#Review - A Sucker for You (Afterlife #3) by Marlene Perez #YA #Paranormal #Romance

Series: Afterlife # 3
Format: E-Book, 320 pages
Release Date: October 24th 2022
Publisher: Entangled: Teen
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Romance / Paranormal

The bestselling author of the Dead Is series is back with this thrilling conclusion to this snarky, hilarious vampire romance tale!

Vampire-witch hybrid Tansy Mariotti has exactly one goal: to stop her mother’s Vegas wedding.

It’s not because she hates weddings. It’s not because the groom is her boyfriend’s dad (although yuck). It’s not even because Vegas weddings are cliché as hell. It’s because her mom is an evil incarnate vamp known as The Executioner. Nothing good can come of someone marrying a person named The Executioner. Nothing.

With the help of her werewolf boyfriend, her bestie, her granny’s no-crave-blood tonic, and her favorite stake—a drumstick—Tansy is Vegas-bound and ready to raise hell, all while hoping her witch side can keep her fangs at bay. Only suddenly, her witch side is fading…fast.

Tansy's running out of time to stop her mom and save herself—before what happens in Vegas stakes in Vegas. 

Marlene Perez's A Sucker for You is the third and final installment in the authors Afterlife trilogy. The story actually picks up where I'm With the Banned finished. 17-year-old Tansy Mariotti is a witch/vampire hybrid called Striga Vie. She's also known as the Queen of the Vampires. But Tansy has a whole lot of issues coming her way. The first begins with a trip to Las Vegas with her boy friend Vaughn, his pack of werewolves, along with Tansy's best friend Skylar who really is the cause of her becoming a hybrid. 

All she wants is to find her mother, Vanessa and Mr. Sheridan who is Vaughn's father and maybe spend a little alone time with her boyfriend. Tansy's 1/2 sisters, Rose and Thorn who are hunters she's just recently met, have chosen to come along since they were raised in Vegas. On top of all this is the fact that someone sent Tansy a precious stone (ruby) that her mother aka The Executioner wants and is willing to kill her only daughter for. If that weren't enough! 

Tansy learns that her dead beat dad, Mason Alicante, has known she was alive this entire time. And now, she learns that he's in charge of the Paranormal Activities Committee (PAC) who trained Rose and Thorn to follow in his footsteps. Tansy's own challenges are nothing to sneeze about. Even though her Granny has tried hard to create a tonic that holds the vampire graving from taking over her witch side, it's getting harder and harder to control her thirst. So, with everything that Tansy and her friends face, it's the issues with her mother which are the most dangerous. 

Vanessa will do anything to get the ruby from Tansy, including targeting Tansy's friends, her father, her sister, while looking for a powerful tiara said to belong to a women who is said to have bathed in the blood of her victims. Respect goes out to Vaughn for not running away as fast as he could after he learns that he now is the boyfriend of a vampire Queen, all the while struggling to gain control over his own new abilities to shift into a werewolf. Tansy's father gets no love from me, even though he clearly knew she was alive, he could have have warned her about who Vanessa really was, and what she was going to deal with now that she was a vampire/witch hybrid with people eager to take her down. 

This book has been pitched for those who have read Crave, Twilight, Legacies, and, The Vampire Diaries. I do absolutely recommend that the book be read as it was released so that you don't spoil anything that happened in previous books.

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#Review - I'm with the Banned (Afterlife #2) by Marlene Perez #YA #Paranormal

Series: Afterlife # 2
Format: Paperback, 320 pages
Release Date: October 5, 2021
Publisher: Entangled: Teen
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Paranormal

The bestselling author of the Dead Is series is back with another snarky, hilarious vampire romance tale just in time for the vampire genre’s resurgence!

Tansy’s just trying to stay alive, stay ahead of her enemies, and stay with her boyfriend, Vaughn. They’re hoping to make the whole vampire queen/vampire hunter thing work, but dating while deadly is harder than she thought, especially now that the Drainers are back. They may have changed their name and their brand of music (country western? Really?) but they’re still a vampire band, no matter what they’re wearing.

Add to that, Tansy’s long-lost mom—affectionately known within the vamp community as The Executioner—is now engaged to Vaughn’s dad, unless she and Vaughn can figure out a way to stop the wedding. Add a handful of cute designer dogs (actually hellhounds), a fight for Tansy’s crown, and the biggest jaw-dropping reveal of all, and it’s just another day in the life of everyone’s favorite rogue vampire queen.

I'm with the Banned, by author Marlene Perez, is the second installment in the authors Afterlife series. 17-year-old Tansy Mariotti has literally had her life turned upside down and sideways after saving her best friend Skylar Avrett, and killing the former Vampire King, thus becoming the Queen of the Vampires in California. The thing that makes Tansy different is that she was raised by her grandmother after her mother abandoned her. She's now considered to be a Strija Vie, which means she's a vampire/witch hybrid. 

