A review by kblincoln
Stake Sauce, Arc 1: The Secret Ingredient Is Love. No, Really by RoAnna Sylver
4.0
(provided a copy of this book in return for honest review)
So this is a dear, little oddball of a book. It's about a group of ex-Firemen who have retired after one of their group is killed in a fire. Eva is a mall security head. Jude is one of her security officers, and Jasper runs a magic store.
They are all trying to live with the pain of having lost Felix, who was Jasper's finance, but also had a very close relationship with the other two. This story is mostly told from Jude's perspective. As the story unfolds, (I think) we learn that Jude has had major changes in his life, has a prosthetic leg, and also never really had a romantic relationship before. We also learn that he's been seeing these punk kids at the mall that are vampires. He keeps trying to tell Eva that, but understandably she thinks he's a bit crazed by grief.
The story suffers at time from a bit of vagueness. Most of the story is the main characters (including Pixie, a cutie who comes tumbling into Jude's life and forces the action to start) talking to each other about grief and love. This is wonderful. And because of the diversity represented in the genders and romantic orientations of the main characters, quite interesting. I really liked Jude.
However, at times I wanted to slap him for agreeing to do things like, oh, confront major villains in subterranean dens with no other weapon except a bottle of steak sauce. (not even a baseball bat? Or a stake? Or nunchucks or something?). That was a bit frustrating at times.
However, with the mindset that this is story about a group of people who love each other and are broken by the death of a member, instead of focusing on the practicalities of fighting vampires, I enjoyed it much more. Cool illustrations of tarot cards throughout as an extra bonus.
So this is a dear, little oddball of a book. It's about a group of ex-Firemen who have retired after one of their group is killed in a fire. Eva is a mall security head. Jude is one of her security officers, and Jasper runs a magic store.
They are all trying to live with the pain of having lost Felix, who was Jasper's finance, but also had a very close relationship with the other two. This story is mostly told from Jude's perspective. As the story unfolds, (I think) we learn that Jude has had major changes in his life, has a prosthetic leg, and also never really had a romantic relationship before. We also learn that he's been seeing these punk kids at the mall that are vampires. He keeps trying to tell Eva that, but understandably she thinks he's a bit crazed by grief.
The story suffers at time from a bit of vagueness. Most of the story is the main characters (including Pixie, a cutie who comes tumbling into Jude's life and forces the action to start) talking to each other about grief and love. This is wonderful. And because of the diversity represented in the genders and romantic orientations of the main characters, quite interesting. I really liked Jude.
However, at times I wanted to slap him for agreeing to do things like, oh, confront major villains in subterranean dens with no other weapon except a bottle of steak sauce. (not even a baseball bat? Or a stake? Or nunchucks or something?). That was a bit frustrating at times.
However, with the mindset that this is story about a group of people who love each other and are broken by the death of a member, instead of focusing on the practicalities of fighting vampires, I enjoyed it much more. Cool illustrations of tarot cards throughout as an extra bonus.