Wicked Game by Jeri Smith-Ready

Well again I’m coming late to the party – the vampire sub genre is hot, whether it’s Twilight or other paranormal romance. Wicked Game received a great review in Library Journal so I decided to check it out and I was not disappointed.

The summary from the back: Recovering con artist Ciara Griffin is trying to live the straight life, even if it means finding a (shudder!) real job. She takes an internship at a local radio station, where the DJs are vampires, stuck forever in the eras in which they were turned.

Ciara’s first instinct, as always, is to cut and run. But communications giant Skywave wants to buy WVMP and turn it into just another hit-playing clone. Without the station — and the link it provides to their original Life Times — the vampires would “fade,” becoming little more than mindless ghosts of the past. Suddenly a routine corporate takeover is a matter of life and undeath.

To boost ratings and save the lives of her strange new friends, Ciara rebrands the station as “WVMP, the Lifeblood of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” In the ultimate con, she hides the DJs’ vampire nature in plain sight, disguising the bloody truth as a marketing gimmick. WVMP becomes the hottest thing around — next to Ciara’s complicated affair with grunge vamp Shane McAllister. But the “gimmick” enrages a posse of ancient and powerful vampires who aren’t so eager to be brought into the light. Soon the stakes are higher and more dangerous than any con she’s ever played.

I liked the take on corporate radio takeover. Plus as a public relations major, I appreciated the marketing stuff. Also, Ciara is a spunky fun character and her romance with Shane is believable. There are some fun twists that keep you guessing and the ending is satisfying, although I think the author could do an interesting sequel. All in all a satisfying foray into the world of vampires.