Fashionably Dead

This is such a fun story! The female lead is relatable. Her journey on accepting being now a Vampire and the chosen one is fill with amazing characters and events. I found myself rooting for her and laughing at the situations she comes across. I even shed some tears. I love the side characters, Gemma, Pam, The Kev, her baby demons and even Paris Hilton as much as the main characters!

Let me start with saying that I don’t know where to start with this review. Yea, that good! Ok, so I guess I will start by saying I came across this book on amazon on the top free list. It had a cute cartoon cover and thought I will at some point read it….well, let me tell you, I am so happy I started in almost immediately. I loved it.I moved away from Paranormal Romance a while ago. Not that I don’t like them I just prefer the stories that make me say in my head “please happen to me someday”. Not only did this book blow every paranormal romance out of the water, it was the first book in months that kept me up into the wee hours of the morning. That means it had to be something amazing considering nothing usually gets in the way of my sleep time considering I have three little boys that keep me B-U-S-Y.So now, about the book. Astrid (never thought I would love this name) is a 29 year old normal Kentucky girl with an obsessed with Prada. I loved her. She instantly from page 1 was someone I totally knew I would love. She wasn’t one of those wimpy, take crap from everyone, push over that most books make us girls….come on, some of us are some seriously kick ass women. She grew up with a mother that was a total B**** (notice the capital b), a daddy she knew nothing about and a serious case of commitment phobia thanks to her mommy issue. At least she had her awesome Nana….until she just recently passed.Knowing that her Nana would want her to do something with her life, she decided to change herself for the better….quit smoking was on the top of the list. Who knew that would change her world COMPLETELY. Waking up a Vampyre was not on her list of things to do when she had that thought.Astrid is immediately thrown into a world of vampyres, demons, angels and fairies. Holy crap, I loved this book.A foul mouthed angel who looks identical to Oprah, a Fairy who is the definite doppelganger to the Terminator and has the worst fashion sense in the universe take Astrid under their wings (no pun intended).There are rogue vampyres on the loose, a drop dead gorgeous Prince (again, no pun intended, it just keeps happening) who is completely convinced Astrid is his, an attraction to another gorgeous Vamp and tiny demon babies on her ceiling, this girl is in for a crazy ride. This story has SO many twists and turns. It was so awesome how every detail in this book ties together and as you read you find yourself saying “omg, what, seriously? AWESOME!” really I said that about a million times.Every character in this part has a certain importance. While Astrid is definitely the main character in this story, the side characters end up have multiple reasons for being there and OMG my mind is starting to get all hyper thinking about how awesome this author is. I have never read anything that has so many different stories in one that all turn into the same thing…SEE, hyper brain is happening.This book is absolutely hilarious. The things that come out of Astrid mouth are so freaking funny. The banter between characters, the little things like the game Clue. Ah, hilarious. This is also one seriously hot book. There were a few parts where I considered walking outside my house and straight into my freezing cold lake…that hot.I am super excited that there is also a book 2 in the series. Fashionably Dead Down Under. The author was amazing and gave me the book as a gift and it will definitely be read right when I am down with this review. A-MAZING!! 5++ STARS!!!Highly recommend this book to every single being in the universe (yes, I meant that to be strange) I don’t care what kind books you like to read…READ THIS. Right now it is free so NO EXCUSES!!!!

I have binged many of Peterman's series. I do not remember if I had thought they were hard to sink my teeth into. This book felt slow the first 40 or so percent. I loved seeing some of the character traits I fell in love with from other series. Now, I am hooked and ready to plow through the next one!

