Title: Quick Bites: A Short Story Collection
Average Customer Review:
Number of Comments: 2 Rating(s)   2 Review(s)

Read it only if you're a huge Jaz Parks fan

February 6, 2012
Reviewer:

Quick Bites combines Jennifer Rardin's short stories into a wild ride of vampires, zombies, and voodoo that is impossible to put down. This omnibus edition includes the stories "Scouting Jasmine," "The Golem Hunt," "An Evening For Jaz and Vayl," "Paul and Brady Get Hoodoo with the Voodoo," and "Zombie Jamboree."

SCOUTING JASMINE, AN EVENING FOR JAZ AND VAYL & ZOMBEE JAMBOREE
Let me start off by saying that I LOVE the Jaz Parks series. If you haven't yet read any of the titles in the series, it is an urban fantasy series featuring Jaz, a CIA assassin and her vampire partner Vayl. Vayl is a dapper, urbane, sophisticate who also happens to be a vampire. Jaz, his partner is definitely damaged goods as the sole survivor of a team of vampire hunters she previously led. Since this is not really a review of the series, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to go any deeper into the plot of the series simply because these are NOT a stand alone stories.

Just so everyone is clear, these are definitely a SHORT stories, emphasis on the short, just in case you didn't pick up on that from the capital letters. :-) As another reviewer pointed out, if you don't love the series and hunger for everything Jaz and Vayl, you will probably walk away angry or feeling cheated as she did.

SCOUTING JASMINE could definitely be considered a prequel to the first book, Once Bitten, Twice Shy (Jaz Parks). To be even more accurate it really just adds a bit to the prologue which starts off the first book. In that prologue we are introduced to Jaz when she is in with her boss Pete and she learns that, rather than being fired, he has decided to partner her up with Vayl whom she had never met, only heard rumors about. Jaz has worked solo for six months, ever since she lost her team, and with each assignment she has become more and more reckless. At first Jaz thinks Pete is assigning her a babysitter but she is assured that is not the case. She's told that Vayl requested her but when she presses is told that Vayl has his reasons, reasons which he will reveal to her in time. It's time. We are treated to a glimpse of the very beginning of the team that will become Jaz's second family. I really can't say very much without spoiling the story because there really isn't much story. In Scouting Jasmine we get to go along with Vayl when he gets his first look at Jaz in action and we learn a little bit about the growing attraction he has had for her throughout the series.

AN EVENING FOR JAZ AND VAYL, is a story about Vayl and Jaz spending a romantic evening together. This story takes place after the events of Bitten to Death, book 4. Its short and sweet. But the value is that you get a rare insight into Vayl's point of view.


GOLEM HUNT. I'm not sure how much I can write without giving away the whole thing because there really isn't too much to the story. Vayl and Jaz are tasked with eliminating a golem which a rabbi had constructed to protect him from BAI. Instead, the golem kills the rabbi and then sets out to do the same to the rest of the community. We never learn who or what BAI is, why it/they want the rabbi dead or even why the golem turned on his master. I know this is meant to be a short story but really, would it have been too much to include some backstory, especially since you won't find those answers in any of the books of the series? The synopsis tells us this story takes place between books three and four. Really...So why then is Jaz worried about puking from the SIGHT of the gore when the story begins? Jaz worried about puking from the SIGHT of something after what she has DONE to all manner of nasties over years! This is still Jaz CIA assassin, who worked alone for six months after her entire team was wiped out right in front of her, while they were clearing out a nest of vampires we're talking about? Was it two or three pages later that Jaz goes from the thought of puking at the sight of gore to making mental jokes, 'Dumbass. This is how men of God get transformed into chum'. I guess she had some saltines handy or else she has some serious short term memory issues. Near the end of the story Jaz feels her ears ringing as though someone has slammed a gong inside her head because the golem looked at her with his green eyes. That would be okay story wise if the golem hadn't been described near the beginning as not having eyes. We are told repeatedly how quick the golem is and yet Jaz has time to draw three letters on his head while Vayl can hardly keep up with him. Those are just a few incidents where I was jerked out of the story.

ZOMBIE JAMBOREE and PAUL AND BRADY GET HOODOO WITH THE VOODOO are not Jaz Parks short stories at all. Both quite funny but wouldn't buy them just for the sake of reading them. Too expensive at $2 each. But would read them only because they were thrown in with the other Jaz Parks shorts.

ZOMBIE JAMBOREE is about a reality show host is in for a night she never expected when zombies take over her show.

PAUL AND BRADY GET HOODOO WITH THE VOODOO. Both Paul and Brody were funny and quirky characters and I loved, loved, Voodoo Vicky! The story was also based on a unique plot about the goofy roommates seeking out a voodoo queen to help one of them break it off with a girlfriend. The boys are conned into making some zombies for Vicky which leads to chaos. The story stops right in the middle of the action and I don`t believe the author ever finished this story. It actually could have been the start of a new full length book or even series that never was completed prior to the author`s death. So disappointing as a satisfying read but an interesting glimpse at what could have been.