I won this book through Goodread’s Free Reads giveaway, thank you.

I believe this is the third book in a series of books about Jane Fairfax, aka Jane Austen, a vampire. I didn’t read the first two books, so I won’t be comparing this to the others.

This book was a pleasure to read. It had me laughing out loud numerous times throughout the story. Well written and fast-paced, it has plots within plots as Jane, her fiancé Walter, Walter’s mother Miriam a vampire hunter and friends make their way across Europe on a tour of castles and homes. The characters are wacky and easily visualized through their manner of speech and actions. Even Miriam’s pet Chihuahua has an over the top personality. The humor is witty, snarky and perfectly timed.

If you’re looking for a quick, entertaining light bit of reading that will make you laugh out loud, then this book is for you. I give this book 4 stars
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In book #3 of the Jane Fairfax series, Jane and Brian (along with Jane's fiance, best friend, and best friend's boyfriend) head to United Kingdom and Europe on a tour to see great architectural sites. Along the way, Jane's husband shows up right as she's about to marry Walter (!), a person dies, a clue is revealed to a missing Vampiric legend, and Our Gloomy Friend is back.

Ford ties up the end fairly neat but he does leave an opening at the end that COULD perhaps become book #4. Currently, Ford's website's last update was for Jane Vows Vengeance and nothing new has been added. Wherever he is, I hope Ford continues on with the series as it is most fun. ( )

Jane Austen is my favorite vampire. Her opinions on literature and her own writing as put down to paper by Michael Thomas Ford are a part of why after so many years I have finally come to like and understand her books. Certainly not as well as an Austen scholar, but on my own level, which is a huge step forward from where I was a few years ago.

Jane Vows Vengeance by Michael Thomas Ford is the conclusion to the Jane Austen vampire series. While I would love love love love love to revisit Jane, Walter, and the other characters, this book does make a logical and satisfying ending.

After stalling for ages to avoid the reckoning with Walter's mother, Jane is whisked away to Europe on a tour with her fiancé. He suggests that they get married over seas rather than stall for even longer.

Jane, who has a history with England, obviously!, is less than excited to take Walter up on this offer. But she loves him and this trip means quite a bit to him. So she agrees, hoping to get married as soon as possible before anything else can go wrong.

But in the way there's a pair of ghosts, the possibility of a cure for vampirism, and the usual lot who wants to end Jane's eternal life.

Although the plot sounds chaotic and a bit far afield from the earlier book seller and book tour type books, it somehow all comes together. It's a bit of a caper but it's a fun caper and it brings closure between Jane's old life and her life as a vampire. ( )

Jane Vows Vengeance is the third book in this series by Michael Thomas Ford. Jane Fairfax (a.k.a. Jane Austen) is a bookseller and a best-selling author. She is engaged to Walter Fletcher, an architect, and continuing to deal with his mother, a dedicated vampire hunter, Miriam. To make matters worse, Jane's been given an ultimatum by her soon-to-be mother-in-law, tell Walter the truth about her vampirism AND get pregnant. Jane isn't even sure the latter is possible, but since she loves Walter, she's willing to endure almost anything to make this possible. Or so she thinks . . .

After Walter announces that they should go on an architectural tour of Europe and combine it with their honeymoon, Jane agrees. But who goes on a honeymoon tour with their mother-in-law? You guessed it, Jane and Walter . . . because his mother wants to be there to witness the great event. Things are going reasonably well on this tour until the so-called wedding day when another "surprise" awaits Jane . . . her husband . . . whom she hasn't seen for more than 150 years. Needless to say, this puts a damper on the wedding and subsequent celebrations.

