Review: Bring on the Night by Jeri Smith-Ready

WHAT’S BLOOD GOT TO DO WITH IT?
Recovering con artist Ciara Griffin seems to finally have it all. A steady job at WVMP, the Lifeblood of Rock ’n’ Roll. A loving relationship with the idiosyncratic but eternally hot DJ Shane McAllister. A vampire dog who never needs shots or a pooper-scooper. And after nine years, it looks as if she might actually finish her bachelor’s degree!
But fate has other plans for Ciara. First she must fulfill her Faustian bargain with the Control, the paranormal paramilitary agency that does its best to keep vampires in line. Turns out the Control wants her for something other than her (nonexistent) ability to kick undead ass. Her anti-holy blood, perhaps? Ciara’s suspicions are confirmed when she’s assigned to a special-ops division known as the Immanence Corps, run by the Control’s oldest vampire and filled with humans who claim to have special powers. To a confirmed skeptic like Ciara, it sounds like a freak fest. But when a mysterious fatal virus spreads through Sherwood—and corpses begin to rise from their graves—Ciara will not only get a crash course in zombie-killing, but will be forced to put her faith, and her life itself, in the hands of magic. Urban Fantasy

Review:
I am not one for putting spoilers in my reviews. But what to do when a book is almost one giant spoiler? This was one of hardest reviews I’ve written. I loved the book and want to tell you why…but how to tell you that without ruining anything. Hmmmm......So here’s my attempt at a non spoilery – yet interesting book review.

Bring on the Night is about Faith.

Ciara’s lack of it.

Shane’s complete, blind belief in it.

How many pieces of your soul will you sell to protect those you love?

And oh yeah – there are zombies!

Bring on the Night reminded me of a three act play.

Act 1: The set up to the story. Things are better than they have ever been.
Act 2: Then they are not.
Act 3: The aftermath.

Ciara’s finally finishing up her college degree and has just completed her training with “The Control” – a secret government agency whose mission is “to balance the safety and well-being of humans AND vampires.” Yeah right. They aren’t named The Control for nothing….they blackmailed her into service and they are exerting an ever increasing amount of control over Ciara & Shane’s lives.
Despite the Control looming over them, Ciara and Shane have never been happier – they’re living together, she’s helping to plan best friend Lori and David’s wedding. That is until dead bodies start popping up. They have reason to suspect it may be one their own. Jim, one of the vampires that works as a DJ at the WVMP radio station has been acting more and more reckless.
But what they uncover is something much more sinister. A plague is spreading, the dead are rising and the events that unfold change their lives forever.
The tone is very different for Bring on the Night than in the previous two books in the series. It’s more introspective. I loved it. I really like when people get pushed to their breaking points and see how they handle it. Everything changes and no one will be the same. Relationships are different, the dynamics have shifted.
That’s not to say there isn’t plenty of Jeri’s trademark witty dialogue, musical influences and vampy goodness at every turn. While it is a darker book it’s still action packed!
OK - that’s it for non-spoiler intel! So instead, I’m going to wrap up my review by giving you my top 5 reasons that you should go buy this book (and the first two – Wicked Game & Bad to the Bone if you haven’t read those yet).

Number 5 – The Control. Government secrecy, manipulation and intrigue at its finest. I love me some secret government conspiracies!
Number 4 – Zombies! Seriously….who doesn’t love zombies??
Number 3 – More vampires! The other vampire DJ’s are starting to play a much larger role in the series, which I think is a good thing. Lots more Regina – there can never be enough Regina in my opinion!! And even more of elusive vampire Monroe.
Number 2 – Sexy, sexy Shane. I have a somewhat unhealthy (or so my husband tells me) obsession with this particular vampire. And oh –yea ..that David guy is still there for those of you who are David fans……lol.
The Number 1 reason you should go buy this book??– Here’s the deal. Jeri has this planned as a five book series. She is signed through book 4 (which is tentatively titled "Let it Bleed" – due out 7/2011 – AWESOME title!). I NEED book 5 (tentatively titled "Lust for Life")! So we need lots of people to buy Bring on the Night and show their love. Consider it a personal favor. You’ll have my undying gratitude – my undying devotion and ….ok sorry that’s all I got but it would make me very very happy!

Loved: I love these characters so much and I was thrilled to see them all back. The series is really taking a big leap forward with this book and I like it.
Nitpick: The solution to the plague storyline felt overly complicated to me. There were a lot of loose ends to wrap up (which she did) but there were several explanations when one would have been fine. I wasn’t feeling the David & Lori relationship. David didn’t seem to show much feeling towards Lori and she was off making wedding plans most of the time.

You really do need to read Wicked Game and Bad to the Bone first to understand the full impact of the events in Bring on the Night. Really – the first two are so much fun why wouldn’t you want to read them anyway?? Oh look! Conviently placed links!!
Wicked Game
Bad to the Bone

Rating: 3.8 out of 4 *sigh* I must wait another year for Let It Bleed.

Disclosure: I recieved this book from the publisher for an honest review.
Author's website: http://www.jerismithready.com/
Buy the book! Bring On the Night (WVMP, Book 3)
From The Book Depository Only $5.99 plus free shipping worldwide.

Don't forget to enter my contest to win Bring on the Night PLUS a $10 iTunes gift card HERE

There will be three different chances to win this week!!

BTW - once Bring on the Night has been out for awhile I'll post a review on Goodreads that discuss's the "bigger" events since you can block spoilers on there. Let me know when you finish reading so we can discuss!