ORDER A COPY: Gentlemen Prefer Voodoo
Publisher: Bookends Literary Agency
Publishing Date: September 7, 2011
e-book only: 70 pages
Rating: 4 Stars
Voodoo priestess Amie Baptiste usually leaves the spells for the customers until one night, in her loneliness, she gives in to temptation. Amie weaves a spell to call “the perfect man for her.” ….But she should have been more specific since her ideal man apparently died in 1811. Dante Montengro has been haunting St. Louis Cemetery Number One, waiting for his true love to call him back to life and end his wandering ways. Emerging from the cemetery: Hot, human and very much alive Dante’s first stop is Amie’s voodoo shop.
When the drop-dead sexy zombie appears at Amie’s door she has only one thing in mind and that’s to put him back into the ground. That is, unless he can convince her to try a few other things…
When Amie Baptiste decides to try love spells for herself, she wants the perfect man for her. That night he appears at her door. He gorgeous, and naked and until very recently, he was dead. It appears her perfect man died about 200 years ago.
But Amie’s not as convinced as Dante that a Happily Every After is meant for them, and he’s not happy when she tries to send him back in his grave.
Dante has three days to convince Amie to give a zombie a chance before its “ashes to ashes” for him.
First of all, in case you were wondering, he is not a “gooey” zombie. Dante comes back all gorgeous and hot and without any “graveyard breath” since the first thing he does in lean in for a make-out session. If this was a common occurrence, more Zombies would be able to move up in the monster genre to leading man status.
This was a nice little short-story, and a break from the usual paranormal vampire/werewolf hero.
I have always been fascinated by the idea of love spells so it was interesting to lose myself in this intriguing tale. In fact, a friend of mine has a few love spell stories of her own and even claims to have used spells to boost her relationships. Once, she even told me that she had cast a spell to get back at her ex! I will definitely be recommending this story to her as it sounds right up her street.
Anyway, what makes this story stand out was the addition of Isoke, Amie’s Kongamato (a mythical, pterodactyl-like creature). Isoke is so happy to see Amie dating (zombie or not) he keeps leaving her good luck presents, mostly dead rats. He is delightful and funny.
Although I am usually disappointed by short stories, I found one to be cute, charming and a quick break for the usual fare.
Favorite Scene:
Dante leaned in to kiss her and Amie was about the close her eyes when the tree above them shook. A giant black rat hit every branch on the way down and thwumped at their feet.
“Isoke!” she shrieked.
Then she noticed the gold band tied to the rodent’s tail.
“My apologies.” Isoke flapped his wings as he settled on a high branch. “I saw you heading for the church and wanted you to be ready.”
