BITING THE BULLET

Author: Jennifer Rardin ISBN: 9780316020589 2/2008 PARANORMAL Publisher: ORBIT BOOKS

I'm Lucille Robinson (aka Jaz Parks). This is a mission unlike anything my vampire boss, Vayl, and I have ever been on. It's not our usual take them out and run; it's an undercover mission that needs the whole gang: a psychic, an interpreter, and a weapons specialist. We're joining a Special Ops team to nail the Wizard, a major terrorist thorn in the military's side. We've never gone in with such heavy artillery before, but the more the merrier, right? Um . . . nope. At least not since Vayl and I learned part of our job is to ferret out a mole concealed in our unit. To add to our problems, we're being harried by a pack of reavers bent on revenge, and targeted by a Seer who wants to share Vayl's power—at any cost. Oh yeah, and let's not forget the army of demonic, soul-sucking parasites either. This is going to be a blast.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

BITING THE BULLET is the third book in the Jaz Parks series, following book one, ONCE BITTEN, TWICE SHY, and book two, ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST, and it starts out with a bang.  Literally.  Jaz has once again landed herself and her motley crew of CIA-funded assassination squad of paranormals into another fight for their lives.  Nothing is easy for Jaz—not even dying, as we learned in the last two books.

Unfortunately, along for the ride this time is also her twin brother David's elite military group.  His little, tight-knit family has a mole that's feeding information to the Big Bad of the book, and the Wizard and Jaz's group are sent in to find him (or her).  David's group justifiably feels unhappy with having to work with Jaz's group, plus Jaz and David haven't actually reconciled with all their issues from the past (like her dusting his wife).

You can't pick up this book without having read the first two books. They go over the major plot points from the last two books, but make references to details only a reader of the previous two volumes would get. 

The romance in the book, and the series in general so far, is only a secondary plotline.  It's there, it's mentioned and built upon, but not the focus of the book.  More focus is placed upon the bond between Vayl and Jaz, boss and bodyguard (more or less), and how it both helps them and makes things difficult.  As a change of pace it's his baggage that interferes with their relationship, however.  Namely, his quest to find the reincarnated souls of his dead sons and his obsession with seers telling him how to find them.  He gets a more concrete clue this time around, but is blind to the consequences of his actions.

Jaz still has her hang-ups—with newer added ones like a family member in Hell, her father might be targeted for death, and the guy who resurrected her (twice) hiding a big secret, but she makes progress.  Her progress only serves to aggravate her, though, because for every step she took forward, Vayl managed to take ten backwards, then back flip into the bottomless pit. 

To be honest, I could not put this book, or the two before, down.  I broke my strict 'no books that can't be seen by kids under the age of 10' rule and brought the book in with me to work to read during odd moments.  I stayed up all night.  I eagerly searched for the next book, was satisfied it was within half a year, then sighed in defeat since it was still too far away for me.  Jaz is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but with military training and a crew that might put Buffy's to shame.  Read it and join me as I eagerly await the next book, BITTEN TO DEATH, due out in August.

Alexandra Cenni