Title: Bloody Good (Bryetwood #1)
Author: Georgia Evans
Publisher: Kensington Fantasy
Publication Date: June 1st 2009
Paperback: 320 pages
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Source: Review Copy
Reviewed by: Carolyn
RATING: 7/10
BACK COVER SUMMARY:
While the sounds of battle echo through the sky, a lady doctor has more than enough trouble to keep her busy, even in a sleepy hamlet outside London. But the threat is nearer home than Alice knows. German agents have infiltrated her beloved countryside – Nazis who can fly, read minds, and live forever. They’re not just fascists. They’re vampires.
Alice has no time for fantasy, but when the corpses start appearing sucked dry, she’ll have to accept help where she can get it. If that includes a lowly Conscientious Objector who says he’s no coward though he refuses to fight, and her very own grandmother, a sane, sensible woman who insists she’s a Devonshire Pixie, so be it. Indeed, whatever it takes to defend home and country from an evil both ancient and terrifyingly modern…
REVIEW:
This is the first book in Georgia Evans’ World War 2 paranormal series. I found this book really easy to get into from the first page and I was taken to a place that is quintessentially English, with lots of tea drinking and gossiping. This is quite true of English culture, we do like to drink lots of tea, and we do like to sit around and have a good gossip while drinking it: it’s just what we do!
There’s great atmosphere to this book and you really get an essence of English country life during the war. The characters are well rounded, interesting and likable. There is Alice, the very attractive village doctor; Helena, her grandmother and Devonshire Pixie; the village bobby, Sgt Howell Pendragon, the resident shapeshifting dragon; Gloria, the district nurse and werefox; Samuel, the local grocer and elf; and Peter, Alice’s love interest, who is just plain human and can’t believe these people exist. And, of course not forgetting, the German, vampire nazis…
Although this story is set around the time of WW2, it’s emphasis is more on the characters in the village and the vampires. The war is merely a backdrop and doesn’t get too bogged down with lots of historical data. This isn’t a frightening, scary or gory read, it’s light, fun and easy reading. A bit like Agatha Christie but with vampires, and without the mystery, and Miss Marple… but you get the idea – the feeling of an old fashioned story with old fashioned values.
The dialogue flows easily and is quite humorous at times with no swearing. So, that’s why when I got to the loves scenes, I was shocked! After many chapters of innocent Alice, dear old grandma Helena and lots of old fashioned tea drinking – WHAM! Sex! Using words that made me blush! Now, I’m no prude but this was so out of context that it made me cringe rather than feel all hot and bothered. Sometimes I think certain explicit words are used that really don’t have to be. If certain words that were used were toned down a touch, it would have been much more successful, but instead I winced and squirmed in discomfort. Saying that, I did enjoy reading about the relationship between Alice and Peter, most of the time it was sweet and innocent and much needed in a time of war.
VERDICT:
However, overall this book is very entertaining, light-hearted and fun and I would definitely recommend it, (as long as you can cope with the explicit sex scenes!).
To find out more about Georgia Evans and Brytewood village visit:
Other books in the series:
Title: Bloody Awful (Brytewood #2)
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Kensington
Publication Date: July 1st 2009
Paperback: 320 pages
In the second of Georgia Evans’ supernatural trilogy, Gloria Prewitt must reveal her greatest secret to have any hope of saving the people she loves…
As the district nurse for a country village outside London, Gloria has the respect of the town and the satisfaction of helping those who need it most. She’d lose both if anyone discovered that she turns into a furry red fox and runs through the Surrey hills by moonlight. But what she sees on those wild nights suggests Brytewood is under attack from a saboteur with superhuman powers and the force of the Nazi Luftwaffe behind him.
What can one werefox do against a predator with devastating weapons at his command and the strength of the undead besides? What can a woman with a secret reveal without losing all she has? With the help of a couple of Devonshire Pixies, a Welsh dragon, and two men too stubborn to admit they’re outnumbered, Gloria might just find out the answers.
Title: Bloody Right (Brytewood #3)
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Kensington
Publication Date: Aug 4th 2009
Paperback: 320 pages
It will take all of Brytewood’s Others to save their village from destruction in the climax of a Georgia Evans’ supernatural trilogy… .
Gryffyth Pendragon has done his bit for the war effort when he comes back to sleepy Brytewood from the battlefront at Trondheim. It cost him a leg, and his chance to use his dragon’s strength against the Nazis, or so he thinks. Until he finds out that his little village is facing a plague of vampire spies set on delivering it to the Third Reich. They’ve come up with a plan that, if they can pull it off, might break all of Britain’s will to fight.
But there are more allies for Gryffyth in Brytewood than he’d ever imagined, and while a doctor, a nurse, a schoolteacher, and a couple of sexagenarians doesn’t sound like much of a battle force to him, there’s more to his cohorts than meets the eye. Against ancient and impossibly powerful agents of evil, they will need every man, woman, and dragon-shifter they can get.
8 Comments
Bloody Good sounds like my cup of tea, I mean — beverage drinking, vampire nazis, and explicit sex. Sign me up!
-scurries off to goodreads to add this to the tbr-
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I've seen a couple of reviews of this series and I think I might have to give them a try. Thanks for the trailers.
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I just read a book that sounds similar to this, Undead and Unreliable by MaryJanice Davidson, and it's got several sex scenes in it too.
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This looks like fun, I used to love books with one of the wars as a backdrop.
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I've been really wanting to read this one–vampires, WWII–my kind of book! Thank you for the warning about the explicit sex scenes. That's something I like to be prepared for as it can sometimes be too much.
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I think I added this to my TBR list a while ago but never really got close to getting it…not yet at least. I think it's the covers that kinda drive me away. I do like the sound of the books though.
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I really liked Bloody Good too, but those sex scenes and word choices were a bit out of character
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I liked this one a lot (enough that I bought Bloody Awful, though I haven't read it yet), but I agree that those sex scenes seemed to come out of nowhere. I definitely wasn't expecting the words she used!
Would it be okay to link to your review on War Through the Generations?
–Anna
Diary of an Eccentric
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