Reviewer Comments: Just when you think everything that can be done with the vampire romance genre has been done, along comes an author like Jeri Smith-Ready. She takes the mythology of the vampire and challenges what we already know. Ms. Smith-Ready explores the idea that vampires are trapped in the decade of their death and cannot cope with the passing of time. What a unique perspective! Now vampires only live a few extra years instead of the centuries in other tales. Of course, being trapped in a decade poses even more challenges to the vampires in terms of keeping their identities a secret. They dress and speak only in the manner of that decade. So for vampires created in the 1970’s-1990’s, things aren’t too different, but for those created in the 1920’s or 1930’s things are drastically different. Ms. Smith-Ready’s vampires also suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder which makes for some interesting and humorous antics.
In this tale, Ciara Griffin interviews and gets a job as the marketing intern for the local radio station WVMP. She is trying to turn around her life of grifting and conning people out of their money. Her parents were both con artists who are now in jail and she is trying to avoid their fate. Since she is working to complete college, she needs a legitimate way to make money. Ciara thinks it is a little strange that the DJs only work at night and that she is given a huge stack of books to read when she takes the job. Then Ciara learns the real truth about the DJs at WVMP—they are all vampires.
Ciara’s job becomes more difficult when she learns that the DJs are stuck in the decade they died which determines which music they play. By playing their music and giving the current news that is required of them, the vampires manage to hang onto their sanity and to function. The owner of the radio station is thinking about selling the station to a huge corporation which will mean the end to the vampires since they will loose their safety net. Ciara’s fascination and attraction to Shane, the grunge DJ, doesn’t help her situation. Now she must come up with a marketing strategy that will allow the station to make money so the vampires can continue their work.
I greatly enjoyed this story. Not only is the take on the vampires and their interaction with the humans fresh, but the story itself is well written. Ms. Smith-Ready writes in an accessible manner. The story flows from the first page and everything is explained. We understand the complications of the vampires as well as what will happen to them if they are forced to abandon their original Life Times. The story can also be expanded and viewed as a commentary on what happens when people refuse to change and how devastating being stuck in a rut can be.
I also thought that the relationship between not only Ciara and Shane, but also between Ciara and all of the vampires was nicely done. Ms. Smith-Ready does not shy away from the realities of working with and loving vampires. She allows her characters to doubt each other and to have to work together to gain trust.
