Dead Sexy - Tate Hallaway

Dead Sexy
Tate Hallaway
Berkley

Paranormal/Romance

Garnet Lacey is a witch. The real kind; one who used to have a coven before a bunch of Vatican assassins killed them all last year outside Minneapolis. Stumbling into the carnage, Garnet called on the Goddess Lilith for protection. And she got much more than she expected. Lilith took out the assassins and then took up residence in Garnet. And, when Garnet cast a spell to hide herself and her vampire boyfriend from the rest of the Vatican, a bit of Lilith took up residence in him, creating an intense bond. Now living in Madison, WI, Garnet has spent the past year trying to forget what happened that night.

It’s going fairly well until FBI agent Gabriel Dominguez shows up at the occult bookstore, looking for Garnet. Fortunately, he’s got an old driver’s license photo of Garnet as a blonde. These days, she’s looking decidedly more Goth. Dominguez doesn’t recognize her, but Garnet realizes that, if he tracked her this far, she can’t keep running. All she wants is for him to listen to her story; to be open and sympathetic. So she decides to cast a little love spell to make that happen. A little spell; one she can break any time. She didn’t really reckon on the huge power boost Lilith gives her. And how is she going to explain this to her vampire boyfriend? Or the vampire ex-boyfriend who’s currently hiding his coffin in her basement? Sometimes, being a witch on the run seems like the easy part.

This is the second in a series, and I haven’t read the first volume. The story of the killings and Lilith and the initial spell are all part of the first book, but explained very early here. Honestly, I wish I’d read the first book before this one. Not because the author doesn’t do a good job of filling in the backstory; just because I feel like I’d have a better handle on the characters if I had. But that’s just my little problem. Garnet is a very engaging character. The story mixes paranormal elements with a real world setting to great effect. It’s very obvious that the spell is going to have unforeseen (by Garnet) consequences, but watching them play out is highly entertaining. I’ll be searching out the first installment, and looking forward to more.

Rating: 7 ½
May 2007
ISBN# 978-0-425-21508-1 (trade paperback)