Vampire Moon by J R Rain

This is the second book in the Vampire for Hire series by J.R.Rain. The first one was ok - I gave it 3 stars, but this one was better!

Synopsis from Goodreads.com

Mother, wife, private investigator...vampire. Six years ago federal agent Samantha Moon was the perfect wife and mother, your typical soccer mom with the minivan and suburban home. Then the unthinkable happens, an attack that changes her life forever. And forever is a very long time for a vampire.

Now in VAMPIRE MOON, sequel to MOON DANCE, private investigator Samantha Moon finds herself hunting down a powerful crime lord and protecting an innocent woman from her ruthless ex-husband — all while two very different men vie for her heart. And as the stakes grow higher and her cases turn personal, Samantha Moon will do whatever it takes to protect the innocent and bring two cold-blooded killers to justice — her own brand of justice.


My review:

Samantha Moon was turned into a vampire 6 years ago, all of which you find out about in the first book. The first book in the series includes lots of background character information and world building, both of which were not really necessary in this book, so there was room for more action!

Samantha's now ex-husband is still being a jerk and all the way through I was thinking why she just wouldn't kill him with her new vampire powers.

Samantha takes on 2 new jobs as a private investigator in this one - a woman whose husband is intent on killing her, after almost killing her twice before and killing her father and seriously crippling her mother. She has to live with Samantha in her hotel suite so Sam can protect her. The other job is a grieving husband who wants revenge on the man he is convinced killed his wife by blowing up the federal airplane she and several other witnesses were on as they were on their way to a trial to convict the local crime lord.

Sam visits the husband in jail and almost kills him - had the guards not pulled her off she would have done so. All of this is captured on film but the detectives don't know what to make of a seemingly normal woman being able to punch through bulletproof glass in a prison and beat this large man to a bloody pulp. Later on after a contract killer has been hired by this man to kill his wife and Sam and consequently caught by the police, Sam has finally had enough. She turns into her bat form flies into the death row cell, smashing her way through the wall and snaps his neck! No more worries for the little wife anymore!

Sam also changes into her bat form again to beat and capture the crime lord, Jerry Blum, so her client and members of the families of the other witnesses silenced in the plane crash, can kill him! They want revenge and Sam gives it to them. I love the bat form idea - it allows the "vampires-can-fly" idea to emerge whilst at the same time Sam can look completely normal - just a slight twist on norm.

She also has issues with Kingsley, the werewolf lawyer she is becoming attached to, as he was the defense attorney who initially got the killer husband out from jail on a technicality - she doesn't like the fact that he is able to release killers back into the world. I do hope these two get together eventually.

And Danny, Sam's ex does finally get his comeuppance in the end - YAY!!! I nearly jumped with joy at this bit. Sam finds out that he's the owner of an unlicenced strip club and threatens to tell the police if he doesn't give her back the house and kids! She so wants to be their mommy and I was so happy for her. Danny tries to threatens her with revealing who she is, stating he has a sample of her blood as proof of what she is, so what does Sam do? Gets her blood tested herself and it comes back with no irregularities. Soon shuts Danny up, that did!

The ending was a great cliffhanger - Sam finally arranges to meet Fang, her online confidant with whom she can talk about everything and anything. He gives her advice and just listens to her. It ends where they both get out of their cars at the arranged time and place. Sam gasps and that's it! I did yell as whilst I love a book to have a cliffhanger, I needed to know who Fang was! I think it's Kingsley myself, but I'll have to get the next book, which has just come out to find out! I guess that's why authors leave cliffhanger endings!

I enjoyed this book so much more than the first one and hope the rest of this series is as good as this book.