Moon Dance by J.R. Rain

Vampire for Hire series, book 1

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Mother, wife, private investigator...vampire. Six years ago federal agent Samantha Moon was the perfect wife and mother, your typical soccer mom with the minivan and suburban home. Then the unthinkable happens, an attack that changes her life forever. And forever is a very long time for a vampire.
Now the world at large thinks Samantha has developed a rare skin disease, a disease which forces her to quit her day job and stay out of the light of the sun. Now working the night shift as a private investigator, Samantha is hired by Kingsley Fulcrum to investigate the murder attempt on his life, a horrific scene captured on TV and seen around the country. But as the case unfolds, Samantha discovers Kingsley isn't exactly what he appears to be; after all, there is a reason why he survived five shots to the head.
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This book is a bit of a mess although it reads well. There are a lot of repetitions and there are a lot of contradictions. The plot has more holes than a Swiss cheese and it's really quite dreadfully simple. However, I was rather entertained while reading it and that's what counts.

I'm not quite sure how to classify it, because it's really more of a detective story which happens to be told by a soccer-mom turned vampire. The vampyric element is quite disappointing though. She was attacked and turned 6 years ago by an unknown and apparently she never did anything about it other than try and adapt and go on with life. There's absolutely no mystery and you've got to wonder why her sister is only now asking questions (which very elegantly easily explains everything the reader needs to know concerning how JR Rain defines vampires). Again, with the contradictions and plot holes, there are just a lot of questions and loose ends and I have to wonder who on earth edited this book. It also often skips a few scenes, supposedly to heighten the tension - problem is, it skips the wrong ones and you're sitting there wondering if you're ever going to get some sort of explanation to how something transpires.

It's got a lot of potential story lines to explore further, but it rather quickly just whizzes past them. Her scumbag husband, the suspecting policeman, the whole being a vampire-thing, the paranormal romance with the werewolf... It's really quite a shame. However so far the 4th book in the series is about to published, so I suppose things can be further delved into in the next few books.

Still though, it's a bit of sloppy book and I can only recommend it because it's still a relatively enjoyable read and it only cost me $0.99 on Amazon (kindle format).

288 pages / published in 2009
Review by Iben Jakobsen, BoB, 2011