Even though Tansy is Queen of the Vampires, she still can't get out of going to High School, or being protected by Rose and Thorn who work for (PAC) Paranormal Activities Committee. Tansy misses the sunshine. She has to literally use a parasol to protect her from the intense light while also drinking a mixture concocted by her Grandmother from actually drinking live blood from a human being. On top of trying to sort through the former Kings holdings, and keeping vampires like the former Drainers, who are now country music singers, in line, she's also missing Vaughn Sheridan who has been gone for months training to be a hunter.

When he returns, things really get twisted. Something happened to Vaughn while he was training in Texas and he doesn't want to tell Tansy. Tansy will soon learn the truth after werewolves turn up dead with their hearts missing and she meets a pack of werewolves including Skylar's ex Connor who believe vampires are responsible. Oh, and to make matters even more intriguing, Tansy's mother Vanessa, you know the person who abandoned her when she was born, and ran off to become known as the Executioner under the former Vampire King? Well, she's back in town, and so are a group of Hellcats who seem particularly interested in Tansy.

This is supposed to be a tongue and cheek attempt at poking fun at the Twilight claim to fame by having vampires and werewolves who don't exactly like each other with a bit of romance thrown in to make things interesting. The book has secrets, return of an enemy, weird relations, trust issues, betrayal and also explores new facts about the Supernatural World. There are literally too many surprises to mention without spoiling them so, let's not. I will say this; this book ends on a cliffhanger which you will have to wait until July 2022 (A Sucker for You) to find out what happens next.

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#Review - The Afterlife of the Party by Marlene Perez #YALit #Paranormal

Series: Afterlife (#1)
Format: Paperback, 352 pages
Release Date: February 2, 2021
Publisher: Entangled: Teen
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Paranormal

The bestselling author of the Dead Is… series is back with a snarky, hilarious take on the vampire romance novel.

When my best friend Skyler told me about this party in the Hollywood Hills, I was less than enthused. As it turned out, my feelings were more than justified. That party ruined my life.
Tansy didn’t even want to go to the party. It’s hard enough living in one of your best friend’s shadows and secretly in love with your other best friend.

And now she’s leaving it a vampire.

Now her best friend Skyler is stuck on the road trip from hell, on tour as a groupie with a literal band of vamps. Tansy sets out with Vaughn, her other BFF turned maybe more, to save Skylar’s life and take down the band. But when they find themselves in the middle of a vampire war, will Tansy be able to make the ultimate sacrifice to save her friends?

The Afterlife of the Party, by author Marlene Perez, is the first installment in the authors Afterlife trilogy. 17-year old Tansy Mariotti ends up attending a party with her best friend Skyler Avrett to see a band called "The Drainers" whose singer she's fallen in love with. Since best friends tend to make sacrifices for each other, Tansy ends up going to keep Skyler out of trouble. But, things aren't as simple as they seem. Skyler hasn't exactly been truthful about her dealings with Travis, the lead singer. In fact, it appears she's been keeping secrets for months without saying anything to her alleged best friend.

It appears that Skyler has been bitten enough times to make her anemic or willing to do whatever she is told. It that weren't enough, Tansy runs into Travis without Skyler, and Travis tries the same act on Tansy. Surprisingly, Tansy is immune to him but Tansy will eventually end up with a desire for blood since one bite apparently starts the transition. Tansy refuses to leave Skyler to her own horror story. After all, they connected over their absentee mothers who left them behind for greener pastures. Thanks to her grandmother Mariotti who raised her after her own mother dumped her and disappeared, Tansy knows that the paranormal world exists. 

 

That means witches, vampires, werewolves, and yes, ghosts. Therefore, putting two and two together, Tansy realizes that Skyler has fallen in with vampires. Skylar has a physical bond to Travis that can only be broken if he's dead. That means Tansy and her friend Vaughn Sheridan must travel across country in order to save a very unwilling Skyler as well as other girls who have been lured into this nightmare. To make matters worse, being bitten by a vampire turns Tansy, who is apparently a witch, into something that hasn't been seen in a long while. Tansy is not only immune to glamour but after she's bitten, she's able to use magical mesmerizing to save her life.

 

Tansy has to wade through Bleeders aka Sundowners who are one bite away from becoming vampires themselves. She has to fight off Travis's Father who is a big deal in the vampire community and knows that Tansy is something quite dangerous. She has to deal with a shocking surprise that will upend her entire world in one swift kick to the head. (No Spoilers!) Then there's Rose and Pac who belong to a group called Paranormal Activity Committee who weave in and out of the story, but they don't really offer solutions or help Tansy out against Travis and his vampire hordes. 

Tansy is a decent main character. She's a loyal friend which makes her compelling, and her fiery and bold attitude is captivating and her Grandmother and her "book Club" tend to offer more answers to questions that Tansy hasn't arrived at yet. The book ends on a twisted note. There are vampire hunters to deal with, Tansy's new status to wade through, and a relationship with Vaughn that could lead to good things, or a major flame out.

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