Bitten to Death by Jennifer Rardin

The fourth book in the Jaz Parks series follows our heroine to Greece. Where she, Vayl and her brother Dave, infiltrate a vampire Trust. Edward Samos (The Raptor) is trying to take over the Trust that Vayl used to belong to. Jaz is going to do her best to stop that and at the same time she's going to have to save Vayl from the new leader of The Trust who has her own plans for Vayl's future.

This is not my favourite of the series. I think the first two books set such a high standard and books three and four (for me) haven't quite measured up. However, that's not to say that they aren't great reads and I'd still read a Jaz Parks book over a lot of the other urban fantasy and vampire books out there.

Partly I don't think this book (plotwise) hangs together quite a well as previous books. It's quite possible that I haven't been able to concentrate as well as with previous books and I struggled somewhat picking up on the plot after putting the book down.

The other niggle I had with this book is that we have a lot more internal dialogue from Jaz - not a problem in itself as I love Jaz's snark. The problem I have is that different facets of her personality are now appearing as different characters inside her own head, arguing with each other. I think this works well if not overused, unfortunately I think it was. I wanted to get away from her overly analysed introspection and back to the action and character devlopment in the 'real' world.

Okay, niggles aside.

Quite a lot happens in this book. Despite saying he'd deal with it in the previous book, Vayl still hasn't come to terms with the loss of his sons. And it remains a weak point that his enemies are able to manipulate.

Jaz and Vayl still don't get together - how much longer can they stay apart?!!!

There are some genuinely creepy and disgusting scenes. The attack of the grall made me feel like I'd got lice crawling over my body.

"Check my back! My back!"

Possibly one of the most bizarre recommendations for a book you're ever going to read. :)

Despite my problems with the book. Jaz remains one of my favourite UF heroines. There aren't too many protagonists out there who could get away with this line.

"...I can't think with my underwear stuck up my crack. I know it's a weakness, but it's just one of those things."

She has such a lovely turn of phrase.

This book wraps up some plot points - Edward Samos is finally dealt with. But it also raises more questions. My biggest one being - Who was the Evie lookalike fighting in the Daemon Wars? And are Jaz and Vayl ever going to get together? It has to happen soon, right? I have the next book on order so will hopefully find out the answer to that one. This is one series I'm not ready to give up on.