Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brava!!!, 23 Oct 2006
What an utter delight! Happy Hour at Casa Dracula by Marta Acosta offers the readers an odd mix. Sex and Vampires, Latino style! And what a mix! The author has her finger on the pulse of this formula and sees its heart just keeps beating from start to finish. I haven't enjoyed a "silly" vamp romp this much since I read Lynsay Sands' Single White Vampire. Obviously, we shall be hearing more soon from this very talented author.
Milagro de Los Santos is at a book signing for her ex-significant other, Sebastian. She still has emotions for the man, but then Oswald appears on the scene. The handsome stranger summons potent chemistry and they share a peculiar, devastating kiss, with a little mixing of blood. Suddenly, Sebastian is paying attention to her again, but much to disappointment, he seems more interested in finding out about Oswald. He even tries to abduct her when she is less than forth coming.
To the rescue is Gabriel, Oswald's cousin. He rushes her back to the family, which includes Oswald's PITA grandmother and yet another cousin, Sam. It soon becomes clear the whole pack are vamps, though they prefer to think of their state as their "condition". They fear with the blood transfer with Oswald, that Milagro might be slated to have a "condition", too. Sebastian is part of some dark group stalking the vamps, hence his interest in Oswald, sort of like the Watchers in the Highland series or Anne Rice's Talamascar. Poor Milagro is torn between her love for Sebastian and the really cool buzz only Oswald the vamp can give her.
This book is a blast. It's funny, original, witty, romantic silliness that is pure genius!! Brava!! More! More!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect Summer Reading!, 15 April 2007
Happy Hour At Casa Dracula is Marta Acosta's debut novel. Pitched at the cross-roads of the popular chick-lit and vampire romance genres, the first thing that the author has done is throw away all of the old established vampire clichés.
Milagro's new family don't refer to themselves as vampires, they insist that they have a genetic condition that has been misunderstood by ignorant and superstitious people throughout the ages. They claim that their craving of blood comes from a protein imbalance and apart from an ability to quickly heal small wounds and a slightly improved life expectancy that they are just like everyone else.
The vampires in Happy Hour At Casa Dracula have no supernatural abilities which may prove a disappointment to some fantasy or paranormal romance fans who prefer their characters to be more 'para' and less 'normal'.
However, it is the characters in Happy Hour at Casa Dracula that give the book its strength. The outlandishly named Milagro de Los Santos (Miracle of The Saints) narrates the story in first person and her wry observations are genuinely laugh out loud funny. Milagro is someone who sees herself as a square peg in a round world and although she desperately wants to find her place in that round world she will not change who she is in order to fit in. This leads to some comic situations as she bursts into the lives of the refined and somewhat repressed vampire family.
Above all Happy Hour At Casa Dracula is a comedy of manners and it reminds me somewhat of the writing style of Jane Austen in places. This is perhaps an odd comparison but it is more the construction of the prose and some of the situations that Milagro finds herself in that gave me this impression of the novel. (And yes, I know that Jane Austen never wrote about vampires or sex, so as I said - it is an odd comparison!)
Happy Hour At Casa Dracula is perfect summer reading material - if you are looking for supernatural thrills, blood and death this book probably won't be for you but if you are looking for an entertaining and witty romance with a twist I think you'll enjoy this, I know I did. Recommended reading for the beach... or the park... or the garden... or the sofa (in the event of rain)!
Amanda - www.lovevampires.com
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Fun story but lacking a certain something, 10 Nov 2007
This is one of those stories that starts off really well but then somehow goes off the boil. Marta Acosta has a great writing style, at least at the beginning, and the heroine of this story, Milagro de Los Santos, is fantastic fun. It's unusual to have a Latina heroine of a story like this, particularly one who's obsessed with writing a book having had an Ivy League education. Mil may be good with books but her success with men is limited - she can never find a good, solid, long-term man, just lots of short-term boyfriends who are more interested in her - erm - assets than her brain.
When Mil runs into her ex-boyfriend Sebastian at a party she finds all the old resentment at the way he treated her comes back to her. She finds herself going back to a hotel with a fascinating man for a drink at the bar, which turns into something rather stranger. Suddenly Mil finds herself ill after a kiss with him went wrong and they exchanged blood. After feeling rotten for a week she starts to get out again and promptly finds herself taken to a strange mansion with lots of odd characters who are apparently trying to protect her from a strange group called CACA. Mil soon discovers that the fascinating man she kissed, Oswald, is one of the family that live at the estate, that he's engaged to the wonderful doctor Winnie, and that they are all vampires, although they don't call themselves that.
Mil's not the sort of person to live in seclusion very readily and she starts to make her mark on those around her including the wonderful Edna, matriarch of the family, as well as Sam, Ernie and even some strange relatives who drop in. However Sebastian is searching for Mil and he may resort to rather dangerous tactics in order to find her.
This is a lighthearted read which works particularly well at the beginning. Unfortunately I felt the story rather dragged towards the end, especially as it was fairly obvious, to this reader at least, how some of the events would be resolved eventually. However Mil is a great heroine and it was an enjoyable read, particularly for those who like literature and the unusual words and phrases issuing from our heroine's mouth.
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by Marta Acosta
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