Sleeping With the Entity by Cat Devon

Sleeping With the Entity by Cat Devon

Meet Daniella Delaney.  She's all read to open her shop, Heavenly Cupcakes, in one of Chicago's sleepier districts.  But she's having a hard time convincing the local business association--namely Nick St. George--that she's a good addition to the neighborhood.  Daniella hopes that her famous red velvet cupcakes will be enough to melt any man's heart.  But Nick is no ordinary man.  He's got fangs.

As leader of the Vamptown clan, Nick has no intention of letting Daniella breathe new life into his old haunts.  But something about her leaves Nick hungry...for more.  He can't control her mind like other humans, a trait that makes Daniella irresistible.  Could it be that, for the first time in centuries, Nick has met his match?  Love is always a force to be reckoned with.  But can this vampire have his cake and eat it too?

 Nick St. George can't believe that his attempt to use vampire compulsion on Daniella doesn't work.  He knows that bringing a bunch of humans into his neighborhood to buy cupcakes at Daniella's new shop will only increase the risk that he or any vampire in his clan might be found out.  But when he meets with her to put the suggestion in her mind that she doesn't want to open her shop, she simply laughs at him.  Nick can't figure out why his power doesn't work on her, the first human he has ever heard of who can resist.  

Daniella can't quite figure out why her cupcake shop is meeting with so much resistance from the sexy, brooding Nick.  She delights in keeping him off balance.  Her stubbornness has served her well in the past and quite frankly, she can't afford to open her shop anywhere else--her dad is giving her a free year's rent in the building in Nick's neighborhood.  He'll just have to suck it up and get used to having her around.  

When vampires from another clan appear out to get to Daniella, Nick steps in to keep her safe while also tasking his clan with figuring out what it is that makes Daniella so unique.  A letter from her mother that she receives on Halloween clears up one mystery but opens up several more.  In addition, Nick has stepped up to act as a bodyguard 24/7 leading to increased emotions on both sides.  The sparks fly between the vampire and the human.  

This is my first book by Cat Devon and I enjoyed it quite a bit.  I did feel that the way the author shared info vampires was a bit clunky at the beginning...characters who would obviously know the history of their clan rehash a bunch of the rules simply for the reader.  It felt like a cross between really awkward dialogue and clumsy info-dumping.  Once that bit was past however things stayed consistently strong throughout the rest of the book right up to the end where I felt the resolution to the evil baddie was laughable.  A supposedly violent vampire who only ever felt like a cardboard, bad western caricature bought it in the silliest way I have read about in a while.  However, considering how much I enjoyed Nick and Daniella this didn't negatively influence my enjoyment of the book too badly.  My public library has two more books by Cat Devon and I have already put them on my For Later shelf to check out soon.