Series: Victoria Nelson #1

This is definitely not a book with which to play the “just one more chapter” game (long chapters). It’s a vampire urban fantasy that was written before cellphones were commonplace (this is important to the plot). Part of its charm comes from its setting, however. It takes place in Toronto and makes references to Canadian Tire instead of Walmart. It can probably most succinctly be summarized in its own words:

In eighteen short hours, the hordes of hell could be ripping the city and its people apart.

 

“And the only thing in the way is one half-blind ex-cop and the bastard son of Henry VIII.”

Covid-19 may be influencing my ratings since I seem to be going easier on books, but there’s a good chance I’ll check out the rest of the series although I’m not rushing off to do it. The villain did feel a little cartoony at times but wasn't entirely unbelievable either.

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“The people writing these stories don’t believe in vampires, and most of the people reading these stories don’t believe in vampires, but we’re talking about a culture where more people know their astrological sign than their blood type. Somewhere out there, somebody is taking all this seriously and spending his spare time sharpening stakes.”

The vampire is worried about people's reaction to stories of a vampire in their midst.

Right, run toward the vampire. *Rolls eyes*

You deserve what you get, Vicki.

So we have some gratuitous partnering that seems mandatory in urban fantasy although I take comfort in the author's foreword that the relationships are only secondary to the plot. But we also get lots of Toronto points (as in, points awarded to the book for making Toronto references) and I'll probably be tempted to continue the series on that strength alone. So many of the books I read either take place in places I've never been or don't know well enough to really get that sense of familiarity. Not that I was familiar with the Toronto of the early nineties, but I wasn't an adult in the early nineties either, so it's a bit of a wash there.

Book source ~ Purchased

Claire Hansen is a Keeper. I mean, as in, magically. She goes to accident sites and fixes them. And by accident I mean places that have had a magical boo boo happen. She and her companion, a white and black furry feline named Austin, go where they are summoned, fix the problem, and move on. Except this time, the guardian, a Cousin named Augustus, has buggered off from his post, the Elysian Fields Guesthouse, a rundown B&B in Kingston Ontario. It’s an accident site of unusual intensity and origin and Augustus had been there 70+ years keeping watch over it, but had finally decided he couldn’t take it anymore and summoned a Keeper. Who happens to be Claire. Now she’s stuck with this site and has to figure out how to close it for good or be trapped here until her dying day. Not an enjoyable prospect for one so powerful and in her prime no matter how gorgeous her cook/handy man, Dean McIssac, is.

This is a light and entertaining bit of fluff to keep you occupied for an afternoon. There’s magic, humor, Hell (who speaks in CAPS-trust me, hilarious!), and some yummy non-explicit hotness revolving around the handyman and a ghost. Plus, a talking cat. Yay! Dean’s Newfoundland accent got a bit irritating after a while, but I worked around it. Claire can be a little unlikeable at times, but not horrendously so. I got tired of Jacques and his constant sex innuendos. Give it a rest for a bit would ya? Claire’s sister Diana, I hated. Seriously. Anyway…The world is interesting and the characters entertaining (most of the time), so I say if you like a bit of different magic mixed with humor then give this a go. I mentioned the talking cat, right? Yay!