A Book Obsession..: Nice Girls Don't Date Dead Men

Nice Girls Don't Date Dead Men

, by Kt Clapsadl

Nice Girls Don't Date Dead Men by Molly Harper

Jane Jameson #2

Once a devoted children's librarian, Jane Jameson now works at a rundown occult bookstore. Once a regular gal, she's now a vampire. And instead of a bride, she's an eternal bridesmaid — which leads her to question where exactly her relationship with her irresistibly sexy sire, Gabriel, is headed. Mercurial, enigmatic, apparently commitment-phobic vampires are nothing if not hard to read. While Jane is trying to master undead dating, she is also donning the ugliest bridesmaid's dress in history at her best friend Zeb's Titanic-themed wedding. Between a freaked-out groom-to-be, his hostile werewolf in-laws, and Zeb's mother, hell-bent on seeing Jane walk the aisle with Zeb, Jane's got the feeling she's just rearranging the proverbial deck chairs.

Meanwhile, Half Moon Hollow's own Black Widow, Jane's Grandma Ruthie, has met her match in her latest fiancé. He smells like bad cheese and has a suspicious history of dead spouses. But Jane's biting her tongue. After all, would a nice girl really think she has a future with a vampire?

Even though Jane is still trying to come to terms with the reality that she is a vampire, her biggest challenge right now is accepting the worst bridesmaid dress imaginable. Her best friend Jeb is getting married, and Jane is the Maid of honor. The Titanic is the wedding theme, which is fitting because everything really does seem to be a sinking ship. Somehow she becomes the one responsible for holding everything together despite her own bad track record with relationships. She is ever suspicious of her sire, Gabriel, but as of late he has been giving her plenty of reasons to be. He disappears for days at a time without any contact, and always returns with some lame excuse for his absence. Add into this mess the fact that her grandmother may just be shacked up with her match for killing off spouses, Jane sure is in over her head, and just will have to take it one step at a time.

Everyone thinks they have a terrible family, but after reading this book, I think both Jane and Jeb's family could easily duke it out for that title in the end. I almost added Jolene's family to the mix, but then I realized that they really were not vindictive like the other two's family, just a little meddlesome. Jane's family constantly belittles her, steals from her and even brings lawyers into the nasty mess. I cannot say how many time I was utterly appalled at their behavior and I honestly don't know why she just hasn't "written them off." No one deserves to put through that. Speaking of which I won't go into depth on Zeb's family and their treatment of Jolene and Jane as it is spoilery, but let's just say it is pretty horrible as well.

There was a lot of tension between Gabriel and Jane in this book, most of it not being the good type of tension. His secretiveness and her insecurities really started to clash and wreak havoc on their relationship. This fact kind of made the book fizzle just a little bit for me. Jane just never had a backbone and stood up for herself and her feelings, and Gabriel just expected her to trust him yet he never once gave her a good reason to. Trust has to be earned and he has been very secretive from the start, so I just didn't find the situation to be very realistic. For Jane being such a questioning person, she lets way too much go in this book. I'm hoping this gets resolved in the next book, with Gabriel having one heck of good reason for his mysteriousness.

All in all, I enjoyed this book, there was plenty of humor just like the first one, but because of the relationship issues I didn't like it quite as much. I'm hoping the next book brings these issues to the front of focus, and gets them hashed out. I don't like when the character's happiness in a relationship is in limbo for too long. Despite this complaint, I still highly recommend the book. It is lighter, laugh out loud, type of paranormal romance that is sure to keep you entertained.

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