Vampire Next Door

By Angela Snyder

Meet Jane Doe. Badly beaten and left for dead in the woods, she wakes up from a three week coma with absolutely no memory of who she is, where she came from or what happened to her. The only memory she has is the voice of her surgeon, Dr Jack Walker, talking to her in her dreams.

Jack felt an instant connection with his patient and would spend every night talking to her before heading home after a long day at work. When she comes to, he ends up being the only friend she has. But he’s still her doctor and any romantic relationship could land Jack in a lot of trouble. After months of physical recovery, no-one has ever come to claim her and she’s left with nowhere to go. But now that Jack’s not her doctor any longer, he quickly proposes and gives her everything she could ever need. Most importantly, she’s happy.

Until her happiness is ripped away from her.

Flash forward a year later and while Jane is still grieving, she learns she’s about to get a new neighbour. Enter Sebastian. Mysterious and rich, there’s just something about him that feels familiar and sets her heart (amongst other things) racing. The pair very quickly fall in love, but there are those that seek to destroy that love any way they can.

Vampire Next Door was a fairly quick read, taking me about four hours to finish. The book kept me engaged and there wasn’t any event or character that had me rolling my eyes in annoyance or disbelief. Overall, I really enjoyed this book, however there are a couple of things to be mindful of.

The book has massive skips in time and moves very quickly, especially until Sebastian enters the scene. Once he’s there the story slows down a bit, but towards the end the time lapses reappear. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes the story moved so fast it was like ‘Bam Bam Bam’ between events.

It’s also a little predictable and by the end I was left feeling like a few things were unresolved. How did Jack’s family feel about discovering who murdered him? Elizabeth seemed to give up too easily. Did Jane end up asking Sebastian to turn her? Again, these issues aren’t major, but if they had been addressed I think the book would have felt more whole. More complete.

Sebastian: “I promise it’s great. I’m just not used to solid foods. I try to stick to a strict liquid diet.”

My Rating: