Dead and Dateless - Kimberly Raye

Hello, Lovelies! I'll be posting a little later today, as well, to kick off my FAB pick Richelle Mead and her debut novel SUCCUBUS BLUES, but while I get the initial post together, I thought I'd go ahead and post another review (I have quite a few of them to do). The book I'm getting ready to discuss is the second of a series, and you can see the review of the first book, DEAD END DATING, by clicking here. So without further ado...




Dead and Dateless by Kimberly Raye
(BCC)

SHE'D LIKE HER BLOOD BOTTLED, PLEASE!

The sassiest vampire in all of Manhattan, Lil Marchette, is the owner of Dead End Dating - a matchmaking service for hip, intelligent singles like herself. After only three months, business is booming, and she can finally pay her bills (and more important, feed a hungry cosmetic addiction). But when one of her clients turns up dead (as in never coming back), Lil is named as the prime suspect.
Murder?
Sure, she's a vampire, but she can't even work up her nerve when it comes to blood-sucking. Hacking somebody to pieces is so out of the question.
To make matters worse, Lil must also contend with a pack of werewolves who ask - no, demand - that she find each one a tall, dark, and handsome mate before the next full moon. Plus, the to-die-for-if-I-wasn't-already-dead Ty Bonner, a lusciously sexy lover but totally unsuitable eternity mate, is never far from her midnight fantasies. But Lil has no time for such thoughts. She must prove her innocence and focus on pairing off the dead and the furry - and maybe stake a claim to her own tasty true love.

So, today started out pretty rough. The Hubs car wouldn't start so he took my van, and I'm off and running trying to get Bear a ride to school and figure out how in the world I'm going to get MB to school. Trying hard not to think about how in the world I'm going to get them all home from said destinations. And then, I sit down to do this review, and for the first time read the BCC. Oh, Happy Day! I don't like it! Not only that, but it's long enough to make this review an easy peasy lemon squeezy review, all I have to do it pick apart the BCC, and I'm golden. So here we go!


Point 1 - The sassiest vampire in all of Manhattan, Lil Marchette, is the owner of Dead End Dating - a matchmaking service for hip, intelligent singles like herself. After only three months, business is booming, and she can finally pay her bills (and more important, feed a hungry cosmetic addiction). But when one of her clients turns up dead (as in never coming back), Lil is named as the prime suspect.


Um, okay, this is close. I don't think you can really say business is booming, since she has only a handful of clients, most of them carried over from the first book, but the book starts with her acquiring a new client who wants 27 alpha-males, for herself and the rest of the NUNS (Naked and Unashamed Nudist Sisterhood), a group of female werewolves so they can procreate, when she is arrested. When the police tell her it is for murder, she uses her vamp strengths, knees the cops and takes off running.


Point 2 - Murder?

Sure, she's a vampire, but she can't even work up her nerve when it comes to blood-sucking. Hacking somebody to pieces is so out of the question.

I should point out here, that in Lil's world, vampires aren't out in the open. The general public do not know about them, but they do mingle and work with the human population. So, I think this is why this part of the BCC bothers me. It makes it seem like one of the reasons she a suspect is because she's a vampire, when that simply isn't the case.

Point 3 - To make matters worse, Lil must also contend with a pack of werewolves who ask - no, demand - that she find each one a tall, dark, and handsome mate before the next full moon.

Okay, they really pack a lot of stuff in that one last paragraph, so let's start at the beginning, shall we? Lil isn't contending with any demanding werewolves. That make it seem as if they are threatening her or some such nonsense, when they absolutely are not. She only ever deals with one of the pack and that's her parent's neighbor, and she's only under pressure because if she doesn't find the men, she won't get paid, and then DED will go under. See? Business isn't as booming as they suggest.

Point 4 - Plus, the to-die-for-if-I-wasn't-already-dead Ty Bonner, a lusciously sexy lover but totally unsuitable eternity mate, is never far from her midnight fantasies. But Lil has no time for such thoughts.

Okay, this is only the second book, and in the first book, the farthest Lil and Ty go is kissing and Lil drinking some of his blood to save her life. So, calling him a "lusciously sexy lover" is stretching things. Yeppers, she lusts after him, and I have to say, Raye writes him very well, and I lust after him, but until closer to the end of the book, Lil has nothing but her imagination to judge his lover status by.

Point 5 - She must prove her innocence and focus on pairing off the dead and the furry - and maybe stake a claim to her own tasty true love.

I was actually disappointed here. I thought there would be much more emphasis on Lil actually trying to figure out who the hell set her up to take a murder rap. But truthfully, while Lil is in hiding, the murder charges are more of a nuisance than anything. Very little detecting goes on, and it bothered me. HELLO, we start out with her getting arrested, but spend most of the book listening to her bitching about not being able to go out and run business, or lusting after Ty but not doing a darn thing about either. It did get a tad old.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed the book. There were some very funny pages, for instance, the number of NUNS needing a man is added to by one, and the NUN that find herself needing a man, has a serious thing for Ron Howard, and wants an alpha version of him. But, there just seemed to be too much going on, with little emphasis on the whole murder plot. I have to tell you, I don't care how narrow minded a person is - if they are being hunted for murder, they are going to be a bit more proactive.

There is also Lil's brother, Jack, who has fallen in love with a human, Dr. Mandy, and this serves for some fun pages with both Mandy and Lil's parents. And we're introduced to Remy Tremaine, a born vampire that just happens to be on the Fairfield Police Force, and an old friend of Lil's family, that helps to keep Lil from getting caught. I think it will be interesting to see where Remy fits in. I'm thinking soon we'll see more of him, and have a little love triangle going on.

All in all, DAD was a good read. I wish there wasn't so much going on with it, because none of the plot points got the attention they deserved, but it gave me some laughs and Lil got to spend some time with Ty. I say, once again, if you are in the mood for Vampire-Lite, this series won't be a disappointment and I'll continue to buy and read about Lil and her adventures.

Take Care