Review: Lady and the Vamp by Michelle Rowen

Reviewer: Rowena
Lady and the Vamp by Michelle Rowen
Series: Immortality Bites #3
Publisher: Forever
Publication Date: April 1st 2008
Pages: 368
Add It: Goodreads
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Series Rating:

Former vampire hunter Michael Quinn is living a nightmare: he's been turned into a vampire. His only hope is the "Eye"--a long-lost artifact that, once every millennium, will grant one wish to its possessor. Fortunately for Quinn, he has a map detailing the path to the "Eye." All he needs to do is find it, then he can wish himself back into humanity.Janie Parker has made a lot of many mistakes in her life, not the least of which was getting tricked into working for a demon. Not only is the pay awful, but she has to successfully complete all her unsavory assignments or risk a torturous death. Her latest mission is to track a vampire who apparently knows where some stupid treasure is. No problem. Until she sees who the vampire is -- Michael Quinn, a man she's had a crush on since she was twelve years old. Too bad she'll have to kill him to get to the "Eye." But Quinn and Janie are kindred spirits, and soon they're falling in love even though they're after what the other person is desperate for: the "Eye".

This is the first book I’ve ever read by Michelle Rowen and I don’t know what I was expecting but I wasn’t expecting what I got. Let’s see, I’m going to try to explain how I feel and why I felt that way but first things first, what I was bummed to find out was that this was NOT the first book in the series, I think it’s the third…damage.

Anyway, on with the review…

The book is about Michael Quinn and Janie Parker and their mission to find The Eye. The Eye is an ancient relic that only shows up once every million (or was it thousand, damn I forgot already) years to grant ONE wish to whoever finds it. Quinn is a newly turned vampire and he’s not happy with his new status as an undead, especially after he had spent his entire mortal life killing those monster bloodsuckers. He used to be a vampire hunter, he was raised to be a vampire hunter so when he finds himself turned into the very monster that he was raised to kill, you can just imagine how he’s feeling.

He finds out about The Eye and begins his search to find it so that he can make his wish to be human again and all will be right in his world. Well enter the wrench in his plans, Janie. Janie Parker is a mercenary who is tasked with following the vampire who is looking for The Eye. When she finds out that the vampire she’s supposed to be following is her childhood crush, Michael Quinn, she is not a happy camper. Why? I guess Quinn had something to do with her brother’s death and she just flat out doesn’t like him. Some stuff goes down then Quinn and Janie end up joining forces to find the eye.

The story is told while Quinn and Janie are trying to a) find the eye and b) not fall in love with each other because, oh did I forget to tell you that Janie is also tasked with killing the vampire who is searching for the eye? Oh well, she was.

What I liked about the story was the actual story itself. I like stories where the hero and the heroine know each other from their pasts and I love the whole childhood crush come back to turn into true love as well. I liked that even though the story is told within a few days, the love match between Quinn and Janie didn’t feel rushed or unbelievable. I enjoyed seeing Quinn get jealous over Janie and I laughed out loud when Janie was hella jealous of Quinn getting flirted with by her sister. It was great fun to read. You could tell that they were friends before all that time passed between them and it was totally obvious that Janie loved her some Quinn, no matter how much she tried to tell herself otherwise and the same for Quinn.

I enjoyed getting to know Barkley, Lenny and even Angela. They were great additions to the story and I liked how Michelle Rowen wrote Malcolm’s character. Each character was well rounded and solid. Oh and I’m totally intrigued by Gideon…what happened to him? Where did he disappear to, inquiring minds want to know! And I’m totally glad that Barkley ended up not being the coward I thought him to be, I mean seriously…the boy ran away from everything.

Now as much as I liked Quinn and Janie’s relationship, them two spent most of the story making me mad. I mean, with Janie, she’s this big kick ass heroine who can kill with her eyes closed and make no apologies for it and I know that she had no reason to trust Quinn but when she kept messing up the plans, I wanted to take her stun gun away from her and taze her ass. Every time Quinn would tell her to do something and she’d do the exact opposite, I wanted to zap some electricity into her stubborn ass. If I didn’t know that she could probably kick my ass all the way to China, I would so challenge her to a duel and pop a cap in her ass.

Sheesh.

And then there was Quinn.

With Quinn, it was more like I was disappointed with the hero that he was. I mean, in the beginning of the book, Quinn is sexy, mysterious and has that lethal quietness about him that makes you think, “Yeah this is one bad mutha shut your mouth!” but then as the story went on and Janie was saving his ass time after time, it was like, okay, when are you going to step up and save the day? I mean, I read about how he was this Big Billy Bad Ass Vampire Hunter but I never saw it. Most of the time, he talked. I spent most of the time reading this thinking, Quinn should’ve stepped up here, Quinn should’ve stake him there but he never did. It was like he was totally content to sit back and watch Janie kick everyone’s ass.

And she totally did, well for the most part.

It’s not that he was a bad hero, he just didn’t seem very alpha to me considering he was a Hunter before he became a vampire, one of the best there was at that. I don’t know, maybe it was just me and I missed something because I didn’t read the other books but for me, Quinn’s hotness was more lukewarm than anything. He just wasn’t alpha enough for me and sometimes you don’t have to be alpha if the hero is like a writer or a engineer or something but he was supposed to be this big bad ass and I just didn’t see it. So that bummed me out a bit.

So, all in all this story was easy to read but it wasn’t the big love story that made me sigh with pleasure or jump for joy, my head was already on the next book that I was going to read and that kind of bummed me out because I wanted to enjoy this story more than I did and I’m just sorry that I didn’t. Maybe it will help if I read the other books in the series but I’ve got too many other books to read to take the time to do that, maybe someday soon I’ll do it but I’m really enthusiastic to try it out.

Ugh.

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