I grabbed a copy of The Vampire Next Door by Charity Santiago & Evan Hale from the Amazon KDP list.
Description from Goodreads:
Since the vampire pandemic jumped the Mexican border eight months ago, twenty-five-year-old Kennedy has been holed up in small-town Arizona, fighting for survival among hungry undead and hostile human survivors. Unsure if her missing husband is still alive, Kennedy has no interest in starting a new relationship- until she meets Reeve, the gorgeous vampire next door who can melt Kennedy into a quivering puddle of lust with a single, smoldering glance.
Between ignoring her growing feelings for Reeve and fending off nightly murder attempts from her husband’s undead ex-wife, Kennedy’s got her hands full. She knows that eventually, she’ll have to make a choice: either stay put and wait for rescue that might never happen, or set out on her own in hopes of finding her family.
Review:
I grabbed this when it was free on Amazon and ended up reading it almost immediately. My young daughter caught sight of the cover and said, “Read that one.” Well, who am I to ignore the dictates of a three-year-old?
In some respects, I really enjoyed this story. Kennedy has an interesting personality. She’s a recovering doormat if you will. The vampire apocalypse has really put her life and the people who had been in it in perspective for her. A lot of the book is dedicated to this introspection. And, while I respect the personal growth that resulted from it, she had the same thoughts and mental epiphanies over and over. So, I found much of it repetitive. It also severely cut into the action.
Enter Reeve. Oh, wonderful, wonderful Reeve. He is fabulous. Maybe just a little too fabulous, since the reader never learns what makes him different than other vampires. I also struggled with the fact that Kennedy appreciates his behaviour so very, very much when it is just basic courtesy.
Kennedy had been treated poorly by men. She’d let them control her and treat her as less than an equal. She is subsequently amazed to meet a man who doesn’t treat her this way. That’s great. It really is. But should we really be surprised and praise men for doing nothing more than treating a woman as a mental equal? I got the message being relayed. I did. But that’s kind of a low standard to hold romantic partners to and getting excited over it feels a lot like making it something special (as opposed to the expected norm). Kennedy’s previous behaviour and the demeaning behaviour of both Cole and Eddie are made out to be the norm, what any normal woman should expect from a normal man. But really it’s Reeve’s thoughts and actions that should be the standard by which all other relationships aim to best, as opposed to crow about.
Again, while I appreciate that Kennedy did grow past this juvenile mindset, a lot of the book takes place before that’s accomplished. I found this really hard to read. I wanted to slap her and then turn to whoever was closest at the time and inform them that she should be expecting more, damn it. She deserves it.
Though not a huge fan of first-person narratives, I thought the book was well written. The dialogue was fresh and flowed well, and the whole situation with The Ex was a fun addition. If there is ever a second book, I’d be thrilled to read it.
In April of 2013, I downloaded Blood Lust (by Charity Santiago) from the Amazon free list. Reading it now means that it just misses out on qualifying for my TBR challenge of reading books I’ve had 2+ years. But it does qualify for my Blood Lust challenge, in which I’m reading four books with that same title.
