Review: La Vida Vampire by Nancy Haddock

Format Read: Trade Paperback
Number of Pages: 304
Release Date: April 1, 2008
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Formats Available: Trade Paperback, eBook: Adobe Digital, MobiPocket, Secure Reader, Microsoft Reader
Purchasing Info: GoodReads, Author's Website

 I bought this book at a discount book warehouse while on a road trip, last summer. I love vampire stories, but in the past few years, many of have been published that shouldn't have seen the light of day, so I had fairly low expections for this book. It sounded like it might at least be somewhat entertaining, and it was a debut novel (I have a serious weakness for debut novels) - for $3.50 it was just begging to come home with me. I am glad I gave in because, I was pleasantly surprised by how good this book is.

Book Blurb:

First in a delightfully irreverent new series-and second to none when it comes to beautiful 227-year-old career women.

Being dead isn't all it's cracked up to be. Take it from Francesca Marinelli, trapped underground for over 200 years and rediscovered during the renovation of a Victorian mansion in historic St. Augustine. A tourist attraction herself, she's well suited for a job as an Old Ghost Town Tour guide. Francesca's due for a new lease on afterlife-and with enough sunblock, she can finally live it.

Unfortunately, everything she learned about men is a little dated. And when people in her tour group turn up dead, naturally the police suspect her. After all, she is a vampire. Which is why a crazed vampire-hunting vigilante squad is out to get her as well. Between the dead bodies, the stalkers, and a seriously non-existent love life, she's starting to wish she was dead. Or at least buried, where she was safe.

*Note: This review was written with an attempt at being spoiler-free, so it is somewhat vague. A shorter version was posted on GoodReads immediately after I read it, but was never posted the longer version on my personal blog.*

My Thoughts:

The main character Cesca (rhymes with Fresca) is unlike most vampires in the Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy/Comedy Fantasy (is that a genre?) realms. She isn't a whiny, sissy-girl like we find so often in humerous vamp stories and she isn't a centuraies old Emo-kid either. She is a vampire who really just wants to be a normal, everyday woman and have a nice peaceful 'afterlife' which of course is no easy task, if it was there wouldn't be much of a book. There are many individuals trying to make it quite un-peaceful. She was turned into a vampire against her will by the self appointed King of Vampires, who then decrees that she is a vampire princess. Of course, don't call her 'Princess Francesca' because she hates that! After an angry mob attacks and destroys the vampires lair Cesca is believed to be among the dead until she is discovered 200 years later.

While she accepts that she is a vampire she feels no need to act like one. She has a job, a human roommate, human friends and she SURFS! She also thinks blood is gross - just the smell of it makes her nauseous (She. 'Does. Not. Bite. People.') and has been a virgin for over 200 YEARS!

The setting is in St. Augustine, Florida the oldest city in the country and truthfully the perfect place for a vampire novel. I can't believe nobody has used St. Augustine before (at least not that I know of). Historic landmarks, ghosts, cemeteries, Indian burial grounds and a air of magic fill St. Augustine in real life, making the possibilities endless for a fantasy novel. The author takes full advantage of many of those possibilities in this book and I am sure will explore even more in the coming sequels.

 

There is a murder-mystery that centers around a group of colorful tourists, and by colorful I am not referring to their clothes. The world is inhabited by various different types of supernatural beings, some of who remain shrouded in mystery throughout this book - leaving questions unanswered to carry the story into the sequel Last Vampire Standing. There are some laugh-outloud scenes and conversations. Especially when she is trying to learn to surf and when she talks to people about wanting to lose her virginity. There is a sweet romantic element with a lost love and a seriously HOT hero, who loves to tease her. Their constant banter is one of the best aspects of the book.

 It is a silly book in many ways, but so much fun to read and could definitely be enjoyed by people who aren't big vampire fans. Thankfully, these vampires don't sparkle but they do fly. La Vida Vampire is well written, entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable. It has excellent world-building, with not too much up front explaination for the most part you learn the how's, when's and why's as you need to know.

This one gets 5 Bookies because I don't have any complaints about this book. It was absolutely worth the price of admission and then some (I wouldn't have minded paying full price for this one). Whether you like vampires or not you should give this book a try. You won't regret it!

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