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Title: La Vida Vampire
Score:
Author: Nancy Haddock
Rating: Not available
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Review of La Vida Vampire

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Comments for La Vida Vampire

• Posted on 2009-11-14
  Cute, quirky, unique, fun, sad, and sexy!
  
  Cute, quirky, unique, fun, sad, sexy. All these words can be used to describe this delightful book. I had come across a chat and contest by Ms. Haddock where she was talking about her new release, Last Vampire Standing the sequel to La Vida Vampire. I was intrigued as there are few vampire books that take place in Florida. All the people who left comments were entered into the contest to win Last Vampire Standing. I was lucky enough to win the contest so I had to go out and get the first book! I am so glad I did.
  
  Francesca Marinelli was discovered in the basement of an old house in St. Augustine where she had been interred roughly two hundred years before. Maggie, the owner of the house, has become her sponsor and helped Cesca get acclimated to the 21st century. Cesca is all about the now and tries not to think about her past. She is in school, online of course, and has landed a job as a tour guide to the haunted spots in St. Augustine. On her first night on the job, she has quite the crew show up for the tour. Among them are a group of retired ladies who are big football fans, a vampire hater, and a strange newlywed couple, just to name a few. Then the bride turns up dead a few days later with bite marks. Being the only vampire in town sucks as Cesca is the only suspect at first. Now Cesca must prove her innocence and find the killer. Will Cesca find out who is the killer or will she wind up dead for good?
  
  This was quite the amusing tale. There is never a dull moment, never a part where you wish the author would get to the good stuff. It is a lovely blend of paranormal, mystery, and romance. The history of St. Augustine is expertly woven into the tale giving just the right amount of local color. It made me want to take a road trip to St. Augustine! Cesca is such a unique character, trying to avoid all the things that make her a vampire. The smell of blood makes her nauseous, she likes to surf, doesn't want to be around other vampires. She just wants to enjoy her underalive life! The other characters are quirky and interesting but not over the top. The focus is always on Cesca which is very well done. There were a few sad moments when she just couldn't ignore her past and the emotions just had to come out. Ms. Haddock does a wonderful job of showing us Cesca's personality and her actions matching that personality. This is a wonderful start to a great series and I can't wait to dive into Last Vampire Standing!
  
  Originally reviewed at Night Owl Romance
  
  
  
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• Posted on 2009-09-03
  Unique and Spunky Vampire Cesca Storms Onto the Scene!
  
  Francesca Marinelli - call her Cesca, which rhymes with Fresca - is a vampire, online student, surfer chick, and historic city tour guide aficionado in a city that is near and dear to my heart, St. Augustine. She's a feisty, quirky, independent-minded but socially-conscious vampire who doesn't drink in front of people. She holds her nose when she has to drink blood at all, in fact. Her greatest ambition after spending 200 or so years chained and imprisoned underground is to chisel out a normal life, free to come and go as she pleases - with respect to the GPS chip in her arm that keeps tabs on her 24/7, and so long as she doesn't slip too far from her vampire sponsor - who's also her roommate and best friend.
  
  She's sassy and quick-witted, politely sardonic. I love her!
  
  Cesca's bopping along, mapping out just about every spare minute of her life, when a member of her most recent tour group ends up murdered and - no surprise to her - she's looked at as being a suspect. Not everyone's too keen about her afterlife status, after all. While police inquiry is a drag, though, it DOES introduce her to superhotty Deke Saber - the supernatural forces special agent who at first thinks she's as guilty as can be.
  
  As details start to flesh out the mystery and threats start fluttering at Cesca more intently and dangerously, Saber vows to not let her out of his sight - an even MORE dangerous proposition to the positively virginal (literally) Cesca.
  
  I really enjoyed La Vida Vampire. It's original and charming, and Cesca is a witty and spunky protagonist who is no one's patsy. That the book is also set in St. Augustine, my absolute favorite southern city and just down the road from my old stomping grounds, was a particularly decadent frosting on a full-flavored cake.
  
