YA Vampire Review & Giveaway: DRINK, SLAY, LOVE by Sarah Beth Durst

Question: When it is really okay for a vampire to sparkle in  sunlight?
Answer: When she really isn't sparkling--she's just never seen sunlight on skin before, and she kinda got staked by a sparkly unicorn horn the night before.


We're looking at a great new YA vampire read today--Sarah Beth Durst's Drink, Slay, Love.  It's funny, it's feisty, and I devoured it in two sittings. I would've finished in one sitting but, well, I'm old and need sleep and have Ye Olde Day Jobbe that requires my presence at 7:30 a.m. Want to win a copy? Read on.

ABOUT THE BOOK:  Pearl is a sixteen-year-old vampire... fond of blood, allergic to sunlight, and mostly evil... until the night a sparkly unicorn stabs her through the heart with his horn. Oops.  Her family thinks she was attacked by a vampire hunter (because, obviously, unicorns don't exist), and they're shocked she survived. They're even more shocked when Pearl discovers she can now withstand the sun. But they quickly find a way to make use of her new talent. The Vampire King of New England has chosen Pearl's family to host his feast. If Pearl enrolls in high school, she can make lots of human friends and lure them to the King's feast -- as the entrees. The only problem? Pearl's starting to feel the twinges of a conscience. How can she serve up her new friends—especially the cute guy who makes her fangs ache—to be slaughtered? Then again, she's definitely dead if she lets down her family. What's a sunlight-loving vamp to do?

MY THOUGHTS: When I first read the blurb for the book I thought, interesting, but the unicorn thing? I dunno.... But Durst's savvy wit and humor keep this book from turning campy and, instead, we have a YA vampire tale for the rest of us (you know who we are, and Drink, Slay, Love pokes fun at some vampire novels just for our benefit). Pearl is funny and horrified as she learns to deal with the far-reaching reactions to her near-staking by the unicorn behind the Dairy Hut. Her family is hilarious--in a scary, utterly creepy sort of way--as a kind of modern vampire Addams Family (if you aren't old enough to know about the Addams Family, just take my word for it: dysfunctional and weird). She's torn between vampire boyfriend Jadrian, who liked her better before she saw sunlight, and human hottie Evan, who admits to having a savior complex--and he thinks Pearl needs saving. 

Want to win a copy of Drink, Slay, Love? In honor of the unicorn, tell me the most unusual critter you've come across in your paranormal reads. I'm going to vote for the were-gators in my own novelette Chenoire (still available as a free read, above, for a short time). Is that cheating? Okay, how about the were-snakes (ewwww) in the Anita Blake novels. 


You know the bit, with a little twist: four entries possible--+1 for comment, +1 for blog follow, +1 for Twitter follow: http://www.twitter.com/Suzanne_Johnson, and +1 for a contest Tweet or a Facebook mention to the Preternatura link: http://suzanne-johnson.blogspot.com.