Review: Bring on the Night by Jeri Smith-Ready

From the author's website:
What's Blood Got to Do With It?
Recovering con artist Ciara Griffin seems to finally have it all. A steady job at WVMP, the Lifeblood of Rock 'n' Roll. A loving relationship with the idiosyncratic but eternally hot DJ Shane McAllister. A vampire dog who never needs shots or a pooper-scooper. And after nine years, it looks as if she might actually finish her bachelor's degree!

But fate has other plans for Ciara. First she must fulfill her Faustian bargain with the Control, the paranormal paramilitary agency that does its best to keep vampires in line. Turns out the Control wants her for something other than her (nonexistent) ability to kick undead ass. Her anti-holy blood, perhaps?

Ciara's suspicions are confirmed when she's assigned to a special-ops division known as the Immanence Corps, run by the Control's oldest vampire and filled with humans who claim to have special powers. To a confirmed skeptic like Ciara, it sounds like a freak fest. But when a mysterious, fatal virus spreads through Sherwood—and corpses begin to rise from their graves—Ciara will not only get a crash course in zombie-killing, but will be forced to put her faith, and her life itself, in the hands of magic.

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I've been waiting for Bring on the Night since I read the last page of Bad to the Bone. This is a great series and Bring on the Night did not disappoint. As a matter of fact, I think it' my favorite of the three books in the series so far. If you haven't read this series before, the (very) basic premise is that the radio DJs at this station are all vampires. Each is from a different era, and in this world vampires are "stuck" in the era they died in, they have a lot of trouble with change (and OCD). Ciara is an employee of the radio station, and dates one of the DJs, sexy Shane (he's stuck in the 80s). Needless to say, each book has a great soundtrack!

There is a lot going on in this book but Ms. Smith-Ready makes it flow smoothly:

• Ciara's started her service with the Control, and she's been assigned to the super-secret division, which she's not happy about.
  
• There is a mysterious illness spreading around the town that is killing residents, including some who are very close to Ciara.
  
• There are zombies - I'm not gonna lie, there is one particular scene were the zombies cracked me up, I could just imagine the looks on the faces of the characters in the book while they watched what was going on!
  
• One of the vampire DJs goes missing.
  
• Shane and Ciara's relationship takes some pretty major turns, and they are both forced into serious soul searching.

You know how sometimes you read a book and you really like it but there are parts you kinda skim *cough~lessers~cough*? I didn't do that here at all. Ms. Smith-Ready weaves such a good story I had no need nor want to skim. Now, honestly, I kind of guessed some of the plot, but I didn't know how Ms. Smith-Ready was going to take me there; the journey was completely enjoyable. (I can't go into specifics without giving away spoilers, but her attention to the nuances of the vampire OCD habits is always fascinating.) I read this book everywhere: at work, at home, the grocery store, waiting at the shuttle stop near my job... I had four pages until the end of the book when I got off the shuttle and had to wait about three hours until I could pick the book backup again and finish. It was totally worth the wait; I loved the ending!!!

My rating:






This book was provided to me by the author free of charge in exchange for an honest review.