Down to 2 a week again :`(

Wicked Game, by Jeri Smith-Ready. I'm not sure where the title came from for this book, but I just ordered the sequel, so I thought I'd check it out.

This was another in the long list of sexy mystery vampire books-- quickly replacing romance as the crack cocaine of the library-- but it was fairly well written. The characters' relationships actually progressed, instead of leaping and bounding forward with little provocation. The writing was decent, reflecting the main character well and was a comfortable read for the intended audience.

The entrance toward the end of the main character's father was a little weird and undeveloped; he was brought in to serve a purpose, but the main character's evolution as a result could have been bigger.

I really enjoyed how the author 1) stayed within the bounds of vampire lore while 2) presenting aspects of the myth in a new, creative way. If you, like me, are more a fan of the fantasy-allowed universe than of the individual vampires, this is a good book to read just for that little bit of interpretation.


Finger Lickin' Fifteen, by Janet Evanovich. The next highly sought-after (81 holds on our system's 17 copies) installment in the series is a wee let down: the author took a page from James Patterson's (way of writing a) book, using large print, large margins, and an entire blank page (or more) at the end of every chapter to beef up to hardback size what is in reality a rather short story.
Overall, this isn't a bad beach read-- the characters are fun and the writing is decent, although there were a few proof-reading errors. Lula's has become more of a cartoon, a caricature, over time, instead of deepening into a real character. She lives as a humorous stereotype. There's actually almost no character development for any of the characters other than Grandma Mazur, and even she declines over the last few books from a character to a caricature.

Some stuff gets blown up, some other stuff just gets set on fire. It's about a four-hour read. Actually, it's kind of a heavy book to lug around-- say to the beach or through the airport-- for such a short story. If I were going to collect these to take to the lake on future weekends, I'd honestly wait for the paperback.