Naked Brunch

by Sparkle Hayter

Annie Engel hasn’t been feeling herself lately. With good reason. A mousy secretary by day, she’s been morphing into a werewolf at night. In the morning, she’s not quite sure what she’s been up to, but she knows she’d like to do it again. She soon discovers that her odd dreams and strange hangovers are actually the remnants of a night out on the prowl.

But Annie’s predatory activities have not gone unnoticed, and soon she is being pursued by one hapless reporter, a psychiatrist who wants to save her from her beastly impulses, and another (guy) werewolf who captures her heart. Who is a nice werewolf to trust? Get ready for a manic, madcap chase through the dank underbelly of the big city, a place where no one seems to sleep and the scents of fear and desire are always in the air.

Genres: Fiction, Werewolves, Fantasy, Romance, Urban Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Mystery

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Sparkle Hayter is a Canadian journalist and author.

Hayter was born in Pouce Coupe, British Columbia, Canada and grew up in Edmonton, Alberta. In 1986, she graduated in film and television production from New York University. Among other things, she worked for CNN in Atlanta, WABC in New York and Global Television in Toronto. At the time of the Afghan civil war, she moved to Pakistan and then went along with the Mujahedin to Afghanistan, reporting for the Toronto Star. After this, she decided to give up journalism as a career. After her return to the U.S. she married and began her career as a comic and a writer with her first, not very successful, novel. She moved briefly to Tokyo, then on her return to New York divorced and went to live in the famous Chelsea Hotel

She then published a further 5 novels, the Robin Hudson series, which proved her breakthrough. She wrote for the New York Times Op-Ed Page, the Nation and Toronto Globe and Mail, was a regular participant on CNN's talk show "CNN & Company" and was also seen on Good Day New York, NPR, CBC, BBC and Paris Premiere. Currently she lives in Paris and is writing her next novel.

Series:
* Robin Hudson

Awards:
* Arthur Ellis Award
o Best First Novel (1995): What's a Girl Gotta Do?

Reviews

[KOMET · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished reading "NAKED BRUNCH" a few years ago, and enjoyed the way the author tied in the stories of the main characters (e.g., Annie Engel, Jim, Dr. Marco, Sam), thus making for a harmonious whole. It's a refreshing morality tale and provides an interesting departure from the usual werewolf fare. Annie Engel, both as a woman and as a werewolf, has a big heart and soul. She is representative of those of us who are sickened by the rich and powerful, who, time and again, place profit and personal gain over the best interests of humanity. Consequently, we feel frustrated by our relative powerlessness as individuals to do anything to stop the amoral robber barons and 'merchants of death' in today's world. At least, when Annie becomes a Wolf, she can sniff out these amoral powerbrokers and hunt them down. She's a righteous Wolf!

WHEN WILL THERE BE A SEQUEL???

[Wren · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a werewolf book, a romance book, and full of drama. I liked the idea of werewolves as medical or scientific phenomenon as opposed to supernatural or paranormal. I liked reading about the werewolf woman's journey to understanding her condition and finding love.


However, at times this book was very slow. There was often too much unnecessary information that bored me and didn't further the plot of the book whatsoever. I think that this book is better suited for readers who prefer slower paced books.

[Angel S · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book about werewolves. It's a light read and fun.

[Shrilaxmi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a modern fairytale, a comedy on werewolves - not something you read everyday.

[Angelica · Rating 1 out of 5]

Werewolf fiction rarely has a strong female werewolf character that survives till the end, which is why I was so excited by the promise of this one. Annie Engel's sudden transformation into a werewolf and her search to fit in within the male-dominated world of wolves should have been an amazing story, but the sad truth is, it wasn't. Annie was a weak example of a werewolf who 'rolled over' for any man she met, continually jumping between trusting different men whom she had known for hours at best and minutes at worst. When a book has a split narrative like this where it jumps between characters, the main character should be the one you want to hear from the most, but Annie's perspectives are dull and inactive. There was one reason I finished this book, and it was to see if news reporter Sam ever found out the truth about his marriage and the situation he found himself in.

[LJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a fun book but don't expect any deep insights like in the infinitely more complex and literary Nightbitch. This one's legit fantasy, I'd say it's squarely urban fantasy with our main character, the placid alter girl and all around doormat, Annie, taking way too long to realize she is a werewolf. (I did do a healthy amount of skimming.) I enjoyed when Carol, the half-Polish wife of the arrogant murderer, Dr. Marco, gets a backbone and takes over the center. The book kinda has a "Devil Wears Prada" vibe with the place Annie works for and the people she hangs out with. I wondered if "Sparkle Hayter" the name of the author is a cute pseudonym but I didn't bother finding out.

