Bitten to Death

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. Not this one a vampire yes, but he is not all knowing, has huge flaws and continues to grow as a character,

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. :)

The latest mission for Jaz and Vayl have them infiltrating the vampire Trust. But someone has overthrown the regime. In a mysterious rise in power and abilities, the new leader of the Trust shares a dark past with Vayl. And she has her eyes set on Vayl as her new partner. Meanwhile, Jaz still needs to deal with the voices in her head and hunt down the evil vampire Samos.

Rardin does a great job with character development throughout the series. Jaz and her boss have gone through a lot and their relationship is certainly changing. It’s been a long time since I read the earlier books, and I was still able to jump into the story and not feel lost. But one of my favorite things about this series is the character interactions. Jaz is a show more fantastic character with plenty of humor to diffuse the scenes of violence and danger. The physical attraction and tension between Jaz and Vayl is steamy and frustrating.

This latest installment doesn’t fall short on the plot and suspense either. The Trust seems to be full of killers and traitors that will do anything to gain power. For action-packed intrigue with loads of blood-suckers, shapeshifters, and other things that go bump in the night, don’t miss this spy novel with bite.

* PS: For those of you with sharp eyes, you’ll notice that the cover blurb is from yours truly, talking about the first book in the series! show less

Really good series - one of those stand out ones where the words are clever and funny and the action on edge and the romance tantalizing without being too much. I've bought the next book because I can't bear to wait.

This is the fourth book in the Jaz Parks series by Jennifer Rardin. It was pretty much on par with the third book of the series as far as quality goes. I am still enjoying these books but I thought that this book was marginally less great than the other books.

In this book Jaz, Vayl and David return to Vayl's old Vampere Trust. They have an agreement with the leader of the Trust that they hope will lead to the assassination of Edward Samos, the Raptor. Unfortunately when they arrive they find that the Trust has changed leadership and is now in the hands of someone who has a deep connection with Vayl. The new leader has different plans for Vayl and the magic of the Trust seems to be pulling the characters apart from each other. Will Jaz, show more Vayl, and David survive their stay with the Trust? Will they finally eliminate Edward Samos?

This was a pretty good book. It was action packed and introduced a lot of new magical aspects to the series. Were-creatures join the plotline and we learn a lot more about Vayl's past. All in all it was fast-paced and engaging. Although so far I think it was my least favorite book of the series.

I will restate that this was a really good book but there were some things that bothered me about it. In someways the plot seemed to be rehashing the plot of the third book. Jaz runs around trying to save Vayl from himself again; and Jaz and Vayl's relationship seems to be treading water. I suppose this may be a transitional book, but I thought this book was a bit weak on character development. I am starting to get sick of Jaz's whining that she needs space, when the whole time she is acting the opposite way. I am really hoping that the major flaw in Vayl's character has worked itself out and we don't have to hear Vayl obsessing over his dead sons anymore after this. That was an interesting plot element for a couple books but it is wearing thin and getting old. I also missed that there weren't as many nifty gadgets in this book; there were a few, but Bergman was mostly absent. Also the careening from mission to mission is getting a bit tiresome even for me; does anyone else think maybe Jaz needs a vacation? I don't think the woman hardly ever sleeps. I am beginning to think it would be more exciting to hear about what Jaz does when she's not knee deep in scary terrorists.

This was a good book. I think the next book will probably decide whether or not I keep reading the series. The ending of this book left the next book open to some new plot lines and new ideas; hopefully it will follow through. show less

Once again, secret assassin extraordinaire Jaz Parks has been sent on a dangerous mission. Along with her boss, kind-of lover Vayl, she's been sent to Greece, to infiltrate a Vampere Trust.The mission's pretty much screwed before Jaz and Vayl even arrive. Jaz, Vayl, and Jaz's brother David have to navigate through deadly vampire politics as they hunt down Edward Ramos and dispatch him once and for all. Vayl, may finally meet his sons and end his life forever. Great new characters in this 4th book in the series. Action, heart breaks and twists to the extreme !

I really feel like Rardin is getting better by leaps and bounds with each book although she's definitely plot heavy. I'm pleased with the progression of the characters in this novel, although I missed Cassandra and Bergman. I hope she continues to improve - I think once the hot/cold on/off things with the Jaz/Vayl/Cole triangle are resolved the series could really take off.