Review: Another One Bites the Dust - Jennifer Rardin

I'm Jaz Parks.  CIA assassin.  Black Belt.  Belly dancer at the Corpus Christi Winter Festival.

The last is cover for my latest mission: retrieve a vital piece of biotechnology by killing the maniac who stole it.  The thief is not your run-of-the-mill nut job, either.  He's Chien-Lung, an obsessive vamp who's invulnerable while wearing his armour - which is constantly.

Then there are the reavers, ancient fiends who murder innocents and eat their souls.  Only I can sense them.  So it's not long before they want me dead, dead, dead.

And did I mention the nightmares?  They're not your garden variety sit-up-and-screamers.  These suckers may actually kill me before the reavers do.

Jaz Parks Series:
Once Bitten, Twice Shy
Another One Bites the Dust
Biting the Bullet
Bitten to Death
One More Bite
Bite Marks
Bitten in Two
The Deadliest Bite (2011)

Visit Jennifer Rardin's website for more information

Review:
Jaz and her team are on another mission and this one is even more dangerous than the last.  Not only are they dealing with a Chinese vampire who has stolen some very sophisticated biotechnology but there are also the soul sucking reavers that only Jaz can sense.  To top it all off Jaz is suffering with some serious nightmares - ones that get her into some very dangerous situations.  She has her team along for back up but with them all living together in a small RV while they pose as entertainers at the Winter Festival there are sure to be some fireworks amongst them.  The question is can they put any personal issues to one side long enough to get the job done?

I really enjoyed Once Bitten, Twice Shy (the first book in the series) but in my opinion Another One Bites the Dust is even better.  This is a great urban fantasy series and one that I'm looking forward to continuing.  I love the fact that Jaz and her team are CIA agents and we get to see a bit of James Bond style technology!  If you were a fan of the first book I'd definitely recommend this installment but if you're new to the series I would suggest reading the books in order starting with Once Bitten, Twice Shy - trust me it will be worth it!

I really liked the fact that Jaz is still dealing with the issues raised towards the end of the last book.  I'm not going to go into detail in case you haven't read it but the things we discovered were bound to have a lasting effect on Jaz so it's good to see her starting to work things out in her head.  Jaz's inner dialogue regularly makes me snort with laughter, along with some of the crazy (or stupid) things she gets up to - her belly dancing was hilarious.  I love the sexual tension between her and Vayl - these two together have the potential to be smoking - but I'm glad that they aren't rushing into anything that neither of them is really ready for.  I'm enjoying the will they / won't they side to the story but this doesn't take over the whole book and we still get an action packed story line.

In this installment we get to see a lot more of Bergman, Cassandra and Cole.  I liked all of these characters but I have to say Bergman in particular (alongside Jaz) has the ability to make me laugh out loud with his actions.  It was good to get to know all of them a bit better and really start to see them pulling together as a team despite the many niggles they may have along the way.  Although Cole is still flirting with Jaz I was pleased that this doesn't seem to be turning into your typical love triangle that continues until the final book in a series, as much as Jaz enjoys flirting back she makes it clear that she isn't really interested in Cole although I did enjoy seeing Vayl getting jealous at times.

This is a fun, action-packed series that I would definitely recommend.  If you haven't already discovered it you should pick up the first book as soon as you can.

Source: Library

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