Bitten by Death (Vegas Immortals: Death and the Last Vampire Book 1) – Holly Roberds
Synopsis
If you saw his face, you’d have a death wish too.
My life sucks. More accurately, I suck—blood.
I woke up on a cold slab in a morgue, two weeks ago, with no memories, and a new drinking habit that seriously cramps my ability to make friends.
Now I’m hunting for answers in Sin City about my past and who I was, but someone else is hunting me.
When Death, himself, comes to collect me, I find myself facing the most magnificent, terrifying being imaginable. Who knew the grim reaper wore a tailored suit, and ran the most exclusive hotel on the Vegas strip?
He wants to hold me prisoner? Fine, I will rattle the cage and make his life a living hell until I get my freedom.
And I absolutely cannot, under any circumstances, let him know his hand is wrapped around my soul.
Review
There was no rest for the wicked, and certainly never for Death.
First I will tell you a little story of how I picked up this book, if you want to completely ignore me it’s ok, just scroll down to the review itself, when the pink ends
So, I’ve been into Holly’s Hellion Facebook group for a while. Which by the way is one of the best Facebook groups ever so if you’re not in there stop loosing time and follow that link.
Being in that group I’ve got to see Holly’s personality and absolutely loved it, I swear she’s an extremely hilarious and sweet witch. With that, I’ve been wanting to read her books for a while but haven’t been able to.
And like this my conversation with myself starts:
Holly starts talking about this, her new book.
Me: “I don’t like steamy books, I won’t read it”.
Holly talks more about what the book is about.
Me: “I said I won’t read it”.
Holly starts giving sneak peaks.
Me: “I maybe won’t read it”
Holly reveals cover.
Me: “Oh, who the hell cares, give me that book.”
ARCs open (this is my mind’s Holly):
Holly: “Anyone wants to…”
Me: “MEEEEEEEEEE!”
Holly: “But I didn’t even fini…”
Me: “You made it woman, you gave me a Death wish
So, I ended up with a copy and dying to read it. Like, seriously I wanted to give 5 stars to the blurb.
Real review starts here.
Vivien is a vampire… That’s all she knows. She died and woke up (or reborn or whatever happens to vampires) in a cold box on a morgue, with no memory of her past, not even her name. She just picked Vivien.
I woke up in a hospital morgue, a vampire with no memories, I destroy a fridge full of blood like a girl’s rampant ice cream binge after a bad breakup, and then a weird dog shows up, threatens me, then disappears.
Sure.
Even thought vampires feed of blood. She decided to not become a monster and never feed on a human. She survives in the sewers feeding on rats.
Seeing more vampires should have left me giddy with delight. Hey guys, I’m part of your bloodsucking club, let’s go for drinks and talk about how our lives have taken such a crazy turn.
But it was clear the three vampires weren’t down for the “gosh, why did this happen to us” commiseration I had in mind.
Trying to get back her past, she crosses path with Grim, the Death itself. And yeah, it’s true that with that guy you can’t avoid having a Death wish ?.
Why was tempting Death so…fun? Maybe I was a few fries short of a happy meal?
I recalled cackling like a maniac in the morgue, covered in blood. Yep, I was definitely this side of crazy. I tacked on death wish to the list of things I knew about myself.
Though knowing Death looked like that, who wouldn’t wish for him?
He notices she’s a sekhor (another word for vampire, I believe is derogatory but may not be) and for that she has to die (again ?).
Still, he had barged in, scared off my mark, called me what sounded like a dirty word, and assaulted me. I wasn’t cowing down to this son of a bitch, no matter how bone-melting gorgeous he was. Or how pee-my-pants terrifying.
But vampires were supposed to be eradicated for a million years, so Grim decides to keep her alive and use her as bait to get to the master, the one creating the vampires.
The moment they find the master, Vivien would stop being useful and Grim would kill her. But there’s an undeniable attraction going on between them that may come between his plans.
This is one of those kinds of books you don’t want to read in public because you would have to constantly explain why you’re laughing out loud like a maniac.
I laid a hand against the doorway of Grim’s massive closet to hold myself up, since my legs had magically been replaced by rubber. My stomach took an icy plunge as the gears in my brain did their best to turn faster. I imagined tiny people running around the pink matter in my skull yelling to each other in a panic.
How is she processing, Jenkins?
Doesn’t look good, sir.
Dammit, Jenkins, start pulling all the levers. But for god’s sake, keep away from the one that releases drool. We don’t need her looking any stupider as is.
I’ll try, sir, but we might have to give her all we’ve got.
The suspicions I’d had about what he was hiding under those suits were confirmed. He had lickable, cut abs, and the most perfect, muscled arms. A tattoo covered his left shoulder and dipped down over his bicep. It was a skull in a pharaoh’s headdress. His torso V-eed down into what remained of his pants, which rode dangerously low on his hips. Grim’s state of undress didn’t help my processing abilities one bit.
And Jenkins accidently pulled the drool lever. I bit my lip to keep it at bay.
It’s absolutely one of the best books I’ve read. So hilarious and with so many things going on in the back, but still easy to follow.
I’ve finally understood the “steamy” term for books. Since the moment they lied eyes on each other, there was a sexual tension SO HIGH that I could feel how my eyes got foggy as a bathroom mirror. Still, it was far from the trending books that have more sex than story. Although I admit I didn’t know the word “nipples” could be used so many times in a book ?. Still, I loved so much the characters that it didn’t matter.
Vivien is so strong and snarky, she really seems to light a room when she enters, just to set in on fire a second later ?.
Next, I moseyed around the penthouse despite being dead tired.
Haa. At least, I knew I was a funny person.
While Grim is… Grim ?. He’s a guy that has live for centuries, probably more, living for his duty and nothing else. He has giving into the temptation of living differently just once and things didn’t end well. So he has completely locked his heart in a safe. Until Vivien enters his life and kick his safe so hard it shatters into a million pieces no matter how hard he tries to keep it from cracking.
Why was I arguing with her? She was clearly a mental patient in her previous life, which made me the insane one for thinking I could win an argument. Better to just kill her now and make my life easier.
Other characters that deserve to be mentioned are Timothy and Miranda. Timothy seems to be Grim’s butler, but he’s so much more, I still see him as Alfred for Batman though ?
Strangely enough I wasn’t drawn to either of the men in my presence. It was as if my senses were blind to their blood. I knew Death was, well, Death. But what was the other guy? If I had to guess from his formal, business-like demeanor, my first guess was robot. My second guess was cyborg. Or maybe he was just British.
And Miranda is, as Vivien described her, her personal GI Jane. She is part of the Army, but finds herself in the middle of this fight with creatures she though were just stories. Still she refuses to stop until she can make the world safe again.
With a sigh, I submitted. “Bring the boy as well. I don’t want him unattended after the sekhors targeted Ms. West.”
We made our way to the door. Behind me, Miranda asked Vivien, “Sekhors?”
“Another name for vampires,” Vivien clarified.
Timothy had fallen into step next to me while Jamal trailed behind his mother, headphones lodged in his ears.
“Sounds kind of…lewd,” Miranda said under breath.
Vivien perked up. “That’s what I thought.” Then hushing her voice in case Jamal could hear, she said, “I thought he was calling me a sucky whore when he first said it.”
A snort came from beside me. I shot Timothy a dark look. He made sounds as if he were clearing his throat.
I will avoid any spoiler so I’ll just use the tittle for saying that the immortals living in Vegas is just… Gold.
Also, and probably not relevant for native English speakers, this was one of the hardest books to read for me. There were so many jokes and expressions that I haven’t heard in my life. Still, it was easy to follow the story.
Bye bye ?
