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Tall, Dark & Fangsome

Michelle Rowen

Published 2009           334 pages

Summary (from the book jacket)

Sarah Dearly's vampire life is not all B-positive cocktails. A curse made her a nightwalker, the most vicious vamp there is; the charm she wears to curb her deadly tendencies is losing its juice; and a hunter from hell is turning up the heat. Gideon Chase will kill the ones she loves most if she doesn't obey his orders. That includes breaking up with master vampire Thierry and turning Gideon into an immortal vamp so he can escape a doom of eternal hellfire.

Making things worse are Sarah's growing feelings for Gideon, a bad boy who keeps showing a vulnerable side… but is it for real? Will Sarah's dark side take over? Or can she cure herself of the nightwalker curse in time to stop Gideon and finally live happily ever after with Thierry… forever?

The Review

Tall, Dark & Fangsome is the fifth and final book in Michelle Rowen’s humorous Immortality Bites paranormal romance series. Since these books are serial romance, readers new to this series would do best to start with Bitten & Smitten and read the books in order rather than jumping straight in here.

The Immortality Bites series has followed the adventures of Sarah Dearly in the first three months of her life as a newbie vampire. Readers got to experience her first vampiric steps when she was turned into a vampire, while on the blind date from hell, and quickly learnt its best to run far and fast when pursued by vampire hunters. This was swiftly followed by falling in love with master vampire Thierry, making new vampire friends and dangerous vampire slayer enemies. Later Sarah battles a Nightwalker curse that is turning her into the worst kind of bloodthirsty vampire and horror movie cliché, all the while responding with humorous dialogue and snark - even as she fights for her life. Tall, Dark & Fangsome continues Sarah’s adventures in the same vein as previous books even while it draws the series to a satisfying close.

Once again, Sarah manages to find herself up to her fangs in trouble as she tries to appease Gideon Chase, billionaire leader of the vampire slayers. Gideon is bad, bad news. A life spent hunting vampires and killing for entertainment means that he is not a nice person.  A run in with a demon has left him being slowly pulled into hell. Clinging onto life by his finger tips and desperate to avoid a one-way trip to Hell he has a plan that if he is turned into a vampire, his immortality will mean that he won’t die and Hell won’t get him. His vampire of choice to make him immortal? Sarah, naturally.

Even while he blackmails Sarah into helping him by threatening her family and friends, Sarah is conflicted about Gideon. Although as determined as she is to find something in him worth saving from Hell, its hard when he ups the ante by progressing to kidnapping and destroys her only chance to reverse her Nightwalker curse.

In an inspired addition to the usual cast of fun characters that work so well together there is also Steve, the sullen teen wizard, whose demonic powers might be able to break Sarah’s curse – if she can bear the high price of freedom.

Fast-pacing, fun characters, humorous dialogue and plenty of fantasy action keep the plot of Tall, Dark & Fangsome moving forward at a good speed. The path to true love is rocky in places for Thierry and Sarah but has provided an entertaining romantic journey for readers long the way. Tall, Dark & Fangsome is a fitting final instalment to this high-quality (and above all fun) vampire romance series.

However Michelle Rowen fans need not despair at the end of Immortality Bites. Michelle has a YA novel, Demon Princess, out Fall 2009 and there is Living In Eden, the first book in a new urban fantasy romance series scheduled for May 2010. Can’t wait!

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