I reckon if the Italians like my naughty little A-Z of Understanding themselves, it can’t be bad. Up and down at the top of the Amazon.it chart, today it makes No.1 in three categories, for the first time in foreign humour (and not just Kindle).
Go on, get your copy now. It’s only £0.77 / $1.19. Or FREE to borrow on Kindle Prime.
Incredible eBooks for less – this weekend only!
PROMO CODE: Nov30Save30
Hurry! Offer expires Dec 4th
You know how time flies and you lose track of things, then for some reason you decide out of the blue to go and poke around in some of those forgotten corners? In the midst of writing my new novel (horror, yes, but I’m saying no more for now) I just upped and went over to Goodreads to have a look at Diavolino. I had to smile and feel a little bit chuffed because it has 34 ratings with an average of 4.47 (out of 5). That’s good – so if you haven’t read it yet, maybe you should?
Here’s the link: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10392526-diavolino
Still not sure? Just for tomorrow (the Ides of March) I have made my short horror, KID, free on Amazon. You surely can’t turn down a free book?
All I ask is, if you like Kid, take a look at Diavolino. No ereader? Don’t worry – the paperbacks are coming. Watch this space.
The Vampire Shrink
Author: Lynda Hilburn
Published by: Jo Fletcher Books (25 Aug 2011)
Kindle version ASIN: B005IHBWDE
Hardback: ISBN-13: 978-0857387196
Blurb
Kismet Knight is a young psychologist with a growing clinical practice, and she’s always looking for something to give her the edge in her chosen career. When her new client turns out to be a Goth teenager who desperately wants to become a vampire, Kismet is inspired to become the vampire shrink, offering her services to people who believe they are undead. Kismet herself, as a scientist, knows it’s hokum, but she’s looking at it in a purely psychoanalytic light, already imagining the papers she’s going to write on this strange subculture. That’s until she meets the leader of a vampire coven, a sexy, mysterious man who claims to be a powerful 800-year-old vampire, and she is pulled into a whirlwind of inexplicable events that start her questioning everything she once believed about the paranormal.
Review
If you’re a Brit, get the Kindle version because it contains British spelling and punctuation, making it an entirely ‘gotten’ free zone. Yay! I hate the word ‘gotten’ so much I can’t tell you. And there’s another thing about The Vampire Shrink; it is so witty that at times the reader can believe the author is a Brit. Oh, boy, the American vampires will be after me now!
Seriously, this is one of the funniest books I’ve read for a long time. The self-deprecating MC, Kismet the psychologist, is brilliant. She gives us a clever sideways look at the uptight materialistic USA of today, as well as poking fun at her own kind.
“It seemed he’d had a close encounter with a protester – I couldn’t imagine what anyone would protest about at a Star Trek convention..”
And when the vampire presents her with a collection of exquisite gowns: “What is this? Vampire Cinderella?”
“There was blood all over my living room. A trashed office and a living room that smelled like a used sanitary pad.”
There are plenty of vampires, lots of blood letting and some well-written sex scenes. Is it horror? Nope. This isn’t going to have you pulling the duvet up tight around your neck or stringing garlands of garlic across the windows. But I don’t believe that was ever the author’s intention.
I loved it and recommend it. Was there anything to pick at? Well, the final big scene, the ritual, I felt was rather mechanical and lacked the sparkle of the rest of the book, but it’s a small point in an otherwise commendable debut novel. Stars out of 5? Oh, go on: 4.5 and well deserved.
