La Vida Vampire [Paperback]

La Vida Vampire by Nancy Haddock



La Vida Vampire, is the first book in the Oldest City Vampire series, set in St Augustine, FL.

Meet Francesca Marinelli a 227 year old (young) most unique vampire, who has spent over 200 years of her unlife, chained and locked in a coffin underground as punishment and then forgotten, until a renovation of the house over her, unearths her. Cesca now loves Wal-Mart, her sponsor into 21st century life,surfing (think Gidget) and Super K-Mart,(after all they are open 24 hours!!!) and she has a job as a ghost tour guide.
Cesca loves her new job, right up until a woman from her very first tour winds up dead and Cesca is of course, suspected.
The mystery was of medium difficulty to figure out who-done-it with, enough surprises thrown it to make you doubt yourself once in a while.


The words "fresh, new, unique" have been used to describe many a vampire novel lately , but I swear, this time it's true. I haven't enjoyed a debut Vamp book in such a long time. This one had me giggling and loving every minute of it. More mystery than romance (although don't get me wrong, there IS romance, and you may be surprised with who!) Don't forget, everything Cesca has learned about men is around 200 years out of date *grin* there is, of course, the obligatory Vamp/Creature hater, Vigilantes, a retired Vamp hunter, Uber rotten Vampires, a bevy of Ghosts and assorted other weird goings on.

I think I will take some time today and re-read it just because I loved itso much and can use the laughs.

I picked this up at the library because I was looking for a new series about vampires and failed to see "paranormal romance" stamped on the back. It's cover has some beautiful metallic artwork and I really wanted to like it, but until the corpse turned up in chapter 7 I was struggling to keep reading. I might have missed it Cesca never had a "age" and it made her behavior harder to gauge. I thought the entrance of Triton might make things interesting, but he was dismissed and I was disappointed. Most of the story revolved around Cesca's new life as the only vampire in town. She doesn't act like a vampire or use powers, instead she sleeps and shops at the all-night Walmart. I was looking for more of a thriller and less of a one-dimensional mystery. There was just no excitement, no build-up.

Plot Summary: Vampire Francesca Marinelli was locked into the ground over 200 years ago, and was accidentally unearthed during renovations on a Victorian-period house. She's been tagged with a GPS chip, has a `sponsor', and gives ghost-walk tours in St. Augustine, Florida. Life is peachy keen for this surfing, bridge-playing, Wal-Mart loving vampire, until one of her tour guide clients is found floating in the ocean with a broken neck and bite mark. Preternatural investigator Deke Saber suspects Cesca and sticks to her like white on rice.

I was conflicted on how to rate this book, and I kept vacillating back and forth all afternoon. Here's my problem -- Cesca is a wonderful character with a voice that leaps right off the page. She's modern, she's funny, and I loved being inside her head. BUT, the romance and sex was like a 2-liter of Dr. Pepper that's gone flat. Given these considerations, I've got to say this is good, but not great. Happily, this is only the first book in this series, and I think Haddock clearly has the talent to pull this up by the bootstraps as she goes. Since this is a debut novel, I'm expecting great things to come.

It's a little hard to reconcile Cesca's thoroughly modern voice given that she was born in the late 1700's, but we learn that while she was trapped in the ground, Cesca used astral projection to stay in touch with the times. It also helps that our heroine is a pop culture junkie, and watches TV like an addict. In addition to the normal vampire powers we'd expect, Cesca can tolerate daylight in limited doses, and she is psychic. Despite being such a powerful package, she acts more human than most homo sapiens. Turning her back on her vampire skills baffles the detectives, frustrates the blood-sucker groupies, and enrages her fellow vampires.

Considering how much face time we get with Deke Saber, it's disappointing that he remains so two-dimensional. He's obviously prejudiced against vampires, and has to overcome his knee-jerk gag reflex, but Haddock doesn't clue us into whatever is driving his inner turmoil. To further muck this up, about half the scenes with Saber and Cesca involve intricate `who done it' discussions. After about the third or fourth go-around, I started thinking, is this a mystery or a romance? All they talk about are potential suspects. I want more lovey-dovey and less Sherlock Holmes. That said, it's a worth-while read just to visit with this refreshingly unique vampire lady.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 30 reviews  4.5 out of 5 stars