Staked by J. F. Lewis

Since I’m lazy at typing and love to take short cuts when I can, I’m coping the synopsis for this book from Amazon.


UNREPENTANT. UNIMPRESSED.AND TOTALLY UNDEAD.
Eric's got issues. He has short-term and long-term memory problems; he can't remember who he ate for dinner yesterday, much less how he became a vampire in the first place. His best friend, Roger, is souring on the strip club he and Eric own together. And his girlfriend, Tabitha, keeps pressuring him to turn her so she can join him in undeath. It's almost enough to put a Vlad off his appetite. Almost.
Eric tries to solve one problem, only to create another: he turns Tabitha into a vampire, but finds that once he does, his desire for her fades -- and her younger sister, Rachel, sure is cute. And when he kills a werewolf in self-defense, things really get out of hand. Now a pack of born-again lycanthropes is out for holy retribution, while Tabitha and Rachel have their own agendas -- which may or may not include helping Eric stay in one piece.
All Eric wants to do is run his strip club, drink a little blood, and be left alone. Instead, he must survive car crashes, enchanted bullets, sunlight, sex magic, and werewolves on ice -- not to mention his own nasty temper and forgetfulness.
Because being undead isn't easy, but it sure beats the alternative.

Okay, now for my review/opinion/thoughts.

First, I must start out by saying that most women, myself included, are going to think Eric is a complete pig. Be interesting to have himself turn into one then have Tabitha shot him with those special bullets so he’s stuck in that form for awhile. But then, he’d be a roast piggy so that wouldn’t work. Darn! Regardless of his “women problems” I still managed to like Eric. Then again, I’m a sucker for flawed heroes. You weren’t kidding when you say Eric has issues. *L*

Tabitha, I felt, needed a good swat up the side of her head in several instances, but again I still liked her. It was fun watching her fumble and experiment with her new found powers.

The funny thing as I was reading and thinking in what ways I like and dislike these characters, I had to give a mental chuckle at Lewis catching me off guard like this. I’ve always said I really like a writer who can elicit an emotion from me whether it be laughter, tears or anger. They’ve done their job, and very well, when they’ve achieved that. (Still only one has managed to tick me off enough to throw the book across the room though.) Here Lewis had me going back and forth with both of these characters as to how I felt about them. One chapter, I’m ready to stake Eric myself then the next I’m rooting for him to kick some werewolf ass. Kudos Jeremy!

Extra kudos for several laugh out loud moments. The little addition of the Three Stooges move in a fight and Eric’s learning of his bat wings had me rolling. And in bringing these two scenes up in topic, let me just add...Greta Rocks!! Seriously, as warped as it may be, I adored Greta. So help me if you kill her off in future books, I may have to go find the little old voodoo priestess who runs around downtown Memphis mumbling and shaking her fistful of feathers at everyone and have her come up with an extra special curse for you.

Also, I’m thoroughly intrigued by Talbot and looking forward to learning more about him in future books. Rachel had me pondering as to just what she was up too quite a bit. I have a feeling she’ll prove to be more of an upcoming quandary. The Japanese ogres were a great touch too. I had this mental image of some Sumo looking creatures squatting in the street stuffing their faces. And the holy roller lycans! I’m still snickering over them.

Now as for the ending. Holy cliffhangers, Batman!! I turn the page expecting there to be more and there’s “Hope you liked the book” and I’m thinking -- What the heck?! There’s got to be more. Frantically flipping through the last few filler pages, I realize that was it. Porky Pig might has well have popped out of the back cover and said “Th-th-the-th-the-th-that's all, folks!” I quickly looked up the release date of the next book. March 2009. Sheesh, I’ve got nine months to wait. I can just hear the “Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!” Curly impression Lewis is doing now from his office.

All kidding aside though, this was a great read. If I hadn’t had things that had to be done this past weekend, I probably would have read this in one sitting. Lewis has all the ingredients I love in a book...action, paranormal, mystery and humor with a different twist.

Thank you for the opportunity to read your book, Jeremy. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to the next installment.