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The Bite Before Christmas Heidi Betts 9780758247612 Books

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The Bite Before Christmas Heidi Betts 9780758247612 Books

I must have gotten this book a long time ago. Searched my library for Christmas themed books (because ''tis the season") and found this one, forgotten. Sounded fun. I only read the first short story, checked Amazon reviews, and stopped reading since most reviewers said this was the best of the bunch. It was really cheesy; writing was simplistic and sappy, with a rushed storyline. I am surprised that I did not get a headache from all the eye rolling I was doing. Gave it two stars, because based on the happiness of others I am going to say that it is me, and maybe I just like my vampires more earthy and gritty and my leading ladies less...silly. Thanks!


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The Bite Before Christmas Heidi Betts 9780758247612 Books Reviews

The three books are a good quick read and enjoyable if you like a bit of erotica in your vampire stories.

The first book was my favorite, and I think it should have been a full length novel all it's own. I was just getting attached to the characters and would loved to have read more interaction with Liam and Maeve.

With the second book, I was pleasantly surprised to see them mentioned briefly and hoped to *see* more of them.

The third story was my least favorite. It was just a little too 'Ghost of Christmas Past' turned present that just seemed a bit odd and I couldn't really get into it.
I got this accidentally, thinking I was getting an anthology with a particular Lynsay Sands Argeneau Vampire story in it. I found the other book by the same name and read both! It's much better than I expected it to be and I found it absolutely delightful. Ms Betts' concept of vampires is very different from Ms Sands', but almosr as unique. If you like vampires, you should read this!
As you might expect from the title (and the cover) this is a lighter collection...the tie that binds the three novellas together is a vampire named Angelina. She meddles (in a good way) in the romantic lives of two other couples--the stories that make up the first two stories. The first one is the lightest, the second one gets a little more serious as it involves the involuntary changing of a man with a terminal illness. The third story is one for Angelina herself, and it is the most serious (in an obvious "It's a Wonderful Life" sort of way).

The background for the stories is that it is a given that vampires have been accepted as real, and overall are integrating into society. There is very little blood lust/blood sucking going on (well, yes, from those Icky Criminals in the third story, but overall it's all very sanitary).

The author did a great job of setting the background in an unobtrusive way, and then just giving us the stories. If the author was so inclined, she could easily expand into full length novels where we could learn the hows and whys of the world, but really she does a great job giving us just enough that she can stick to the shorter tales, and the shorter tales feel complete. And naughty. Did I mention naughty? These are a little naughty.

Great little set of stories if these are what you are in the mood for. Recommended!

JTG
I was not very impressed with these books, though I have enjoyed previous Heidi Betts novels. It's possible I just don't like a novella length romance - I do not read them often. Also, these three books (especially the first two) were more erotica than romance, which I was not expecting.

I feel like the focus was too much on sex and not enough on the characters and forging a romance. The sex scenes were very long and drawn out, and the characters spent very little time interacting with each other outside of the sex. I am not prudish - I like my romance novels to have sexy time in them - but this just felt like those porno movies that try to have a plot but really shouldn't bother because people only watch them for the sex. There wasn't a lot of plot or character depth here.

Also, I found Betts' vampires to be extremely boring. It's like True Blood vampires Disneyfied. Her vampires are out in the open publicly and drink synthetic blood called "NuBlood" (hmmmmm). Other than that, they don't act like vampires at all. I like my vampires to have a little bit of bloodlust, a little edge... Eric Northman is sexy, these vampires were just BLAH. I would have preferred them to not even BE vampires and the stories would probably have been much better.

I wouldn't really recommend this book - her knitting romance trilogy was much better. This just fell flat for me.
The first story was good, but I liked the second story better. I read some of the other reviews before I read all three and more than one person knocked the story titled "Vampire in my Stocking", but it's honestly a great little read. I don't see why they were raving about the first one so much and wanting more, I think the entire story ran its course within those pages. Connor and Jillian weren't so great together that I wanted to know more about them, but then again, neither was Sean and Vivian.

It's the third story that threw me for a bit of a loop. Everybody criticized that one, and I have to say it was strange to say the least. Heidi Betts writes well, a little corny at times (her corniness is also apparent in her little bio in the back of the book), but overall a good writer. I just think the fact that she wrote the character Angelina void of any personality simply because she was human was going overboard. Not only did she write Angelina without personality, but she chipped away at her morals and taste as well. According to Betts, vamps are just better than regular people all the way around. In this other reality the human Angelina lived a bit like a vagabond slob for no reason at all and constantly criticized the fact that she had regular hearing and eyesight and strength, but the way she complained sounded like a deep self hatred.

This sounds almost laughable, but does the woman who wrote these stories honestly want to be a vampire? It's one thing to be creative with telling a tale, but she writes as if being human is loathsome, an outright burden of some sort. It's weird almost. I don't know if I'll read anymore of her books, but that last story seemed to tell a tale of its own about the author herself that I'm not sure I wanted to know.
I must have gotten this book a long time ago. Searched my library for Christmas themed books (because ''tis the season") and found this one, forgotten. Sounded fun. I only read the first short story, checked reviews, and stopped reading since most reviewers said this was the best of the bunch. It was really cheesy; writing was simplistic and sappy, with a rushed storyline. I am surprised that I did not get a headache from all the eye rolling I was doing. Gave it two stars, because based on the happiness of others I am going to say that it is me, and maybe I just like my vampires more earthy and gritty and my leading ladies less...silly. Thanks!