Synopsis:
By night, they fight in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse. By day, they are friendly next-door neighbors. Neither of them know that their alter egos are archenemies.
I’ve spent my life training in the family business of slaying vampires, but I’m tired of all the death. I want to prove we slayers can help society, not just break it.
I start my new life by joining the Magiford supernatural task force, which exists to protect humans and supernaturals from harmful magic.
There’s just one problem.
All of my teammates who work the night shift with me are scared of me since slayers are the assassins of the supernatural world. Worse yet, even though I’m doing my best at pretending to be a human during the day—a necessity as a lone slayer can quickly become a dead slayer—I’ve utterly failed to win over any of the humans in my apartment complex since I have the charisma of an overdue investigation report.
That changes when a handsome vampire moves in next door. Connor may not be willing to try any of my failed attempts at baking, but he’s charming and not afraid of me. Plus, he’s the first friend I’ve made who has the time to hang out with me after work.
Things are looking up, or they would be, except a mysterious and extremely powerful vampire has declared downtown his nightly hunting ground. I’m the only one on my team who can match him in a fight, something he finds endlessly entertaining. That isn’t a good sign for my general life expectancy.
My greatest goal might be to win over my squad, but if this vampire doesn’t back off I might not live long enough to achieve it.
The Lies of Vampires and Slayers is the first book in the Magic on Main Street urban fantasy trilogy, and is part of the Magiford Supernatural City world. This series is packed with humor, magical fights, and a sweet, slow burn romance between a slayer who battles social anxiety and a vampire who is sick of his immortality.
Review:
I read this book around a month ago and avoided putting up any reviews for quite some time. The author of this series is going on a hiatus and while I am 100% behind doing what you need to for your health, etc, it is still sad to know that there are no forthcoming books for a while. That being said, I tried to really savour these books as I knew there wouldn’t be anything new in the Magiford world (or any Shea world) for a bit.
This, like the rest of K. M. Shea’s books, was hard to put down. For me, personally, while I do like Jade, she was the hardest to really resonate with as we are very dissimilar. I quite loved the shifting perspective of Jade and Connor, as he remembers that humans are different than vampires and require different care. It was also good to see Drake and Hazel again. I quite liked how Connor didn’t realize how well the Drake family had come to know him- his distaste for everything and everyone, and thoughts on how annoying, overbearing, and stupid most vampire families are. I loved the quip from Jade’s thoughts, “Thank you, Irish heritage that made me pale enough to pass for a ghost.” I also quite enjoyed how Jade was extremely good at her job and it was hard to push her to do anything but be professional when she was in that setting. Another quote I loved was about how the Night Court fae are weirdos for thinking coffee is as good as tea! In the end, the beginning of a lesson was learned that life is beautiful and worth living by letting yourself feel things with people. There are hints of romance in this book, but the majority of it is about finding one’s self in a new situation and trying to fit in; something everyone can relate to. The slow burn potential romance is very much a side plot. While there is quite a bit of a cliffhanger where you want to know more, the second book was already out when I read the first, so it wasn’t that bad.
Star rating: ✯✯✯✯✯