Jane Vows Vengeance has moments of comedic relief and continues to provide the reader with a better understanding of the quirkiness of all of the characters. This story features less romance and much more intrigue centered on a myth that may allow Jane to become fully human after 200 years of being a vampire. As Jane struggles to have her previous marriage "annulled," she is also on a quest to find the mythical object that may restore her humanity. (I forgot to mention, she is also trying to find the right moment to tell Walter who she really is and what she has become . . . piece of cake!) Jane Vows Vengeance seemed a little less light-hearted and tongue-in-cheek as the previous stories. This wasn't a bad thing and provided a new experience in the series (definitely a good thing as some series become mired down by trying to duplicate the look and feel of previous titles). Jane Vows Vengeance is a quick and enjoyable read that provides a different perspective into the lives of Jane, Walter and Miriam. Let's hope this isn't the end of the Jane Fairfax series. ( )

REVIEW ALSO ON: http://bibliomantics.com/2012/03/09/literary-vampires-dont-suck-cassie-la-sinks-...

With the first book’s focus on Jane’s novel within the novel Constance, and the second book based around Constance becoming a movie, Jane Vows Vengeance takes a decidedly different turn. This time around, the focus is not on Jane’s career, but on her personal life, both with fiance Walter and her existence as a vampire. Due to a pact with Walter’s mother Miriam, Jane has promised to tell Walter she is a vampire AND conceive a child with him within the year. Hopefully they won’t name it Renesmee.

Jane is the same sharp, witty character she was in the prior novels, complete with some awesome vampire powers and a hatred for Charlotte Brontë, who she refers to only as Our Gloomy Friend, lest saying her name makes her appear a la Beetlejuice. Besides being able to communicate with animals (to do such things as fetch them sausage mcmuffins), we learn that Jane can also talk to ghosts and demons, thanks to vampires having an innate second sight. Unfortunately, much like speaking to animals it also makes her look batshit crazy. No pun intended.

While on their whirlwind tour of Europe, which is part wedding part honeymoon part architectural boner, Jane, fiance Walter, MIL Miriam, Lilith the dog, best friend Lucy, and Ben the sexy rabbi (when do you ever hear those words in the same sentence) visit England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, France, Italy, and Switzerland. They travel around with a ridiculous cast of characters with names like Chumsley Faber-Titting, Genevieve Prideaux, Orsino Castano, and Suzu (not Suzuki as auto-correct suggests). Not one to have an uneventful life, Jane is blamed for the mysterious death of a member of the party, and this novel takes a plot straight out of an Agatha Christie novel. Sadly, a plot not featuring Hercule Poirot.

We are given a larger glimpse into the world of vampires and other creatures, which Jane seems completely unaware of. In order to obtain a fake passport, Lord Byron (yes, that Lord Byron) takes her to see Solomon Grundy (yes, that Solomon Grundy). “Solomon Grundy, / Born on a Monday, / Christened on Tuesday, / Married on Wednesday, / Took ill on Thursday, / Grew worse on Friday, / Died on Saturday, / Buried on Sunday. / That was the end, / Of Solomon Grundy.” Just as in children’s rhyme named after him, Grundy’s life is cyclical, securing him a long life as a perpetual zombie. His wife Alice, is also from a well known rhyme, about a little girl with a little curl in the middle of her forehead. She runs a boarding house for vampire fledglings to help them adjust to their vampirism without helping open up Hellmouths or other stuff newborn vampires do.

The main plot of the novel, resolves around a little bit of vampire mythology, specifically the legend of an iron stake called Crispin’s Needle, which can turn a vampire mortal. Attaining information about the needle leads Jane on a search straight out of The Da Vinci Code as she follows the trail of the Three Librarians (AKA the Tedious Three), who research and record vampire history. Jane even comes across evidence leading to a possible vampire martyr named St. Apollonia, who comes complete with stained glass windows that hint at the elusive needle. Thankfully neither Lucy nor Jane have awful Tom Hanks mullets as they search for clues.

With the murder mystery surrounding the preservationists, the search for Crispin’s Needle, Jane’s promise to tell Walter her secret, and the wedding that might never be, there are a lot of plots and subplots occurring in this novel, more than ever before. Perhaps because of all these plots, the ending is a tad silly, not to mention ambiguous. It’s a well-rounded ending, but it does read like a cheesy sitcom, particularly the epilogue. Regardless, if Ford were to go ahead and write a fourth book in the trilogy (and who doesn’t have 4 book trilogies these days), I would be the first in line to read it. With fangs on. (See what I did there? AGAIN.) ( )