TITLE: Wicked Game
SERIES: WVMP Radio #1
AUTHOR: Jeri Smith-Ready
PUBLICATION DATE: May 13, 2008
PUBLISHER: Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
PAGES: 361 pages
FORMAT: Paperback
SOURCE: Purchased
RATING: 5 stars
Can I just say that I love this book? Seriously, these is the first book in the WVMP Radio series which is now officially my favorite vampire series (knocking the Sookie Stackhouse series from the spot). I love everything about this book. I seriously can’t think of anything I didn’t like.
This book follows Ciara Griffin (pronounced KEER AH) in her pursuit of a normal life. She fails to find it, in fact she finds a life that just gets stranger. She finds a job at a radio station as a marketing manager and they give her a manual to read to introduce her to the station’s unique world. The manual contains the most basic information about vampires. Ciara, naturally, thinks this is insane and calls to resign immediately because she doesn’t find the prank funny. Boy is she in for a surprise. She soon runs across one of the DJ’s in a bar and learns the hardway that they weren’t fooling her, the DJ’s truly are vampires (all six of them). She takes her job back and comes up with an awesome marketing plan. To keep the station from going under, why not promote the truth as a gimmick to get listeners? Tell the world that, yes, we are a station full of vampires which is why our broadcasts only play at night and each DJ only plays music from a specific period of time (because it is their ‘lifetime’, the period of time in which they were made into vampires and therefore that is where their mentality is stuck).
::blank stares:: …so she wants the real vampires to pretend to be humans pretending to be vampires to get attention for the station?
That would be correct. And it works like a charm until an older vampire decides it is a dumb idea and wants to kill them all if they don’t stop. During all this craziness, Ciara starts to develop a relationship with the youngest DJ, Shane McAllister. Obviously a rocky, interesting relationship since she refuses to be a donor for him to feed off of.
Seriously though, this book is so different than most vampire novels and the main character is so far from the generic heroines that it had me doing mental happy dances. How can you not love a girl who was raised by con artists? And the vampires are all OCD in an incredibly indearing way. Shane’s obsession with alphabetizing things really struck a cord because I am similarly obsessed with how my books/cds/dvds are organized.
Speaking of Shane…::drools:: damn can Mrs Smith-Ready create a leading male character. After reading Shade where she has not one but two amazing male leads, I didn’t think it was possible to have another one I adored this much but I was wrong. Now granted, Shane isn’t perfect and he definitely doesn’t knock Damon from The Vampire Diaries (books not the show) from his perch as favorite male vampire ever (because let’s face it, there is no way a catholic vampire is gonna ever rock my world THAT much given my very athiest religious outlook) but he is definitely high on the list. He’s tall, he plays guitar and sings, and he is hot as hell…need I say more?
Here, this is what I imagined Shane to sound like when I was reading: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FdO4k… Is this because he was described this way or because I have a sick obsession with the one known as Shimon Moore (in the video, he is the blond one)? Well, I’ll never really know, but I’d like to think it’s the former.
So everyone who likes vampires, con artists, rock music, and amazing writing should read this. Seriously. GO BUY IT NOW.
Disclaimer: those with issues with cursing, description sex, or hearing the main character bash Christianity a time or two might want to steer clear.
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