Moon Dance (Vampire for Hire) by JR Rain - review

Moon Dance
from Omnibus "Samantha Moon"
Vampire for Hire #1
JR Rain

**** (4 out of 6)

Cover (omnibus cover) - very cool cover - what's better than freefalling off a tall building?  not landing after free falling.

Completely on impulse, I buy this huge ppb book.  When I actually get it home, I realized it's actually four novels and two shorts all in one hugely fat ppb.  Lots of words for a trade ppb price. :)  works for me.


So -  we have a mommy.  A former Fed Officer (HUD).  A current P.I.  Currently a vampire.  Hmmmm. Interesting concept, which turned out to be a fairly interesting book.  In Moon Dance, Samantha is hired to find out who shot a defense lawyer FIVE times in the head/face area.  Oddly, this guy survived - he's the one who's hiring Samantha Moon.

Also - Ms Moon is having some marital difficulties, seems her husband has been getting colder and colder to her - ironic, since she's the one with freezing skin, being a vampire and all.

I liked most of the book.  There was some snappy dialogue, some heartracing moments and a decent plot.  The narration flowed and the character kept me interested for most of the novel.  However, there were a couple things that didn't work for me.

One was the end, where Samantha solves the mystery - and in explaining her thought process or clues, it occurred to me that these clues were all "off-screen".  They weren't mentioned at all until the end.  Which was kind of weird for me. Not a big deal, but still a little weird.  It's like you write a book, and then just so your character doesn't seem clueless or like things came to a head by coincidence, you suddenly have her telling all these clues she noticed that were never mentioned at all earlier in the story.

The other part was that after being a vampire for SIX YEARS, she's either only just - or who know, maybe continuing - to question her humanity.  Is she human?  Is she a good person?  Does the god or higher power even care about her anymore? etc.  The whole time I'm reading these angsty questions of hers, I'm thinking - 'LADY- you've been a vampire for SIX YEARS.  Seems like you should have at least a good start on working these things out.'  After six years of not attacking people, killing for blood she still is wondering if she's good?  she can't just FEEL like she's a good person?  Of course, her marriage is deteriorating, and some shitty things have happened to her but still; she's hasn't gone off the deep end, she hasn't attacked people for food, she's been working and taking care of her family for six years - six years is a long time to not come to terms on whether you're a decent person or not.

I hope that this "am I or am I not a good human" isn't a recurring angst for the rest of the five stories in this omnibus, because I don't think I would enjoy too much of it. :)

It's Monday...once again :)

According to my book list page, I'm in the process of reading at least 19 novels.  That's not including the  five that I've decided to give up on this year.  Only five...though there are at least five more that I'm on the fence about - whether to give up or try again later.  Problem is, once I decide I'm not sure about a book, it can take up to a year for me to go back to reading it - sometimes longer.  Then there are the novels that I have started, that I want to read.....but cannot find or remember where I had them last.  Then I start wondering if I've loaned them out, given them away for some weird reason;  why would I give away a novel I still want to read?  I give away books I've finished - especially if I'm sure they won't be rereads.   Anyway, I can see at least 10 books that I want to finish but cannot find.  Here's to finding lost and runaway books (those little devils)

And here's to ...
It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

Hosted by Sheila of Book Journey, It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is the weekly meme where we catch up on what we're reading, what we've finished reading...the works.

It was another slow reading week for me.  I did manage to finish reading one novel;  I started about three other novels.  Can't seem to settle on one novel over the other at the moment.  But it's all good - sooner or later, one of the novels will end up being the ONE that I finish for the week - hopefully. :)

The one novel I did finish reading was Moonburn by Alisa Sheckley.  Moonburn is the sequel to The Better To Hold You, about how Abra becomes a werewolf after being infected by her faithless husband.  Moonburn is the novel where she comes to terms with what she is, decides whether or not she wants to remain with her current man, and the danger their little town is in from supernaturals.  It's a decent read.

That's the one novel I finished.

Now for the novels I've started.  Not sure which will be the ONE - but we'll just have to see which one holds my interest

I tried reading Hasta La Vista, Lola by Misa Ramirez.  And cannot get past the first chapter.  Can't put my finger on why, but just not holding my interest at the moment.

I've also tried Moon Dance  by JR Rain from the omnibus edition Samantha Moon.  I've actually read close to 100 pages, and it's interesting - a mom turned vampire who happens to be a P.I.  Her challenge is to run her business during the later hours of the day while still picking up her children from school.  She has to  slather on the sunblock to get to her car, and has come up with a sun condition to explain her pale complexion, the reasons why she doesn't go out in the sun, etc.  In this first novel, she's dealing with an increasingly distant husband as well as trying to take care of her kids, and run her business.

For my SciFi fix, I'm trying out A Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge.  Have never heard of Vernor Vinge, but the book blurb sounded good.  Space ship crash lands on a planet.  Two survivors are children who are now at the mercy of a lupine race of people on this planet.  I haven't gotten very far yet - but what I've read so far is interesting.

Library Reading for school:
I've just started a few of the classes for Library time at the school I work in.  So far, we've had Kindergardeners (my granddaughter's class - she was a little excited!) and first graders come in. The two books I've read so far were...

Russell the Sheep by Rob Scotton (who did his own illustrations) and The Cow Who Wouldn't Come Down by Paul Brett Johnson (who also did his own pictures)       

Speaking of illustrations for picture books; I love when there are little special surprises or extras in the illustrations of a children's book.  In Russell the Sheep, there is a frog that is in just about every page - he seems to be Russell's friend, or pet.  Not only is the frog in many of the pages, but he is usually doing something interesting.  Ex; 'Russell pulled up a pillow.  The pillow hopped away, hopping mad'  So cute.  Then there are all the sheep.  Each of the sheep in the book are doing odd things for sheep.  One is knitting a scarf - using wool straight from another sheep, who is now missing half his wool.  Another has a blanket, one reads a newspaper, one usually has a cup of some hot beverage, and the older sheep has false teeth.  Best of all is the one sheep that is always hiding behind a skinny tree - and oddly enough, you can't see the half that's hiding, even though the tree is very skinny.  It's great.  When I read to my grandchildren, we try to find as many weird and fun things in the pictures as we can.  When I read to a class, I encourage them to look at the expressions in the pictures, and we like to find things like the frog that appears through out the Russell book, or the mouse that is in The Little Critter books.  I love when an illustrator (or author) inserts little surprise bonuses like that in their work.

Anyway - enjoy the week, hope to visit some of your blogs to see what you're reading.  
I leave you with one of my most recent captioned LOL Cats. (captioned by me, *g*)