Let's go through the 'Guaranteed to Get Lexie's Attention' Checklist:
Chick with Sword on Cover CHECK
More Snarkiness then you can toss a boot at CHECK
Sassy Paranormal Best Friend CHECK
Interesting City CHECK

So it has all these things. Theory states that if you give a Lexie her favorite tropes she is BOUND to enjoy the book.

Well I was never very good at science.

The problem is Jayne tried entirely too hard to make Sophie the sassiest, coolest non-magical person in the entirety of Urban Fantasydom. Whenever Sophie made a snarky quip I cringed--they felt forced when partnered with her rather boy crazy attitude.

Much of my problems are in the fact that the book tries to have this 'chummy' sort of atmosphere when Sophie (our MC) narrates the tale. Rather then feeling as if this is a talk between 'us girls' it makes me feel uncomfortable. We learn WAY too much about just how horny Sophie feels around her boss. And her new reluctant partner. And the two of them together.

Some of her observations are interesting--she genuinely enjoys the job she has and knows an awful lot of entertaining folk. And she does know a lot about the paranormal community. Jayne includes some creatures I never knew existed--like the two-faced Kishi's. I appreciated that she tried to keep things a little different.

Then her sort of tour guide schtick was grating as well. She dispenses information about the world, the Underworld and the two combined like a Disney cruise director. 'Over here are the pixies--they get nasty fast. And over there are zombies--always losing their forms.' While over time some of the generalizations she makes are proven differently, I thought it rather gauche of her to say such sweeping statements.

Essentially Sophie's partner in solving some brutal murders is Parker--as normal an American cop as you can get. Knows next to nothing about paranormals he didn't learn from some highly doubtful resources. This is usually how their interviewing of witnesses goes:

Parker: So--
Sophie: Parker NO! Bad idea!
Parker: Why?
Sophie: Because that's a [insert creature's name] and they like to [insert natural habits] so never [insert action here]. Ever.

Fun right? Except its not after the first twelve times. I understand Jayne wanted to give us an idea about the world, but I have to think there was far better ways. Or maybe just not include as MANY types next time.

And this has nothing to do with the author or writing, but I cry foul on the cover artist--as pleasing as the cover is its about as far from what Sophie looks like as possible. "I nonchalantly patted my Brillo pad curls..." (page 4) Long flowing locks of reddish hue are not Brillo pad curls. I have friends with hair like that. Believe me the torture they put themselves through to get curl free straight hair is nothing short of miraculous. ( )

3.5-Cute but reviews on rest of series not ( )

Why did I pick up this book? Because I thought maybe underworld detection agency meant more mystery than romance, that there might be an interesting paranormal world, or characters I could get into. Nope.

Are there really people like this in the world? Vapid, fashion obsessed, and prone to referring to being in a room with attractive men as being in a "hot male sandwich". Ugh. And the love interest is a condescending tool, so... not the book for me. ( )

A fun, romp of a read. I wavered between 3 and 4 stars; went to 4 because will be continuing the series. More chick-lit meets cozy mystery than paranormal with an "ordinary" chick stuck in DMV style civil service clerical job, here come the hotties and a mystery. Lots of one liners that in the right mood are funny but could be irritating if not in the mood. Likable characters. Very misleading cover. Paranormal came in in that some characters were demons, vampires, trolls, witches, etc. but not really at all plot essential. Heavy foreshadowing lost some luster for me as easily solved mysteries although heroine remained clueless—partly 'cause the hot guys knew stuff they did not let her in on which almost made me drop a star. Overall, I liked. ( )

Sophie works for the UDA – the Underworld Detective Agency. The regulatory body that keeps an eye on San Francisco’s supernaturals, making sure they keep their heads down, making sure they follow the rules and making sure they submit the correct forms in triplicate.

But people have been dying in the city, brutally murdered, in ways that seem supernatural. The police – with detective Hayes as investigating officer – want some expert help on the supernatural denizens of the city. Sophie, as an (almost) human member of the UDA seems the ideal choice

Also, it doesn’t hurt that she finds Hayes rather… compelling

I always try to start a review with some positives, so let’s start there…

..

.

This concludes the positives.

No, seriously, I have not one good thing to say about this book. Ok, let me dredge something up – it has POTENTIAL.

The potential lies in the world. The idea of an underworld full of every creature of legend coming to Earth and having to fill in forms in triplicate for the UDA is an appealing one. There’s a huge number of creatures mentioned and they have hints of greater characters – like the fairies and pixies with their very bad tempers, for example, and the feud between the trolls and the dwarfs. There’s a lot of potential for growth and depth there to create a really fascinating and likely funny world.

It wasn’t realised here. For the most part all of the creatures were names, descriptions. They could have been wereavocados for all the difference it made. Now, fitting in depth for all of them so early in the series is hard and maybe impossible, so I don’t hold it against the book – yet. So the world gets a grudging tick.

There. A positive! Now to the negative

Which has to start with Sophie, the protagonist. Oh dear gods, this woman is quite literally the worst protagonist I have ever had the displeasure to read.

Firstly, this woman needs to give Anne Summers a call, invest in half of their catalogue and take care of business – because her overriding, unworkable obsession with good looking men is bordering on needing an intervention or treatment. The number of pages she spends drooling over her boss or Hayes are completely staggering. If you remove her endless desire to hump their legs from the book you’d be left with a pamphlet. It doesn’t matter what she’s doing, murdered bodies around, important work, saving lives – it doesn’t matter, her hawtness obsession never pauses. I actually have a note in the book saying “please gods stop” before the end of chapter 1. That is how quickly my patience ran out.

The whole reason she volunteers herself to help Hayes is because he’s hot. That’s how she inserts herself into a murder case. At one point she holds her breath when hunting for clues that Hayes is single and he gives her a concerned look because she has been rendered breathless by his hawtness for so long.

Secondly, this woman is pathetically weak. She works every day in the UDA, surrounded by every kind of creature imaginable yet get her in a club on an undercover mission and she has a minor panic attack because of all the monsters around her and has to be saved by Hayes. She not only loses her lunch at crime scenes, but she can’t even think about the victims without getting nauseous – or even leaving the room. When she’s irritated or angry or arguing she starts to become “hysterical” and needs to take deep breaths to keep close to rational. She whines, she cries, she mopes, she fails to achieve anything and has to be protected and sheltered.

Thirdly, she’s incompetent. Utterly incompetent. She’s supposed to help Hayes by being the supernatural expert but never once is her expertise used. Her room mate is more helpful than she is – and that only because Sophie is utterly incapable of keeping her mouth shut about the case. She will pass on important information to anyone and everyone she meets. Sophie fails to make a connection between the victims which she really should have and doesn’t even check the victims’ identities. When under threat Hayes tries to teach her to use a gun and she shoots the floor. Or the ceiling (even going to the range makes her gulp in fear – and she screams because the gun ejects a casing). At the end of a long lesson she can, just barely, occasionally hit the white paper the target is on. When menaced, she throws the gun at her attacker. She demands a full explanation of a supernatural occurrence in earshot – in the very presence – of someone who is not aware of the supernatural – and is SHOCKED, SHOCKED I SAY, that the police cover it up and hide the supernatural nature. She works for the UDA. Her JOB is to hide the supernatural from the real world – but no, she cannot understand this!

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