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Bite Sized
Meg Turner has been a vampire for twenty years. Her favorite food is rapists. Which is how she met Andi Donahue, her new best friend/ girl Friday. And then the nightmares start. And the bodies start showing up--bled out and raped. Just like Meg was. They don't have a whole lot of time to stop the killer before he strikes again, and only one way to stop the killer. But how can Andi help Meg stop a killer she can't even see?
274 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 29, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 28, 2018
Meg, the Vampire Hero, and her buddy Andi , the Bail Bondsman, fight crime and renovate the house.
I obtained this book through the Kindle Unlimited program.
First, a comment about the cover. Dark and hidden things, right? Viewed at just the right angle, you can see that it's a silhouette of a small figure in a dress-like garment. However, finding that angle isn't guaranteed, and if you don't find it, it's just a dark blob. I rather like the IDEA of the title and author's name printed on a slant against a different colored background, but the execution is lacking; I couldn't make out the author's name on the screen at the book selection page.
Any deficits in the cover are quickly forgotten when you start reading.
I had to beat one of my children with a sledgehammer the other day, because the book I had loaned him STARTS with a boring and seemingly irrelevant first chapter. After restoring him to health, I explained to him that his disdain was on the money, and that any editor worth their salary would have demanded a re-write. That's a lesson they could easily have learned by picking up THIS book.
Immediately, we swing into action; IMMEDIATELY, we know there is Something Strange About This; immediately, we are engaged. (In fact, I was so engaged, I read the entire book in one sitting. It was GREAT fun!) The Opening Scene: Meg, the Vampire Hero, interrupts a brutal rape, freeing the target and disposing of the perpetrator by sucking all his blood.
Her motivation is soon revealed, but not until she has the chance to be a bit mystified herself. The intended victim doesn't flee the scene as soon as Meg rips her from the grasp of the rapist; instead, he moves off stage just long enough to pick up a baseball bat and return to assist her rescuer, who has the outward form of a tiny (5', 0") 28 year old woman. She then follows up on this pro-active approach by accepting in a rather calm fashion the reality that she has been rescued from rape by a vampire.
As people often will do after sharing a traumatic experience, Andi (the intended target) and Meg the Vampire Hero take a moment to sit and reflect on the activities, and get to know each other. As it happens, they both have a need the other can fulfill, which is a pleasant continuation of their initial dynamic. In this case, however, it's not 'I need to be rescued from rape/I need to drink some blood' that draws them together, but the fact that Meg has a home needing maintenance, which she can't arrange because she is a night person, and Andi has recently been evicted from her home, so she is sleeping in her office. Perhaps a bit influenced by the rush of blood to her head, Meg offers Andi the job of live-in caretaker.
And, in doing so, she gains a friend.
Together, and with the aid of others, vampiric and otherwise, they solve some nasty serial murders and discover things about Meg's transformation from human person to vampire person.
The alliance between vampires and humans isn't a NEW idea, but the execution is terrific. That's something that seems to elude the awareness of people who approach you at parties, and say, 'Hey, I've got a great idea for a book. Why don't I tell it to you, and you write the book, and we'll split the profits 50-50?' They fail to understand that ideas are pretty much hanging from the trees and lying on the ground, and that there are (maybe) only a dozen or so unique plots in the universe, that it's the execution of the idea that makes a book. Here, Chism excels. The witty, snarky interactions Meg has with others, the revelation of her feelings of loneliness, the steps she has had to take to handle the basics of surviving as a vampire without making the humans around her into trivial snack-packs: all of that is put together beautifully.
Example: Meg has lived alone as a vampire for quite some time, and now she has invited a human person to move in with her. Problem: she has no toilet paper in the house. I'm not sure I have ever considered that aspect of vampire housekeeping.
Another example: vampires take on room temperature. That means that if they aren't careful, they can freeze solid in sub-zero temperatures. They retain awareness, but they are a block of frozen...vampire meat. Yeah, that's a hassle.
Example: Andi's significant other is a black cop. She picks 'Blazing Saddles' for a group movie, and has no idea about the plot of the movie. Tee-hee.
Plenty of room for expansion of the franchise. I hope we get a chance to hear more of Andi's history; what she does reveal provides plenty of basis for a year or so in counseling.
And, as a special little unexpected benefit, the book gave me an idea for a home-made craft-type gift I can present to charm my gift-from-God, happily-ever-after trophy wife Vanessa, the elegant, foxy, praying black grandmother of Woodstock, GA. I'm not gonna say what it is, in case she reads the review before I can assemble it, though. Read the book, and you'll likely figure it out. Maybe not.
