Accidentally Dead, Again by Dakota Cassidy (Accidentally Friends #6)
Paranormal Romance
June 5, 2012
Berkley

Reviewed by May

FBI. CIA. And Meredith had been almost DOA.
So many acronyms.
So, OMG, and BTW, enough already with the madness, and just as an FYI, this was not a ROFLMAO kind of fun.

What happens when the sister you didn’t know you had drops in on you at the OOPS (Out in the Open Paranormal Support) offices and you’re already dealing with a mysterious man dressed in drag who’s just been turned vampire? Drama ensues, and before you know it you’ve got a second vampire on your hands, a budding romance, and a full cast of characters trying to figure out the mystery – and stop the vampires from dying a mysterious painful death.

When the first “Accidental” book came out I grabbed it right up because it looked funny and light with paranormal twists. I loved reading about the three friends, and how they each fell into the supernatural world of vampires, werewolves, and more. The writer’s voice was unlike any other I’ve read, and I truly enjoyed those books.

Something happened along the way, and now on the sixth book I found myself uninterested, bored, and even annoyed by the tone of the book. To be perfectly honest it could be that I just have had enough of the tone, but somehow I think it is more than that.

Let’s talk a bit about these characters. Sam is the guy who ended up turned, and Phoebe is the girl who (also newly turned) claims to be Nina’s (vampire, heroine of book #2) sister. They are thrown together because of wacky events and I found myself feeling like their attraction to one another was largely due to the stress and extreme nature of their situation.

In part, I was disappointed because this book lacked romance or relationship development. While we were given the rare shining moment like this one:

And there it was.

The kind of kiss she’d sought for thirty-three years of her life and until these last moments, thought she’d never have the chance to experience.

The kind of kiss that had Whitney Houston singing while Boyz II Men and 98 Degrees did the backup vocals in her head. The brand of kiss that left burning mental images of freshly fallen snow and windswept fields of wildflowers floating around in her brain.

There were clouds, too, white and puffy, drifting beneath their bottoms like cushiony chairs. Angels waved and smiled their fond approval at them as they floated by, still attached by their needy lips.

Harps played and rainbows appeared like a long stretch of colorful hills just waiting for her to skip to the end of them on winged feet.

The only thing missing was a unicorn.

Most often the scenes were Nina being insane and yelling at everyone and a lot of scrambling around trying to figure out what the deal was. I actually enjoyed the plot as the team figures out who is creating vampires and why and what they can do to stop the deaths of the newly turned hero and heroine, but the chemistry between them never sparked for me. Also, they never seemed to step up and take the starring role.

Which brings me to another problem- I felt the author was heavy handed in her use of the first three heroines. While I liked revisiting them I felt like they were stale, acting as caricatures of themselves. The dialogue wasn’t clever, the scenes weren’t funny. They got in the way and hogged page space that could have been used to develop real connections and more tension between our main characters.

It was a fast, easy read to be sure, and a light read for summer, but something was just off. I enjoyed parts of the book, but kept feeling like there was nothing to connect to, sink my teeth into, no scrap of real emotion or reason to root for these characters. I suppose I could say I simply couldn’t get into it.

If you read an excerpt of this book and enjoy it, or are already a fan of the author then I encourage you to give it a try. Otherwise I’d suggest passing, and instead pick up the first in the series.

Grade: C-

Recent Reviews:
Greyt Thoughts? – 4/5
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