Early Review: Between a Vamp and a Hard Place by Jessica Sims

Between a Vamp and a Hard Place
Jessica Sims
Published: Dec. 29, 2015 (Pocket Books)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon
Review source: copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review

Reviewed by: Amanda

Rating (out of 5): 4 stars

Antiques are Lindsey’s thing. She loves them. She does not love that her friend and assistant purchased an entire estate without her okay. She really doesn’t love that said estate is in Venice. Getting to Venice is an expense they can’t really afford, but it’s an entire apartment full of stuff. There’s got to be something of value they can sell.

There’s something of value, all right. A coffin. With a 600-year-old vampire inside.

When Lindsey accidentally wakes Rand, she has no idea what she’s getting herself into. Soon she’s chasing vampires around Italy alongside Rand, trying to uncover who killed off his brethren—and why. Her goal is to reunite Rand with his sire. Falling in love with him isn’t part of that plan.

Cracking open a Jessica Sims book is basically a guaranteed good time, and Between a Vamp and a Hard Place is no exception. With her trademark snark and super-sultry sexytimes, the story of Lindsey and Rand and how they fall in love is a fun and funny tale that’ll keep you entertained the whole way through.

Rand’s been asleep for the last 600 years, so he’s missed, well, everything: the discovery of the New World (he actually thinks the world is flat), the Enlightenment, and all the many, many advancements in technology, language, and medicine. There’s plenty of snort-laugh inducing moments, like when Rand discovers showers. And cell phones. Rand having a conversation on a cell phone was kind of hysterical.

And Lindsey, try as she might, sometimes just has to laugh at him. She gets to teach him all about the ways of the modern world, and in return, Rand teaches her all the ways he knows how to pleasure a woman. Which, hi, yes please and thank you! Lindsey and Rand have some crazy hot chemistry, but it’s balanced with a healthy dose of affection and caring. From the very beginning, it’s more than just physical attraction between these two, and it made me love them that much more.

While Sims has written other great paranormal romance, Vamp is a stand-alone novel with plenty of action. Rand might be trying to track down his fellow vamps, but someone’s tracking them, and they get the jump on Lindsey and Rand a couple of times. Sims does a great job building to the climax, though have I say the scene itself was a bit too short for my taste.

Think of Between a Vamp and a Hard Place as your reward for making it through the holiday season. It’s a fantastic blend of humor, lust, and affection, and if you don’t go out and read the rest of the books in this series after that, well, I haven’t done my job.

Sexual content: graphic sex