It Happened One Bite by Lydia Dare... A Review

I'm chasing the cold away this week with some hot reads! Today I want to share with you It Happened One Bite by Lydia Dare...

Blaire Lindsay has been warned that her ancestral home in the Scottish Highlands is haunted. But it will take more than tales of fictional ghosts to frighten Blaire, a battle-born witch with supernatural strength and the ability to make sparks fly from her fingertips. Hearing spectral wails, she decides to search for their source, and is surprised to find a handsome English baron chained to the dungeon wall. Once Blaire frees James, Lord Kettering, from his bonds, she quickly finds herself in the arms of the vampyre lord, whose perfect manners are more dangerous than anything Blaire has ever faced... Soon her family’s castle is overrun with vengeful vampyres from James’ past, which threaten both of their futures. Blaire and James join together in the fight of their lives to save everything they hold dear from the forces of evil...

Do you love your Historical's with a wee bit of witchcraft?! Well, It Happened One Bite by Lydia Dare is a Paranormal Historical! The setting is one of my favorites... Scotland! And the time frame is 1817! Add to that mix a heroine that is feisty and a witch, a handsome vampyre that almost melts our heroine's heart, and a dark and mysterious castle!

The story opens up in Edinburgh, 1797. Five witches have hunted down a particular vampyre, charming in appearance, but deadly. Deadly to the daughter of one of the coven... sometime in the future. The vampyre is James Kettering and the witches take his very essence away and bury him in a castle in the Highlands, never to be heard from again... or so they thought.

The story jumps 20 years in the future. Those five witches have passed down their powers to their daughters, one of which is Blaire Lindsay. Upon the death of Blaire's mother, eventually it is found out that her mother had an estate... in the Highlands. Are you seeing part of the picture here? Buried in the basement of that estate is James Kettering, and when Blaire shows up to claim her ancestral home, guess who is discovered stirring in the basement?! But this is just the start of a fantastic story! When Blaire frees James from the basement, she knows he's not your average man, and what ensues is just amazing!

The banter between Blaire and James is so wonderful! She is a great heroine, who is feisty and strong willed, but yet she can't help but melt at James Kettering's touch. Sparks and passion ignite every time Blaire and James get near each other, but love between a witch and a vampyre? And especially since it was Blaire's mother who helped banish James for 20 years in the basement! Why did they banish James into the Highlands? What secrets lie in wait for both Blaire and James to discover?

There is so much more to this novel than the fire between Blaire and James. The story feels fresh in its approach, sprinkled with humor and filled with an intriguing mystery. The writing is wonderful. Blaire does talk with a Scottish Brogue, but it should only take a few pages before the dialect feels natural. And that Scottish Brogue is only coming from Blaire's family and relations, the rest of the dialogue is written without the added Highland "flavor". But the way Blaire talks also adds authenticity to the time and place. And I really enjoyed "listening" to her.

Simply put... I just loved this book! Lydia Dare's writing just pulled me in! I became totally absorbed in the story, which had just enough witchcraft and vampyre lore to satisfy me without overwhelming the whole plot. The romance was smart & sexy. And the characters were were well developed and entertaining. Blaire herself kept me reading as I just had to know how she was going to handle all that was put in front of her. If you enjoy vampyres, a bit of witchcraft and "The Highlands", plus romance, a great story and a bit of mystery, Read This Book!

I want to thank Sourcebooks for sending along a copy for review! I loved it! AND I hear that It Happened One Bite is the start of a new series by Lydia Dare! I can't wait!

iZombies: Dead to the World by Chris Roberson & Michael Allred... A Review

iZombie Written by Chris Roberson, Drawn by Michael Allred

What's a girl to do?! Gwen Dylan digs graves for a living, her best friend Ellie is a girl from the 60's who happens to be a ghost, and her other friend Scott is of the furrier persuasion, a.k.a Were-Terrier... kind of an off shoot of a Were-Wolf. Add to that mix one "hot" Mummy, a pack of Vampire ladies who run a paint ball game in the woods, and a pair of Vampire Hunters. Wow! Oh, I forgot... Gwen is a Zombie, but a kind of Zombie hybrid. She's not all stiff and stumbling around with her hands out stretched, but she does needs to eat human brains once a month to maintain her "being normal".

iZombie: Dead to the World is the trade paperback of the first 5 issues of the comic iZombie plus House Of Mystery Halloween Annual #1. It's 144 pages of a great story, published by DC Comics and Vertigo. First the artwork though... Michael Allred is talented! The characters are well drawn with wonderful nuances to really bring the characters to life; expressive and detailed. Not only are the characters drawn well, but the backgrounds are fully fleshed out, making the whole scene interesting to look at. And all of this adds to the great story, which is both complex and well developed.

The story centers around Gwen, who we learn early on is a Zombie and who works during the day as a grave digger. In these first 5 stories that make up the first tpb, iZombie: Dead to the World, we don't learn Gwen's background, but we learn of her anguish as she must eat a human brain once a month to keep her memories alive and be "normal". She chooses her "victims" as the recently departed that she happens to bury the morning before. What happens when she does "eat", besides her utter revulsion to it, is that she becomes possessed with the last thoughts of the dead person, and must fulfill their last wishes; which may mean "righting a wrong" or solving their murder as is the case in Gwen's first "possession" in Dead to the World." The other stories that are woven together are those of "the murderer", the vampire ladies who are seductive looking as well as deadly as they run a paintball game deep in the woods outside the city, the handsome and aloof mummy who wants to teach Gwen more about her "new" self, and his leopard companion, and finally the good guys who know about the vampires terrorizing the city and aim to rid the area of them. There is some dead-pan humor, romance and mystery layered within the story, which keeps you turning the pages. It's an intelligent take on the whole zombie scene and I really enjoyed it. I loved the story with all the different subplots that are all inter-related, and as I previously said, the artwork was great.

I don't mind a zombie or two on my reading plate, or a vampire here and there either. This is the start to what I hope is a fun series. If you enjoy graphic novels, enjoy a host of fun, "flawed" but engaging characters living out their lives in a great story, give iZombie a try! It's a step up from your everyday zombie novel, and you'll be dying for more! And if you are, iZombie: Dead to the World collects the first five individual issues of iZombie, but as far as individual issues are concerned, issue #12 is due to come out April 6th.