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I am a used bookstore junkie. I never leave my favorite one, Half Price Books, without dropping at least $50. (The owner, Kathy, goes to the Romantic Times convention every year and brings back a load of brand new titles from hot authors, many times autographed.) I always hunt for that great bargain that will be just the book to tackle my voracious reading appetite.

I found Real Vampires Have Curves on the top shelf of the romance section. Released last year – with a sequel out this year - this book has a fun, quippy heroine vamp who considers herself full-figured, though her on-again, off-again mate, Jeremy, thinks her curves are delectable. She blames her curves on bloating she had when she was bitten – weight that remains with her forever.

I thought it looked stupid – until I read the back cover copy. Then I knew I HAD to have this book. Let me share:

“What – did you think all vamps were pale, think and brooding? Don’t I wish. Me, I just happened to be bloating when a sexy Scotsman sank his teeth into me, so here I am,, Glory St. Claire, eternally “full figured.” On the plus side, I can rock a corset like nobody’s business. …

The whole never-aging thing means that a girl’s gotta keep moving, and I’m headed for Austin and a new business venture: Vintage Vamp’s Emporium. After all, I love cute clothes, and I am an antique. Only problem is,k there’s a billionaire technofreak vampire hunter on the loose. Blade’s in total he-vampire mode and wants me to move in with him so he can “protect” me. But I’m sick of the not-so-little-woman thing. It’s time for this vamp to explore her own powers…”

I was hooked. The book was at the top of my stack of reads when I got home last night. It started off great. It was funny, witty and at times I felt like I was sitting down with the girls over java chatting about life’s ups and downs.

The tone and pacing are great, as is the idea of a chick lit vamp series with funny feminine quips. The problem is Real Vamps doesn’t deliver. Glory gets whiny real fast. Her on-again, off-again relationship is annoying and never ending. (Either take him or don’t, girlfriend!) I didn’t care for most of the extra characters. They were either too stereotypical or too bland. There was just… too much of everything. The 330 page book could have been cut down to a really hot 200 page novel, minus most of the extra characters that don’t appear in their own novels later. Bartlett could keep the general plot about the vamp hunter and relationship issues and keep readers interested without going into glassy-eyed territory

Don’t get me wrong. The idea for this series is fabulous. The execution just needed a little more pizzazz to hold my fickle tastes.

Bartlett, who penned three novels as Lynn McKay, has one more book in the Real Vampires series, Real Vampires Live Large, and two more on the way – Real Vampires Get Lucky, out this month, and Real Vampires Make Waves, slated for release in January 2009.

Check out the author’s site for more details: www.gerrybartlett.com.

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