OVERBITE by Meg Cabot

Publisher: Harper Collins
Date published: February 7, 2012
ISBN 9780061735110
Paranormal, Romance, Vampire
Paperback
Reviewed by Gina
Obtained via: Publisher


After losing her job as a script writer at Insatiable, the hot soap opera, Meena Harper, is now working for the Palatine Guard, a super-secret branch of the Vatican whose primary function is to track down and eliminate vampires and other demonic life forms. She fought joining up with them but finally gave into Alaric Wulf, their number one vampire hunter’s, requests to join up with the guard. Mostly she spends her days and nights researching obscure texts looking for information the Guard can use. Well that and trying to find proof that the man, well actually vampire, she loves, Lucien Antonescue, isn’t all bad. She firmly believes he has a choice and because of his love for her, he is leaning toward choosing good. Oh, by the way, Lucian happens to be the Prince of Darkness. Yeah, that guy.

Meena’s brother, Jon really wants a job with the Palatine Guard and to that end he’s been working on a super-secret invention guaranteed to destroy vampires. Meanwhile he is supporting himself as a barista and trying to situate himself to ask Yalena, the girl Meena helped rescue in INSATIABLE, (book 1 of this series) out.

Lucien, meanwhile, has been in hiding. He is still watching over Meena, but from a distance, only to appear when she needs him the most. Knowing that Lucien isn’t about to give up on Meena, Alaric is watching her as well. When the three-some meet up again, only one of the men will survive.

I enjoyed Meg Cabot’s INSATIABLE, when I read it a few weeks ago and was looking forward to OVERBITE. From the beginning I wondered where the characters went. It was like they were possessed by two dimensional cardboard replicas of the really fun characters from book 1. Mary Lou and Emil were pretty darn funny in book 1. Their sparse appearances, and granted, they are secondary characters, seemed to be more like place holders than part of the story. Any of the other characters could have filled their roles. Jack Bauer, Meena’s vampire-sensing dog, is in a few scenes, but it seemed more like an afterthought than a real part of the story. I was glad to read he lived to bark another day.

When Meena decides which man holds her heart I felt nothing. It was more like “well he’s dead so I’ll be with you.” There were none of the fireworks of a love story or even good vampire drama. It felt to me that the author needed to complete the story but wasn’t really in the mood to do so. It was really disappointing.

I would say to read it if only to find out how the story begun in INSATIABLE ends. That said, if there is a third book or a spin off with Mary Lou and Emil I would read it if only to see where Ms. Cabot goes with it.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.