Kayla Steele: Vampires with a bit of bite

by Emma Wright

Real vampires don't sparkle. Real werewolves aren't big fluffy radiators. Real heroines don't pine and waste away just because some dead guy has left them. A real book has more attitude, more fight, more bite. The Kayla Steele Series by Natasha Rhodes is a horror series that delivers.

Kayla is just your average girl struggling to deal with a dead end job, shitty boss and bitch co-worker in the heart of gritty LA. Just when life starts to look up for her, her boyfriend Karrel goes and gets himself sliced and diced by gang of werewolves. It turns out he's actually part of a group of elite fighters called Hunters who deal with all things that go bump in the night. The hunters are something like what Buffy would have done if she had got government funding. From then on, Kayla's life is thrown into turmoil as she has to deal with genetically engineered vampires, an overly amorous werewolf called Mutt and a ghost of a boyfriend to avenge. And that's just all in book one, Dante's Girl.

Book two ( The Last Angel ) delivers a fast-paced action-packed plot that aims straight for the jugular. An angel turns up dead on the streets of sunny LA. To the Hunters this can only spell trouble. Kayla, however, decides to take this as a chance to attempt to bring back her long-dead boyfriend - and to help try to save the world if she has time. With flashes from the past, some steamy scenes with werewolf hunk Mutt (who we met in Book One) and more sub plots than you can shake a stick at, it's one hell of a ride.

The Kayla Steele series delivers it all and more. A feisty heroine, several tasty man (though not necessarily human) treats and plenty of ghoulishly gruesome creatures. It's a rollercoaster ride of a book but does require constant attention, lest you get confused. Not really one to dip in and out of, because of the sheer number of characters and twists - a less able reader may risk getting swamped in it all. But believe me, it's well worth the risk.

Rhodes writes with impeccable ease, her sharp and witty style flowing across the pages through steamy shower scenes to gut churning fight sequences and all between. The dialogue is particularly sparkling, making me actually laugh out loud on many an occasion. It's a must for any horror fans out there and an essential edition to your bookshelf.

The series is split into four books, with two published already and two on their way. Rhodes has also written a number of novelizations of movies such as Blade and Final Destination.

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