Tall, Dark & Dead – Tate Hallaway
Hachette Livre Headline, 2007
280 pages
RRP: AU$22.95
ISBN: 978-0-7553-3655-5

Dead Sexy – Tate Hallaway
Hachette Livre Headline, 2007
RRP: AU$22.95
ISBN: 978-075-533657-9

Reviewed by Liz Grzyb

Paranormal romance seems to be popping up all over the place. A bit of sex, a few vampires, some sort of threat to mankind (or just the heroine) to spice things up, and voila: the new gothic romance.

Tate Hallaway’s novels Tall, Dark & Dead, and Dead Sexy are a perfect example of this genre. First we have Garnet, a Witch who has a thing for vamps. The first novel has her hot and heavy with Sebastian, a vampire with a difference, while her equally hot and even more vampiric ex, Parrish, comes back on the scene. In the second, Dead Sexy, Hallaway adds to the crowd with an uncharacteristically attractive human FBI agent (but it’s OK, he’s psychic) while still juggling Sebastian and Parrish. Phew!

But it’s not all sex, drugs and rock’n’roll in Wisconsin. Garnet happens to share her body with a goddess, Lilith, who she called on for vengeance after finding her coven slaughtered by Vatican witch-hunters. Tall, Dark & Dead sees Garnet trying to escape more witch-hunters who know that she (or Lilith) dispatched their colleagues. Dead Sexy is more on the psychological – Garnet struggles with the guilt of her past choices, especially when FBI agent Dominguez wants to question her in relation to the Vatican deaths. She also has to deal with conflicting feelings for Parrish and Sebastian, with a bit of FBI pursuit to provide the action.

Garnet is a believable heroine. She has enough humanity to be confused by the situations she finds herself in. While she does perform some pretty interesting stunts, she still has guilt for her past actions and love for her friends which brings her down to earth again, even in this world where magic, goddesses, vampires and zombies are real. I find it amusing that Garnet decided to dress as a Goth to avoid attention and hide her identity; when moving away from her family and her past, she keeps her real name and dresses in a way which guarantees people will remember her!

Tall, Dark & Dead and Dead Sexy are worthwhile reading for anyone who enjoys paranormal romance. They’re not world-changing novels, but if you’re up for a light piece of holiday reading, you could certainly do worse. I can’t wait to get my hands on the third novel in the series, Romancing The Dead, which was also released in 2008.