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The Slaughtered Lamb Bookstore and Bar (Sam Quinn Book 1) by Seana Kelly
The Slaughtered Lamb Bookstore and Bar
Sam Quinn Book 1
New Adult, Paranormal Romance
NYLA
October 13, 2020
Kindle, Paperback
307
Welcome to The Slaughtered Lamb Bookstore and Bar. I’m Sam Quinn, the werewolf book nerd in charge. I run my business by one simple rule: Everyone needs a good book and a stiff drink, be they vampire, wicche, demon, or fae. No wolves, though. Ever. I have my reasons.
I serve the supernatural community of San Francisco. We’ve been having some problems lately. Okay, I’m the one with the problems. The broken body of a female werewolf washed up on my doorstep. What makes sweat pool at the base of my spine, though, is realizing the scars she bears are identical to the ones I conceal. After hiding for years, I’ve been found.
A protection I’ve been relying on is gone. While my wolf traits are strengthening steadily, the loss also left my mind vulnerable to attack. Someone is ensnaring me in horrifying visions intended to kill. Clive, the sexy vampire Master of the City, has figured out how to pull me out, designating himself my personal bodyguard. He’s grumpy about it, but that kiss is telling a different story. A change is taking place. It has to. The bookish bartender must become the fledgling badass.
I’m a survivor. I’ll fight fang and claw to protect myself and the ones I love. And let’s face it, they have it coming.
Snarky paranormal fiction and fright…
Paragraph 1: Book blurbs don’t always paint a complete picture about the book
The Slaughtered Lamb Bookstore and Bar by Seana Kelly is the first book in the new Sam Quinn series. Set in San Francisco, the Slaughtered Lamb Bookstore and Bar is the creation of Sam Quinn, a wolf shifter and reclusive book nerd, whose childhood was spent hiding with her mother and, after a traumatic assault and rape, whose days as a young adult are spent holed up in her establishment serving the supernatural community. Between the layered magical wards and her layers of oversized clothes, Sam lets very few beings get close enough to ever hurt her and hopes it will be enough to stay hidden from the psycho who almost ended her life but left her body covered with grizzly scars and a unique infinity tattoo as a daily reminder of her past. When the body of a young women with the same scars and tattoo washes up at her establishment her days of hiding seem to be over. Even though her world is upturned and she is forced to face her past she realizes that she has loyal friends and a hot, vampire protector who might even be more than a friend.
Paragraph 2: An author can’t go wrong with a snarky main character and sexy vampire leading man
Seana Kelly has put her own style on paranormal romance while still using the tried and true recipe of snarky and sexy. 
Sam Quinn is the diamond-in-the-rough character whose traumatic past has left her self-conscious of her appearance but her wit and humor a perfected as a defense mechanism for dealing with life. She is a diverse heroine with undiscovered power whose personality is a patchwork of famous book babes. Her snark, sass, and banter help to balance out the vicious and gruesome mental attacks that are progressively getting worse and would have taken her life if not for the interest and devotion of the formal yet undeniably attractive supernatural boss of the city, Clive Fitzwilliam. Clive guards himself just as closely with his polished persona and ironhanded rule of San Francisco, which is why Sam can’t understand his fascination with her or her situation. Who would have thought such a cold vampire could generate temps hot enough to melt the walls keeping her from reaching her full potential?
Paragraph 3: Without the reviewer’s opinion it would just be a book summary
The Slaughtered Lamb Bookstore and Bar by Seana Kelly was an unexpected twist on this subgenre of paranormal romance stories. As you can tell by the format of this review I just had to tip my hat to her unique method of titling each chapter. The book is a really great mix of funny and suspense and it keeps you fixated from one page to the next. While the snark is a big part of this book, intermixed with all the catchy dialogue is a serious story of healing from a traumatic experience to find wholeness, strength, and happiness. While the one-after-another violent attacks on Sam, both physically and mentally, at the beginning of the story seemed a little much initially, it helped the reader actually feel the weight and uncertainty of the situation as compared to the climax and ending, which left you contented and excited to see where book 2 The Dead Don’t Drink at Lafitte’s, (Sam Quinn, Book 2) will go with this plot.
Tanya’s love for books has been a lifelong passion that she likes sharing with others. Reading is also the thing that relaxes her after a day of juggling the many responsibilities that come with being being wife to an amazing man, mother to four great kids spread around the world, business manager, and farm hand on their place in southwest Missouri; home to Akaushi cattle and a menagerie of pygmy goats, horses, chickens, dogs and cats.
