Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs by Molly Harper

Jane Jameson's book


Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs (book #1)

By Molly Harper 

Book Blurb:
Maybe it was the Shenanigans gift certificate that put her over the edge. When children's librarian and self-professed nice girl Jane Jameson is fired by her beastly boss and handed twenty-five dollars in potato skins instead of a severance check, she goes on a bender that's sure to become Half Moon Hollow legend. On her way home, she's mistaken for a deer, shot, and left for dead. And thanks to the mysterious stranger she met while chugging neon-colored cocktails, she wakes up with a decidedly unladylike thirst for blood.

Jane is now the latest recipient of a gift basket from the Newly Undead Welcoming Committee, and her life-after-lifestyle is taking some getting used to. Her recently deceased favorite aunt is now her ghostly roommate. She has to fake breathing and endure daytime hours to avoid coming out of the coffin to her family. She's forced to forgo her favorite down-home Southern cooking for bags of O negative. Her relationship with her sexy, mercurial vampire sire keeps running hot and cold. And if all that wasn't enough, it looks like someone in Half Moon Hollow is trying to frame her for a series of vampire murders. What's a nice undead girl to do?

I'm gonna have to go with a 3.5 rating on Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs. Did I chuckle? Yes and often. Did I love the all of the constant pop culture references? Oh yes, a lot. I also found a very close connection with Jane's character and the TV character, Lorelei Gilmore from the Gilmore Girls. Both characters do an absurd amount of pop culture references and don't take very much seriously. Also, Gilmore Girls was Stars Hollow and it was interesting that Jane was from Half Moon Hollow. Coincidence? Maybe. Now I am a huge fan of the Gilmore Girls so why am I not rating higher? Because I wasn't quite sure what the book was supposed to be. 

If it was meant to be a comedy, then it passed mildly because I didn't laugh out loud and instead I did a lot of smiling and chuckles. 

If it was meant to be a romance, then I think it failed. I wanted more from Jane and Gabriel then what was delivered. In fact I have issues on the romantic spin that Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs did deliver. 

If it was meant to be an awesome paranormal genre book then I'd have to give it a big, meh. It could have been really cool but the vampires, werewolves and other paranormal creatures in Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs left me bored. 

If it was to be an entertaining book that killed a few hours, well then it succeeded. 

I know it was supposed to be light book and not a deep dark vamp book but it would have been a better reading experience for me if Jane came down from this comical sarcastic stance she paraded around with and added a few more emotional outbreaks and feelings into the story. 

I didn't like that after she rises to her new vampire self she is not one bit vulnerable or sad. She wakes up at her sire, Gabriel's house where he is trying to help her and she flees. Why wouldn't she want to stick around and learn about her abilities and what she can and cannot do. She didn't feel threatened while with Gabriel so it made no sense to me. I would think if you were just told you're a vampire and you had died, there would have been a few panicked questions or an emotional reaction . Even the scene where she finds out she isn't going to have babies was just shrugged off. She used to work at the library in juvenile studies so I would think that not having children would have had some sort of an emotional impact to her. 

I was confused on the romance between Gabriel and Jane. They barely knew each other and in fact seemed to have very little contact and then all of a sudden Gabriel took on this MINE! attitude. I wanted him to be all "MINE" but it seemed to happened to fast for the amount of contact they had with each other. 

I liked Gabriel a lot and with the potential of a love triangle between Gabriel, Jane and Dick (the other male vampire) I was so happy that the author didn't go in that direction. So so happy about that. There was barely enough romance to keep Gabriel afloat so there was nothing for Dick's character to grab on to.

The mystery of who was trying to kill Jane was luke warm but the story did need something more so I accepted it for face value. It is not a mystery genre book and I did enjoy all the situations that the plot landed Jane in. 

I am happy to read on to the next book and since the characters are now well defined, I am really curious to see if the story just gets better and better. 

Teasers: Gabriel's reaction to cigarette smoke is EXACTLY the same reaction I personally have. Best scene in the book!