Review of Seducing St. Nic by Emma Petersen

I had already read Master of the Game, a novella by Emma Petersen and LOVED IT. So when she asked me if I'd like a copy of Seducing St. Nic, her holiday novella, I said, "Bring it on sista."
Here's the blurb:

Book 1 in Dating the Undead series.



Barbara Jean Ruiz’s life has never been what anyone would call glamorous. She lives in an okay apartment, in an okay neighborhood and has an okay job with less-than-okay wages. Her life is…okay.



Then her luck starts to change. She wins a gorgeous fur coat. She gets promoted and her new boss is none other than the super-sexy St. Nic. Cypriano San Nicolo is everything a woman could want. He’s tall, dark, handsome, rich, successful and, oh yeah, the evil undead.



After nearly a century of self-imposed sleep, St. Nic has only two uses for humans—blood and sex. Until he meets Barbara Jean, his irreverent, wisecracking assistant. If he shows up at her apartment just before dawn, she’ll have to take him in. Into her bed, if everything goes as planned.

Seducing St Nic stars Barbara Jean, Barbie to her family, and her hot hot boss, Cypriano San Nicolo, also known as St. Nic to our plucky heroine. I like Barbara Jean for the most part. She did get lost talking to her "bad Barbara Jean" a lot and that wasn't quite as funny as I think it was meant to be, but otherwise she's smart, funny and loving. Our hero is a bit enigmatic for most of the story, and while he's definitely a yummy alpha man, he's not so alpha that you just want to rip his dick off and stab him with it. The sex is hawt and the characters are interesting, even the side characters. It's hard for me to say too much about this because it's a novella and hard not to give away too many spoilers; however, I will say that Ms. Petersen is great at the art of writing a pretty complete story in the confines of a novella. Yes, there are going to be unanswered or unshown aspects of the story, but it always feels satisfying and pretty complete within itself and that's a rare talent. I like that her leads, especially the female protagonist, have families and friends and actual lives when the stories start. It makes them feel more fleshed out and interesting to me as a reader.

In the end, I didn't like this one quite as much as I did Master of the Game. Master of the Game would earn an A- from me while Seducing St. Nic gets a solid B.

I definitely recommend both and you can find them both at Ellora's Cave as e-books.

A link to Seducing St Nic here

And one for Master of the Game here