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    The Undead Next Door
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    The Undead Next Door
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    The Undead Next Door
    Ebook401 pages5 hours

    The Undead Next Door

    By Kerrelyn Sparks

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Three signs that something is very different with your mew man:

    1. He sleeps all day . . . which would be annoying except he's so attentive at night.

    2. He's attacked by sword-wielding assailants, yet insists he can handle it on his own.

    3. He never seems to age.

    Heather Westfield has always lived a quiet life, but that all changes when she helps a very handsome, very mysterious stranger. There's something not quite right about Jean-Luc, but still, she's never been with a man so charming, so attractive . . . so wonderful. Now if only a murderous villain wasn't after them, they might get their happily-ever-after.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061755439
    Author

    Kerrelyn Sparks

    Kerrelyn Sparks is the bestselling author of the Love at Stake series, which has hit as high as number 5 on the New York Times list and 22 on the USA Today list. Kerrelyn is honored that her band of merry vampires and shifters is spreading love and laughter worldwide in fourteen different languages.

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    Reviews for The Undead Next Door

    4/5

    255 ratings14 reviews

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    • 4/5
      The Undead Next Door is the story between Jean-Luc and Heather. Heather is a teacher and single mother in a small Texas town. She has always dreamed of more from her life. Jean-Luc the Europe Coven Master has relized that he needs to go into exile because the public is starting to wonder about him so he opens a shop in Texas. He has been afraid of relatiships for a long time because of his enemy Lui who insist on making Jean-Luc suffer by killing the women that he loves. You also find out something that is eye rollingly in almost ever vampire series now days. A good book though that was humorous and hard to put down.
    • 4/5
      This book didn't hold me completely enthralled as some of the previous books in the 'Love at Stake' series did, but it still wasn't bad at all. Ms. Sparks has a very definitive writing style; she has a humor and wit about her writing and characters I haven't quite seen anywhere else.

      I hadn't even been thinking about reading Jean-Luc's story until I actually got to this book. He took me by surprise though, I quickly fell in love with him just as I have with all the other awesome male protagonists in this series. His choice in female was pretty surprising as well, but welcome, I am glad he wanted a normal women, but, I am getting kind of sad for some of the female harem vamps, I wonder if they are going to get their HEAs.

