Helpful Score: 4
First in a new series: smart mouth girl developing some unusual powers and a dark, handsome vampire named Vayl who work for a very special unit of the CIA. Get the picture? Falls somewhere in the middle between Buffy/Angel and Anita/Jean Claude (without all the sex, so far). I just finished reading this book and will definitely await the others in the series!
Helpful Score: 4
I do like this author. However, I found myself floundering along trying to catch up to the storyline because it didn't quite flow for me. She seems (to me) to write with a bit of Adult ADD as I found myself having to read the previous paragraph (or sometimes page) on several occasions to 'follow' the story. -or- maybe it's just me.
The characters are interesting & I'd like to find out what happens next in this series. I'm hoping that the next book will be easier to follow.
The characters are interesting & I'd like to find out what happens next in this series. I'm hoping that the next book will be easier to follow.
Karissa E. (ophelia99) reviewed Once Bitten, Twice Shy (Jaz Parks, Bk 1) on + 2527 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
This is the first book of the Jaz Parks series by Jennifer Rardin. So far there are 8 books planned for this series. The fifth one comes out Jan '09 and is called "One More Bite". This was a great book.
Describing this book as James Bond meets the supernatural community is definitely accurate. Jaz Parks works for the CIA. 6 months after she starts reporting to her new boss; the group's top assassin, Vayl, requests that Jaz join him as an assistant. What Jaz and Vayl thinks is a typical, kidnap and question the terrorist, kind of gig gets complicated when they find out that the terrorist in question belongs to an underground organization that is aligning itself with the underbelly of the supernatural community in order to unleash a virus deadly to vampire-kind.
Jaz is an amazing character. She is tough, by uses common sense and recognizes her bounds. She accepts the changes in her life and tends not to whine and agonize over them. She is a get-it-done kind of girl, who loves her gadgets, and her hot cars. There is a lot Jaz has to discover about herself; as a Sensitive she doesn't quite know the bounds of her power. She is working on it though and makes leaps and bounds in discovering what she can do in this book.
Vayl is also awesome. He is tough and has some crazy cool vampiric abilities (he is a wraith for goodness sack!); yet he does make mistakes, and he does have that vulnerable side that a good male character needs. We find out some of Vayl's past in this book, but there is a lot more there to uncover.
The writing is very solid. I like the writing style a lot. It is fast-paced, full of awesome action scenes, and cool ideas. The gadgets that Jaz gets to work with are really neat, her gun Grief, is lots of deadly fun, and I just couldn't put this book down.
I bought books 2-4 used before I had read book 1. Now I am glad that I did. I am excited to read the next couple books. So far I think this is going to be an incredible series. I wanted to give it more like 4.5 stars because I think the second book will tell if this is an outstanding series or just another good series in the long line of good paranormal series that are out there.
In summary, I love Jaz, I love Vayl, I love the writing and I am so excited to read more of it! There wasn't a single thing about this book that I didn't love.
Describing this book as James Bond meets the supernatural community is definitely accurate. Jaz Parks works for the CIA. 6 months after she starts reporting to her new boss; the group's top assassin, Vayl, requests that Jaz join him as an assistant. What Jaz and Vayl thinks is a typical, kidnap and question the terrorist, kind of gig gets complicated when they find out that the terrorist in question belongs to an underground organization that is aligning itself with the underbelly of the supernatural community in order to unleash a virus deadly to vampire-kind.
Jaz is an amazing character. She is tough, by uses common sense and recognizes her bounds. She accepts the changes in her life and tends not to whine and agonize over them. She is a get-it-done kind of girl, who loves her gadgets, and her hot cars. There is a lot Jaz has to discover about herself; as a Sensitive she doesn't quite know the bounds of her power. She is working on it though and makes leaps and bounds in discovering what she can do in this book.
Vayl is also awesome. He is tough and has some crazy cool vampiric abilities (he is a wraith for goodness sack!); yet he does make mistakes, and he does have that vulnerable side that a good male character needs. We find out some of Vayl's past in this book, but there is a lot more there to uncover.
The writing is very solid. I like the writing style a lot. It is fast-paced, full of awesome action scenes, and cool ideas. The gadgets that Jaz gets to work with are really neat, her gun Grief, is lots of deadly fun, and I just couldn't put this book down.
I bought books 2-4 used before I had read book 1. Now I am glad that I did. I am excited to read the next couple books. So far I think this is going to be an incredible series. I wanted to give it more like 4.5 stars because I think the second book will tell if this is an outstanding series or just another good series in the long line of good paranormal series that are out there.
In summary, I love Jaz, I love Vayl, I love the writing and I am so excited to read more of it! There wasn't a single thing about this book that I didn't love.
Helpful Score: 3
It was okay but not good enough to have me read the next book. I really don't like the main character. The dialogue between and Vayl drove me crazy. Wanted to shake here and tell her to grow up.
Helpful Score: 2
Couldn't finish this book. I was bored by it.
