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Sex And The Single Vampire

Katie MacAlister

Published 2004        371 pages

Synopsis

Allegra Telford is a Summoner.  A Summoner is someone with the ability to summon ghosts, poltergeists or (in emergencies) demon lords.  She works for a Psychical Research organisation and is on a trip to London to summon, and get recorded proof, of a spiritual entity otherwise her boss has informed her that she need not bother returning to her job in America.  (So, no pressure then…!)

Allegra hasn’t had much luck on the summoning front and desperation leads her try a summoning in a supposedly haunted creepy derelict building alone at night.  She doesn’t raise any ghosts but she does stumble across a rather yummy vampire lying covered in blood in the basement.  She may never have seen him again if she hadn’t agreed to go to a book signing when she was in London and pick up a signed copy of C. J Dante’s latest vampire romance for a friend.

C. J. Dante turns out to be Christian Dante, the vampire that she met the night before.  Christian is a Moravian Dark One (also known as a vampire) and is cursed to spend eternity cruising the singles’ scene until he finds his Beloved, the one woman who can redeem his soul.  There are seven steps to joining with his beloved, all quite romantic, and Christian has made a good living writing vampire romances based on being a Moravian Dark One.

The path to true love is a little bumpy when Christian has trouble recognising Allegra as his beloved and Allegra decides she doesn’t want any more domineering men in her life but Christian’s matchmaking friends, Joy and Roxy, don’t accept defeat easily.

However, Christian and Allegra have more to worry about than their love life.  There is a group of rogue psychics in town trying to entrap ghosts and vampires alike.  Throw six ghosts (Allegra has some luck in raising spirits, unfortunately she’s hasn’t worked out how to send them back) and a demon lord into the mix and anything probably can and will happen!

The Review

I found this book to be a really enjoyable light-hearted read.  It’s a vampire romantic comedy which is a strange combination but one that really works.  As much as I like vampire romances, you can’t take them too seriously and this book is a well balanced mixture of romance, humour and fantasy that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Katie MacAlister has created her own kind of vampire with the Moravian Dark Ones.  They have their own myths and lore’s; in some ways they are similar to Christine Feehan’s Carpathians although in my opinion the Dark Ones are more fun. 

Sex and The Single Vampire is well written and the author has created a realistic English setting for the book (which I appreciated because I’m English.)  The characters of the ghosts that Allegra raised (and was unable to release) provide much of the humour in the story.  For some reason I particularly liked the ghost of Jem, a young servant boy from the eighteenth century who starts watching MTV on television and then starts to act like a twenty-first-century rapper.

More comic moments are provides by Joy and Roxy, two characters from a previous book (A Girls Guide to Vampires) written by the author.  I have to say that in my opinion Joy and Roxy were irritating in A Girls Guide to Vampires but I think that they are more amusing in smaller quantities and they made great supporting characters in Sex and The Single Vampire.

All in all, this book makes an amusing quick read.  The romance element of the story was light hearted and sexy.  The action part of the story, evil psychics and demon lords, made for an exciting grand finale to the story.  Vampire chick lit at its best!

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