Staked by J.F. Lewis Simon and Schuster

*Originally reviewed for Edwards Magazine Book Club
http://www.edwardsmagazine.ca/book_club_fiction_staked.html

If I had to describe this book in one word, it would be fun. Staked is a funny, off the cuff book about vampires, werewolves and strippers all living together as peacefully as they can. But with a head vampire with memory loss, a pack of religious werewolves and a stripper turned vampire, peaceful really isn’t possible.
Eric, a powerful vampire, suffers from short term memory loss and fits of black out rage. When he is set up for the murder of an alpha werewolf’s son, he sets out to find the real killers. But not before he turns his human girlfriend, Tabitha into a vampire and then sleeps with her very alive sister.
This was an easy book to get into, and I read it in an evening. It had everything a good vampire book should: lots of action, witty dialogue and sexy characters. I read a lot of vampire books, and I am not particularly found of the ones with a lot of sex in them. Thankfully this was not the case with Staked. While there were some sex scenes in it, they were very short and quite tastefully done.
The writing style was first person, but it switched back and forth from Eric and Tabitha. I thought at first that this would be jarring, going between the two perspectives, but it actually flowed quite nicely.
The plot kept me interested and the characters kept me guessing. The author had a way of giving you just enough information to follow the story, but always left a bit unknown, leading me to believe that a sequel is in the works. And I hope there is. Because I definitely want to read more about the characters and the world introduced in Staked.