Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs by Molly Harper

Librarian Jane Jameson is having a lousy day. Her boss, in a fit of nepotism, just gave her job away to a family member. To add insult to injury, her severance pay is a gift certificate to the local bar. So Jane does what any self-respecting, recently fired, unlucky in love 30-something female would do: she bellies up to the local bar to drink away her sorrows.

A sexy and sympathetic vampire named Gabriel happens to be hanging out nearby and after listening to her story, gets her sober and helps her to her car. Unfortunately for Jane, her car quits halfway home; to top off a really crappy day, she gets accidentally shot by a drunk hunter who mistakes her for a potential wall trophy. Gabriel, following her to make sure she gets home safely, sees the accident and comes to her aid. Since Jane is near death he gives her a choice: she can either die now or be “turned” and come back as the undead. She chooses Door Number Two.

Suddenly, the loss of her job is the least of her problems. She now has to learn what it means to be a vampire. Fortunately, vampires are completely “out” and there’s a synthetic blood product available that doesn’t taste too bad. But while trying to deal with her new condition, her newly dead aunt appears as her roommate. She has to forget about her favorite Southern-fried cooking and settle for cold bags of blood. She has to struggle through the daylight hours and pretend to actually still be breathing. And her mother won’t stop asking annoyingly pointed questions.

Jane’s also being framed for a vamp murder, and she better locate the real killer quick before she’s targeted by the entire vampire community. Her on-again, off-again relationship with Gabriel is one most girls can relate to, and provides heat and chemistry that smolders throughout the book.

Jane, isn’t just another one-dimensional character, though. She’s portrayed as a normal, nice girl, not overly neurotic, who loves to read, is kind to babies and small animals, and puts up with her bad-mannered family with aplomb.

Harper fleshes out other likable characters with a tongue-in-cheek approach , including Jane’s best friend Zeb, who’s in love with a werewolf named Jolene, and Dick Cheney, a bad-boy vamp with a crush on Jane. The tale is told in Jane’s sarcastically witty voice.

If you have any sense of humor, you will enjoy this read, and will no doubt want to read Harper’s next installments, Nice Girls Don’t Date Dead Men and Nice Girls Don’t Live Forever. But first, start by getting Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs!