Review: The Undead In My Bed

The Undead In My Bed by Katie MacAlister
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this book for the Molly Harper story. I think saying that upfront is important, because that's the only series I actually have experience and knowledge of. The other 2 stories, while good, definitely were not as interesting to me, probably because I was playing catch up from the start.

The first story is Shades of Gray. This story introduced me to the world of guardians, demons, and vampires. Oh, there's ghosts, too! Noelle is super quirky and plucky, and is probably the best balance to the brooding vampire she is apparently destined to be with (a little muddy on the details of how their world works, to be honest). The vampire in this story is doing some silly martyr act, trying to avoid entanglements because he is somehow beholden to a demon due to some shady family dealings. There is a happy ending to this story, but I'm not sure I'd dive back into this world. It may have suffered from the narrator of this particular story, but I just wasn't as engaged in this one as the others.

The second story was Undead Sublet - my favorite of the bunch (obviously). Tess is a chef who had a little nervous breakdown. In an effort to reset her brain, she heads to the middle of nowhere, where she is rented a house that is (surprise!) already occupied by a vampire. There's some kitchen implement throwing, a prank war, sizzling chemistry, and ultimately a challenge that neither can turn down. By working together to win a "bake-off" (is cooking with blood in that category?), they are forced to handle their attraction and I'm happy to see this couple still present in the future installments. This was a joy to read and I was sad when it ended.

The last story was Out with a Fang - a shifter/vampire romance, told from a previously broken up couple reacquainting themselves with one another. Ruby had to catastrophically dump Michael after her father threatened to kill the poor human. As a shifter, she's only allowed to date paranormals. Lucky for her, she gets a horribly timed and chaos filled second chance. While lots of blood and fighting is involved, they still get to try again.

Overall, as a set of stories, I was happier with this one than most. Short stories are tricky, but this one had a good theme and generally good narration.

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