don't buy the next one ( )

It took me a while to finish this book. It's not because this story is bad in any way, but more because I'm so busy with my own personal life. I feel glad I managed a chance to finally finish it.

We meet Dean who recently graduated from Paramedic school in a wealthy small city called Elk City. Dean believes that because he graduated top in the class that he will be able to go to the downtown post to treat gunshot victims. Little did he know that his school assigned him against his will to a secret division of the city's forces that specializes in treating... a different kind of populace.

Distraught with the prospect of being more like a courier service than medic, Dean soon realizes the huge challenges of this unique patient population is more exciting than his dream post and starts to fall in love with his new job and befriend his coworkers. He even starts to feel a soft spot for some of the regular patients such as a silly middle-aged vampire named Gibbie.

However threats are across the corner. Some patients are being attacked by angry mobs and Dean suspects the vampiric boyfriend of her coworker Bryenne named James has something to do with it. However there is also the issue that Bryenne used to have a former coworker named Zach that quit the job a few months ago and nobody knows what happened to him.

Is there a conspiracy going on? Or is Dean just imagining things?

Well written with a good dose between medical action and character interaction, the author knows medicine dosages and procedures very well. I do chuckle that the author makes intubation so easy. Maybe it's because I've never used a fibroscope before but I find intubation via the old fashioned laringoscope and direct visualization to be really difficult. I'm envious that these ambulances have so many fancy smancy gadgets and techy stuff. In the country where I live, ambulances are pretty much just large vehicles with rusted down stretchers filled with holes and nothing else.

The story ends with a mystery that is starting to unveil enticing the reader to continue with the series. I'm interested in reading the rest of the books sometime when I have the chance. ( )

short unexceptional story of paramedics to the unusual ( )

This was not really what I expected. The author is obviously an expert in the emergency response/paramedic field and conveyed a sense of realism to the setting of the story, but there was too much detail given on each emergency call with drug names and quantities and how they were administered. I frequently felt I was sitting in on a fairly dry lecture for paramedics. This overbalanced the book leaving little room for interaction between the humans and the “unusuals”. It is only at the very end of the novel that you get a sense of where the story is going in the series to come. It was too little, too late for me to feel that I want to read more in this series.

I bought this because I liked the idea of an emergency service for a hidden population of non-humans. It is not a bad book, but for me it lacked tension, direction and variety.

PS. I admit to being unreasonably irritated because I couldn’t decide how the lead female’s name (Brynne) should be pronounced. Short vowel, as in the first syllable of (Yul) Brynner?
Long, as in brine? Does the last vowel get pronounced or ignored? Maybe it is a common name in America, but it is not on this side of the Pond, and little things like that can interrupt the flow of reading, sadly. ( )

urban-fantasy, medical

Fascinating read for an experienced RN who geeks out on urban fantasy. If you've been around the business you will probably find it a treat to be able to read a paramedical fiction that doesn't make you twitchy from all of the mistakes and dumb attitudes. Loved it! ( )