Reviewed by Laura

RATING: 6/10 – Good, would probably recommend

SUMMARY:

In this third installment of Chase’s lively, sexy, paranormal trilogy, we meet witch Morgaine, who is deathly afraid of the dark, and her vigilante vampire neighbor Sly, who has his reasons for hating sunlight. Sly needs Morgaine’s magic to help heal a broken fang, but with further help, and sometimes hindrance, from the wacky apartment dwellers around them, they may become each other’s last hope for a normal life…

REVIEW:

This is book three is Ashlyn Chase’s series about an apartment block where nearly all the inhabitants coincidentally happen to be supernatural beings. It is a light-hearted and fun book. I’ve read books two and three and wouldn’t say you need to read an previous books in the series to pick any of these up.

‘The Vampire Next Door’ is a love story about vampire Sly and witch Morgaine. Sly is a vampire who was turned twenty six years ago by a cruel vampire who also caused the death of his beloved wife. Morgaine is a witch with a lot of issues, namely she is afraid of the dark and agoraphobic. A nyctophobic witch is certainly an interesting match for a vampire.

As much as I liked Morgaine and Sly as characters, I felt like their relationship lacked chemistry. There coming together felt flat, rather than full of anticipation and excitement. Because of this, I didn’t quite buy into their love story. It also meant that the sex scenes to me lacked, well, sexiness and just resulted in me skimming over the pages in order to get to the next part of the story.

It was actually the secondary stories around some of the other apartment’s inhabitants that were much more entertaining. Firstly we had Morgaine’s somewhat ditzy cousin Gwyneth. From her funny Southern ways to her total outspokenness she made me chuckle regularly, as well as the fact she shares her apartment with resident ghost Chad, who in itself a great, sardonic character. Then we had new fiery resident Lily and then apartment super Jules who also happens to be a merman. I hope to see more from the latter couple, hopefully even their own book?

My other problem with the book is that a lot of issues were sort of scooted over. For example Morgaine’s agoraphobia and nyctophobia seemed to come and go in its severity. Sly was being stalked by his evil maker that started to lead to a climactic showdown and then was all over with comical abruptness. Then we have the Sly’s refusal and sudden change of heart over Morgaine’s future that happened with no explanation behind the reason for the change.

VERDICT:

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t dislike this book or even Sly and Morgaine, it was fun and light, but it felt like it needed a bit more development around some of the key plot moments, and a bit more time spent building the chemistry between Sly and Morgaine, so that it swept me away, rather than left me gently shrugging. But it is worth reading for the great setting Ashlyn Chase has created and to get to know the apartment’s other residents.

This book counts towards the following BCC Reading Challenges:
Book #47 100+ Books In A Year Reading Challenge 2011
Book #7 Summer Romance Reading Challenge 2011