The Importance of Being Prudence

Prudence McDaniel #1

by Elizabeth Anne Porter

Librarian Note: Alternate Cover Edition for ISBN-10: 1537025724 / ISBN-13: 9781537025728.

Prudence and Joshua are two people happy with their routine lives. She is in love with books, while Joshua is attracted to just about anyone with muscles.

Not surprisingly, complication arises when a gorgeous man with large muscles walks through the door.

“Gorgeous doesn’t mean dateable.”

Tongue-in-cheek humor, heart breaking drama, and whirlwind romance of girl-meets-vampire and vampire-bites-girl-then-leaves are just part of why this story will be read over and over.

Genres: Fiction, Vampires, Humor

321 pages, Paperback

Published August 19, 2016

Reviews

[David Rubio · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED The Importance of Being Prudence, I found myself thrown into a world I wished I lived in! Absolutely a MUST READ!!!

[Robert N Karri · Rating 5 out of 5]

A whirlwind of emotions as beautiful, earthy Prudence's life is turned upside down! Fun light dialogue, Gorgeous Strangers, Irresistible Sexual Attraction, A (accidental?) procurement into an ancient society, whom of which no one has a clue! A provocative page turner!!

[Angela Kalnins · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Importance of Being Prudence
By: Elizabeth Porter

I am NOT a big fan of Lay’s Potato Chips. That’s what I tell myself each time I open a package and nibble at the first chip. As I’m reaching back into the bag for chips two, three and four, I tell myself I’m just going to eat a few and I’ll be done. By the time I’ve swallowed the last one and am reaching back in for more—only to find they’re all gone—I’m hooked.

Can I be honest? The first few chapters (or so) of this book are awful. Well, maybe awful is a strong term. Maybe I should just say, “uninspired”.

I can say with all sincerity the author, Ms. Porter, has skill and talent. Her story—OBVIOUSLY—has good bones or I wouldn’t have finished reading it. I just couldn’t help but feel that it need “fleshing out”.

Let me give you an example. In those first few “uninspired” chapters we see an incredibly sexy stranger (Marcus) walk into the bookstore Prudence (the main character) owns and kiss the palm of her hand. The next thing we know, they’ve slept together, she’s a vampire, he’s out of the picture; another sexy stranger (Julian) comes into the bookstore and starts kissing her palm (and there’s another night of sex-with-a-stranger passion) and he’s telling her she’s the new hope of the whole vampire nation (but we don’t know why); meet my best friend Phillipe (more palm kissing), and let’s all move in together; oh wait Julian’s gone now, too and so is her life-long best (human) friend and then vampire number four (Mordacia), who doesn’t kiss her palm and seems to hate her, is in the picture as well…

All that in the first five chapters or so, and, Prudence doesn’t blink at ANY of it. I think I’d blink—especially at the oh-so-now-I’m-a-vampire part.

It was obvious, to me, the reader, that the author—Elizabeth Porter—was in a very big hurry to get to the meat of her story and didn’t want to waste time introducing her characters, their personalities or their motivations. There was no build-up, no tension, no explanations and no desire on my part to continue. (This is where the Lay’s potato chip analogy comes in.) I read the first few pages, rolled my eyes and thought, “This is awful. I bet I can’t get past the first chapter.” But, I did. Then I didn’t expect to get past the first five. But, I did. And then, when I reached the last page… I LITERALLY screeched out loud because it was over.

The funny part is… nothing really changes when it comes to the feeling of being rushed—throughout the whole book—and yet, after a while, I was hooked. This is evidently the first in a series and I CANNOT wait to read the next.

And, I can’t explain why…

Future readers should know, there is some violence (it is, after all, a vampire story) and a lot of sex. However, it is not what I would call EXPLICIT or almost-porn sex. I personally appreciated that.

This is NOT your typical vampire story, either. It’s got an angle that I don’t think I’ve read before. THAT’S what kept me reading.

