Review: The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires by Molly Harper

Format: Mass market paperback
Pub Date: August 2012
Publisher: Pocket
Length: 356 pages
POV: 1st person, past
FTC: Received for free at RT Booklovers Convention (provided by the publisher/author)

Having finished a meh book by Molly Harper, it makes perfect sense to immediately pick up another one, right? It does if you're me.

The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires is only peripherally related to the Half Moon Hollow series of the previous book I reviewed. It's also 80 pages longer, which I really think might be my issue with the last book. It was too shallow. The extra page count for this one allows for explanation. I did NOT get the same sense of backstory-itis I did with the last one. Everything felt fully explained.

 I really enjoyed this one. I enjoyed the byplay between Iris and Cal, but I also enjoyed the larger cast of characters, particularly Iris's younger sister Gigi. I think these types of humor-filled books work best when characters can play off each other. What was such a relief was the our main character is independent, smart, a businesswoman, and entirely capable of taking care of herself. Even in dangerous situations. In fact, she saves herself AND Cal on multiple occasions. So refreshing to have competence really highlighted and valued. We get a lot of that for heroes, but not for heroines.

Review: Where the Wild Things Bite by Molly Harper

Format: mass market
Pub Date: August 2016
Publisher: Pocket
Length: 278 pages
POV: 1st person, past tense
FTC: Received for free at RT Booklovers Convention

I'm trying to get back into the swing of blogging, carving out time to fire up the ole computer and sit down to write. I missed it this last year when I somehow ended up so busy I wasn't even reading. Which, predictably, made me more than a little cranky. A reading Amber is a happy Amber.

I've been better about reading lately, but not so much about reviewing. My one goal that I managed to keep this last year was reading more from my TBR and less from new releases. I get distracted by the shiny, when I have rooms full of unread print books and I don't even know how many ebooks.

One book I picked up at the last RT was a Molly Harper book. Now I'd read some of her earlier books and liked them. They were light and silly and easily consumed. I had not read any of her newer books, and this one is clearly part of an ongoing series.