Jennifer Rardin (1965–2010)

"Another One Bites the Dust" is the second book in Jennifer Rardin's series on Jaz Parks- an assassin. This book was even better than the first, it really made me laugh. I love how the 'crew' interacts with each other... just like a dysfunctional family. I'm not sure if I have a strange sense of humor or this book really was as humorous as I think it was.. Ah, who cares, I REALLY enjoyed myself. =) If you haven't started reading this series yet, read my review of the first book here.

I loved show more the plot! It really kept me wrapped up in the book. Jaz and Vayl are on yet another mission. This time our beloved tech-inventor genius, Miles Bergman, has had his newest invention stolen. (I love how he is depressed and anxious like he had a baby taken from him.) His newest invention is a biologically sophisticated armor that molds to the DNA of the one wearing it for ultimate defense/offense. The armor was stolen by vampires from China that want to create the next world war to get China on top "where it belongs."

Jaz, usually a loner, is sharing an RV with her new "crew" (Vayl, Bergman, Cassandra and Cole.) They're sharing an RV at a festival to cover as carnival performers... They need a reason to be where they are and scope out/steal back the armor. Cassandra is using her psychic abilities, Jaz is belly dancing and Vayl sings and acts as muscle. They put on a great show and turn out to be rather believable.

Jaz has all the same issues she had in the first novella. However, she resolves some in this book. It is nice to see some closure in her life. Also, I love this, she sleep walks. Her black outs are now dreams that she acts out. These are dangerous sleep walks. Yikes!

This book has the same sexual tension between Vayl and Jaz as there was in the first book. They haven't jumped in the sack yet- thank goodness. It makes me want to keep reading the books. (Anyone watch The Office or Bones? It is like, COME ON you KNOW you belong together! GET TOGETHER!) I love this sort of anticipation. How typical of me ;o)

I just have to throw this in here -Cassandra and Bergman bicker and pick at each other throughout this entire book. It is hilarious. I just know this is going to turn into a love/hate relationship and they're going to get together. I'm waiting for it. I want it to happen! So... now I'm hoping Rardin introduces a new character so that Cole can have some sort of relationship with a woman that isn't Jaz. (I want Jaz and Vayl together!)

All in all, this book is very recommended (by me!) Rardin mixed action, suspense and humor perfectly in this novel... they all balanced each other out wonderfully. Enjoy it!! show less

Two Minute Review for “Jaz Parks in Bitten to Death” by Jennifer Rardin

Jaz is one of my favorite characters. She has attitude problems and borders on being a sociopath. A trigger happy harpy with commitment issues. Boy I love that!!!!! I love that there is a real story here with repercussions that don’t go disappear at the end of each book. Val is interesting and you can believe he has lived a lot of years. A lot of vampires seemed to stop growing as characters after the first page. show more Not this one a vampire yes, but he is not all knowing, has huge flaws and continues to grow as a character, show less

Aug 18, 2008
The way Jennifer Rardin's brain works, when she's channelling Jaz, is just bizarre. Sometimes the out of nowhere images had me laughing, other times they had me groaning, but on the whole I'm having a lovely time with this series. So long as you put reality quite firmly to one side, and settle down to enjoy a rather ridiculous ride, you'll have a blast. Vampire crack!fic. :)

Wherever ONCE BITTEN TWICE SHY is shelved (I picked it up in the sci-fi/fantasy section), don't be deceived: it's really chick-lit. And the worst kind of chick-lit, where there's a whole lot of "defining the relationship" and not a lot of action or romance. The book starts six months after protagonist Jaz is partnered with vampire assassin Vayl, and their relationship is already completely unprofessional. We miss out on all the fun, getting-to-know-you, tension-building parts of their show more relationship and pick up when they start to trudge glumly through the Swamp of Complicated Emotions. Rardin tries to convince us that Vayl is an uber-alpha male, but he spends so much time talking about his feelings it's really hard to buy. He also lets Jaz push him around a lot...and not in that "I'm humoring her" sort of alpha-male way, more in a "I'm totally whipped" sort of way.

The fact that one of villains the duo have to face is Vayl's late wife (she's a vampire too) means that even when Jaz and Vayl head out to kick some ass, they always end up right back at that Swamp of Complicated Emotions. The super-villain plot is drenched in Eau de Catfight.

The urban fantasy/paranormal elements are poorly realized and confusing. The growth of Jaz's "Gifts" is pretty botched - each new development is greeted with less explanation than the last. I never got a clear handle on what it meant to be a vampire in Rardin's alternate reality. And Rardin was trying to do a techno-mystical fusion with her uber-villain plot, something to do with a cult of demon-worshippers and a biological WMD (these basic elements are revealed early on), but devoted very little time or effort to explaining either.

The other main plot point is the slow reveal of Jaz's tortured past to the reader. We are informed a number of times that there is a HUGE TRAUMA in Jaz's past, and then we start to get hints about what it is, and eventually we learn the whole story. This just made me think, again, that this book starts after all the real action is over. I was also kind of annoyed by the way that the story came out - she blabs the whole thing in pieces to totally random people, and actually seems over-eager to talk about it, but when she's not in chatter mode she goes on about how her HUGE TRAUMA is too huge and traumatic to talk about, or even think about. It's exactly the kind of drama queen behavior that makes you wonder how this girl ever got a job in the CIA. show less