Book Review: Nice Girls Don’t have Fangs by Molly Harper

• Title: Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs
  
• Author: Molly Harper
• Type:  paranormal Contemporary Romance chick lit
• Genre:  Librarian has day from hell and wakes up undead
• Sub-genre:  Fangs, family, and a hot sire in a small town; Tracy and Hepburn do vampires
• My Grade: C+ to B- (3.5*)
  
• Rating: PG-13
• Length and price: Full Novel – over 80,000 words for $7.99; various discounts available
• Where Available: Where books are sold
• FTC Disclosure: Purchased from online bookstore

I do love finding books with a sense of humor and snappy dialogue.  I also like finding new authors.  With Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs I found both, though there is a strong sense of déjà vu.  The unoriginal trope and all to familiar characters weigh against the book, but that’s offset by the acerbic wit of Jane Jameson, the first person narrator for the book.  On the whole, the lack of originality was made acceptable by a combination of good writing, fast pacing, and plenty of laugh out loud moments.

Book Review: Casting Spells by Barbara Bretton

• Title: Casting Spells
  
• Author: Barbara Bretton
• Type: Chick-lit Paranormal Romance
• Genre: Love conquers all
• Sub-genre:  Witches, wizards, vamps
• My Grade: C+  (3.2*)
• Rating: G
• Length and price: Full novel – about 90,000 words for $10.08, but remainders available
• FTC Disclaimer: Book purchased from online bookseller
• Where Available: Everywhere books are sold

The light contemporary paranormal romance has some elements of a cozy mystery, but hasn’t got enough mystery to be called one.  Chloe Hobbs is the very human and unmagical daughter of a long line of witches who have acted as guardians of the small and decidedly magical town of Sugar Maple, Vermont.  Chloe is holding one of her many knitting classes that have become famous among the knitting community as is her yarn shop.  As she’s teaching some visitors and two townswomen some knitting tricks, a stunningly beautiful woman comes to the window.  At first she appears naked, but then Chloe realizes she’s wearing an expensive and very thin dress.  Suzanne Markham, despite her beauty, seems strangely sad and Chloe relents and sells her a shawl that she has for display only.  Next morning life in the village will change forever when the woman is found drowned in a local pond, apparently the victim of a tragic skating accident.