Happy Hunky Days #10

DAY TEN... Happy Hunky-Days!

Happiest of Holidays from the Guilty Indulgence Book Club. We are pleased to be with you every day and hope you will all join us for our 3rd annual Happy Hunky-days - Twelve fun filled days of Christmas where we treat you with gifts of joy and happiness (aka free books and very yummy eye candy!). All good readers who comment will get a chance to win some really great e-books from our featured authors! Seriously, you can even be quite naughty and still get free books - just remember to register and comment!  

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IT'S A WONDERFUL UNDEAD LIFE, R E MULLINS, 

WILD ROSE PRESS, 2012

It's been a rough couple of years for Cailey Kantor. Facing her first Christmas alone and bad financial news, she prays for an angel to fix her problems. Instead, a sadistic, sociopathic vampire, with the goal of starting a vampire war, attacks her and forces her to drink blood stolen from the Nosferatu Gabriel Blautsauger.


Gabe must complete Cailey's turning or she will die. In doing so he risks losing his yet unfound soulmate. But something about the lovely mortal speaks to his heart. Once her transformation is complete, he and Cailey find themselves embroiled in a battle that could cost them all they hold dear.


Faced with lies, abduction, and betrayal Cailey wonders if the vampire she is falling fangs over heart for is in it for love or if she's just a means to stop a war.


Excerpt:


Cailey’s scrub top was gone, exposing her lacy bra, and she was in the process of stepping out of the drawstring pants. She glanced up, her gaze a bit wild. “Hurry. Hurry. I think I might explode from all this energy inside me. I feel like a popcorn maker and all the kernels are popping at once. So much pressure in here.” She dropped a hand to the juncture of her thighs and pressed it against her.


“Cailey?” Gabe’s tone was an octave higher than normal. When she straightened up, clad only in her underwear, he gulped for air. “What are you doing?”


“Getting ready, of course.” Holding her wadded up pants in front of her, she frowned at him. “I thought you said you knew what you were doing.”


“I thought I did…” His voice trailed off, his gaze locked on Cailey’s tight body. How had he missed just how beautiful she was? Hidden beneath the baggy scrubs was a living miracle. He took in the slight swell of flesh above the lucky bra cupping her breasts, and his fingers itched to run down the indentation of her waist.


She dropped the pants to the floor. “Come on. Come on, Gabe the Babe. I know all about when you were at university and all the female vamps used to chase you around and gloat if they made time with you.”


“Ahem.” Gabe realized he had his sister to thank for this new conundrum. More than a bit leery, he asked, “What else did Metta tell you?”


“That we’re both kind of like virgins.”


“I beg your pardon?”


BUY LINKS:

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REVIEW:

There are plenty of holiday tributes out there - enough to fill a month of Hunky Days and then some.  More often than not, they are pre-established stories that pull in a holiday story arc.  These are like the Christmas presents you have asked for and know you're going to love. However, every once in a Christmas moon a rare and exciting thing happens - the gift that you didn't expect but is absolutely perfect.  Finding R E Mullins was my unexpected Christmas gift this year!

It's a Wonderful Undead Life takes the best concepts and themes of the beloved Frank Capra holiday classic and completely reworks them for a creative and captivating read. Yes Virginia, it is another paranormal vampire series but happily one with truly unique features - it's own mythos and rules and an action packed story that the reader doesn't see coming!

The characters are believable, the dialogue fresh and snappy, the story itself full of twists and turns that make for a great page turner. Cailey as the George Bailey archetype wishing for her own Clarence for clarity tugs at the readers' heartstrings without being too painfully maudlin - she makes the best kind of heroine: strong but not invincible, hopeful depite hopeless circumstances and fiercely loyal to those she loves. Even better, the romance between Cailey and Gabe is fun, unfolds at a pace that has that kind of glowing afterburner kick like a Bailey's spiked cocoa - warm and sweet going down with an extra jolt!

Mullins writing style is highly readable and It's a Wonderful Undead Life is extremely well edited.  Scenes flow seamlessly and the secondary characters - namely the rest of the Blautsauger clan and her best friend Morgan - each have moments of stealing the spotlight, delivering witty banter and providing the kind of charm that makes a reader want more stories from this delightfully created world.

Grab yourself a cup of your favorite holiday cheer, a cozy chair and settle in for a not-too-long winter's read with It's a Wonderful Undead Life!  May it be the surprise gift under your tree this year as well!

Rating: 5 Chocolate dipped strawberries, preferably not on a bridge in the snow!