Stakes & Stilettos (Immortality Bites, Book 4) (Mass Market Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Sarah Dearly has been a vampire for only a couple of months, and life is returning to normal. Well, as normal as it can be. She’s jobless and her master vampire beau, Thierry, is still married to (but separated from) his sire. But things are looking good with a job interview, her high-school reunion, and the chance for annulment. Too good, it turns out, when suddenly her contented, normal life goes very bad. The fourth in Rowen’s series bears the hallmarks of her smartly written chick-lit paranormal romances but takes a pivotal, darker turn as Sarah must finally embrace her inner vampire. --Nina C. Davis

Review

"I've been bitten and smitten by Michelle Rowen." (Sherrilyn Kenyon, New York Times bestselling author )

"Rowen perfectly balances suspense and wit... A true modern girl's guide to (vampire) life." (Publishers Weekly on BITTEN & SMITTEN )

"You can't put this book down." (Charlaine Harris on FANGED & FABULOUS )

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Forever (April 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446505846
• ISBN-13: 978-0446505840
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #115,375 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 4 in The Immortality Bites Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stakes and Stilettos, May 6, 2009

By	M. Nix "Joyfully Reviewed" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Sarah Dearly might be a new vampire but her life has been exciting to say the least and now she has a new boyfriend, a master vampire no less, Thierry de Bennicoeur. She bumped up against him one night and they helped each other. Sarah is trying hard to be a normal vampire and get a full time job and keep her boyfriend. But it just doesn't seem to be in Sarah's future - normal that is.

Thierry was tired of living and had decided to finally just end his life, well until he found himself helping a sexy and young vampire being hunter by slayers. Now for maybe the first time in his 600 years, Thierry is alive and has to admit he is falling for the ever-senescent Sarah. But he has been in a name only marriage forever and his past just might be catching up.

Sarah and Thierry have agreed to go to her high school reunion; the last thing Sarah feels the need to do before embracing her life as a vampire. However the fates have other things in mind, first she is staked at a job interview, then she meets and is rescued by the Red Devil (a masked vampire myth), and if that isn't enough Sarah is cursed by a crazy black witch to be a nightwalker. Thierry has helped and stood by Sarah through all of this, but if the curse can't be lifted will they be able to continue. And what about the sudden reappearance of the Red Devil, does he have plans that might harm Thierry and Sarah?

Love is in the air so what could go wrong? Stakes & Stilettos brings fun loving Sarah and the solemn Thierry together. You would never believe they could be a couple, but this is a serious case of opposites attracting and falling head over heels. Sarah just wants her man and a steady job - not asking a lot. Thierry was done with everything until Sarah whirled into his world. Now the two of them are on a Roller coaster of cosmically funny mishaps and serious consequences. Sarah had me laughing in a few places and I had to love when Thierry tried to develop a sense of humor. But just the fact that no matter what hit them, Thierry and Sarah stayed together and found a way around it, under it or through it showed the depth of the love between them. Stakes & Stilettos will have your eyes rolling and the smiles coming from the first page to the last. I absolutely can't wait until the next book so I can see just how they defeat anything and everything trying to come between them.

Jo
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Book Four Doesn't Disappoint!, March 31, 2009

By	Jennifer Black (Wyoming) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Old high-school rivalries can't get much more dangerous when they involve a newly-turned vampire and a malevolent witch. Before Toronto vamp-fledgling Sarah Dearly knows what has happened, she finds herself suddenly conforming to all of the vampire cliches -- unable to withstand sunlight, unintentionally attacking, and disliking crosses. This not being the norm for vampires, she soon learns that she has been cursed.

In the meantime, there are potentially worse problems brewing. An old, mysterious vampire, the Red Devil, has appeared in Toronto, with unclear motivations. As an ally, he could be a powerful friend to Sarah; as an enemy, a dangerous foe. And even with the preternatural drama set aside, the plucky heroine still has relationship issues to sort through with her "tall, dark, and fangsome" master vampire boyfriend, Thierry.

Michelle Rowen's work just gets better and better, which, based on the quality of the previous incarnations of her "Immortality Bites" series, is impressive. The development of her characters and their interactions with one another is well-crafted and realistic, and the fact that she has dedicated her series to just a few characters within the universe makes for a more well-fleshed-out story.

Ms. Rowen's books are much more along the lines of "urban fantasy" than a fully-fledged paranormal romance, which only makes them better -- the plots are fantastic, and more attention is given to how things develop between the leads than would be if it was simply assumed that things were perfect between them.

For fans of the author's work, there is a hidden little gem -- a few characters from her standalone novel, "Angel with Attitude", cameo as old friends of Sarah. This is a delightful little touch that new readers or readers of only "Immortality Bites" might miss, but they lend another dimension to this novel by hinting that the two "worlds" are connected.

Five stars for a top-of-the-line author and an awesome book!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sink your teeth into this one!, June 9, 2009

By	S. Levin "Chick with Books" (Danbury, CT USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Sarah Dearly has really bad luck! 10 weeks ago she was bitten and turned into a vampire by her blind date. (Don't blind dates suck!?) She is a newly made vamp who just wants her normal life back. "She tries to get a nice regular job and gets staked at the interview"... she goes to her high school reunion where a witch seeking revenge curses her "making her a bloodthirsty, sun-allergic nightwalker (the worst kind of vampire there is)" and to top it off, she's in love with a gorgeous 600 year old master vampire, Thierry, who's stuck in a centuries old "marriage of convenience" and can't seem to get out of it. And did I tell you about the mysterious scarfed vampire that pops up at the most convenient times to 'save' Sarah, but may have sinister ulterior motives?!

So starts another adventure for our heroine Sarah as she gets use to life as a vampire, in a world where vampires are still hunted and she has been mistakenly been labeled 'The Slayer of Slayers' due to an unfortunate encounter with a couple of guys who wanted to kill her (literally put a stake thru her heart!) but didn't quite make it.

This is the 4th book in the Immortality Bites series by Michelle Rowan. But don't let that discourage you from picking this book up - there's a prologue that tells us how Sarah and Thierry meet and in the first few chapters we meet most of the key players and feel right at home. Sarah is a great character - she's sarcastic, funny and gets herself in some tough situations because of her belief that most 'people' are basically good. And it's this innocence that gives her charm. There is plenty of chemistry between Sarah & Thierry, but no x-rated scenes here, there are strong friendships that exist between the characters, and the writing is good. The story did not let me down. It's a fun read! If you'd like to start from the beginning Bitten & Smitten is the first book in the series. And that's my next stop! August of this year the 5th and final book in the series Tall, Dark & Fangsome, is due to be published. I can't wait because the end of Stakes & Stilettos leaves us hanging!