[Camille Cusumano · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really fun read about werewolves as if they could exist in Manhattan. The metaphorical subtext is satisfying: these wolves only kill bad people. Like Trump would be an instant hit for them—for his dismissal of all the workers who voted for him, his unethical, predatory, lying, cheating, xenophobic behavior. They also have this way of communicating without speech as we know it and I thought that was more than clever. It was psychologically true. Fun, fun, fun.

[John Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is as wildly imaginative as it is amusing. Hayter has taken a well worn genre and made a new path and for that alone she should be congratulated. Taking a new look at a concept that readers are very familiar with is a risk and it has paid off for her. A moral horror story, that's a good one.

[Mary Good · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, but won’t bother with any more from this author.

[Glenna Kachtik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written! Good characters that you got caught up in.

[S.L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took a while to get into and continued at a slow but steady pace. Just enough to keep you reading. Kinda two tales, that of the werewolves and that of the hapless reporter, and how the two intersect.

[Gerd · Rating 2 out of 5]

Took me two tries to get through, just wasn't really mine.
The book starts out annoyingly slow.
Annie's "friends" being terrible people didn't help my enjoyment, good guy Sam grows on you with time, just like on everyone else in the book, he's propbably the best character in the whole story - oblivious but genuine.

Some of the jokes are great, some other stuff she wants to poke fun at is too close to real happenings to be actually funny. The story picks up towards to end and becomes quite entertaining, but it happens too late to really save the book.

I guess readers which are a fan of chick-lit will enjoy it a lot more than I did, but even there I would rather recommend Karen McInerney's books.

[C.S. Malerich · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I could rate this lower than one star I would. The chickiest of chick lit, not even werewolves could save this one. Too many characters are one dimensional: the nice girl heroine (whose minor personality quickly fades into nothing at all), the dangerous hero with a heart of gold, and a cavalcade of cardboard cut-out, standard issue contemporary bad guys for the "natural" werewolves to chew through. Other characters might have been interesting, but the author never presented them or their motives and conflicts in a n understandable (for me) way. And, despite the promise of laughs, I never once chuckled.

['Nathan Burgoine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quite liked this one - it's a werewolf story set in a city that is tongue-in-cheek reminiscent of most major cities. Between a nice young woman (who can't help that she's a werewolf), her psychiatrist (who wants to breed with her), and another werewolf on the run who wants to protect her from the psychiatrist, things are conflicted enough - then add in the mayor, a reporter who is clueless but lucky, and a few other grand players, and this story is a blast to read.

It's not your gritty werewolf tale, nor is it as wacky as the Robin Hudson series that Hayter writes, but nevertheless, I enjoyed this one cover to cover.

[Kel Sta · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining and contemporary read (as a number of mine lately have been), with an authentic portrayal of the world of journalism and current affairs media, from a woman who's been amongst it. The characters who exist in this world, and the real world of New York, where image is everything, are genuine and funny, but the characters our heroine meets from the werewolf world are - perhaps not surprisingly - not as convincing. The love-match Annie makes also lacks substance. Overall though, it's readily readable escapism.

On another note, isn't Sparkle a wonderful name?

[Cindywho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some well appreciated silliness. The story stays light and goofy and cartoon-like, even when our sweet and innocent heroine is puking up someone's eyeball. Don't worry, it's about werewolves. The characters are a little flat and the colors are bright - that's the cartoonish part. It's extremely contemporary and slidingly fictitious. The jokes are mostly only good now, but now is good. (January 31, 2004)

[Dodau]

This was a great book. I bought it ages ago so by the time it came up to the top of mount TBR I had totally forgotten the plot. So it was a pleasant surprise when it turned out to be a romantic comedy featuring werewolves. Although the characters were maybe a little thin it was definatly a page turner and I kept itching to get back to reading it. I would defiantly read more by this lady, I know I have one more of her books on mount TBR, and I look forward to getting to it.

[Kayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book... until the end ruined it for me.

[Fay]

Chick lit with fangs. Not exactly a book to change your life, but a good entertaining werewolf story - well worth a free afternoon.

[Desiree · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really noteworthy - didn't make me laugh, but I enjoyed it.

[Claudia Minor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Normally I don't read this type of lit, but I enjoyed it. Fun with a different twist on the world of werewolves. Fun characters.