"Myles turns up the paranormal heat with succubi, fallen angels and vampires"
Reviewed by Katherine Petersen
Posted February 20, 2010
Romance Paranormal
Jackie Brighton gets passed over for a job promotion and
drowns her sorrows in alcohol. When she wakes up in a
dumpster, she thinks she remembers sex with a blue-eyed
male with a very large package, but she doesn't remember
the vampire bite, and she doesn't realize until an
explanation and a few days of proof that she's now a
succubus. The combination of sex with a fallen angel and a
draining vampire bite mean succubus, so Jackie, who's
always been a little heavy and not-so-good at
relationships, now resembles every man's fantasy. Yep,
boobs have gone from a B to a DD and her waist is thinned
out, so she can wear all the minis and tank tops she
wants. The flip side of this change is that the formerly
not-so-sexual Jackie has to have sex every other day or
she'll go mad. Noah, the fallen angel, helps by introducing her to Remy,
the only other succubus in town, and while the porn star
means well, she's not the greatest teacher. The
consequences are that Jackie makes some rather large
mistakes, leaving Noah in the hands of a demon vampire
queen and Jackie and Remy on the hunt for a halo that the
queen and the angel Uriel both want. And, tagging along on
the journey are Remy's partner of the hour and Zane, the
queen's right-hand vamp, and also the vampire who helped
turn Jackie into a succubus in the first place. She's
tempted to sleep with him, but he's the enemy and she
can't trust him, can she? In this first installment of The Succubus Diaries, Jill
Myles introduces readers-well, those of us who haven't
read series by Nina Harper and Richelle Mead already—to
life as a succubus. She adds angels, fallen angels and
vampires to the mix along with a peek into long-ago
Egyptian history for a unique twist. Myles keeps the story
moving briskly. Jackie appears quite intelligent, and it's expected that
she'll make mistakes as she adjusts to her new life, but
it seemed that she made more than she should given her
intelligence, and that frustrated me. From what I read in
the sneak peek to the next book in the series Succubi Like
It Hot, Jackie seems to have it more together, so I think
I will like her better in this next book. While the book has an element of mystery, the bulk of the
tension is of the romantic variety, with some steamy
scenes including one memorable occasion in a church. For
those readers with a specific genre preference, I'd
classify this tale as paranormal romance. While the plot
has some surprises, once halfway through the book you have
an idea that it will go one of a couple directions. But
which one and which man Jackie chooses remain undecided
until the very end.
SUMMARY
Who knew an angel could get a girl in so much
devilish trouble?
Jackie Brighton woke up in a dumpster this morning, and her
day has only gotten weirder. Her breasts grew overnight, her
sex drive is insatiable, and apparently she had her first
one-night stand ever . . . with a fallen angel. Of course,
she only remembers gorgeous Noah’s enormous, er, package. And their steamy shower sex. Hmm . . . and the dark stranger
whose bite transformed her into an immortal siren with a
seductive Itch. With help from Noah and fellow succubus Remy
Summore, Jackie adapts to her new lifestyle—until she
accidentally strikes a deal that sends her lover into the
deadly clutches of the vampire queen and lands Jackie, Remy,
and the queen’s wickedly hot right-hand man into the middle
of a fierce battle for an ancient halo. But how’s a girl supposed to save the world when the enemy’s
so hard to resist?
ExcerptIt had obviously been one hell of a night if I couldn’t
recall why I was waking up in a Dumpster.I blinked a few times, staring at the sky overhead. A
Dumpster? Surely not. But between the flies, the stench,
and the garbage bags surrounding me, I didn’t know
what else it could be. My left hand rested on something
clammy and wet, and I hoped that it was an old newspaper
and not something more sinister. I didn’t even want
to think about what was tickling my bare toes. I sat up, cradling my throbbing head and trying to
think. What the hell had happened? I didn’t normally
find myself comatose and drooling amid piles of garbage.
