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Stake That!

Mari Mancusi

Published 2006            280 pages

Synopsis

No one knows better that Rayne McDonald that what you want and what you get are two completely different things.  All Rayne ever wanted to be was a vampire.  After applying for vampire conversion, working her way up to the top of the waiting list, attending vampire training classes (and doing all the homework!) she lost Magnus her vampire blood mate-to-be when he accidentally bit her twin sister Sunny by mistake. 

What Rayne actually got was the news that she is the new vampire slayer and she must embrace her destiny or die.  It sounds slightly over dramatic when put like that but she was chosen at birth to be a slayer and infected with a virus at that time by Slayers Inc.  They can activate the virus at any time and kill her if she refuses her destiny. 

Given no choice Rayne takes up the slaying stake for Slayers Inc., although she does realise that this could ruin her reputation within the vampire community and put a crimp in her plans to be turned into a vampire at a later date. 

Her first job as the slayer is to infiltrate a seedy vampire blood bar and expose the bar owner’s plans to over throw Magnus the current blood coven leader.  Whilst investigating at the bar she runs into Jareth – sexy Goth and Magnus’s right hand man who is also investigating the bar.

Although Jareth and Rayne don’t exactly hit it off when they first meet they agree to team up in order to discover the bar owner’s secret plans.  Rayne needs all the help she can get - it isn’t like she’s had much slayer training and her instructor won’t even give her any cool weapons.  All she got given was a piece of wood!

And not only does she have to investigate the blood bar but she needs to keep an eye on her mother too, who has started dating again after 4 years.  Unfortunately Rayne suspects that her mother’s new date is actually an evil vampire…

The Review

Stake That! is the second book in Mari Mancusi’s Young Adult vampire series.  The first book (Boys That Bite) covered the story of Magnus and Sunny’s romance.  Stake That! continues directly from where “Boys That Bite” finishes.  Although it is the second book in the series Stake That! works well as a stand alone story, with the first chapter quickly bringing readers who haven’t read Boys That Bite up to speed.

This time it is Rayne’s turn to tell her story, which she does in first person and in the form of Blog, IM chats and diary entries.  This type of writing style makes for a fast paced story line and once again the story is both humorous and hip and full of references to popular films and TV shows.

The romance element of the story is perhaps a little understated but this is a book written for the teen market so that’s not entirely a surprise.  Besides there are so many other things going on in the book to keep the reader entertained.  Rayne and Sunny’s plan to expose their mother’s date as an evil vampire (taken straight from the plot lines of 80’s vampire movies that the twins rented to get vampire hunting ideas) will appeal to anyone who is a fan of those 80’s vampire movies.

I would best describe Stake That! as vampire chick lit for teens and I would recommend that young female vampire fans check out this book.  I would also add that as a not so young female vampire fan I really enjoyed reading this novel and I think that there is enough content in Stake That to provide a good read for adults too.  A top read!

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