Bitten in Two

This is the 7th book in the Jaz Parks series, you do need to read previous book to understand what is going on in this book. There will be eight books total in this series with the 8th book, The Deadliest Bite, being released in June 2011. This book starts out a bit rough, but ends up being a very good addition to this series and resolves a lot of plot lines that were left hanging in the last book.

Jaz and crew are in Morocco on a mission to retrieve the tablet that can free Jaz from her possession by Lucifer's Assassin, Brude. Unfortunately something has happened to Vayl and he now believes that he is living in the year 1700 something; as a result he doesn't recognize any of his crew for who they really are and thinks they are actually people from his past. While Jaz and crew try to figure out how to fix Vayl, Jaz's possessions symptoms are starting to affect her physically and are making her increasingly ill.

This book starts out pretty horrible. It jumps right into the story and, as the reader, you are totally confused. Vayl is calling everyone with different names and I couldn't figure out when/why he had lost his memory. It was really confusing, boring, and incredibly hard to get through the first fifty pages or so. But, trust me, get through that part and you will absolutely adore the rest of the book.

Once you get past that beginning part there are fight scenes galore, wonderful humor, and many resolutions to plot threads that were left dangling in the last book. Once Vayl gets back to himself the book gets even better; but I will admit some of the parts where Vayl thinks he is still living in the past are pretty darn funny. Seriously this book had me laughing so hard at points I was almost in tears. Astrid, the robo-cat, plays a pretty large role in things and she is absolutely-fricking hilarious.

There is a lot more tension between the characters than in previous books. Vayl kind of assigns everyone characters of people in his past and some of those don't agree with Jaz's crew (for example Vayl think Bergman is a little girl named Helena). Cole and the demon have some romantic tension going on. Bergman has romantic tension going on with the lady who owns the house they are staying in. Jaz is having her heart ripped out everyone time Vayl sees her but can't recognize her.

We also get a lot of info about Vayl's past (since he is kind of living in the past). We get to see the type of guy he was and some of the things he went through, this helps fill him out even more as a character.

Overall, despite a rough start, this book ended up being a wonderful addition to the series. I thoroughly enjoyed it. There are lots of awesome fight scenes, some romance, good character development, tons of humor, and many dangling plot points are resolved. I am super excited to see how Rardin tied up this series and can't wait to read the last book in the series, The Deadliest Bite. ( )

Full review posted at http://urbanfantasyinvestigations.blogspot.com
The story starts out with Val having lost his memory and the crew, Jaz, Colin, Bergman, trying to find out what has happened to him and how to get his mind back to the current century. There is a TON of tension going on, Jaz being upset that Val doesn't remember her, Colin being in love with Jaz but Jaz not loving him back, The inn owner that likes Bergman but Bergman just doesn't get it, and of course the presence of the Demon Kyphos who wants Colin but Colin will never love her. I was pretty lost for most of the whole memory loss bit, It was all a bit confusing in the beginning and they hardly do anything about what they are really there for (in Morocco) until half way threw the book. Right before Val gets his current memories back it finally picks up and the actions starts, it gets much better from there. Bergman completely blew me away with some of his actions and Cole went through hell for a while and the book kinda left some stuff with him unfinished But Im sure that will be cleared up in book 8 The Deadliest Bite. The story was so unpredictable towards the end that I was glued to the pages wanting to know what else could possibly happen. If you start off reading it and want to put it down DON'T keep going it gets better. ( )

I confess, I was given this book and hadn't previously read the first six installments in the series. Still, it sounded decent and I decided to give it a try. The book does a good job of filling the reader in on where the plotline is, so I was able to enjoy the book despite being a newcomer to the series.

Yes, it's yet another urban fantasy about a butt-kicking chick and her vampire boyfriend. Aside from the general descriptor, though, it's not a carbon copy of every other similarly-premised book. Its strength, and presumably the series' strength, is in the undercurrent of humor running through it, particularly in the interactions between characters. The character banter is smart, funny and engaging; one can tell the author has a strong sense of who the characters are and how they interact with each other. I thoroughly enjoyed the way the team played off each other. Good stuff.

Deftly blending elements of comedy, action, fantasy and horror, the book has almost a movie feel - I could definitely see these guys on a big screen. There are elements of drama, but they come off as less earnest than the lighter moments.

Now for some of the weaker points. The main character, Jaz, has a habit of talking to these many voices in her head - presumably just aspects of her personality. It was cute at first, but at least in this installment of the series, it was seriously overused. No one spends that much time talking to themselves. They'd be constantly immobilized for lengthy periods of time. :p

Secondly, and this may be an issue on my end, I'm not sure I buy the concept of CIA assassins. I CERTAINLY don't buy the idea of CIA assassins with virtually no supervision, no bureaucratic red tape,etc. Now I'm drawing these assumptions based on the description of the characters given on the book jacket. If that's erroneous or incomplete, fair enough; as is, I get the impression that they're these rogue agents given leeway to do whatever they want. That's just not how things work.

Thirdly, at one point Jaz goes on a tangent imagining all the fantastic, expensive gifts her super rich boyfriend might have gotten her, promptly giving me the impression she's vapidly greedy and inherently unlikeable. I just don't see the advantage of having that particular scene in there. There are gentler ways of exposing character flaws (if that was the intention).

Overall, amusing, if slight. I will consider reading the rest of the series. ( )