I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
Nice Girls Don't Bite Their Neighbors
by
Molly Harper
in a paperback edition that was published by Pocket Books on February 28, 2012 and has 320 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs, Nice Girls Don't Date Dead Men, Nice Girls Don't Live Forever, How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf, The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires
Fourth in the Jane Jameson urban fantasy series revolving around a librarian vampire, her beau/sire, her friends, and her family in Half-Moon Hollow, Kentucky.
My Take
I love that Jane is groaning about her being the tech person in their relationship … snicker.
Aww, how can you not love a guy who wants to read Jane Eyre because his girlfriend has “only mentioned a dozen or so times that Edward Rochester is second only to Mr. Darcy … ” One, he actually heard what she said. Two, he wants to fulfill her dreams … awwww … Ohhh, and I just love how Gabriel proposed … sigh …
Too many funnies. Jane is describing a typical weekend at home of movies and babysitting, feeling all grownup, and then Dick “recites a sixteen-stanza penis-based epic poem”. Then there’s the issue of raising a new vampire childe when he’s still feeling like a hormonal teen. All the brattiness and slovenliness of a teen with the strength, speed, and hunger of a vampire … eek! Then Wilbur’s reaction to Grandma Ruthie’s will … hee-hee …
It’s a whole lotta family interactions. Expectations at funerals, weddings, and just plain life. Those signature casserole dishes. Thank god for the “scary vampire boyfriend” who scares off all the snarky remarks. The reactions of Jane’s childe’s family … which ensures that Jane realizes just how incredibly lucky she was … is even if the bookshop’s revenue is dropping. Family reunions with dead grandpas including Grandpa John (Ruthie’s first and Jane’s real grandpa), Grandpa Tom with the allergy, Grandpa Jimmy, and Grandpa Fred still wearing his plaid golfing pants.
Interesting back story for Ophelia. Snicker, Jane plans to get back at Jolene and Andrea with bridesmaid dresses from Jolene’s Aunt Yvonne. With a twist.
Crack. Me. Up. Anyone for “Happy Naked Fun Time”??
Then there’s a bit of the down-to-earth when her childe complains about life as a vamp in which Jane responds with life as a human—”Accidentally knocking up your girlfriend your sophmore year of college. Getting a nine-to-five job, so you can support her after your shotgun wed … ” But that is followed up by a good bit of advice I suspect we all could use:
You can’t control what your family does. You can only control how you respond to it.
Oh lordy, if anyone is planning bachelorette parties, read it and plan.
The Story
Gabriel is moving in with Jane and giving his house to Jane’s sister Jenny. And Jane has finally said “yes”. So, let the nightmare begin. Er, sorry, I meant, let the wedding planning begin. Jane had hoped for a Vegas wedding, but it’s not to be.
And because planning a wedding while taking relatives into account isn’t hard enough, Jane gets saddled with her first “childe” when someone tries to kill her. Everyone wants to put Jane in a hermetically sealed protective cage, but she’s feeling a lot more proactive.
Yup, as if Jane doesn’t have enough going on with having to hide her new childe out, counter Grandma Ruthie, and discover who is trying to kill her while planning her one and only wedding.
The Characters
Jane Jameson is adjusting well to life as a vampire. Even better, she’s adjusting to a romantic life with her sire, Gabriel Nightengale. Aunt Jettie is her ghost of an aunt; she’s carrying on with Gilbert Wainwright, Jane’s short-lived boss at the bookstore. Mr. Wainwright is also Dick’s greats-grandfather. Jane has recently become friends with her formerly litigious sister Jenny. Grandma Ruthie is still a major pain; even after she’s dead, she torments Jane. And we find out the reality of her ghoul of a boyfriend, Wilbur.
Andrea used to be a blood donor and now she’s married to Dick Cheney, a boyhood friend of Gabriel’s. (Gabriel hosted their wedding at his place before he gave it away.) They’re both vampires and they both work for Jane at the bookstore she inherited from Mr. Wainwright.
Zeb is Jane’s childhood friend whom she thought she’d marry one day and now he’s married to Jolene, a werewolf, and they have their own litter, Joe and Janelyn. His mother, Mama Ginger, is no longer allowed to babysit.
Jamie Lanier is the dairy delivery guy. A truly hunkalicious highschooler for whom Jane used to babysit. The Laniers were very friendly with the Jamesons in the past. Iris Scanlon is a wedding planner for vampires. Truly a godsend for Jane.
Ophelia Lambert, the adolescent-looking “head of the local panel” for the World Council for the Equal Treatment of the Undead. Turns out she was naughty when she was first turned and she turned a child, her very young sister Georgie. Sophie is another panelist with some scary mad mental skills along with Waco Marchand who seems to have a paternal interest in Jane, and Peter Crown who hates her.
Ray McElray is the brother of the man, Bud McElray, who shot and killed Jane.
The Cover and Title
It’s a blurry, white background against which Jane is embracing Gabe’s naked chest — his back is facing us.
The title is all about manners and what one should not do in spite of provocation. Nice Girls Don’t Bite Their Neighbors, no matter what.
