The Particulars:Paranormal Romance, Samhain Publishing, available as e-book and in print

The Source: Freebie from Samhain

Grade: B

The Blurb: 

Nitro? Meet glycerin…

 Punk musician Nixie Schmeling is a hundred pounds of Attitude who spells authority a-n-c-h-o-r and thinks buying insurance is just one more step toward death. So she really feels played when she’s “volunteered” to run the town’s first annual fundraising festival. Especially when she finds out it’s to pay for a heavy-hitting, suit-wearing lawyer—who’s six-feet-plus of black-haired, blue-eyed sex on a stick.

Attorney Julian Emerson learned centuries ago that the only way to contain his dangerous nature is to stay buttoned up. He’s come from Boston to defend the town from a shady group of suits…and an even shadier gang of vampires. But his biggest problem is Nixie, who shreds his self-control.

Nixie doesn’t get why the faphead shyster doesn’t understand her. Julian wishes Nixie would speak a known language…like Sanskrit. Even if they manage to foil the bloodthirsty gang, what future is there for a tiny punk rocker and a blue-blooded skyscraper?

And that’s before Nixie finds out Julian’s a vampire…

The Review:

I have heard good things about Mary Hughes for a long time, but I never got around to buy this book, so when Samhain offered it for free earlier this year I jumped on it. While this isn’t a perfect book, I am really glad I finally read it.

I really liked the Meyers Corner, the setting of the book, it felt believable.  From the way everyone knew each other, even if they didn’t necessarily *like* each other, to the way their German background remained a part of their daily life.  I also liked that the way they fought for their independence from Chicago.

Even if Meyers Corner is a small town, a lot of things happened. I had a blast following Nixie and Julian as they tried to stop the bad guys.  The story was fast paced, and in between dodging bad guys she kept the festival from going haywire, dealt with her mother’s nagging to get a proper job.   I loved the fact that Nixie was snarky and kickass, but she also had enough common sense to know that she wasn’t invincible.

The supernatural element was gradually introduced, and I liked how the Vampires society was structured. It balanced the vampires need, while allowing them to stay under the radar.

While there was a lot of this I really liked with this book,  I struggled with the romance subplot. It was well written, and I was happy with their HEA, but I missed  following how Julian’s feelings and how he thought about having a human mate.