Pixie Dust by Laura Lee
Paranormal Romance
December 31, 2011
Self Published

Reviewed by Mandi

There was something about the blurb that really appealed to me in this review request.

*A lonesome fairy with no clue how to wield her powerful magic.

*A ruggedly handsome warlock torn between his past and his present.

*A five hundred year old, sinfully sexy vampire who’s obsessed with solving the mystery of a particularly interesting bartender.

Karli Lane is the only fairy left on the planet. Vampires had driven her race to near extinction, causing the others to return to their homeland over twenty years ago. Orphaned at a young age, she was forced to hide her identity in a world full of exposed supernaturals.

Facing her upcoming immortality, her life has become a complicated mess. A new employer and a gruesome murder bring two incredibly complex men into her life, making matters worse. She finds herself riding a non-stop emotional roller coaster while trying to figure out who she is, how to control her powers, and most importantly, how to stay alive.

And as I started to read, I did enjoy our Fairy heroine, Karli Lane. Over time, vampires have driven the fairies to near extinction due to the fairies intoxicating blood. Before her parents could hide Karli in the realm of Faerie, they died. Now with a spell to hide her fairy ears, she is the only known fairy on Earth.  More stressful, her twenty-fifth birthday is looming, and that is when her full immortality will hit. Her magical powers will become stronger and harder to hide.

But Karli is not without friends. She has a best friend Erica, who is the snarky, somewhat crude (but funny!) BFF. Erica sets the tone of the book right away with this statement:

We just need to find a man who will pound all those negative thoughts right out of your brain with his big, fat cock!

Well okay then. Karli (and Erica) are very over the top, snarky females and there are many silly, funny things that come out of their mouths. Karli is a bartender for Pixie Dust, a bar on the Vegas Strip. And yes she sees the irony in this:

A fairy hiding out in a place called Pixie Dust? C’mon, we’re all walking around looking like slutty Tinker Bells. It’s freaking priceless. Only in Vegas baby.

The new owner of Pixie Dust is a vampire named Leo Markos. Gorgeous and sexy, he definitely is on Karli’s radar. When Karli discovers the brutally terrorized body of a Pixie Dust employee in the bar’s walk-in refrigerator a couple of things happen. First, she meets detective Vance Alexander as he comes to investigate the murder. Next, they realize a very strong demon could only cause harm like this, and the hunt is on for this killer. Karli also has very lusty feelings towards Vance…two men. What will she do?

I really liked the set-up of Pixie Dust and for at least the first third, maybe the first half, even though it is more on the silly light-hearted side, I enjoyed the tone of the book. It was amusing and very entertaining.

My main issues come into play with the love triangle. Karli starts to get pulled in two directions. The very mysterious vampire Leo starts to seduce her, as does the hottie cop Vance. And it starts to unfold like a tennis match. First Karli is with Leo and she is all swoony. Then Vance (Leo and Vance have a past relationship and left it on very bad terms) gets upset she is exposed to a vampire and Karli comes running to him. Then back to Leo. Then back to Vance. Get my drift? She would fly off the handle in anger at Vance and run to Leo, just to turn around and do the same to Leo. It became really old, fast. She went from funny, snarky heroine, to whiny, immature heroine. She did things that made me question her smarts – she lets Leo taste her blood then realizes he might now know she is a Fairy. She “accidentally” throws Fairy dust at Vance – and then he knows what she is. How did she survive all these years without being discovered? I really don’t believe she could have.

As this is a series, the end is a little more ambiguous, as I guess we will continue Karli’s adventures in subsequent books. If the love triangle is played down a little, and Karli acts a little more mature, I think this series might be a cute one.But I was a little disappointed in this one.

Rating: C

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