Don’t Bite the Messenger by Regan Summers is an urban fantasy novel scheduled for release on January 16 2012. This quick read is not short on action. Sydney Kildare, or is that Mary Pike, is a courier in Alaska. She spends her nights making deliveries for vampires. It is not exactly the safest profession and she has planned and saved enough to get out of the business. However, there is no way to retire instead you need to run. Before she can put her escape plan into action Sydney lands in the middle of a vampire power struggle, and needs to survive long enough to achieve her happily ever after.
Don’t Bite The Messenger got my attention as soon as I started. Sydney, or Mary, is a strong heroine. She is smart and street savvy, surviving longer than most vampire couriers. She continues to be careful, but her ability to avoid being controlled or bought by vampires has made her a valuable commodity. She has become a pawn in a larger end game, and is not sure if she can trust the charmer that has been popping up everywhere. Malcolm Kelly is a secretive man, and just might be Sydney’s only hope to survive long enough to be beach bound. However, Malcolm is hiding even more than Sydney might have though and does not quite trust her either.
I recommend Don’t Bite the Messenger to readers that enjoy self-sufficient heroines and stories that do not fit the mold. I thought it was a fun; quick read that entertained me on a cold winter night. I thought that the characters were three dimensional even in the fairly short story, and I was drawn into the world completely. I liked Sydney, and was left wondering if we might see more of Sydney, Malcolm, and the vampire community in future books by Summers. I will certainly be looking to read more from her.