      Received from: Purchased from BAM
    • 2/5
      In a word: fun. There's witty dialogue, good chemistry between characters, and enough wackiness to keep things lively. The book is about Heather, a single mother full of stifled dreams, and Jean, a vampire fashion designer who must hide his true nature from the world. Circumstances and an old enemy bring these two together, and they must contend with both extraordinary events and mundane life. Sparks creates a nicely superpowered breed of vampire, though her vamps are not too distinct from other authors' versions. Where Sparks stands out from her brethren is in how she successfully portrays supernatural beings' struggles with everyday living. However, the larger plot was dissatisfying and took a backseat to the smaller events leading up to the climax. As for the climax, itself, it was, well... anticlimactic. Towards the end of the book the pace picks up suddenly, even jarringly. There are a few pages of crisis, then -- poof! -- bad guy defeated. And I felt that, in switching between Heather and Jean's perspectives, there were some gaps in the narrative flow. Nevertheless, this was an entertaining book with a Lynsay Sands-esque flair.
    • 3/5
      Not as funny as some of her others. As with all of these books, the situations and fights are ridiculous with the obvious holes with the explanations and the mortals putting themselves in danger. If you can suspend belief and go with it, the books are fun, and funny. This one was only so-so for me though. The romance didn't do it for me and the laughs were few and far between. There are definite furthering of other characters and it seems like maybe this was to bridge the gad more than tell the story of the main characters? It was good enough to read.
    • 5/5
      : snark-fest, shifters, vampire, humor, paranormal, romance, urban-fantasy Poor vampire, he has to reinvent himself once again because the humans are beginning to notice that the famous haute couture fashion designer never ages. So he thinks to hide away in a basement in a small Texas town. More fool, he!Nice single mom schoolteacher with a manure-for-brains ex-husband, and a gun-toting live-in senior who babysits for her, just wants to be left alone and wishes that she could afford to make elegant clothing at reasonable prices for REAL women.At first he thinks that her drawings of his designer line means that she is a spy from another fashion house, but soon realizes that she has loads of talent, no money, and her only threat to him is that he comes to care too much for her.And then there are the villains. And the crazy situations. And some scary stuff.Kerrelyn Sparks has the most devious, fun imagination!
    • 3/5
      Heather Lynn was very happy. A world-renowned designer was opening up in her small town and she finds herself caught up in his world. He thinks that she's a rival designer but all she wants is inspiration, and clothes that fit. He's intrigued and a relationship starts, but they have to deal with the people who want him dead and the people who don't want their relatioship to happen.It was pretty predictable and fairly standard in this genre, readable but nothing spectacular.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this story with lots of humor (cockroach LOL ) I especially liked the way the relationship progressed with hero's devotion. My rating 4.5* Divorcee Heather helps vampire fashion designer Jean-Luc.
    • 5/5
      The Undead Next Door was another solid read in the Love at Stake series. The entire series thus far contains just the right mix of emotional romance, depth of characters, LOL humor, and exciting adventure to keep me turning the pages and eager for more each time I finish a book. This particular novel also had an inspiring theme of conquering your fears right when I needed it the most. The romance is both sweet and sexy, and there is just enough action to keep the reader on their toes. I loved the characters, and the mind control Jean-Luc used on Heather's no-good ex-husband had me cracking up throughout. Overall, The Undead Next Door was quite simply a lot of fun to read.Mmmmm, Jean-Luc is soooo sexy! He may be a French fashion designer, but he's definitely no sissy, even though the red-neck men in Heather's small town seem to think so and challenge him at every turn. He's a centuries-old vampire who lost two women he loved to his arch-enemy, Lui, who is out to get him yet again. After losing his second love, Jean-Luc has generally avoided women except for sustenance, and ever since Roman invented synthetic blood, he's stayed far away from them. After meeting Heather, he can no longer resist. She is everything he's ever wanted in a woman and more. He would literally give his own life to protect her and and her daughter, Bethany, from harm when it becomes clear that Lui has put them on his hit list. Jean-Luc is an old-fashioned, honorable man who longs for a family of his own and can't help fantasizing about having that life with Heather and Bethany. Jean-Luc treats Heather like a precious jewel, and the things he does for Bethany are utterly sweet. He's very much the embodiment of the perfect balance between strong alpha protectiveness and gentle tenderness, and I couldn't help but fall for him.Heather is an excellent, loving mother who is kind, caring and compassionate toward others. She is recently divorced from an extremely controlling ex, who told her everything she could and couldn't do, right down to what clothes she could wear. She loves designing and sewing her own clothes, but can't help feeling like they pale in comparison to Jean-Luc's. She's also fuller-figured. It was very sweet how Jean-Luc always tried to reassure Heather that she was beautiful in his eyes and how he respected her talents enough to offer her a job designing clothes for women like herself, rather than the stick-thin models who worked for him. Since divorcing her ex, Heather is trying to be an independent woman and doesn't want to rely on a man for anything, not even one as sexy and charming as Jean-Luc. She has to find a balance between her newfound independence and listening to Jean-Luc in order to stay alive, and I think she did an admirable job of it. She was also pretty smart to figure out part of Jean-Luc's secret before he revealed it to her, so by then, she was already halfway to accepting him as he was. I also very much admired Heather for her “war against fear” and how she was trying not to allow it to get the best of her no matter what.I absolutely love the multinational cast of characters in the Love at Stake series. Oddly enough, I don't have any trouble imagining all their different accents in my head. In my mind, this is a testament to Kerrlyn Sparks writing skill that she is able to imbue each one with their own distinct personality and dialect. Of course, readers get a visit from Roman and Shanna (How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire) and get to see their growing family, as well as Angus