The first by Charlaine Harris takes about a third of the book. It’s a great little story about a human woman, down on her luck. A typical story of a woman with an ugly secret trying to move on with her life but, in this case, the savior she finds is a vampire. Since this is a vampire from Harris’ world of Sookie, he’s arrogant and proprietary. Both traits simultaneously attract and annoy our heroine, Rue. The twist in this story is that the vampire hero isn’t a perfect savior, he screws up. It was charming and I enjoyed it.

The second story is a straightforward murder mystery with nothing supernatural despite the tantalizing hints that there might be. It is very convoluted and confusing, both to the protagonist, Sarah, and the gentle reader. There are enough red herrings thrown out to make it nearly impossible to guess who the murderer is; which is, of course, the point of a good murder mystery. As such, this was a pretty enjoyable read. ~~ Catherine Book

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