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A Librarian Reads Gemini Bites

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

Gemini Bites by Patrick Ryan

Judy and Kyle Renneker are fraternal twins who live in the middle of a family of nine. Everyone in the family competes against each other just to survive. If you want the biggest helping of dinner you need to make sure you are first in line. If you want an amazing present for Christmas you better start dropping hints in July. That is how life has always been in the Renneker family. But since Judy and Kyle are twins they compete against each other more than any other member of the family and it always seems that Judy wins. When Kyle came out as gay to his family Judy came out as a born again Christian. She is always one-upping her twin.

Then one night Judy and Kyle’s parents make an announcement. The family will have another member soon. Garret Johnson, the son of a friend of their father’s, will be staying with them for the rest of the school year. Garrett’s parents are moving to California but want him to have the stability of staying at one school for his junior year of high school. At first Judy and Kyle are concerned that their home will have one more person squeezed into it, but soon Judy notices that Kyle has an interest in Garret. Now she sees Garret as an opportunity to compete with her brother for a boyfriend.

But Garrett has his own plans. He makes it no secret to Judy and Kyle that he is a vampire. Garrett even has a Van Helsing type stalker at school who has vowed to destroy him. Judy and Kyle aren’t sure what to make of any of this but can’t deny being intrigued. So who will win in this love triangle? Judy? Kyle? Or the vampire?

Gemini Bites is a very funny, yet realistic, story of sibling rivalry gone haywire. Highly recommended for those looking for a quick, fun read about family, romance and vampires. It is appropriate for ages 16 and up due to a few scenes involving physical intimacy.

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A Librarian Reads American Vampire

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

American Vampire by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque, and Stephen King

Now these are vampires! So many monsters have lately fallen to the paranormal romance genre. It is nice to see vampires being mean and willing to kill just about anything.

American Vampire tells two stories. In the first a young woman, Pearl Jones, lives in the Hollywood of 1925 and longs to be a movie star. She is seduced by a movie star who then turns her over to a coven of vampires. They feed on her and leave her for dead.

The second story is about a ruthless bank robber, Skinner Sweet, in the old west of 1880. While being hunted down by lawmen Skinner is accidentally turned into a vampire. But sometimes new vampires evolve different traits when they come from different regions of the world. The vampires we all know, those who fed at night and who are killed by wooden stakes, are European vampires. Skinner becomes the first American vampire. He can walk during the day and stakes don’t harm him. When he feeds he transforms large claws and huge monstrous jaws. He is definitely a breed all his own.

Many years later Skinner is still around. He finds Pearl and turns her into an American vampire. Soon she will want her vengeance against the old guard but most of all she needs wants to snack on the living.

American Vampire is a great comic, and classic horror. A must read; it is appropriate for ages 16 and up.

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A Librarian Reads Soulless

Monday, November 8th, 2010

Soulless by Gail Carriger

Alexia is a 26 year old spinster in Victorian London. She is unmarried because her social life suffers because she loves to read and that she has Italian heritage. Alexia doesn’t mind her spinster lifestyle. It gives her plenty of time to study further and talk to her vampire and werewolf friends who are an integral part of society in England.

However one evening, while chaperoning her eligible younger sisters at a party,  Alexia encounter a very hungry vampire who actually tries to feed off of her. It is just socially unacceptable and downright rude for a vampire to just try to feed on anybody. But to make matters worse the vampire doesn’t seem to know who Alexia is, or what she can do. She happens to be the only preternatural in all of Great Britain. She has the ability to nullify any supernatural traits by just a mere touch. So if a vampire tried to bite her, he would suddenly find himself without fangs and totally human.

Alexia must assume that the young vampire is ignorant of her standing amongst supernaturals. When he fails to stop his attempts of biting her she must must fight back. She winds up staking the vampire with her parasol and a wooden hair pin. Now she has a dead vampire on her hands and has unconsciously thrust herself in a supernatural mystery. It turns out that rove vampire are being created but not by any of the local vampire hives. She must help the Queen’s supernatural task force in uncovering the perpetrators.

Unfortunately this means she must work with Lord Maccon, a werewolf of the aristocracy, and someone she finds very attractive. The feeling is surprisingly mutual. How can she do her job and navigate the social rituals of courtship at the same time? She won’t have to worry for long because the villains have found a better test subject for experimentation then rove vampires, namely Alexia and her preternatural powers.

Soulless is a delightful, witty, and quick read. I recommend it for fans of urban fantasy and Jane Austen. It is appropriate for ages 16 and up due to one sex scene towards the end of the book.

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A Librarian Reads Midnight Girl

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

Midnight Girl by Will Shetterly

Cat’s birthday is on Halloween. Every year a stranger leaves her a new costume at her doorstep. When she was younger it was cool and neat to get mysterious gifts. Now that she is turning 14 she is determined to discover the identity of her benefactor. Her best friend Tee helps her climb out of the house before dawn and they camp out waiting for the stranger to show. What they don’t expect is that there is a large wold dropping the package off with its jaws. Who could train a wolf to do such a thing? And this year the Halloween costume it leaves behind is no costume at all but a beautiful gown intended for the young woman that Cat is becoming.

Things become more mysterious when Cat and Tee walk to school. A van speeds out of nowhere and careens out of control. Just as it is about to run over Cat the same wolf that dropped off her present pushes her out of the way. Something is definitely going on. That evening Cat’s family from both her father’s and maternal grandmother’s sides of the family visit for separate dinners. For some reason the two families have never gotten along.

But then after midnight, after the birthday celebrations are over, she learns the hard way why her two families are at odds and why a wolf has been stalking her throughout the day. She is secretly a child of the night. Her long lost mother has come to reclaim her. And now that she is 14 and awakened to her supernatural side she will need to feed on human blood.

Midnight Girl is an excellent quick read. Highly recommended and appropriate for all ages. Unfortunately it is only published online. Please click on the cover above to access this amazing book.

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A Librarian Reads Bite Me

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

bite-meBite Me: A Love Story by Christopher Moore

A lot of things have happened since 19 year old Tommy moved to San Francisco and met the girl of his dreams, Jody. First he discovered she was a vampire. Then her maker, Elijah, came to hunt them down, but they stopped him. Next Tommy woke up to discover that Jody turned him into a vampire. Then Elijah returned to extract revenge.

And amongst all the chaos is Chet, a cat, who Elijah accidentally turns into a vampire. Now Chet is roaming the streets eating the homeless and turning more cats into vampires. Tommy and Jody, along with their cadre of friends who include a whole crew of night clerks at a local grocery store, and a angsty, over eager goth girl named Abby Normal, need to stop Chet from eating all of San Francisco. But little do they know that Elijah has other vampires who have arrived in the Bay Area to take down not only Chet the vampire cat, but Tommy, Jody, Abby, and all their friends. Will the cats eat everyone? Will Tommy and Jody still be in love? Will Abby Normal ever find the right make up that makes her look extra undead?

Bite Me is the third book in Christopher Moore’s Love Story series. The first book is Bloodsucking Fiends, followed by You Suck. This trilogy of books is an extremely hilarious vampire parody, and highly recommended. The humor is along the same line as works from authors Terry Pratchett, Martin Millar and A. Lee Martinez. If you like vampires, and like to laugh you cannot go wrong with this series. However, they do have a fair amount of off color humor and sex so the series is only appropriate for ages 16 and up.

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