I must ask again: Can I be honest? I don’t have a clue whether I’m in the process of writing a bad review or a good one.

As I said before, Ms. Porter has talent; her writing skill is evident. My complaint is that she didn’t use it to flesh out her opening sequences, her characters or the story. And yet, the story is still intriguing and engaging.

All I can say is... “Try it. You might like it.”
I did… I think.

[Lulu [at] Reckless Reading · Rating 3 out of 5]

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Though the cover leaves much to be desired, the synopsis makes The Importance of Being Prudence by Elizabeth Porter sound like fun. And it is, mostly. Frivolous in the best sense of the word, the book reads as two stories, both of which are interesting, that tie together with main character Prudence and a revolving harem of sexy men.

We get a small bit of insight on Prudence at the start as we see her run her store and monologue about the type of person he is. However, none of that is necessary as best friend Joshua barely figures into the story (sadly as their dynamic was fun) and the store Prudence runs becomes a non-factor pretty quickly as well. Plus, Prudence plays out to be the exact type of girl she said she wasn’t.

Still, it’s a fun read. There are plenty of handsome vampires in love with Prudence at first scent. There’s sex. There are mysterious murders that quickly get solved. AND THEN A-WHOLE-NOTHER STORY! It goes from being a murder mystery to suddenly a dramatic life-or-death romance. Both halves are fun simply because the writing is so bubbly, even when things get serious, you have the feeling that Prudence will be okay. The Importance of Being Prudence by Elizabeth Porter is a refreshing and fun read that gets sexy and dramatic, but never overly so, nor does it take itself too seriously.

// I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this title. //

[Valerie Roberson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was given an Arc of this book for an honest review.
Elizabeth Anne Porter is a new Author to me. I really liked the book and her style. I have read a lot of Vampire books, but this one is very different. It is more true to life than most and I really like that. The Vampires are portrayed as every day men and women with jobs and everything. The only way you can tell that they are Vampires is to be one. I like that they don't stand out as one.
The book started out with Prudence and her best friend Joshua. Pru as he call's her, own's her own shop and has a wide cliental of all kinds of people from all kinds of walk of life. A man comes in that is like a Greek God and Prudence and Joshua both drop their jaw. Mouths hanging open, the man tells Pru that she is the one and they have wild sex all night. When she wakes up, he is gone and she can't remember the night before. The Greek God is found dead in her alley way with his heart cut out.
Prudence finds that the men she has feelings for are dropping like fly's. But why? And she is the one for what? She is the answer to the Vampire women's fertility problem. What? How? And why her? Plus as an added bonus, she falls for the man she hates and knows he hates her too.
I love the story line! As the pages went by, I got to where I couldn't put the book down. When you have Vampires, romance, mystery, suspense, surprises, action and hot sex, why put the book down? I really hope there is a book 2, because I was left hanging at the end. I look forward to reading more of this author's work in the future. Very good book! So glade I said yes to doing the review!

[MsDawn Burton · Rating 5 out of 5]

BRILLIANT! OMG I stayed up all night reading this. I could NOT put this book down.

If you are a fan of paranormal/vampire romance suspense.... this is the ONE!!!

I am a paranormal fan and I think this is the best one I have read! And I read at least 2 a day and have over 10,000 Kindle books!

But PLEASE don't leave us hanging when is book 2 coming out???

The only thing I didn't like is too many sex scenes.

[Angel Ratcliffe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This book was very interesting to read. I really enjoyed it. I know I laughed at a lot especially with the twin brothers. I wasn't too fond of the cliffhanger ending so I'm definitely interested in book 2. Thank you for allowing me to read your work.

[Karen]

I could not get into this story for some reason. It just did not resonate with me at all. Maybe it was the fact that the character of Prudence seemed pretty flat or that her conversations were basically dull. Well whatever it was I cannot continue reading this right now because I need something that is going to entertain me.

