When I first started read this book I wasn’t sure I was going to like it. The main vamp (pun intended), Glory, seemed to be all over the place and a little too vapid for me.

However, she grows on you. Quickly. She becomes a bit more “real” as you go on and start finding out she’s a vampire with a complex about her thighs and is semi-bothered by the fact she let a stripper talk her into a spray-on tan. She also has a smart alec guard dog named “Valdez” (Valdez the 112th, she thinks, because she names all her dogs “Valdez”) who talks like John Travolta from “Get Shorty”. See what I mean? She grows on you.

I ended up reading the entire book in one sitting and am glad I have the next book on order. More than once I caught myself giggling out loud at something. The cast of character is not the usual vampire fare and Bartlett has changed around the vampire powers and blood drinking rules to suit her setting which I like. There’s no angst and doomed tone at all which is rare in a vampire novel, and frankly, it was much appreciated.

My only complaint was that the reasonably bright Glory missed some patently obvious incidents I felt she would have seen right through so occasionally it seemed like she went from bright to just utterly clueless which bugged me.

Overall, a very entertaining little book and I’m looking forward to the next one. I will recommend it to friends who like the vamp romance/mystery novel as something to give a look.
Rating: 4 / 5

Real Vampires is an entertaining story that has some fresh and imaginative thoughts to add to the Vampire genre. Unfortunately it has some of the trite stumbling blocks that seem to plague the books of even some of our favorite authors of late.

While the characters can be fresh and witty the heroine sleeps with just about anything, has a few unreal stumbling blocks ( she never once in 400 years has considered learning a single vamp power when she was surrounded by a powerful family full of vampires? But now suddenly they have appeal?), and the ending of both the main plot in the book as well as the smaller side plot are both glaringly evident well before you get to them.

Similar to Savannah Russe or Kimberly Raye our heroine is a clothes fiend, but in her case she’s collected so many clothes and other items over the years that she decides to go into business selling her ‘vintage’ pieces. She has a psychic/bionic dog for protection and a handsome and powerful near husband who turned her. She continues to both draw him close when its convenient and push him away when its not in an immature fashion similar to her love and hate relationship with drinking blood.

To sum up: Some will get staked, Some will act heroic, and they’ll be a good deal of dirty lust in between. It’s an entertaining read to pick up, it just won’t revolutionize your way of looking at the genre or otherwise rock your world.
Rating: 3 / 5

I came across this book here on Amazon and thought why not? I’m so glad I did. This book follows Glory a very old vamp who was turned while girls were still curvy, so she’s stuck for all eternity like this. She’s seen the times change where thin is in, and this just isn’t her. Lucky for her she’s around men that were turned back then too, and enjoy her full assets, one being her on/off boyfriend Jerry. This tale is about a vamp hunter, Westwood, who goes after Glory and the whole vampire community. It’s well written showing how Glory isn’t perfect and has insecurities just like any woman. Twists and turns happen, and it’s very well written. You’ll laugh out loud and enjoy learning what makes Glory tick.

Rating: 5 / 5