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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

American Vampire (Vampire For Hire #3) by J.R. Rain



Publisher's Blurb:  American Vampire — the third book of the Vampire for Hire Series...

Mother, wife, private investigator...vampire. Six years ago federal agent Samantha Moon was the perfect wife and mother, your typical soccer mom with the minivan and suburban home. Then the unthinkable happens, an attack that changes her life forever. And forever is a very long time for a vampire.

Now in AMERICAN VAMPIRE, sequel to VAMPIRE MOON, private investigator Samantha Moon receives a heartbreaking phone call from a very unlikely source: a five-year-old girl who's been missing for three months. Now on the hunt, Samantha will use her considerable resources — including her growing supernatural abilities — to locate the missing girl before it's too late. And as she gets closer and closer to the horrible truth, she receives devastating news on the home front. Now with her world turned upside down, Samantha Moon is forced to make the ultimate choice of life and death.

And through it all, she discovers the identity of one mysterious man...a man she has grown to love.

Review:  American Vampire starts with Sam learning the identity of Fang, her on-line best friend, advisor and sanity-saver of the last six years.  No spoilers here, though!  Read it yourself!  Anyhoo, after that little shocker the story is off and running as Sam receives a horrifying phone call from a little girl who has seen her mother murdered and is in the hands of an evil man.  At the same time her son becomes gravely ill, and Sam, with her psychic vampire abilities, realizes he is dying.  Unwilling to give up on the little girl or her son, Sam calls in reinforcements to help find the little girl - P.I.'s Knighthorse, Spinoza and King all help out (and they also have their own books!).  In the course of that investigation, she meets her first vampire, and begins to dip into the spiritual/metaphysical world that she is now aware of as a vampire.  Through spirit-writing she learns she has a spiritual guide, that her son has a very old soul, and that a greater consciousness is at work in the spiritual web of life.
But have no fear, Sam kicks some serious ass, too.  Her maternal protective instincts are in serious overdrive as she races to locate the little girl, and find a way to save her son.  Anyone standing in her way is a target, to include Kingsley, her friend and almost-lover.  Along the way she learns that not everyone is what they appear to be, for better or worse.  And this is one of the strengths in these stories - these characters have depth, they grow and evolve, and nice people sometimes do rotten things.  We see new sides of Sam, Kingsley, Danny, Fang and others, even as the mystery and the suspense plays out.  Plus, I cried!  Normally that would annoy me, but as a mom, reading about what Sam goes through watching her son slip away, was very real and very difficult.  Curse you, Mr. Rain!  Not to mention, sir, you owe me a good night's sleep, because I cannot put these books down.  So with that said it's on to Moon Child, book #4 in the Vampire For Hire series.

Check out the author's website at http://jrrain.com/.