Once Bitten, Twice Shy [Paperback]

Wherever ONCE BITTEN TWICE SHY is shelved (I picked it up in the sci-fi/fantasy section), don't be deceived: it's really chick-lit. And the worst kind of chick-lit, where there's a whole lot of "defining the relationship" and not a lot of action or romance. The book starts six months after protagonist Jaz is partnered with vampire assassin Vayl, and their relationship is already completely unprofessional. We miss out on all the fun, getting-to-know-you, tension-building parts of their relationship and pick up when they start to trudge glumly through the Swamp of Complicated Emotions. Rardin tries to convince us that Vayl is an uber-alpha male, but he spends so much time talking about his feelings it's really hard to buy. He also lets Jaz push him around a lot...and not in that "I'm humoring her" sort of alpha-male way, more in a "I'm totally whipped" sort of way.

The fact that one of villains the duo have to face is Vayl's late wife (she's a vampire too) means that even when Jaz and Vayl head out to kick some ass, they always end up right back at that Swamp of Complicated Emotions. The super-villain plot is drenched in Eau de Catfight.

The urban fantasy/paranormal elements are poorly realized and confusing. The growth of Jaz's "Gifts" is pretty botched - each new development is greeted with less explanation than the last. I never got a clear handle on what it meant to be a vampire in Rardin's alternate reality. And Rardin was trying to do a techno-mystical fusion with her uber-villain plot, something to do with a cult of demon-worshippers and a biological WMD (these basic elements are revealed early on), but devoted very little time or effort to explaining either.

The other main plot point is the slow reveal of Jaz's tortured past to the reader. We are informed a number of times that there is a HUGE TRAUMA in Jaz's past, and then we start to get hints about what it is, and eventually we learn the whole story. This just made me think, again, that this book starts after all the real action is over. I was also kind of annoyed by the way that the story came out - she blabs the whole thing in pieces to totally random people, and actually seems over-eager to talk about it, but when she's not in chatter mode she goes on about how her HUGE TRAUMA is too huge and traumatic to talk about, or even think about. It's exactly the kind of drama queen behavior that makes you wonder how this girl ever got a job in the CIA.

Jaz Parks is a government agent. Her partner Vayl is a 300-year-old vampire. Their latest assignment is to assassinate a plastic surgeon involved in terrorism. But after one night of investigating Assan, they discover he's into a lot more than just helping to fund terrorism. Assan and his conspirators begin talking about releasing a deadly plague. And a high-ranking senator seems to be pulling the strings.

I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this novel. Rardin ads a perfect blend of humor and humility to an otherwise strong female lead character. The story and characters pull you in and don't let go. I'm simply amazed that this is her debut novel. I can't wait to see Rardin's skills develop further in future releases. If I don't receive review copies for the sequels, you can bet I'll be standing in line at the bookstore on the release dates. Once Bitten, Twice Shy is in now in my list of top favorites for the year.

With a seemingly over-abundance of vampire novels, Once Bitten, Twice Shy stands out as a fun, light-hearted, supernatural, spy novel. Blending some of my favorite elements: fantasy, espionage, mystery, action, and just a touch of romance, makes a recipe for one extremely entertaining story.

Meet Jaz Parks. She's a flippant, barely competent CIA-trained vampire hunter easily distracted by a pretty male face. She has a strained relationship with her family. She has a tentative vampire love interest. And she's a special snow flake with a power so unique that no one else has it. In essence, she's just like every most other urban fantasy heroines that have been cluttering up the landscape as of late. To make matters worse for Jaz, she's trapped in a derivative shoe-string plot padded with heaping helpings of filler and the story still manages not to clear three hundred pages.

Seriously, when reviewers are almost unanimously commenting on how unoriginal the plot is they should not be awarding the darn thing five stars like Halloween candy.

This book was an utter chore to read. It seems like whenever someone attempts the vampires turned secret agent plot it turns out badly. See the horrible, stinky, braindead mess that is the Darkwing Chronicles.

Jaz and her vampire partner Vayl are deep undercover so they can rub out a plastic surgeon with ties to the Raptor, a vampire terrorist. Strike one against Jaz is when she's a party staking out the bad guy's mansion and she runs into a man in the lady's room and promptly blows her cover. Strike two against Jaz occurs when you realize that she only has one mood and that's snarky. She yammers on like she doesn't take anything seriously and her humor falls flat. Authors need to realize that while the wise-cracking heroine is a genre staple, you parcel out the wit. If the characters do it at inappropriate times, they just end up sounding stupid rather than tough.

The plot involves Jaz and Vayl unraveling a vampire bioterrorism conspiracy that involves one of their CIA handlers. Unfortunately, most of the sluthing takes place off-screen by other characters. However, the story continuously throws minor obstacles at Jaz and Vayl, and they are so easily overcome that it all feels utter pointless. It's like Rardin was desperate to have some action, but kept throwing on the brakes so it was over before it began. I was so terribly bored by the end that I just skimmed the last fifty pages.

This seems to be Rardin's first book and it has all the hallmarks of one. It relies too much on paint-by-numbers genre conventions. It's unadventurous and it relies too much on filler sections to pad it out rather than come up with something more complex. Considering that she will have cranked out four novels in this series in the span of two years, I doubt she's had time to hone her craft. For that reason I won't be checking out any of the Jaz Parks books in the future.