I will give it another look in a couple of months and see if I can get into it then. I just may need to be in another head space to enjoy it. Not going to rate it since I only got 4% in before I had to stop.

[Debbie Victorino · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Most vampire books are dark. This one actually had a great story line, strond characters and was very well written. It was a book that I really enjoyed and even found myself laughing in certain spots. Prudence was turned into a vampire. She has a new age store. Where she lives she had no idea there were others like her. Then they come into her store. She ends up falling in love. Can this work out? Can she really enjoy being immortal? Or will she loose it all? I would recommend this book. I really enjoyed reading it.

[KaSondra Palomino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Importance of Being Prudence isnt like your usual dark vampire story, it had a good story to it and was well written and fun. I will have to see what else Prudence is up to.

[Seraphia Bunny · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Importance of Being Prudence is a paranormal romance novel by Elizabeth Anne Porter. When I first saw the cover and read the blurb for this book I was excited to read it. Being an avid reader of paranormal romance and vampire novels I thought that this book would be right up my alley.
The author introduces the reader to a young woman by the name of Prudence, she runs a Wiccan shop and she likes to mind her own business. She has all sorts of eccentric types who frequent her store. They claim to be all sorts of things – fairies, vampires, witches, and more. Prudence really doesn’t believe most of them, until she meets a man by the name of Marcus. He changes things for her in more ways than one. Now Prudence’s life is turned upside down and she learns how much things have changed. She’s in for one heck of a ride.
I wish I could say that I loved this book, but I didn’t. I felt that the author rushed the story and I was left wanting to know more about what was going on from the beginning. I wanted the author to slow down and give me more. For me, characters popped, came and went too quickly. I wanted to know what made Prudence question whether the customers were really real or not. I just didn’t like how rushed the story felt. The story is engaging in moments, but there isn’t much explanation as to what is going on. One minute Prudence seems human and then an hour later she’s suddenly a vampire.
I try to approach every book I read with an open mind, and while I ended up enjoying parts of this story I didn’t enjoy it all from start to finish. For that reason, I am rating this book 3.5 out 5 stars. I feel that the author left out a lot of detail explaining what is going on with the characters and their interactions. For me, the story felt rushed and moved too quickly to give the reader a truly enjoyable experience.

[Shayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. I need to read book two asap. The first book was engrossing, entertaining and interesting. There's a lot of instalove but at least the heroine gets how weird thurs is. The story is fast and holds you. The hero is not who you'd think. The heroine gets quite selfish and whiny at times but it's amusing that each time she is, she realizes it herself. There is lots of plot twists, surprises and a roller coaster of emotions. The ending both completes the story yet leaving you to need the next piece.

[LaGina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because I love to read so much I had to limit what I would read and one of my do not's was a book with a cartoon cover. I broke my rule because I was really interested in this book having to deal with vampires cause you know, I just love vampires. What a book snob I was!! Not only did a find a great book to read but now I have a new author that I will be keeping an eye on.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really Good PNR Book

This book was very well written and held my attention from the moment I started reading. It was hard to put it down when I had to. I need to know what happens next so I can’t wait for the next book in this series!!!!

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE THIS BOOK. I was not ready for it to end. I will be reading more of her work. I WAS ENTHRALLED FROM THE FIRST PAGE. A whole new world of Immortals. I am so glad i got to read this.

[Evelyn Dotson]

This book is different from most vampire series I have read. Prudence is a sweet woman who owns her own business, has her best friend working with her, and meets a very handsome man who she is very attracted to and has coffee with. That was the last night things were normal for Prudence! Suddenly, she is a vampire and her life takes an unexpected twist! She finds herself irresistibly drawn to a number of male vampires, she discovers she is VERY SPECIAL to the vampires, but why? Can she handle her new life and what it entails? Does she find her one true love? What happens when she discovers there is a killer on the loose...who is it..and why are the murders connected to her? Buy the book and be prepared to not put it down until you are done!