and Emma (Be Still My Vampire Heart). Other common characters who played roles in this book and will get books of their own later in the series: Jean-Luc's guard and Angus' descendant, Robby (The Vampire and the Virgin); Roman's happy-go-lucky right hand man, Gregori (Sexiest Vampire Alive); the boyish kilted Highland guard, Ian (All I Want for Christmas Is a Vampire), who gets a bit of a “make-over” in this book; Phineas (Wanted: Undead or Alive), the new African-American guard who is always good for a laugh; Phil (Forbidden Nights with a Vampire), the mortal day-time guard who has an interesting secret revealed in this story; and last but not least, a cameo from, Giacomo (Secret Life of a Vampire), the suave Italian Casanova. The main villain in this story is the evil Lui, an assassin who's had it in for Jean-Luc for centuries and is now in league with the equally evil Casimir who wants to take over the world. Lui also manages to use his vampire mind control to take over a couple of other characters and make them do bad things as well. Probably the best secondary character in the story, though, was Heather's Latina, psychic, gun-toting nanny, Fidelia, who was an absolute hoot.Overall, The Undead Next Door was another great read from the imaginative mind of the talented Kerrelyn Sparks. She never fails to keep me engaged when reading her books, and I'm very much looking forward to continuing with the series soon. I adore Ian and have been waiting for his book for a while now, so I'm very excited that it's next up.
    • 4/5
      The Undead Next Door is the fourth installment in Kerrelyn Sparks Love at Stake series. The focus this time is on Jean-Luc Escharpe, the Western Europe coven leader. He was changed by Roman (the star of the first book) many years ago into a vampire. Now he is a famous designer who is getting ready to retire from the public, into a special cellar home he has had built. The press is onto the fact that he never ages and that is getting dangerous. He vows to hide away for 25 years and return as his own son. As Jean-Luc gets ready for one final fashion show, he meets a beautiful, normal sized woman who is visiting his store, but can't afford a single thing in it. He discovers that she enjoys and is good at design as well and he shares her passion for believing you don't have to be a size 0 to deserve beautful fashion. He hires her to work for him, but unfortunately they attract the attention of his mortal enemy, Louie. Louie is getting paid now to kill Jean-Luc so the deal is even sweeter. Jean-Luc moves Heather and her daughter Bethany and friend Fidelia in with him and gives his army of vampires and mortal the job of keeping them safe. Of course this is a series romance novel, so the two fall in love with each other. I would actually give this 3 1/2 stars if I could. I enjoyed this one better than the 2nd and 3rd in the in series. I liked the scenes of them holed away in Jean-Luc's home (attached to the store) and I am crazy about the supporting characters here, especially Pheannaeus. Pheannaeus is a year old vamp, who was debuted in Book #3. He is a fabulous addition the the series and always keeps his scenes comical. I hope he gets his own story one day, because he stands out from the others. And this series desperately needs something stand out and different as these are starting to all sound like the same story. Just change the characters name, mix up who is the vamp and who is the human and voila...new romance story. Fortunately Sparks is much better at this than some of the other vampire romance writers out there, and I appreciate her and her stories for it. My time spent reading "The Undead Next Door" was entertaining, I just feel like it won't take long before this story mixes with all the others in my memory. Enjoyable but not a stand out.
    • 3/5
      Interesting story line, but repetitious writing and lack of tension because of telling not showing.
    • 5/5
      love it ????
    • 5/5
      Heather Westfield, comes to the opening of Le Chique Escharpe, by one of the most famous fashion designer, who opens a shop in Texas, in her hometown. Heather, divorced and a mother, can barely afford to pay her bills, let alone the expensive clothing she see's surrounding her. Heather, with a friend, who models for Jean Luc Escharpe, accompanies her. Then she is caught by him sketching one of his designer dresses, and he is furious, but then through a turn of events he offers her a job in his studio, for her ideas have merit, something he never thought about before. When he shows her his designs in the back, they are attacked by his hated enemy, Lui, who has murdered his past two girlfriends, and now assumes that Heather is the third. So now Jean Luc must protect her, no matter how resistant she is to the idea. But as events occur, and he keeps on protecting her, he finds that he doesn't want to lose her or her daughter, by this maniac, and will do everything in his power to protect them no matter the cost...The Undead Next Door is Jean Luc's story from the Love At Stake series by Kerrelyn Sparks. From the first page, I was hooked and wasn't let go until the very end. Of course all that have read this series, just have fallen in love with Jean Luc and his charisma. So it was great to be able to read his story. The Undead Next Door is a emotional yet intense story about two people from opposite worlds, one who is a vampire and has lived for centuries and has no hope in life other than his fashion design career. The other is a woman who has suffered from pain and grief and has had to live in fear, but now decides to start anew and battle with fear and win...these two are both courageous and witty, their interaction fun and sexy, and the passion between them heated and sensual....and a love so powerful that if they believe in it and in themselves...there is a happily ever after in their future. Such a charming and sexy story, and I had such fun throughout all of it, and many laughs throughout all of it...Definitely a Winner!!! Sparks has won me over again.....A WONDERFUL READ!!!My Favorite Quote"What?" his eyebrows shot up. "There's nothing wrong with that design.""Are you kidding?" She pulled away from his grasp "What is Echarpe thinking? The neckline plunges past the navel. The skirt slits up to North Dakota. No Woman in her right mind would wear that thing in public."
    • 5/5
      I read this it is sexy fun and romantic. Love this and recombinant this book, and all other Sparks novels.
    • 5/5
      I really liked this one. I like the fact that the lead male is attracted to someone who isn't pencil thin and drop dead gorgeous. I also like the family dynamic that's present from the start of the relationship. An ages old nemesis adds drama to the story. And I found the treatment of the ex to be pure comedy. Interesting little twist to our friend Phil...I started suspecting it about midway through the book. I'm curious to see if we continue to read about Billy and Sasha in future books.