Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs by Molly Harper
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: Jane Jameson #1
Publication Date: March 31st 2009
ISBN: 9781416589426
Page Count: 355
Rating: ★★★
Review Copy: Audiobook
Reviewed by: Lynsey
Synopsis: Maybe it was the Shenanigans gift certificate that put her over the edge. When children's librarian and self-professed nice girl Jane Jameson is fired by her beastly boss and handed twenty-five dollars in potato skins instead of a severance check, she goes on a bender that's sure to become Half Moon Hollow legend. On her way home, she's mistaken for a deer, shot, and left for dead. And thanks to the mysterious stranger she met while chugging neon-colored cocktails, she wakes up with a decidedly unladylike thirst for blood.

Jane is now the latest recipient of a gift basket from the Newly Undead Welcoming Committee, and her life-after-lifestyle is taking some getting used to. Her recently deceased favorite aunt is now her ghostly roommate. She has to fake breathing and endure daytime hours to avoid coming out of the coffin to her family. She's forced to forgo her favorite down-home Southern cooking for bags of O negative. Her relationship with her sexy, mercurial vampire sire keeps running hot and cold. And if all that wasn't enough, it looks like someone in Half Moon Hollow is trying to frame her for a series of vampire murders. What's a nice undead girl to do?

REVIEW

Like music to my ears.

This is a review of the audiobook version, which is narrated by the amazing Amanda Ronconi. The combination of Ronconi's lively, comedic reading and Harper's witty one-liners, make it an enjoyable, grin-inducing read, one I wished would never end.

I'd enjoyed Harper's other series on audiobook, too—her Naked Werewolf series—so I knew I was in for a treat. I've had very little time for "real" reading lately, so audiobooks have been my only option, but they can be hit and miss for me. A bad or poorly selected narrator can ruin and otherwise enjoyable book, and I freely admit to being a bit of a fussy madam when it comes to narrators. I therefore feel it important to state just how good these are on audio.

So, about the story. Jane Jameson is a woman after my own heart. A slightly insecure and nerdy librarian with a razor sharp wit and lacking any kind of brain to mouth filter, she is very underappreciated and overlooked as a human. But, as the title would suggest, she doesn't stay human for long. A funnier human to vampire transformation scenario I have never read. I won't spoil it, but it was hilarious. And that was the great thing about this book; it's funny. The things that are usually desperately sad and angsty in other series are handled with slapstick comedy in this and it was so refreshing to see a newly turned vampire enjoying all of the perks rather than mewling about the negatives.

The plot was based around a gentle mystery, but with these books, the real enjoyment will be found in the characters rather than in any complex plotting. And a great cast of characters it is. There's an intriguing and perplexing love interest, a lovable rogue new friend, and a hilarious bunch of Jane's family members. The dialogue—especially Jane's—is just so funny. Harper is one of those writers who you could quote endlessly. There are so many snarky comebacks and witty rebuttals, I'm sure I smiled like a lunatic throughout the whole book.

Because of the mystery being slightly lacklustre and the love interest being more perplexing and confusing than I was anticipating, I've settled on 3.5 stars, but having listened to the rest of the series already, I can tell you books 2, 3 and 4 improve on both of these points.

A highly recommended audiobook experience!
3 Stars ★★★1/2