Shit. My boss was going to be sooo totally pissed at
me. Something itched against my breast and I reached up
to scratch, finding a hard plastic card shoved into the
side of my bra. A room key for a hotel. The Grand National here in
New City, Wyoming. My mind regurgitated a series of drunken memories
from my bender last night. I’d met a man at the bar of
the swanky hotel just as the sun was cresting into dawn
and I was polishing off my latest martini. He’d walked
into the bar and, since the place was deserted, headed
straight for me and bought me another drink. I’d let him.
I mean, hell, free alcohol. He was even hot to boot, which was a nice change
from the creeps that normally tried to pick me up. I
vaguely remembered an amazing body, a voice that could
stop traffic, and the bluest eyes I’d ever seen. That wasn’t the only thing I remembered. My brain
flashed another image into my head, of a rather large
part of my date’s anatomy. Which I’d seen in close detail.
“Ohmigod. I’m a slut,” I moaned, burying my face in
my hands. I’d never had a one-night stand before, but by the time
I’d met my Blue-Eyed Casanova, I was eight or twelve
martinis into an all-nighter and three sheets to the wind.
I couldn’t remember a darn thing except those eyes and
that smile. And his dick. That bothered me on levels I didn’t even want to think
about. I sighed and brushed a wet wad of trash off my
hand and straightened my thick, smudged glasses on my
face. At least they hadn’t been wrecked in my night in
the garbage. “Who’s there?” a warbling voice called, and I clambered
through the trash to the edge of the Dumpster,
peering over the metal side. A bearded older man—homeless, if the stocking cap
and reek of whiskey were any indication—stared up at
me in surprise. A familiar cute black-and-pink handbag
was tucked under his left arm. “Hey, that’s mine.” I pointed a grimy finger at the
purse. “Give it back.” Much to my surprise, he handed it up to me with a
wide-eyed expression. “I thought you were dead. Sorry.”
What an odd statement. I frowned down at him. “Sorry, no. Do you have anything else of mine I might
be needing?” My legs were devoid of pantyhose, and my
bare toes wiggled between the garbage. My shoes were
nowhere to be seen, and I wasn’t even sure I still had
panties on—all of which was making me extremely nervous.
Resisting the urge to cry, I swallowed hard. “I didn’t take them. I didn’t take anything else.” The
bum sounded rather miffed that I had the gall to accuse
him of stealing. I ignored him and began to dig through the garbage,
trying not to think too hard about what I was touching.
Sure enough, my favorite pink-and-black Steve Madden
pumps were there underneath a pizza box. I shook them
out to be safe. With my belongings in hand, I swung a leg over the
side of the Dumpster and began to climb out. I’d probably
given the bum a flash of panties (if I still had them),
but I didn’t care. He took a swig from his brown-bag-covered bottle.
“You were dead, you know,” he pointed out. “You weren’t
breathing.” I slid down onto the pavement with a thump, losing
a few strands of chow mein that had stuck to my skirt.
“Um, what exactly makes you say that?” I asked as I put
on my shoes.
“I’m serious,” he protested. “I checked. You weren’t
breathing. I even saw your boyfriend dump you here. I
wouldn’t take a purse from a live girl.” I looked up from picking a noodle off my shoe. “You
did? Blond guy? Blue eyes?” Big package? The bum shook his head and took another swig of
alcohol. “Naw. Black-haired. Real tall. Nice coat. He
kissed your cheek and dumped you in there.” I didn’t recall Bachelor No. 2. Good lord, what had I
done last night? My date had definitely been blond. An
image flashed through my mind—a memory?—of us in
the shower, my arms twined around his neck while he
lifted my bare leg to fit around his hips .
. .
I wanted to cry. I didn’t know if I was upset that I’d
slept with a stranger, or that he was hot and I couldn’t
remember very much. I sighed and rubbed my neck. A
sharp pain shot through my skin, like I’d rubbed it raw
during my sleep. I touched the spot with careful fingers
and found it sticky. Yet another gift from the garbage.
Ugh. I looked over at my drunken companion. “What
time is it?” The bum checked his plastic wristwatch. “It’s eleven
a.m. Tuesday,” he announced. “No, it’s not. Today’s Monday.” I remembered it,
because we were scheduled to be short a docent at the
museum today. Monday. “It’s Tuesday,” he repeated. “You’ve been in that garbage
since yesterday. Dead.”
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