The Life & Death of Lily Drake Review, Excerpt & Giveaway!!!

“Fans of Charlaine Harris and TRUE BLOOD will find much to enjoy in Michelle Nelson’s cracking, sanguine debut. Dark, funny, audacious and written with a confidence that belies this as her first effort, LIFE AND DEATH OF LILY DRAKE dispenses with the idea that vampires are pasty, maudlin, emo-types and restores them to all their brutal bloodthirsty glory. And in terms of heroines to root for, I daresay Lily Drake gives poor ‘ol Sookie a run for her money.”

– Kealan Patrick Burke, Bram Stoker Award-Winning author of THE TURTLE BOY and KIN.

For Lily Drake, slaying vampires is easy…

Dating them is the hard part.

Lily Drake is your everyday hard-working single mom…until a gorgeous vampire shows up on her front door who she mistakenly assumes is her blind date for the evening. As one crazy scenario after another unfolds, Lily finds herself falling in love with two vampires, slaying the evil ones, and being prophesied as the savior of the entire undead race. Deciding between pizza and Chinese take-out will no longer be one of the hard decisions facing Lily Drake once she is immersed into vampire society. Humanity or immortality? That doesn’t hold a candle against this question – which of the two handsome vampire cousins? The Life and Death of Lily Drake is not your typical vampire love story. It’s a tale about the humorous mistakes a woman makes simply trying to survive not only life, but the dating scene. How will Lily manage working full-time, taking care of her young son and fighting the undead at every turn? Lily will have to figure it out, but who better to save the world than a mom?

Review

This book was a different take on your typical vampires. Lily is a normal human just trying to raise her son, work a fulfilling job and find love. What she ends up finding was so much more.

Here’s the take on Lily Drake… Her BFF Angie, is always trying to set her up on blind dates. Lily decides to accept and when her “supposed” date ends up on her doorstep, she is thrilled! He is handsome, smart, funny and did I mention handsome??? Lol!! Anyway, she soon finds out that he was never her date after all and tries to figure out who the heck this creepy man is. She gets taken to his home where she meets the rest of his family and they begin to try to tell her what and whom they are. It does not get far before Lily starts kicking some major butt and they have to knock her out!!

I loved the storyline and really loved Lily!!! She was one tough cookie and I admired her love for her son to put her needs on hold just to give him the life he deserved. My second favorite character would have to be Valentine and yes, he is a guy! He is fun loving and hilarious and the two of them together made for some good reading!

I am so glad that I was given the chance to review this book! It had everything, love, drama and action! The writing style gave the reader many POVs and wrapped all loose ends up by the last page.

Excerpt

What exactly had happened? The guy from her dream, Mathias, had saved her. He pulled some cracked-out vampire off her and killed him by a dumpster. She would take herself directly to the mental institution herself if she truly believed that.

Thinking hard, ignoring the headache, she tried again. She had gone out with that pieceof-trash Terry. He’d taken her to a rat-hole bar. She’d given him the business out in the street. That explained it. Of course, there was no such thing as vampires, and even less probable would be a vampire who looked like a Greek god. Terry must have knocked her out cold, and she’d dreamed the rest. Frantically, she began trying to figure out how she had gotten home from the alley, when a voice interrupted her thoughts.

“You remember me.”

Lily froze for a moment, too scared to even move. Someone was in her bedroom. She lay so still she doubted anyone would guess she was even breathing. Seconds turned to minutes and she slowly began to reach for the lamp on the nightstand. Before Lily could twist the switch on, he spoke again.

“You aren’t supposed to remember, you know.” Quickly she flipped the switch and the muted light of the lamp poured across the room.

The man from her dream—Mathias—sat in the round papasan chair, the one she used as a catchall for stuff she didn’t have time to put back in her closet. He had one foot kicked across his other knee and appeared quite comfortable. She wondered how long he had been sitting there.

“You are real?”

“You remember me. Once they refuse, no one has ever remembered the events of an

offer being made.”

“I only remember you from a dream. Dreams aren’t real. Vampires aren’t real!”

“This is going to be a problem.”

He sighed and Lily wondered what could be a problem for him, when she was the one with a strange man sitting in her bedroom while she slept. Obviously she was still dreaming. She’d never had a dream where she felt the pain of a headache, but then again she’d never had a dream that felt so real either.

Could be worse, Lily thought. She could be falling off a cliff or being chased by an axewielding maniac. Might as well enjoy this one. She’d spent all day thinking about him after her dream the previous night. Maybe she could use her imagination and spice this one up a bit.

She sat up on the bed, running her eyes over every inch of him and remembering that kiss they’d shared on the balcony of the Chapman Mansion. Maybe if she concentrated hard enough, she could pop the two of them back over there and finish up where they’d left off.