Published: 2014
Genre: urban fantasy
Length: 300 pages
Setting: various places around the U.S., present day, Halloween to Christmas
Summary: Short version: Stories of Fred having difficulties with other supernatural creatures
Long version: Fred has recently become a vampire, not that it changed much about his boring life. He’s still an accountant with no social life. He decides to be more spontaneous and go to his high school reunion. There, he’s reacquainted with Crystal, a fellow geek. Turns out, she works for a government agency tasked with keeping supernatural being under control. That becomes important when a pack of werewolves tries to eat the entire graduating class. Fred and Crystal start dating and have additional adventures – a necromancer running a LARPing game, betting with drakken to keep Bubba (a weresteed) from eternal servitude, trying to find a mage tripping on her own drugs, and fighting Fred’s sire.
Final thoughts: Hayes gave me exactly what the title promised – a bit of light-hearted fun and adventures with various supernatural beings. The book feels like it’s a collection of five previously published novellas as characters and major plot points were reintroduced at the beginning of each stand-along adventure. That’s really my only complaint. I listened to the book, and found the narrator the perfect blend of dry and clueless. He sounded like an accountant who was happy to be an accountant who kept good books.
Poor Fred was hoping becoming a vampire would turn him into something more like what is depicted in the movies. Sadly, he’s still a boring, conflict-adverse accountant. I find the fact that he was an accountant was a bargaining chip withe drakken amusing. They have such problems using human accountants because they have to hide they’re supernatural natures. Getting Crystal as a girlfriend does open up his world, in many ways. He’s got friends now. They’re all supernatural creatures and loyal to a fault. Since Fred is a vampire, he’s got some natural skills and advantages, but he’s still not the top of the supernatural food chain. In the last adventure, we discover why Crystal, who presents as human, makes such a good agent, hunting bad guys.
Title comes from: A description of the book, written as diary entries
Reading challenges fulfilled: book #89 for 2020 and a U in my Title Reading the Alphabet Challenge (I’m excited that the next book in the series will give me another U title – often so hard to find)
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This is the second book in the All Soul’s Trilogy.
This is the 16th book in the Dresden Files. It’s been six years since a book was published in the series. Of course I’m interested. I actually gave this to Mr. Curiosity and had to wait until he finished the book to read it. The best thing is book 17 is coming out at the end of this year. Two Dresden Files books in one year!!
The library reopened for browsing. Therefore, I had to go in and browse. I decided to look for a book that fit an letter I hadn’t completed in my title alphabet challenge. (Titles are harder to search for so browsing is ideal.) I came upon this series, “Undead and …”. I picked the lowest number in the series since they didn’t have the first book and took home the third book in the series. I figured if I enjoyed it, I’ve have U books for a number of years to come.
This is the sixth book in the Dresden Files series.
This is the sequel to 
. This is the tenth story in that collection.
Published: originally in 2015 in 
Published: originally in 2013 in the anthology 
Published: originally in 2012 in 