****

Elaine is a psychologist and is trying to get her business off the ground. Until she is asked to see a rather peculiar client who offers her a large sum of money to make a house call after hours. She enters the world of Seth Overkill. Seth is the Prince of Darkness and he is OCD. He cannot stop thinking about germs and he refuses to feed. His refusal to feed affects those around him. They are unable to heal properly. His task for Elaine is that she help him overcome his obsessive compulsive disorder and help him prepare for Reckoning Day. Through this process, Elaine finds out that she is the Ayudante, his protector. She inherited this from her father who was killed when she was a young girl. Seth promises to tell her what happened to her father if she will help him. A romance blossoms between the two, but it is a forbidden love since she is the Ayudante.

I give Revamped 4 tombstones. I enjoyed the original concept of a vampire having obsessive - compulsive disorder. His need to have things a certain way and his having to clean up after every little spill was something I would have had trouble imagining a vampire doing. So, it definitely made the book interesting to me. Plus it gives a small insight into what having OCD would be like, which is also an interesting concept. There is the villain element to this book and some unexpected twists and turns which add to the charm of the book. I found it somewhat difficult to put the book down once I got started on it. This book isn’t your standard fluff and while it is an easy read, it did make me stop and think a little bit on what it would be like to be obsessive - compulsive. This book did make me laugh because there was some humor in it as well. I think the author does a great job of bringing the characters out and telling how they overcome their hardships. I would categorize this book as an adult book due to the sexual scenes found through out the book.

Book Excerpt: “Elaine is the Ayudante, the protector. Problem is, no one ever bothered to tell her about her legacy from her father–that she is destined to protect the Prince of Darkness himself, sexy, seriously neurotic, Seth Overkill. And she’d rather eat nails than have anything to do with bloodsuckers, be this one ever so sexy and in dire need of her help. Seth isn’t the only one in need, however. The Day of Reckoning is coming, and as weakened as Seth has become by his problems, he won’t be able to stop the dead from rising from their graves to walk the earth without her help.”

Book Stats:

  • Paperback: 268 pages
  • Publisher: New Concepts Publishing (February 19, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1586088882
  • ISBN-13: 978-1586088880

To purchase a print copy of ReVamped click here.

To visit the author’s website go here.

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***½

The bodies of two college students have been found mutilated and apparently killed in some kind of religious ritual in tunnels beneath a prestigious New England college. FBI Special Agent Kelly Jones returns to her alma mater to investigate a possible serial killer. The two girls are also the daughters of powerful men and one of the fathers has hired his own private investigator who just happens to be a very sexy former FBI agent, Jake Riley. The killer seems to be experienced and does not leave them much to work with in the way of evidence. Behind the bodies, he paints an image of some kind of evil face using the blood of the victim he has killed before. It is up to Agent Jones, her partner and Jake Riley to figure out who the killer is before he can strike again.

Michele Gagnon has created a very suspenseful debut novel but I was a little disappointed in the character development. I would have liked to see something happen between Agent Jones and Jake Riley. There were hints that something might but it never did. I would have liked to have felt like I knew the characters a little better when the story ended. Certain characters that were introduced late in the story never really had a chance to be fully developed, and they needed to be a little bit more fleshed out.

The conclusion left too many loose ends and the story came to an end much sooner than I anticipated. I felt like the ending was a bit rushed and it left me wanting more. Maybe that was the point, as I understand that Agent Jones will be the star of future books to come.

Book Excerpt: “An old, abandoned tunnel system beneath a prestigious New England college becomes the gruesome stalking ground of a serial killer… The crime scenes are both grim and otherworldly. The bodies of two female students are found mutilated and oddly positioned in the dark labyrinth beneath the school—haunting symbols painted on the walls above them.

In her decade tracking serial killers, FBI special agent Kelly Jones has seen some of the worst humanity can inflict. Yet the tragedy unfolding at her alma mater chills her to the bone. Evidence suggests that the connection between the victims—daughters of powerful men—and the cryptic message behind the killings is rooted in a dark, ancient ritual. As the body count rises, so do the stakes. The killer is taunting Kelly, daring her to follow him down a dangerous path from which only one can emerge.”

Book Stats:

  • Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Mira (June 1, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 077832446X
  • ISBN-13: 978-077832446

To purchase a print copy of The Tunnels click here.
To purchase a Kindle electronic copy of The Tunnels click here.

To visit the author’s website go here.

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