worked for me. He's an almost 400 year old vampire Earl and she's a vampire hunting Van Helsing, though she faints at the sight of blood. Her father is laid up with gout and sends her to kill the evil vampire, the plan is to seduce him. The plan might have worked if Jane wasn't a klutz and didn't try to stake him during the seduction, leaving her completely compromised and then must wed the enemy. The staking scene is great.It's campy, it's funny, it's filled with subtle and some not so subtle contemporary references even though it's a regency. The dialogue between the hero and heroine is sassy, witty and at times biting, no pun intended. The literary refrences are cleverly interwoven, from Shakespeare and Dickens to Gone With The Wind, The Wizard of Oz and The Fantastiks. The Wizard of Oz reference may be from the movie and not the literary work. There's even a humorous little supernatural ditty sung to a Christmas carol. The other day I blogged about the Lugosi, Lee and Langella references along with the Elizabeth Taylor/Cleopatra reference.
To be completely honest, it's a contempory dressed in regency clothing, but for some reason I was able to ignore it, which I normally can't/wont do. Though there is one literary reference that left me somewhat annoyed. Jane, our intrepid vampire hunting heroine, thinks the opening of Dickens A Tale of Two Cities is a perfect description of her first 4 days of marriage, unfortunately ATOTC wont be written for another 30 years, so it's a little hard to quote from. All the other "contemporary" references were just cleverly used in thoughts and dialogue without ever giving credit to the author.
Is it going on my keeper shelf--no, but it entertained me while I read it. Do I want a steady diet of this style of book--no, but it's a fun read once in a while.
4 comments:
For me, books like that work because they require complete suspension of reality. Absolutely no chance of reality creeping in anywhere.
I too do not often read them, but I find love & laughter paranormals to be a break from my usual fare. Last year, they were often what kept me going.
...require complete suspension of reality.
Exactly, it's why I can't have a steady diet of this style of romance, but once in a while to break things up a little is fine.
Last year a read a couple of Lynsay Sands "Bite" books and felt the same way about them. I've had my fill of them and probably wont read anymore but they worked for me when I needed them.
I felt the same way about Webber's first book. It definitely wasn't a keeper but it was cute enough. It didn't annoy me, which I'm finding, is all I can ask for these days :)
It sounds like a fun book to read. I'll have to look it up. It's nice to find a campy, humorous book once in a while. I'm getting out my Philippa Gregory books again, I feel the urge to read her stories some more!
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