I absolutely hate it when an author takes a fantastic, page-turning, into-the-middle-of-the-night read, gets to the end, takes a 180-degree twist and screws the story – and the reader – up. All Peterman had to do was stop two pages before she did. But more about that later!Astrid has just buried her beloved grandmother. Her mother has despised her since birth and she has never known her father. And she needs to quit smoking. Since she can’t bring her grandmother back or determine the identify of her father and since she can’t seem make her mother love her regardless of what she does, she decides that the only thing she can control is the smoking.However, when Astrid resorts to hypnotism to deal with the smoking issue, the supposed hypnotist forces her into a trance. Thirty-six hours later, Astrid awakens as a vampire. And she also awakens to a houseguest – a guardian Angel named Pam, who looks exactly like Oprah. Shortly thereafter, she acquires another houseguest, a Fairy named Kevin, who looks like Schwarzenegger and who has been brought in to teach Astrid how to fight.It seems that Astrid, unknown to her, was originally born a demon-human hybrid and has been reborn as a vampire called The Chosen One, the long-prophesied savior of the Vampyre King and the ultimate protector of the Vampyre race. It also appears that she is fated to be the mate of Ethan, Warrior Prince of the North American Dominion and son of the Vampyre King.From the opening chapter, the book is captivating. It is hilarious and profane one minute and deadly serious the next. Told from Astrid’s first person POV, the thoughts expressed in her internal monologues flow so naturally – profane or not, complete sentence or fragment – that you can’t help but think that this is the exact same way the author thinks in her own head. Peterman even throws in, when the reader least expects it, a bit of paraphrasing on some of the more famous quotes from Twilight. And it is a fantastic take on the we’re-fated-to-be-mated, love and lust at first sight, paranormal vampire story.Before you can wipe the tears from your eyes that result from the spot-on snark and sarcasm, Peterman flips the mood and plunges the reader into some serious psychological maneuvering. One of the most succinct quotes that I have ever read regarding the acceptance of responsibility and duty occurs in an exchange between Astrid and Ethan:Astrid: “I’m not ready for all this.”Ethan: “Ready does not factor into the equation, Angel. Life happens whether we are ready or not – the only choice or control we have is whether or not we will rise to meet its challenges.”So with all this praise for the book, why did I rate it at only 3 stars and why the sharp opening paragraph to this review? The answer is three situations – one irritating, one inexcusable and one disgusting.First, the irritating problem is that no major character has a last name provided, and few of the supporting characters have last names either. Somewhere towards the end of the book, Astrid’s last name seems to slip in, but I’m really not sure. Fortunately, no two characters have similar first names but the device does not help the reader become attached to the characters or feel that they have more than two-dimensional depth.Secondly, the inexcusable problem is the presence of multiple editing errors – transpositions, missing words, misplaced words, missing punctuation and misspellings. This situation is more prominent toward the end and could have been avoided by a good proofreader or a team of qualified beta readers.And then Robyn Peterman ruins it. She ends the book with a cliffhanger. Mind you, this is not a tantalizing hook meant to entice the reader into continuing the series. Oh, no – this is a nasty, depressing, oh-you-did-not-just-do-this cliffhanger! As I stated earlier, all Peterman had to do was stop two pages before she did and the reader would be satisfied, with the hook for the next novel set in the reader’s mind. Granted, what she wrote in those two pages is not as bad as the last page of Karin Slaughter’s final book in her Grant County series, but it is definitely a teeth-grinder.Because Peterman’s writing is so fresh and enjoyable and because she has built a fine paranormal world, I will continue to read her Hot Damned series. However, since she has established a precedent for blind-siding her readers, I will not purchase additional entries in the series, nor read them, until the series is complete. That way I can read straight through and minimize the damage to both my anger quotient and my blood pressure.

But I'm glad I did. Initially I had difficulty getting into the book. I'm a former smoker and the description of her smoking had me put the book down. My sister encouraged me to continue and I'm glad she did. This book can be laugh-out-loud funny and I need that in my life (who doesn't?). The sex scenes are a little too much for me so I skip them. I'm not a fashion officinato and don't care about all the name brand clothing either however, I'm sure it's enjoyable, enticing and descriptive for some. I did feel the book was a little rushed. I don't know if possibly this wasn't intended to be a series but I felt the plot could have slowed down instead of rushing through everything. The main characters are immortal - what's the rush?The character development and imagination of the author, Robyn Peterman, kept me reading and I will continue with the next book.I gave it 4 stars for the characters and imagination, I likely would have given it 5 if there wasn't so much sex and I didn't feel the book was rushed.

In an attempt to finally quit smoking, Astrid goes to be hypnotised. However, she’s tricked by the “hypnotist” and is turned into a Vampyre instead.I’m quite torn over this book. I downloaded it for the humorous paranormal factor, a la KF Breene, and although it is darkly funny, it just somehow missed the mark for me.So much happens and way too much is packed in unnecessarily for the length of the book. It makes for kind of a chaotic read. A lot of characters with a lot of crucial arcs. Too many links between different characters and and a lot of - what I assumed should be - shock reveals. It was just kind of insane.I found myself getting really distracted and drifting away from reading just for a bit of a mental break. And it’s really not that long of a book to warrant that.Also the inconsistency in her powers was so frustrating considering she was supposed to have mastered all of it in such a short time. Chosen One shmosen one.I’m sad to say the ending ruined it for me. Even with all my negative points, a good ending could have salvaged the whole book but I was just left with a 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 feeling instead. Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll be moving on to the next book in the series.

