Genres: Paranormal Romance

Judith’s review of Nice Girls Don’t Date Dead Men (Jane Jameson #2) by Molly Harper

Once a devoted children’s librarian, Jane Jameson now works at a run-down occult bookstore. Once a regular gal, she’s now a vampire. And instead of a bride, she’s an eternal bridesmaid—which leads her to queston where exactly her relationship w ith her irresistably sexy sire, Gabriel, is headed. Mecurial, enigmatic, apparently commitment phobic vampires are nothing if not heard to read. While Jan is gtrying to master undead dating, she is also donning the ugliest bridesmaid’s dress in history at her best friend Zeb’s Titanic-themed wedding. Between a freaked-out groom-to-be, his hostile werewolf in-laws, and Zeb’s mother, hell-bent on seeing Jane walk the aisle with her son, Jan’s got the feeling she’s just rearranging the proverbial deck chairs.

Meanwhile, Half Moon Hollow’s own Black Widow, Jane’s Grandma Ruthie, has met her match in her latest fiance. He smells like bad cheese and has a suspicious history of dead spouses. But Jane biting her t ongue. After all, would a nice girl really think she had a future with a vampire?

Molly Harper has done it again! In her first book entitled Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs, we were introduced to Jane Jameson and her tale of life in a small Kentucky town as children’s librarian, a job that ends because of the prejudice and dislike of the head of library, a friend of her grandmother. She goes to a local club and drowns her sorrows over her job loss, is stranded on a dark rural strip of road on her way home, is trying to walk the rest of the way to her residence when she is mistaken for a deer by a drunken cowboy and shot, rescued from “death” by Gabriel Nightengal who “turns” her into one of his “undead” creations. In life, Jane is an irrascible, sharp-tongued, dedicated, quick-witted lady at the beginning of her career, who has chosen to remain in her home town rather than take her advanced degree in hand and seek life beyond Kentucky. As a vampire, she is much the same, but now she must also deal with the issues of survival as well as the unsought-for burdens of living eternally as a vampire.

In this present volume, Harper continues the story of Jane, building on the relationships and situations that were introduced in the first book. Jane’s very dysfunctional family relationships are even more convoluted because of her new vampire status: her mother can’t seem to get past denial (and that just seems to go on and on), her older sister has never accepted the fact that Jane inherited the family estate River Oaks ( and her anger just keeps on escalating), and her lethal Grandma Ruthie continues to go through engagements like a knife through warm butter. Gabriel continued to declare his love for Jane, but he keeps on disappearing on “business” and while Jane loves him and their sexual relationship is explosive to put it mildly, there are the tiniest of worries beginning to creep into Jane’s heart and mind over his frequent absences and his being non-communicative during those times.

Added to all the above is the approaching wedding-from-hell between her very best friend Zeb, a man with whom Jane has grown up and whose friendship is more important than almosts anyone’s except Gabriel. She has never wanted anything more than the brother/sister relationship w ith him, but Zeb’s mother cannot and will not give up her determination that Jane and Zeb were meant for each other. Now Zeb is preparing to marry a werewolf, Jolene, with whom he is absolutely head-over-heels in love with. Jane, as maid of honor, is doomed to wear the ugliest dress on the planet, and it is only her friendship with Zeb and her growing friendship with Jolene that keeps her accepting of this fact. She finds herself counselor to both and intermediary in so many situations that keep coming up in her family as well as the approaching wedding. Now Jane’s grandmother is newly engaged to a man who Jane catches consuming pig’s blood on the sly. It is another circumstance Jane feels called upon to investigate.

Harper has given us a slice of Southern life in a small town that is raucous, intriguing, hilarious, and in so many ways typical while, at the same time, the addition of the “undead” in the population provides so many funny ingedients to the mix. The background characters are almost iconic in nature—people one would find in almost any Southern town, but who are just a little bit stranger because some of them are “undead.”

I loved this book and chuckled all the way through. As my mother’s family were from Western Kentucky, I recognized so many of these personalities and resonated with the kinds of situations that are part and parcel to Southern village life. I think you will like Jane and be easily drawn into her life. You will find yourself feeling many of the things she is feeling as she tries to sort out the changes her vampire state has forced on her. I think we all can understand her struggles and I think we will be cheered by the way she strives to accept herself as she now is and to become comfortable in her own skin. I was put off just a bit about some of the repetitive passages and have to admit to skipping over them. Some of the dialogue didnt’ seem to be as important to the story as one might have supposed. But all in all, it was a great read. If you like vampires, you will love Jane and company.

I give this book a 4.5 out of 5 rating.

This book is available from Pocket. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place

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