"Fabulous paranormal tale"

In Chicago, though she knows how dangerous it is to meet a stranger, Sophie feels a connection with her chat line friend Oliver so she agrees to see him. Upon seeing her in person at a bar and combining that with the blog exchanges, he believes she is his destiny whom he lost about a millennium or so ago. She ignores his new Age fetish as he makes her come alive until an accident leaves her dying. When she recovers, she realizes she is no longer human; Oliver has changed her into a vampire, saving her "life".

Shocked, Sophie is not sure whether she should hate her mentor or love him; she knows she still remains attracted to him. Still she has the time of her life due to him until she panics as she failed to feed the cat and runs away from her teacher. Oliver is scared, a new feeling since he became a bloodsucker, because he let his feelings interfere with his duty. He failed to warn her to avoid fairies at all cost. He is willing to die (except that he is already dead), to save his beloved who insists she must combat the dreaded death fairy.

THE MIDNIGHT WORK is a fabulous paranormal tale in which there is an entirely different ethos system is in play. Killing humans for supper is acceptable as most of species vampire see them as cattle. Once converted, Sophie understands this as she needs to dine too. Other supernatural occurrences darken this eerie world as Kassandra Sims provides a lighthearted yet dark humorous tale.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted November 15, 2005

Summary

Christmas is a time of forgiveness -- so when Sophie Aubrey's date, a sexy and mysterious artist named Olivier, turns her into a vampire, she decides to forgive him. Especially since being a vampire is just as cool as she always thought it would be. But there are a few drawbacks she never expected, like zombies, sleazy French alchemists, inexplicable and contradictory fairies -- and her roommates: one has abandoned Chicago and her cat for the Fairy Lands, and the other reacted to vampirism by embracing it with both hands (and fangs) and gorging herself on human blood. Ick-o-rama. Plus, Olivier seems to believe that Sophie is his true love from a thousand years ago. Sophie can forgive that too, because when Olivier touches her, the whole world falls away -- but what she can't forgive is that he didn't tell her the whole story, like how a crazy death fairy has a vendetta against her. This has Sophie vacillating between entertainment at the fairy's pretensions and being scared out of her mind that someone who calls himself the God of Death has got it in for her soul. With the help of Olivier -- and the sleazy French alchemist, who turns out to be a vampire's best friend -- Sophie thinks she can defeat the death fairy. And if she can't, not only will she and Olivier have no future, she's pretty sure that the whole world is doomed. Who says holidays can't be fun?