I obtained this book through the Kindle Unlimited program.
First, a comment about the cover. Dark and hidden things, right? Viewed at just the right angle, you can see that it's a silhouette of a small figure in a dress-like garment. However, finding that angle isn't guaranteed, and if you don't find it, it's just a dark blob. I rather like the IDEA of the title and author's name printed on a slant against a different colored background, but the execution is lacking; I couldn't make out the author's name on the screen at the book selection page.
Any deficits in the cover are quickly forgotten when you start reading.
I had to beat one of my children with a sledgehammer the other day, because the book I had loaned him STARTS with a boring and seemingly irrelevant first chapter. After restoring him to health, I explained to him that his disdain was on the money, and that any editor worth their salary would have demanded a re-write. That's a lesson they could easily have learned by picking up THIS book.
Immediately, we swing into action; IMMEDIATELY, we know there is Something Strange About This; immediately, we are engaged. (In fact, I was so engaged, I read the entire book in one sitting. It was GREAT fun!) The Opening Scene: Meg, the Vampire Hero, interrupts a brutal rape, freeing the target and disposing of the perpetrator by sucking all his blood.
Her motivation is soon revealed, but not until she has the chance to be a bit mystified herself. The intended victim doesn't flee the scene as soon as Meg rips her from the grasp of the rapist; instead, he moves off stage just long enough to pick up a baseball bat and return to assist her rescuer, who has the outward form of a tiny (5', 0") 28 year old woman. She then follows up on this pro-active approach by accepting in a rather calm fashion the reality that she has been rescued from rape by a vampire.
As people often will do after sharing a traumatic experience, Andi (the intended target) and Meg the Vampire Hero take a moment to sit and reflect on the activities, and get to know each other. As it happens, they both have a need the other can fulfill, which is a pleasant continuation of their initial dynamic. In this case, however, it's not 'I need to be rescued from rape/I need to drink some blood' that draws them together, but the fact that Meg has a home needing maintenance, which she can't arrange because she is a night person, and Andi has recently been evicted from her home, so she is sleeping in her office. Perhaps a bit influenced by the rush of blood to her head, Meg offers Andi the job of live-in caretaker.
And, in doing so, she gains a friend.
Together, and with the aid of others, vampiric and otherwise, they solve some nasty serial murders and discover things about Meg's transformation from human person to vampire person.
The alliance between vampires and humans isn't a NEW idea, but the execution is terrific. That's something that seems to elude the awareness of people who approach you at parties, and say, 'Hey, I've got a great idea for a book. Why don't I tell it to you, and you write the book, and we'll split the profits 50-50?' They fail to understand that ideas are pretty much hanging from the trees and lying on the ground, and that there are (maybe) only a dozen or so unique plots in the universe, that it's the execution of the idea that makes a book. Here, Chism excels. The witty, snarky interactions Meg has with others, the revelation of her feelings of loneliness, the steps she has had to take to handle the basics of surviving as a vampire without making the humans around her into trivial snack-packs: all of that is put together beautifully.
Example: Meg has lived alone as a vampire for quite some time, and now she has invited a human person to move in with her. Problem: she has no toilet paper in the house. I'm not sure I have ever considered that aspect of vampire housekeeping.
Another example: vampires take on room temperature. That means that if they aren't careful, they can freeze solid in sub-zero temperatures. They retain awareness, but they are a block of frozen...vampire meat. Yeah, that's a hassle.
Example: Andi's significant other is a black cop. She picks 'Blazing Saddles' for a group movie, and has no idea about the plot of the movie. Tee-hee.
Plenty of room for expansion of the franchise. I hope we get a chance to hear more of Andi's history; what she does reveal provides plenty of basis for a year or so in counseling.
And, as a special little unexpected benefit, the book gave me an idea for a home-made craft-type gift I can present to charm my gift-from-God, happily-ever-after trophy wife Vanessa, the elegant, foxy, praying black grandmother of Woodstock, GA. I'm not gonna say what it is, in case she reads the review before I can assemble it, though. Read the book, and you'll likely figure it out. Maybe not.
August 12, 2018
A different take that is non sparkly
More Clint Eastwood version. Maybe if you cross it with a gal pal movie. Fun to read, and kind of a study in how to solve the problems involved. Entertaining
More Clint Eastwood version. Maybe if you cross it with a gal pal movie. Fun to read, and kind of a study in how to solve the problems involved. Entertaining
October 1, 2020
Different
I always enjoy books from this author, this is a different take on the vampire story. I am looking forward to seeing any more in the series.
I always enjoy books from this author, this is a different take on the vampire story. I am looking forward to seeing any more in the series.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews