Posts tagged think you're delicious

Sorry for the radio silence. School and personal blog taking precedence.  I have a few reviews that I’ve been sitting on, though, so I’m going to try to keep things going here a while longer. Here’s one for an awesome upper YA/adult urban fantasy, music-heavy and with some of my favorite vampires to date.

I read Wicked Game by Jeri Smith-Ready to prepare for TAC last year. Unfortunately wasn’t able to tell the author how much I liked it. But I was in the same building with her, so that’s cool.

From the website:

Recovering con artist Ciara Griffin is trying to live the straight life, even if it means finding a (shudder!) real job. She takes an internship at a local radio station, whose late-night time-warp format features 1940s blues, 60s psychedelia, 80s Goth, and more, all with an uncannily authentic flair. Ciara soon discovers how the DJs maintain their cred: they’re vampires, stuck forever in the eras in which they were turned.

Read the rest of the description and check out playlists and extras here.

First off, in all aspects of plot and characters, this book delivers. I didn’t feel like anything was a tease or was less cool or exciting than it should have been. We get to see a lot of the vampires’ quirks: their OCD both as a general character trait and something that can be used against them, the way they feed and how the hierarchy of drinking and progeny works, how they can be injured and killed. We have a con woman as a main character, and we see several examples of her skills in that regard. We have creepy vampire compound; we actually get to go inside it and look around. We have vampire DJs; we get a taste of what they play and how they work. Every interesting and intriguing article was explored, rather than leaving me disappointed like certain other books I could mention. The plot was pretty straightforward, allowing all the players to shine and providing time for a few intriguing detours. 

Secondly, we have a genuinely complicated vamp/human relationship that didn’t feel forced or cheap. The heroine keeps weighing the decision to be with Shane, is honestly disturbed by and worried about him, and throughout the book takes each further step as a calculated risk. This felt true to her character; she’s a con artist. Sometimes she tried to cut and run, but she understood that she might have to risk things few people would to get what she wanted. Shane is cute and kind of dorky, super romantic when in wooing mode (there is a scene, you will know it when you get to it), and completely threatening and scary when he needed to be. The other vampires, similarly, had moments where you could see them honestly trying to be friendly and not scare Ciara away, and then next minute they seem totally morally defunct and frightening. I love this. Things are really, truly complicated for them, and it makes everything seems more real.

For good measure, a few more lovable things. Shane being honest with Ciara about his depression early on, and separating the medical aspect of depression that he, as a vampire, no longer suffers, from the emotional troubles he still has. Monroe, who is plainly awesome. Regina’s country of origin (which I part-share). Fireflies.

In conclusion, I am salivating for the rest of this series. Please someone put them in my hands right now. And get them yourself. ‘Cause this book is awesome.