PNR Review: The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires

The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires

by Molly Harper

(Half Moon Hollow #2)
Published July 31st 2012 by Pocket Books
★★★ 1/2

Iris Scanlon, Half-Moon Hollow’s only daytime vampire concierge, knows more about the undead than she’d like. Running all their daylight errands—from letting in the plumber to picking up some chilled O neg—gives her a look at the not-so-glamorous side of vampire life. Her rules are strict; relationships with vamps are strictly business, not friendship—and certainly not anything else. But then she finds her newest client, Cal, poisoned on his kitchen floor, and only Iris can help.

Cal - who would be devastatingly sexy, if Iris allowed herself to think that way - offers Iris a hefty fee for hiding him at her place until he figures out who wants him permanently dead. Even though he’s imperious, unfriendly and doesn't seem to understand the difference between "employee" and "servant," Iris agrees, and finds herself breaking more and more of her own rules to help him - particularly those concerning nudity.

Turns out what her quiet little life needed was some intrigue & romance—in the form of her very own stray vampire.

REVIEW:

As always Molly Harper has brought the snark and sassy in The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires. This is the second book in the Half Moon Hollow series, which is a spin-off from Harper’s Jane Jameson series.


TCFSV almost read like the 1st book in the spin-off series instead of the second. There was more mention of Jane in this one than Driving Mr. Dead. And Iris was thinking of adding a transport service to her vampire concierge business. But Driving Mr. Dead was the start of the transport service so I wonder if Harper wrote TCFSV before or at the same time she wrote DMD. It was a little confusing but not enough to mess with my head. In any account you can read either book first and be ok.


I always enjoy Harper’s humor in her books and she delivers in TCFSV. But I found myself thinking that Iris and Jane (main character from the JJ series) was pretty much the same character in some ways. But that might have to do with the fact that I’ve listened to Jane’s books on audio and TCFSV and they have the same narrator. Although I love Amanda Ronconi it can be a bit confusing listening to Harper’s books since she narrates all of them. I have remind myself with each series that this is a different character. So if I had read TCFSV like I did DMD I most likely would not have felt like Iris and Jane were the same character.

Like in all of Harper’s PNR books there is a mystery to be solved and a romance that grows between the heroine and the uber sexy male vampire. I like the fact that we get glimpses of other characters in the Half Moon Hollow world through this spin-off series. With each story we get from the small town it looks like if Harper continues the town will be nothing but a super natural town full of vampires and werewolves. Which would be super fine by me; all of Harper’s characters are fun and just enough sexiness to them that I would totally love to live in Half Moon Hollow.


If you enjoy light and fun reads with snarky humor you must check out Molly Harper’s The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires.