Once Bitten, Twice Shy (Jaz Parks, #1)

by Jennifer Rardin

I'm Jaz Parks. My boss is Vayl, born in Romania in 1744. Died there too, at the hand of his vampire wife, Liliana. But that's ancient history. For the moment Vayl works for the C.I.A. doing what he does best -- assassination. And I help. You could say I'm an Assistant Assassin. But then I'd have to kick your ass.

Our current assignment seemed easy. Get close to a Miami plastic surgeon named Assan, a charmer with ties to terrorism that run deeper than a buried body. Find out what he's meeting with that can help him and his comrades bring America to her knees. And then close his beady little eyes forever. Why is it that nothing's ever as easy as it seems?

• ISBN10: 031602046X
• ISBN13: 9780316020466
• Publish Date: 8 October 2007
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Little, Brown & Company
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[Linda]

Once Bitten, Twice Shy is one of those fast-paced urban fantasy novels that grabs you from the start and brings you on a wild ride full of action, fights and intrigue.

This and all my other reviews are originally posted on my blog (un)Conventional Bookviews

[MurderByDeath]

While I read quite a bit of paranormal, this isn't my typical type - it's a bit more intense, more "hard-boiled" than what I usually pick up, but I was intrigued by the characters of Jaz and Vayl. Once I picked the book up, I didn't want to put it down, it was a very good read. The good guys were all likeable and the bad guys were appropriately despicable. I wasn't sure the plot line sounded all that interesting to me initially but I found it moving along and holding my interest from beginning to end. I'll be picking up the rest of the books in this series, although I'll probably space them out more than I normally would when I find an established series.

[Angie]

Once Bitten, Twice Shy reminded me of a cliche action movie with a supernatural twist. There's car chases, explosions, people falling of buildings, exciting escapes, terrorists, deadly viruses, but minus the romance in the midst of life threatening situations.

Jaz was a bit of a mystery to me in the beginning. Even though this is told from Jaz's point of view, in first person, I don't think she expressed herself that well. She kept bringing up something from her past that was having a major effect on her present. Anything happening after that event she referred to as "after," but after what? She never says for about 100 pages. It just kept coming up over and over again, and it started to get annoying. I wanted to know what was bothering her! And why she has these seemingly random blackouts and what happens to her during them. Jaz is a pretty likeable, slightly neurotic character with an odd sense of humor, but her refusal to share important episodes from her past made her difficult to care about.

However, she does eventually share her past and much, much more with...a guy she meets once in the ladies' room! In fact, upon their first meeting he openly tells her that he's a PI hired to investigate the same terrorist Jaz is after. Then on their second meeting, Jaz completely over-shares about herself and her mission. I find it very hard to believe that a PI and a CIA assassin would just spill that kind of information to someone that they know nothing about. Sure they could work together since they have the same target, but neither one knew that about the other until it was blindly offered!

This is another one of those series where vampires are "out of the coffin" but aren't completely accepted into society. I tend to really like when the supernaturals are known to humans, but it didn't seem to have much of an impact on the story. The few exceptions are that vampires are in the CIA, such as Jaz's boss, Vayl, and humans can be split into two groups: normal and Sensitives. Jaz is in the latter group, since she can "smell" vampires. Of course, there's more to this ability than Jaz originally thought...

Overall, this moved at a decent pace with plenty of action scenes. The plot gets a little confusing as it moves along, but everything comes together nicely in the end. It was a pretty fun read, despite some of my complaints. I'll probably continue this series, because I really liked Jaz's abilities and would love to see more of them in action!

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[wyvernfriend]

Jaz Parks is partnered with Vayl, a vampire from Romania. They work for the CIA as assassins. They work with each other to chase paranormal enemies. Both of them have secrets and these secrets are about to come home to roost.

Vayl and Jaz are great characters and you can understand some of their reticence about issues. The two of them are great together and really come across as quite believable. I look forward to reading more in this series.