Keeping in the theme of Spooky Season, we have Jaime Munn‘s book, Between Tricks: A Dixie Tricks Novel. This story has a lot more than just vampires and has an interesting premise. Check out my review below.
The book was generally fast-paced with a lot of quips and snarky banter between characters. It’s written from Dixie Trick’s point of view as if it’s a journal – sometimes she’s talking to the audience, and other times she’s simply telling her story. She’s down to jump your bones at night and turn you into bones during the day, if you’re a monster of course!
The story follows Dixie Trick’s who’s called into investigate a rash of disappearances around the city. Her first thoughts turn to vampires because she’s got a nasty spot for all things dead. She soon realizes that her other most-hated dead thing is making its rounds and it’s up to her to figure out who’s creating them. Could it be the same person who kidnapped an orphan named Ethan and her beloved Prince of Nowhere?
Dixie is a fun, witty woman with a lot to say. She shoots straight from the hip and rarely glances back to assess the consequences. In a way, she’s admirable for her no-nonsense attitude, but in a different light, one might see it as immaturity. She walks a fine line between girl and woman, in my honest opinion. At certain points in the story I even had to remind myself that this person is older than sixteen.
Being a book about a prostitute, or as Dixie would say “the resident whore,” there’s not a lot of sexual interaction between the characters. There’s allusions to sex, sex talk, and mention of kinks, but not a whole lot of explicit scenery which may or may not be your drug of choice.
This is not a romance novel. The summary of the story alluded to an enemies to lovers trope, but alas, not in this book (maybe the next one). There’s attraction, lust, but not a whole lot of intimacy or romance. In fact, some of the characters, even her supposed main love interest, is more of a side character with not a lot of depth. It was hard for me to build a strong, emotional attachment to any of the characters – and unfortunately, the one that I found interesting didn’t survive very long.
The vampire that Dixie ends up working with is supposed to ooze charisma and sex appeal. However, Dixie seems to be immune to this, only hinting at some interest with little sparks of jealousy, even when she has her boy toys and the Prince of Nowhere at her feet. It’s almost like a child who sees another playing with a toy even though they already have one, but they must have both. I’ll say that Dixie is definitely not a character without flaws – she has loads of them.
The storyline was a little predictable, but it was still enjoyable. I would say the last few chapters were trying a little too hard to be cryptic (and stingy) with information, even though it wasn’t hard to guess where the plot was going.
Overall, it was a fun read with quirks. I thought the plot was interesting and I liked the use of monsters.
This looks like a pretty good start to a series. So, if you want to check out the author of this story, don’t forget to leave them a review! Happy reading!
Author Lauren Eason 