Nice Girls Don’t Bite Their Neighbors by Molly Harper

Nice Girls Don’t Bite Their Neighbors by Molly Harper

Book Stats:
Reading level: Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Mass Market Paperback: 337 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (Pocket Books)
Release date: February 28, 2012

Series: Jane Jameson #4

Source: Personal Shelf

Reviewed by: Stéphanie

Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository

Just as Jane Jameson’s unlife seems to be stabilizing, fate sinks its fangs firmly into her butt. Despite her near-phobia of all things marital, her no-frills nighttime nuptials to her sexy boyfriend Gabriel are coming along smoothly. But the road to wedded bliss gets bumpy when a teenage acquaintance is fatally wounded in front of Jane’s shop and she turns him to save his life. The Council pronounces Jane responsible for the newborn vamp until he can control his thirst.

Jane’s kitchen at River Oaks barely holds enough Faux Type O to satiate the cute teen’s appetite and maintain Gabriel’s jealous streak at a slow simmer. As if keeping her hyperactive childe from sucking the blood out of the entire neighborhood isn’t enough to deal with, the persnickety ghost of Jane’s newly deceased Grandma Ruthie has declared a war on the fanged residents of River Oaks. Suddenly, choosing monogrammed cocktail napkins and a cake that she can’t eat seems downright relaxing in comparison.

Tensions inside the house are growing…and outside, a sinister force is aiming a stake straight for the center of Gabriel’s heart. Most brides just have to worry about choosing the right dress, but Jane fears that at this rate, she’ll never make it down the aisle for the wedding all nice girls dream of…

Jane Jameson is back! And when Jane is around, you’re guaranteed laughs and hilarities. In the three previous books of the series, we saw Jane go through a multitude of unfortunate mishaps and conflicts without realizing she was getting into them. Now, she believes her “unlife” is back on track. Even if she’s not working as a librarian anymore, she seems to be satisfied with everything. She’s engaged to a wonderful vampire (p.s. I loved how he proposed!), this same vampire has finally moved in, and her little book store is now financially in the black. Hell, she’s even getting along with her sister…

But around this newish vampire, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. First, her milk delivery boy is hit by a car and she’s forced to turn him into a vampire. Then she’s ordered to “raise” this new childe of hers in her home. Her grandmother is literally haunting her house and destroying things that are important to Jane. And on top of that, someone is trying to kill her fiancé, Gabriel. Or maybe trying to kill Jane. Things aren’t very clear on that at first, since well, nothing is ever clear when it comes to Jane. That’s what so wonderful about Jane. She gets into all kinds of trouble and still, you don’t know why all these things are happening to her until the very last minute.

I love the Jane character, probably because I have the same snarky and intellectual sense of humour she has. Obviously, as an ex-librarian, she’s full of facts and book knowledge and she incorporates that in her jokes and sarcastic comments. When I first met her in book one, she was at a low point in her life, but now, even though vampirism hasn’t gotten rid of her clumsiness, she’s living the life that she wants and she’s happy. Even if someone is trying to kill her fiancé. Or her. I think that’s pretty admirable because even if her life isn’t perfect, all that matters to her is that she’s happy.

I’m glad to see many of the secondary characters come back in this fourth book. Since Jane lives in a southern town, we are more or less guaranteed a flock of unique and quirky characters. We have the annoying mother that needs to know and plan every detail of the wedding. We have the sleazy and black market dealing vampire that’s bound to know someone that knows someone who can help you with your problems, for a certain amount of money of course. And of course we also have the hick redneck  blowing stuff up and trying to kill one of the main characters. All these characters are awesome and you wouldn’t have a real southern comedy without them.

If this series were to become a movie, it would be labeled a “vampiric” comedy. It’s full of funny moments and hilarious situations. It’s a nice and light chick lit with a supernatural twist. I love Molly Harper’s writing since it’s so easy to read and follow the plot. This is not my favorite book of hers but I’m glad she finished it with a happy ending. Apparently, this is the last of the Jane Jameson books but Molly Harper will keep on writing about the vampires of Half Moon Hollow. Her next book, The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires, is a spinoff that features a human concierge that caters to vampires. I’m anxiously waiting for its release in July 2012. A novella of this spinoff called Driving Mr. Dead, is already available. You can check out my mini review here.

Excerpt

 

Posted by Unknown at 07:10

 Molly Harper, Review, Simon Schuster, Vampire, werewolf  18 People left their mark