Bitten & Smitten – Michelle Rowen (Immortality Bites #1)
Hachette Gollancz, 2010 (reprint)
372 pages
RRP: AU$22.99
ISBN: 9780575094000

Reviewed by Liz Grzyb

Bitten & Smitten is the first in the Immortality Bites series by Michelle Rowen. I’d read some of her work before, the young adult novel Reign or Shine, and found it amusing and light-hearted. Bitten & Smitten is no less amusing, but follows the somewhat darker tale of Sarah, who was unwillingly turned into a vampire on a blind date. When her sire is killed by the vampire hunters thronging the city, she flees, and is drawn into a love/hate relationship with Thierry, a sexy, six hundred year old vampire with enough ennui to sink a ship.

Bitten & Smitten is the Bridget Jones’ Diary of the paranormal world. It’s funny, sweet, and romantic, with a hero to rival both Mr Darcies in his brooding angst. Sarah, our heroine, falls in and out of various life-threatening situations with blatant disregard for “the rules” as set out by Thierry. Only Sarah would go for a calming drink at the bar across the road from the vamp hideout, flirt with an appealing stranger, only to find out that it is a hang-out for the posse of vamp-slayers, and she’s been trading quips with the son of the guy who killed her sire. Things get even more hilariously convoluted from there, as Sarah tries to reconcile her new self with her old life. Without a sire to give her advice on this new development, Sarah is forced to listen to the intriguing and extremely attractive Thierry (well, occasionally, anyway).

Fans of paranormal romance with a few giggles will enjoy this series, as Rowen (and her heroine) don’t take life, or the afterlife, too seriously. I’ll certainly be looking for the second and third, Fanged & Fabulous and Lady & the Vamp respectively, to continue the roller-coaster tale.