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July 2007
Tall, Dark & Dead by Tate Hallaway
Paula Chaffee Scardamalia is an author, speaker, coach and weaver. Her new book, Weaving a Woman's Life: Spiritual Lessons from the Loom was released in April. She also writes book reviews for Foreword Magazine. A dream inspired her to write her fantasy novel, The Shadow Weaver, loosely structured on the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty.
If you like your paranormal and vampire romance novels served up with a twist of humor and a splash of the unexpected then you will enjoy Tate Hallaway's first novel in her Garnet Lacey series. Garnet is a witch who arrives late for a coven meeting to find Vatican witch hunters circling the dead bodies of coven members. They hadn't seen me yet. By the time they looked up, it was too late. I had summoned into me the Goddess Lilith, a terrible vengeance, and they saw their fate in the changing color of my eyes. This is truly a case of needing to be careful of what you ask for since once summoned Lilith appears to take up permanent and demanding residence in Garnet's mind and body. Having fled to the college town of Madison, Wisconsin, changed her hair color and her style of dress, Garnet gets a job managing a metaphysical bookstore, believing that no self-respecting witch "would come within a mile of this New Age, Warlock-wannabe haven." It would be the last place the Vatican witch hunters would come looking for her, especially since she has sworn off magic. Until Sebastian Von Traum enters the shop looking for, of all things, mandrake root, normally used in reanimation spells. Garnet's curiosity about his request compels her to use her witchy skills to scan Sebastian's aura, only to find he has none. Therefore he must be dead man walking, aka a vampire, although a really sexy, handsome vampire. But if he is a vampire, why does he have a tan? And how can he grow a garden? After some hot, delicious, neck-biting sex with Sebastian that delights Garnet but angers Lilith, Sebastian tells Garnet, over an elaborate English tea, that he is an alchemist and has developed a formula for an animating, sun-protection elixir that vampires would pay a fortune to have. Hearing this, the Goddess, who believes only she should have the power to create life, forces Garnet to steal Sebastian's grimoire, where she believes the formula is written. Within hours of her theft, Garnet is being shot at, chased, and harassed for possession of the grimoire, not by Sebastian but by the Vatican bunch. If only she hadn't given it to her ex-boyfriend, also a vampire, Parrish, who is having money problems. Sebastian is having his own problems. He needs to recreate the elixir fast since its effects on him are waning, making him vulnerable to sunlight, not to mention death. Too, his son, Matyas, a dhampyr and vampire hunter, is giving him a more than typical father-and-son hard time. Matyas wants his father to raise his mother from her partial death and if Sebastian won't or can't do it then perhaps the Vatican assassins who want the formula will. What is a vampire father to do? Hallaway, a pen name for Lyda Morehouse who is the author of several science fiction novels, deftly mixes magic and the mundane, like how to feed and support a vampire when they can't work during the day, while creating unique, memorable characters that struggle to do good even while threatened by powerful forces. Interestingly, and appropriately for a paranormal romance, it is through sex, the occult practice known as the Great Rite, that the threats are temporarily vanquished. But the victory over Lilith and the Vatican killers is only temporary, as Sebastian and Garnet know. Still, the powers of an alchemist and a witch are no small thing, especially when combined with the humor and storytelling skills of the author. Thankfully, the next novel in the series, Dead Sexy, is due out in May. I can't wait to see what Sebastian, Garnet—and Lilith—are up to next. |
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