, I enjoyed it. I like (most of) the characters — Jane, Gabriel, Dick, Mr. Wainwright... It was frustrating knowing there was more going on with Zeb that Jane (and others) weren't paying enough attention to notice sooner, but then Jane was distracted with other things.

Like being a bridesmaid and all the efforts that entails, complete with counseling, mediator, and horrible dress. (I'm so grateful that my sister's wedding was small, and the only limitations about the dress was it had to be pink — which is one of my least liked colors, but looks fairly good on me.) Or handling more family drama. Speaking of which, it was nice to see Jane's mother in a better light.

I'm still waiting to know what's going on with Gabriel (I'd better get answers come January), but otherwise found this a satisfying and fun romance.

Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs

Title: Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs

Author: Molly Harper

Publisher: Pocket Star Books Paranormal Romance

Copyright Date: 2009

Print Date: April 2009

ISBN: 9781416589426

Pages: 355

Series: 1st in the Jane Jameson series

Book Description (from back cover):

UNEMPLOYMENT SUCKS

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?

Comments:

A book about vampires, with a librarian heroine (as I've schooled for and hope to become — the librarian part not the heroine), and the blurb title "Unemployment Sucks" (which believe me it does)... well this seemed the perfect book for me to read.

It was a fun book. I like Jane. I'm not so organized as her, but maybe if I had actual experience in a library, I could become organized. And the various facts and trivia she knew was fascinating — such as where the word firing (as in, being terminated from your job) came from. I didn't understand how she could go 4 months without buying or checking out more books before finally going through withdrawal, though.

Moving on — the vampire setup (they had a Come Out but werewolves and other beings had not) reminded me a bit of Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse background story. But the book had it's own twist on what started the Come Out.

Anyway, I'm certainly looking forward to reading Nice Girls Don't Date Dead Men. Maybe I'll use the B&N gift card from my birthday (that I've been hanging onto for over a month due to indecision).