Vampire State of Mind by Jane Lovering

Jessica Grant knows vampires only too well. She runs the York Council tracker programme making sure that Otherworlders are all where they should be, keeps the filing in order and drinks far too much coffee. To Jess vampires are annoying and arrogant and far too sexy for their own good, particularly her ex-colleague Sil. When a

demon turns up and threatens the equilibrium they must work together. The stakes are high, the challenge is great and to top it all off she’s falling in love…

This is my first vampire novel and therefore I had no pre-conceived ideas as to what to expect, I also had no knowledge of what is excepted or known about vampires (They can drink synthetic blood, live forever ect) and I managed to stay in this story. Lovering explains the things that the reader needs and in a way that keeps the pace of the novel moving.

As expected (because it’s from the Choc Lit library) this story has you laughing, empathising, understanding and really feeling the emotions of the characters.  Lovering has a great knack at tying the reader in emotionally with all of the main characters and being able to see all points of view.

Terrific love story set within the Vampire world. Easily read and will make a great summer holiday read. Not to be missed. 

http://www.choc-lit.co.uk/html/vampire_state_of_mind.html

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vampire-State-Mind-Jane-Lovering/dp/1906931747

Girl Reading by Katie Ward

The Blurb on the back tells us: An Orphan poses nervously for a Renaissance maestro in Medieval Siena, and an artist servant girl in 17^th century Amsterdam snatches a moment away from her work to lose herself in tales of knights and battles. In a Victorian photography studio, a woman holds a book that she barely acknowledges while she waits for the exposure and in Shoreditch bar in 2008 a woman reading catches the eye of a young man who takes her picture.

What is perhaps not apparent is that this book is a collection of short stories; all have a woman at the centre, and man somewhere and emotion everywhere. Viv Groskop, The Times states this book “has a real beating heart”, and I would agree with that statement. The book as a piece of literature is brilliant. I could really have got an essay out of this for so many courses in the past and I am confident some course lecturer will pick this as content for one of their books. It’s brilliantly written and the change in voices could be compared to David Mitchell (The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet) without a doubt. Any women’s reading group that chose this book would not be disappointed and they would run over time in their discussions.

It is somewhat more intellectual than your average bestseller and therefore if you are after something a bit more stimulating to read this would make an excellent choice, curled up in the beanbag, in front of the fire whilst it is pouring down with rain.

The Commuting Bookworm 08/08/12