Along Came a Spider by Kate Serine

Genre Urban Fantasy-ish Published 1 August 2013 Publisher Kensington Books Series Transplanted Tales book three

Along came a spider…

When Trish Muffet is attacked at a grisly crime scene, the last person she expects to come to her rescue is Nicky “Little Boy” Blue. But since walking away from everything two years before, Nicky’s been doling out vigilante justice as “The Spider,” taking on the vicious predators of the night in hopes it’ll lead him to his ultimate target – Vlad Dracula. And he needs Trish’s help.

Although Nicky’s renegade style goes against everything Trish stands for, she’ll do what she must to bring Dracula down. With danger stalking her, Trish knows the only person she can count on is the one man who has the power to leave her breathless. There’s no way she’s letting this spider frighten her away…

The Urban Book Thief Review

Today is the release date of Along came a Spider by Kate SeRine – and holy schmoley, was that book fun or what!

I must admit that I was a little apprehensive about starting this story for two reasons. One, because I haven’t read the first two books in this series and secondly, it kinda sounded a little too cutesy and I had visions of this being some bland YA paranormal rompety-romp through an enchanted forest somewhere in magic-ville.

Frankly my dear, I could have not have been more wrong. Along Came a Spider was almost (dare I say it?) an urban fantasy rompety-romp through the backstreets of Chicago (hard-core urban fantasy lovers might disagree with me here – it didn’t feel very paranormaly to me). There were copious amounts of ass-kicking to keep me entertained, a 200 year old romance in play, sexy times were brief but naughty and thankfully, not too flowery – plus the characters were far more ‘Grimm’ than ‘Disney’.

Thanks to Backchatting Books for getting me to bump this up my reading list – many, many thanks. This book was just too awesome.

For the uninitiated, Transplanted Tales is a series set in modern day Chicago where humans are unaware that fictional characters live among them. This ranges from fairy-tales such as Cinderella, to nursery rhymes like Little Bo Peep, moving across to literature – Mr Darcy ahoy there! (I’m a huuuuge Darcy daydreamer, HUGE!) and even characters from Shakespeare make an appearance.

Characters from Make Believe started popping up in the Here And Now after a spell made by Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother went hideously wrong. We can also blame Aladdin’s genie for egging her on to do it in the first place… damn you smooth talking, wise-cracking genie! And it was on this momentous occasion that Little Miss Muffet bumped into Little Boy Blue, wondering where the heck they disappeared to. They’re instantly smitten for one another. But unfortunately for Nicky Blue, a disorientated and scared ‘Trish’ Muffet declines his offer to run away together and make a life of their own (I have to hand it to the lad, he’s a fast worker), preferring to follow the other dazed and confused characters.

Sadly, they don’t see one another for another two hundred years and when they do meet, their lives have moved on in very different directions. They’ve changed, becoming harder, wiser and sadly in Nicky’s case: feeling very blue (you geddit?) sniggers.

Say goodbye to the lederhosen and hello to my little friend – Nicky Blue. If you’re partial to a mafia man then come on down and check out the guns on this guy. Nicky’s like a character straight out of the Godfather, he’s pure gentleman with a capital G, has a thing about ‘respect’ and likes to call women either ‘dolls’ or ‘dames’. In Make Believe he’s famous for falling asleep on a pile of hay. Not so sexy, I admit. Nicky has built on his unimpressive background from being a petty thief to working as a hit-man and then running his own business. Now let me get this straight. He’s in the business and although several characters allude to his business, we aren’t told exactly what his business really is. hhmmm.

Things aren’t really going all that well for him. His wife was murdered by a mad sorceress in the first book and he has spent the last two years out of town and up to who knows what. But now he’s back – bigger and badder than ever and out for revenge against the person who started this whole shabang – Count ‘Vlad’ Dracula. ah-ah-ah. To do this, he’s set himself up with a super cool street fighting hero persona called ‘The Spider’. Sadly, he doesn’t sport a cape, for shame, but he does have a utility belt. Very, very important.

It is on one of his crime busting sprees that he runs into Trish Muffet and saves her skinny ass from a couple of feisty lady vamps.

“All I did was stick my nose in where it didn’t belong and nearly get myself killed.”

“Yeah, well, no offense, doll, but I’m getting the impression that’s your MO.”

There was no judgement or censure in his voice, but still I felt the heat rising in my cheeks. He was obviously referring to my colossally stupid decision to go chasing after strangely undulating shadows earlier that night. Nothing says dumb-ass quite like walking straight into a vampire ambush.

Trish is no longer the girl she once was either. She’s a forensic examiner for a Tale crime busting organisation run by Aladdin, or Al as he likes to be called now. Trish is well versed in seeing blood and gore on a daily basis, where she gets the opportunity to use her unique powers to look into a dead person’s eyes and see what they were thinking about prior to their death. She is Super Awesomeness.

But she is still a bit of an outsider and a loner, longing for something other than her job to fill her days. But in the meantime she is more than happy to kick some Make Believe ass. Go Girl!

It’s not long before Trish and Nicky join forces to take down Dracula and his pesky minions, but before this they get to drool all over one another first:

I’d been dreaming about that stupid grin on his face nearly every night since we came over. And some of those dreams were a little… speculative.

So if you are looking for something energetic, entertaining and a bit different to your usual urban fantasy/paranormal romance fare – I urge you to have a read. I had so much fun and cannot wait to squeeze in the other two books into my reading schedule.

The Urban Book Thief has awarded Along came a Spider a kiss factor rating of five – I need to read books one and two now!