Nocturne Falls
The Vampire’s Mail Order Bride by Kristen Painter
I didn’t intend to buy this novel. I noticed the title during a sale, laughed, and went right past it. A day later, I found myself looking it over again, reading the blurb, and thinking about giving it a try. The day after that, I bought it. I mean—with a title like this, it deserves some extra consideration.
So I bought the book and ended up bumping it to the top of my list and I enjoyed it thoroughly. There’s nothing in here even remotely surprising (except that the vampire can walk about in daytime), but despite being rather formulaic, it was just the sort of light-hearted read that makes me smile.
The plot is pretty straight forward. Our heroine, Delaney, witnesses a mob murder and has to run for it. While getting off the streets to hide, she stumbles into a business that arranges prospective matches between lonely men and women—a modern-day mail-order bride service. She steals a file and impersonates the bride-to-be thinking that if she can just get away for a few weeks she can figure out what to do about her mob problem.
On the other end of this relationship is a four-hundred-year-old vampire whose grandmother wants him to get married and have children so she can have some great-grandbabies. That, by the way, tells you another critical point about this book. Vampires are really just people with fangs. They aren’t evil. They don’t appear to have a particular strong bloodlust. They eat regular food in addition to blood in packets. And really aren’t vampires by most people’s definition of the word. Anyway, our vampire, Hugh, hasn’t gotten over the death of his wife four hundred years ago. And he’s angry that his grandmother is interfering in his life, but agrees to give the mail order bride she’s arranged for him a 30 day chance to win his heart.
As everyone reading this review has already imagined, the two fall instantly in love but Hugh fights his passion fearing that he will cause Delaney’s death as he did his first wife. Most of the problems—an ex-girlfriend, the mob—really aren’t problems at all. They are just foils to force Hugh to realize Delaney is the perfect woman for him.
And it works! Painter has assembled a charming little town that celebrates Halloween every day and it’s just a lovely setting for her light romance with a touch of supernatural for flavor. Despite my initial hesitancy, I’m so glad I read the novel that I’ve already picked up another one in the series.
The Werewolf Meets His Match by Kristen Painter
In The Vampire’s Mail Order Bride (the first Nocturne Falls novel), Painter created a sweet and genuinely enjoyable romance that incidentally had a non-vampiric vampire as one of the destined lovers. I enjoyed the story, but I thought that the vampire aspects of the story were so weak as to be almost non-important. That’s not the case in The Werewolf Meets His Match in which pack politics, the moon, and the need to shift into another shape, form critical parts of the novel. What’s more, Painter does all of this without losing the sweet, light-hearted tone that made the first book so entertaining.
At the heart of this story is an arranged marriage which is technically supposed to bring peace between two werewolf packs, but which is actually a plan to insult the pack that resides in Nocturne Falls. The early action is highly predictable as heroine, Ivy, who is coerced into the marriage by her abusive father/pack leader learns that the hero, Hank, is actually a decent man who can be trusted. Most of the “action” comes in the form of problems from Ivy’s pack and her father, many resolving around her young son who is the “insult” intended for the Nocturne Fall’s pack.
There were a couple of small surprises in the end which I kicked myself for not predicting. That’s obviously all to the good. The novel also reintroduces characters from the first book and sets up individuals who will probably be the stars of their own romances in future stories.
1 Miss Frost Solves a Cold Case by Kristen Painter
Kristen Painter uses her Nocturne Falls setting for the first in a series of mysteries, rather than the straight romances that have enjoyed the setting to this point. The tone of these books reminded me a lot of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series—first person narrative, snappy chatter, and a love triangle with lots of heat but, at least for now, no consummation. The result is a very fun book with a solid mystery grounded in the supernatural denizens of Nocturne Falls.
The town (Nocturne Falls) is a community in which hundreds or possibly even thousands of supernatural folk live year round, fitting in in part because the town is a tourist trap that celebrates Halloween 365 days a year, providing lots of cover for its supernatural denizens. Most of those supernaturals seem to be very nice, but this series is going to offer the opportunity to see the other side (the more common side in other urban fantasies) of the coin.
Jayne Frost is the daughter of Jack Frost (the Winter King) and the niece of Santa Clause, so she’s a pretty hefty supernatural winter elf herself. But the royalty hasn’t gone to her head and she makes a charming protagonist as she is off on her own encountering vampires and werewolves and her old boyfriend, Cooper, a summer elf with a surfer dude’s body and attitude.
A lot of the fun in this first novel is simply discovering with Jayne her place in this supernatural society. One of Santa’s toyshops is losing elves right and left and Jayne is tasked with figuring out why. It takes a while, even after she learns that it is almost certainly something bad happening to the elves (why else would they leave all of their belongings behind when they go?) for Jayne to really get serious about her investigation, but that urgency is lost in figuring out how one of Santa’s toyshops works and why winter elves need so many sweets to keep them going through the day. (Note to Ms. Painter, Dr. Pepper is a wonderful soda, but if Jayne is really looking for sweet calories, she should become a Mountain Dew aficionado. Not only is it the sweetest soda out there, it comes in lots of flavors.)
The actual reason for the disappearances turns creepy fast, and Painter handles this transition with consummate skill, switching back to her more lighthearted tone before the book can truly be transformed by the ugliness Jayne uncovers. All in all, this was a great novel with a totally satisfying ending.
2 Miss Frost Ices the Imp by Kristen Painter
Miss Frost returns for her second adventure in what proved to be a more light-hearted mystery, but one that still showed the darker underside of Nocturne Falls. The plot is extremely straightforward. Having moved to Nocturne Falls, Miss Frost visits an estate sale to help her furnish her apartment and purchases a decorative box that wasn’t supposed to be for sale. The box is knocked over in her apartment releasing an imp—a chaotic and mischievous spirit which begins wreaking playful but annoying havoc on the town that threatens to reveal their supernatural secrets. (For example, it’s hard to explain how the fire engine truck got on top of the fire station.)
In trying to figure out how to get the imp back in the box, Miss Frost is forced to learn about the woman who previously owned the box—a human who ran a business in magical artifacts and who doesn’t appear to have had a good deed in mind when she acquired the imp.
All in all, this is another fun book in the Nocturne Falls setting. Jane Frost continues to positively remind me of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum. She’s far more competent than Stephanie, but she’s gathering a group of zany collaborating friends and she has the same sort of man problems. The one thing that surprised me most about the novel was the reappearance of Frost’s ex-best friend, Lark. It makes me wonder if Ms. Painter is planning a future novel around the treacherous pal. I guess I’ll have to keep reading to find out.
3 Miss Frost Saves the Sandman by Kristen Painter
The Sandman is a celebrity in the supernatural world—one who can assure that everyone is able to get a good night’s sleep. So when the Sandman comes out with a children’s book that is guaranteed to put children to sleep within the first reading, it’s big news, even if normal humans don’t know about that guarantee. Finally, when the Sandman decides to launch his new book tour at Miss Frost’s store in Nocturne Falls, we have the set up for a great little mystery. You see, there is a downside to the Sandman other than him being a mega-diva, and that’s his ex-wife, Luna, who is in charge of the world’s nightmares. And Luna has decided to use the launch of the Sandman’s new book to try and get back together with him. Or is that, get even with him…
This is Painter’s third Miss Frost mystery and it continues that delightful mix of a light-hearted tone with a serious mystery. We were just over halfway through before I figured out what was going on and the tension continues to build throughout the story. Another fine mystery set in Nocturne Falls.
4 Miss Frost Cracks a Caper by Kristen Painter
When Jayne Frost’s ex-best friend (Lark) shows up in Nocturne Falls apologizing for having broken Jayne up from the love of her life back in college and wanting to make peace between them, Jayne proves herself to be both too kind and too naive to be the winter court princess Painter has described. She goes out of her way to not nix Lark’s chance of being DJ at the Black and Orange Ball and in doing so, sort of makes herself responsible for the criminal acts that occur at the party. It was totally unnecessary, but I think Painter can be forgiven as there would not have been a story without this bit of stupidity on Jayne’s part.
Throw in that Jayne’s two boyfriends both have to bail on her for the ball and you have the excuse to introduce a third love interest for Jayne – a necromancer who makes his living baking tasty treats at Zombie Donuts. Jayne is immediately smitten and the reader is left to wonder if Painter is going to further complicate the princess’ love life or is getting ready to break off the cutesy love triangle of the first three books.
The mystery – theft of a lot of important and pricey jewelry –only starts about halfway through the book and is more interesting for the problems the thefts cause Jayne than for the problem itself. All in all, this is an okay addition to the series, but far from its best.
4.1 When Birdie Babysat Spyder by Kristen Painter
Here’s a quick short story about what happens when a werewolf babysits a cat – and no she doesn’t eat him. It’s quick and fun and the ending will make you smile because it is all too believable. It also contains a sort of lightning-speed romance because I guess that’s expected of all Nocturne Falls stories, but it really wasn’t necessary for this quick little tale.
5 Miss Frost Braves the Blizzard by Kristen Painter
This is hands down the best of the Miss Frost mysteries in the series thus far. Miss Frost, daughter of Jack Frost and Santa Clause’s sister, manages a toy store in the supernatural town of Nocturne Falls where they celebrate Halloween 365 days of the year. The crisis begins fairly innocuously when a local faerie dies and it is discovered she has an obsession with Miss Frost’s family. Furthermore she is in possession of a magical snow globe that allows communication with other globes of its type—a magical secret of the winter elves which it begins to appear the dead woman secretly was. When the globe accidentally gets broken, a vortex is created that allows a tribe of yeti to transit to Nocturne Falls where they immediately begin to create the blizzard conditions they call home. To make matters worse, they kidnap Frost’s best friend and plan to sacrifice her in a magical ritual to protect themselves.
This is a tough one—how can Frost save both the town and the friend? There’s both a serious mystery and an impressive physical threat in this one—all handled without getting into the sort of gritty violence that typifies so many urban fantasies. And if that isn’t enough, Santa Clause comes to town. Well done, Ms. Painter.
6 Miss Frost Chills the Cheater by Kristen Painter
This had the potential to be the best of the Miss Frist stories as the daughter of Jack Frost and the niece of Santa Clause takes her boyfriend home to the North Pole so he can discover if he can handle being married to the heir to that magical kingdom. On all levels this should have been a wonderful story, but it just didn’t quite work thanks in a very large measure to the racism of some winter elves and a story that never felt particularly plausible about trying to overthrow the succession because Jayne wants to marry a non-elf. The glitter of the North Pole quickly fades as an overly long mystery stumbles forward. The villain goes from acting utterly brilliant to severely brain damaged with a final dastardly move that not even an insanely delusional idiot could have believed he could get away with. If I had started with this book, I would not have continued to read the rest of the series.
7 Miss Frost Says I Do and Spider Too by Kristen Painter
In this final novel of the Jayne Frost series, Ms. Painter brings her heroine to her fairy tale wedding, with one last mystery to solve along the way. The mystery itself quickly becomes transparent, but I think that it was never really more than a subplot for the author. This is a book about wedding dresses and dreams and how much her heroine and her boyfriend really care about each other. For good measure, she throws in a lot of cutesy cat stuff as well.
There isn’t much of substance in this last book, but I think that Painter can be forgiven for putting so many pages into the preparation for the wedding. After all, she’s spent seven books and a short story getting to this point and it certainly sounds like she’s planning to end the series with this happily ever after.
Miss Frost Braves the Blizzard by Kristen Painter
This is hands down the best of the Miss Frost mysteries in the series thus far. Miss Frost, daughter of Jack Frost and Santa Clause’s sister, manages a toy store in the supernatural town of Nocturne Falls where they celebrate Halloween 365 days of the year. The crisis begins fairly innocuously when a local faerie dies and it is discovered she has an obsession with Miss Frost’s family. Furthermore she is in possession of a magical snow globe that allows communication with other globes of its type—a magical secret of the winter elves which it begins to appear the dead woman secretly was. When the globe accidentally gets broken, a vortex is created that allows a tribe of yeti to transit to Nocturne Falls where they immediately begin to create the blizzard conditions they call home. To make matters worse, they kidnap Frost’s best friend and plan to sacrifice her in a magical ritual to protect themselves.
This is a tough one—how can Frost save both the town and the friend? There’s both a serious mystery and an impressive physical threat in this one—all handled without getting into the sort of gritty violence that typifies so many urban fantasies. And if that isn’t enough, Santa Clause comes to town. Well done, Miss Painter.