I enjoyed reading the story. It was funny and very readable. But why oh why do these greedy authors leave the ending on a cliff hanger with the intention of selling the next installment? If this story had had a suitable ending with the next book being a sequel rather than a continuation of the story, I would highly likely have bought the next book in the series. But I refuse to do that on principle. There are many more similar books out there that finish the story and start another with the same characters, and don't leave you hanging on wondering what is going to happen after you finish the book but not the story. I suspect the whole series ends in the same way. Disappointing.

Not entirely sure what to say about this book. It's so far beyond bizarre that new verbs need to be created.So . . . The pros: sex scenes are kinda hot, several intriguingly funny secondary characters and a hot as all hell leading man. Can't say the cussing and bad language bothered me but it all seemed a bit pointless.On the flip side, for me this book had an unsettling pace - there was no rhythm or, as far as I could tell, structure to the book. There was a lot of inane, pointless dialogue which I skimmed over (so much in fact that I think I only read about a third of this book!)Clearly a lot of people like this author and series but frankly there's better out there - the series seems to be a poor imitation of Maryjanice Davidsons Undead series which is a lot better. Or try Mimi Jean Pamfiloff if you want a hilarious supernatural series - she's at least writes well structured hilarious stories.Unsurprisingly, I won't be pursuing the next in the series

Series based in Hell. But not a Hell as you and I might have thought it – at least mostly not, and then devils or demons are not quite what you thought either.This series really had me hooked right from the beginning, although it did get better as it went on a most series do.One of the best things about the series is that everything is not quite as you thought and usually turned on its head, so much so that you end up liking the Devil and find his brother – ie God in this scenario – rather straight laced and even boring. And as for their mother! Yes, they have a mother and she visits them occasionally and when she does chaos rules. And if there is a mother, then there must be a father, and so there is, and yes, he is still alive and is half Sprite. Sprites are loveable creatures and you just want to hug the they are so cute.. and so he gets hugged a lot by his grand-daughters.Yes, the Devil has children – all girls as it happens.The first seven girls are the Seven Deadly Sins – well that makes some sense - and they do what their names say they do. And they are mostly very jealous of each other and thus some rather nasty ‘accidents’ happen but with no bad outcome except for some punishment by Daddy.The 8th girl is different and is this 8th girl that the books are centered around.Astrid.Astrid didn’t know when the story begins just who was her father – or her real mother for that matter. But she did know that she liked fashionable clothes. And this is where the titles come from, because everyone in Hell likes fashionable clothes – preferably Prada or similar and likes to look very well turned out at all times – including the Devil. Hence the phrase:‘Knife in thigh? Fine. Lying Prince? Whatever. Torn Prada? Unforgiveable.’Astrid has a best friend named Gemma, who proves to be rather important as the books continue.For me, the books are giggle aloud worthy and I just loved all the funny language that Robyn Peterman makes up and uses. Her curse phrases are really good and the things she can add to the words are brilliant.So some examples of her words are:RedonkulousDoodoopoopcaacaaBobbityflonk.She creatively combines words into a phrase you never would have thought of and thus creates some really fun sentences.So Astrid finds out she is not who she thought she was and finds out that she has a great deal of magic and also finds herself a really hot husband who is actually dead and life is never the same again.I am giving all the books 5 stars but will tell you about each of them separately as I really want people to read the series in order as I don’t want to give out too many spoilers!

No doubt that Robyn Peterman is an excellent story teller. This book, the first of a series, introduces you to the heroine of the tale, Astrid.Definitely a larger than life or should I say larger than death individual. She is certainly self opinionated and by the end of the book it is clear she likes the men.Excellently crafted character, a little more so than Pam, her guardian angel and The Kevin, her fairy protector.Loved the story but found that the constant profanities were too much and were over the top for the story particularly when coming from Pam.It was clear relatively early in the book that Astrid's drooling over overly handsome males that the likelihood of romance would blossom somewhere along the line. For those who find this essential to a good story they were not disappointed. Sadly I did not see the necessity to cover it on such detail. As a result I switched off.Sadly, though enjoying much of the book I do not think I will be following the series further.The reviews clearly show I am in the minority so I know the series will be a success and I still thank the author for the privilege of reading this book.