Retro Reading: A Taste of the Nightlife by Sarah Zettel

Remember that whole vampire craze a few years ago? Every published writer churned out at least one vampire story.

I did not follow the trend, so I was sort of lost during conversations with my “vamp obsessed “ friends. I don’t think I missed much.

And with this book, I'm glad that I missed it.

Mortal Chef Charlotte Caine and her vampire brother, Chet, own the up and coming Nightlife restaurant and are hoping for a great review from Anatole Sevarin. However, things don't go quite the way they hope when Sevarin pops in for dinner one night.

Charlotte has to deal with an unruly mortal and her date, a warlock and a lot of chaos.

The next morning, the warlock is found dead in the restaurants foyer and Chet becomes the main suspect since the victim was drained of his blood.

This is pretty much the plot of the book, but, a subplot is introduced whereas other bodies have been dumped around the area and murdered in the same fashion. The police and the paranormal squad have kept it quiet and once this plot is revealed, it really isn't talked about again.

Which is too bad since this would have made the book much more interesting if the characters knew about a potential serial killer on the loose.

Unfortunately, Zettel spends too much time focusing on other things and we really don't have a good suspect list. A majority of the plot is spent on Charlotte hoping to reopen the restaurant and how being closed for so long has hurt business.

Another thing which threw me off was, do the undead and the living get along? She mentions different businesses in the beginning, but that's about it.

The series consists of two books and I'm hoping that the second installment is better.