  La Vida Vampire's got a bit of mystery, a bit of romance, and a bit of mysticism. Ghosts and witches and shape changers are flitting around in the background too. Which actually leads to a small bit of objective criticism on one of the plot threads in the book. While I believe this thread may be indicative of a wider arc through the upcoming series, and is included to add depth and breath to the plot, the paranormal aspects (uh...I mean other than the vampires and the ghosts) seemed oddly out of place and read more like a more somber and dark urban fantasy. It was sort of odd mixed in with bad hair days, surfing, nighttime dashes to the 24 hour Wal-Mart, and the daily doses of caramel Starbloods.
  
  Other than that, though, there's a solid, original story here with a lot of style and class...and a YUMMY agent Saber there to fan all those flames. Strongly recommended if you like irreverent heroines with a lot of self respect who still manage to get themselves in very sticky but funny situations.
  
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• Posted on 2009-08-09
  Ka Vida Vampire
  
  Francessa Marinelli is everything I love in a modern vampire story. She wears a pink bathing suite, enjoy surfing and working a haunted ghost tour. This series vampires are implanted with GPS tracking chips much like the future people in the Stalone movie Demolition Man. She prefers the company of humans over vampires but find herself framed for a series of murders that look like their vampire related. A squad of vampire haters known as Covenant is the prim suspect but the story is full of clues and suspects that will have you guessing who did it till the final chapter. If people are looking for something different that your wearing black brooding vampire types this series is for you. Especially when she falls for the police officer investigating her case.
  
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• Posted on 2009-06-11
  Twists the conventional vampire stereotypes
  
  Francesca Marinelli isn't like most vampires. She doesn't like black, won't drink in public, refuses to use her vampire powers, and...she's a virgin. She's been locked beneath an old house for centuries and now free. What's a girl to do? Well, she needs to work, and being a tour guide for late-night ghost tours of historic St. Augustine, Florida, seems up her alley. What Francesca doesn't anticipate, though, is that she'll become the target for sex-starved honeymooning French couple, for an angry anti-vampire bigot, for a man who insists on pretending to be Gomer Pile, and, when she discovers a dead body, the police.
  
  Having the police after her is bad enough. One particular cop, Deke Saber, has a reputation for murdering vampires and he won't let Francesca out of his sight. But when her car is vandalized while she's under Saber's watch, he has to admit she might not be guilty--and her suspicions might not be fake.
  
  Author Nancy Haddock creates a charming take on the vampire myth. Francesca twists the standard vampire romance genre. Instead of sexy male immortals bringing their blessings to hapless (or occasionally spunky females), Francesca doesn't especially like being a vampire, is interested in surfing, interior design, and hanging with friends. Deke Saber makes an effective foil as Francesca busts his prejudices and shows him that it's about people rather than about special talents or dietary requirements.
  
  I would have liked a bit more depth to the mystery--a few twists to make me question where the story was going but Haddock didn't write this as a serious mystery. If you're looking for a light take on the paranormal, and if you're not too stuck on your vampire prejudices, I definitely recommend that you check out LA VIDA VAMPIRE.
  
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• Posted on 2009-05-12
  A great summer read!
  
  Nancy Haddock puts a new twist in the vampire genre with the character of Cesca. Cesca, a 200+ year old vampire, returned to the land of the living after her now friend/roommate/sponsor uncovered her burial site while renovating an old St. Augustine mansion. Cesca is cool because she wants to be as normal as possible, even taking surfing lessons from her roomie's boyfriend and on-line classes in interior design. She gets an evening job working as a 'Haunted History' tour guide, and that's where her adventure starts. She becomes a 'person of interest' in a murder mystery, which necessitates her involvement with a hunky special investigator.
  La Vida Vampire is a great summertime read. There's enough action, intrigue and romance to have you coming back for the next installment.
  
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