THE RELUCTANT MISS VAN HELSING

Author: Minda Webber ISBN: 0505526387 1/2006 PARANORMAL Publisher: DORCHESTER/Love Spell

Having lived long amongst London's ton, Ethel Jane Van Helsing was an astute female who well knew her faults. Her skin was marred with freckles, her nose was too snub and her hair of a brown that reflected neither gold nor red highlights. She had a face unremarkable in its plainness. And yet ...at a masquerade ball, anything could happen. There, until the stroke of midnight, even an ugly duckling could become a swan. But tonight was not for fowl play. You see, plain or not, Jane came from distinguished stock: Van Helsings. And Van Helsings didn't worry about soiling their pelisses; they were slayers. Where other young ladies were told no monsters lurked under their beds, Jane's parents had explained the often-handsome creatures lay in beds, crypts, and at balls like these. Her father, the Major, had shown her very early on how to use the sharp end of a stick, where and when the sun didn't shine. Tonight, everything was at stake. Something was going to get driven very deep into a heart, or she wasn't...

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

THE RELUCTANT MISS VAN HELSING is a funny, witty, laugh out loud kind of feel good book that left me feeling extremely satisfied.

I loved the heroine in this book. She is funny and a spitfire, with more courage than she gives herself credit for and an admirable amount of restraint. If I had endured the kind of teasing and taunting that this poor woman has gone through all of her life, I might very well have gone crazy. Her life has been one big roller coaster and she absolutely hates being a vampire slayer. Although she has never hated it more than the night she has been assigned to hunt the Earl of Wolverton.

Asher is a wonderful hero. He is the tall, dark and handsome type that would make any girl swoon. He is also extremely secretive, with a nice dry sense of humor, not to mention the fact that he is utterly loyal to those that he loves and vice versa. He is a take-no-prisoners kind of guy who finds it a little more than a nuisance when he suddenly starts to actually like his little trouble maker of a wife.

Adding nicely to this story are the secondary characters. Ethel's loony toon family and her wonderful best friend are truly assets to this story. There is also this great sense of the paranormal, with the guests at a house party ranging from a wereboar to a werehawk. Very inventive indeed.

The only part of the book that was a little overdone for me were the amount of puns that abounded in this book. There is no end to them, to the point that I was a tad bit frustrated with this author for allowing anything to mar this fantastic book.

Puns aside, THE RELUCTANT MISS VAN HELSING is a wonderful, fun read that will have you laughing out loud and enjoying a good old-fashioned romp in a great little fantasy world.

Kristal Gorman