Opening Sentence: '…Heather Lynn Westfield was in hog heaven…’

I am really enjoying this series and have the next book lined up ready to go :)

Heather is a single mum, with a mean and selfish ex-husband who lives in the same small Texan town. Instead of pursuing her ambition to be a fashion designer, she becomes a local school teacher in order to keep her mother happy. When the world famous designer, Jean-Luc, opens up a boutique in the small town, Heather goes along to check out the fashions. Jean-Luc thinks she is stealing his designs when he sees her drawing at the opening night. But when he realises that she is merely 'improving' his designs for women of a realistic size, he is impressed and offers her a job.

What Heather doesn't realise is that Jean-Luc is a vampire - a really attractive, sexy vampire. She accepts his job offer and gets drawn into his world - a world where her life is in danger for being associated with him. Will the fact that he is a vampire make a difference?

The Undead Next Door is a funny, sexy and action-filled romance and I fell in love with the quirky housekeeper - psychic, and gun-toting Fedelia. I do hope she returns in future books - she deserves a man of her own. ( )

The Undead Next Door is the fourth installment in Kerrelyn Sparks Love at Stake series. The focus this time is on Jean-Luc Escharpe, the Western Europe coven leader. He was changed by Roman (the star of the first book) many years ago into a vampire. Now he is a famous designer who is getting ready to retire from the public, into a special cellar home he has had built. The press is onto the fact that he never ages and that is getting dangerous. He vows to hide away for 25 years and return as his own son. As Jean-Luc gets ready for one final fashion show, he meets a beautiful, normal sized woman who is visiting his store, but can't afford a single thing in it. He discovers that she enjoys and is good at design as well and he shares her passion for believing you don't have to be a size 0 to deserve beautful fashion. He hires her to work for him, but unfortunately they attract the attention of his mortal enemy, Louie. Louie is getting paid now to kill Jean-Luc so the deal is even sweeter. Jean-Luc moves Heather and her daughter Bethany and friend Fidelia in with him and gives his army of vampires and mortal the job of keeping them safe. Of course this is a series romance novel, so the two fall in love with each other. I would actually give this 3 1/2 stars if I could. I enjoyed this one better than the 2nd and 3rd in the in series. I liked the scenes of them holed away in Jean-Luc's home (attached to the store) and I am crazy about the supporting characters here, especially Pheannaeus. Pheannaeus is a year old vamp, who was debuted in Book #3. He is a fabulous addition the the series and always keeps his scenes comical. I hope he gets his own story one day, because he stands out from the others. And this series desperately needs something stand out and different as these are starting to all sound like the same story. Just change the characters name, mix up who is the vamp and who is the human and voila...new romance story. Fortunately Sparks is much better at this than some of the other vampire romance writers out there, and I appreciate her and her stories for it. My time spent reading "The Undead Next Door" was entertaining, I just feel like it won't take long before this story mixes with all the others in my memory. Enjoyable but not a stand out. ( )

In a word: fun. There's witty dialogue, good chemistry between characters, and enough wackiness to keep things lively. The book is about Heather, a single mother full of stifled dreams, and Jean, a vampire fashion designer who must hide his true nature from the world. Circumstances and an old enemy bring these two together, and they must contend with both extraordinary events and mundane life. Sparks creates a nicely superpowered breed of vampire, though her vamps are not too distinct from other authors' versions. Where Sparks stands out from her brethren is in how she successfully portrays supernatural beings' struggles with everyday living. However, the larger plot was dissatisfying and took a backseat to the smaller events leading up to the climax. As for the climax, itself, it was, well... anticlimactic. Towards the end of the book the pace picks up suddenly, even jarringly. There are a few pages of crisis, then -- poof! -- bad guy defeated. And I felt that, in switching between Heather and Jean's perspectives, there were some gaps in the narrative flow. Nevertheless, this was an entertaining book with a Lynsay Sands-esque flair. ( )

**Courtesy of CK2S Kwips & Kritiques**

An immortal living in the public eye must occasionally disappear for a decade or three. Even with modern-day advancements such as plastic surgery to explain away an eternally youthful appearance, a vampire must periodically leave the life he has built to prevent rousing suspicion amongst the human populace.

Ultra-famous fashion designer Jean-Luc Echarpe has stretched the limits of his current existence and is preparing to sequester himself away in a small Texas town for a time before re-emerging to the world with a new identity. It promises to be a long, lonely life – until he meets the inimitable Heather Westfield.

The single mother, schoolteacher, and budding designer shows Jean-Luc a world such as he has never known for himself. A world of love, hope, and family. But once again, he unwittingly puts a woman he cares for at unacceptable risk as his centuries-long enemy resurfaces to destroy everything Jean-Luc cherishes.

Last year, I reviewed the third book in Kerrelyn Sparks LOVE AT STAKE series, read the first two, and loved each so much that I have purchased all three for several friends as ‘just because you have to read these’ gifts. Needless to say, I was more than eager for the new release in this saga, THE UNDEAD NEXT DOOR!

As her fans have come to expect, Ms. Sparks does not disappoint readers with the new edition to this addictive paranormal romance series. Infusing the stories with a heavy dose of humor, balanced with the darker side of the paranormal world her characters inhabit. See, just as with humans, you have good Vampires and you have evil Vampires. The good Vamps drink synthetic blood and co-exist peacefully with the human population, protecting them from the threat of the Malcontents.

The Malcontents are the evil vampires, who thrive on taking human blood and life whenever possible, and work overtime to destroy the good Vamps. We don’t like the Malcontents, obviously. No big news or spoilers here, this is just part of the series premise.

But what is new is Jean-Luc. While we’ve seen the handsome French designer in previous stories, he remained somewhat of a mystery, appropriate until his own book, of course. I was intrigued by him before, but what we learn of his past and his personality in THE UNDEAD NEXT DOOR shows us a somewhat tragic hero who is undeniably fascinating. His sense of honor is only rivaled by his utter loneliness, having lived a life devoid of true commitment due to the constant threat posed by his nameless, faceless foe.

Leave it to a heroine as bright and quirky as Heather to shake up Jean-Luc’s world to the 'nth' degree! Heather is a breath of fresh air for both Jean-Luc and for the reader – completely guileless, this woman has a capacity for love and understanding that surpasses most. But will that extend to the Vampire who loves her when she discovers his true nature?

Readers new to the LOVE AT STAKE books will be glad to hear that Kerrelyn Sparks writes each of these stories so that they work admirably well as standalone stories, making it easy to jump right in with the title that most interests you. Of course, each book introduces the main characters of future books, so reading them in order certainly enhances the experience.

For a wonderfully romantic and thoroughly entertaining read that will make you alternately laugh with delight and sigh with romantic longing, pick up your own copy of LOVE AT STAKE, BOOK 4: THE UNDEAD NEXT DOOR!

( )