Allegra's Dictionary of the Paranormal

Dark One n. [Origin: Czech, also known as vampires] A Moravian Dark One is doomed to spend his liftime cruising the singles' scene in search of the one woman who can redeem his soul. You think dating is hard? Try it when you're nine hundred years old and you've used every pick-up line in the book. Forming a lasting relationship is even more difficult when the woman who makes your heart sing sees dead people and likes to play with demons.

Summoner n. [Origin English] Someone who summons ghosts, poltergeists, and demon lords. Summoners tend to hang around cities like London that are filled with portals to Hell, haunted inns, and other locations dishy vampires might be found lurking. Most Summoners are female, which makes for difficulties when it comes to explaining to the man who haunts your dreams and fills your soul with love why your pet ghosts can be found hovering around even the most romantic of circumstances.

My Opinion:

As you may already know, I love Vampires!  So when a close friend of mine recommended these series of books, I went looking for them right away.  I didn't realize at first that this was #2 in the series, but fortunately there's only a few things that make you realize it while reading.  I definitely didn't have any trouble keeping up not having  read the first book.

This is a funny and romantic book about a single woman having come through a horrible marriage who finds her strength and future in England.  Allegra is a Summoner of Ghosts and doesn't really learn about how strong her ability is until she's in England hunting ghosts.  What she finds is a pack of ghosts that follow her around, a couple of Vampire Matchmakers and a single lonely Vampire looking for the woman who will save his soul.  Allegra may not have asked for the position, but she'll enjoy it all the same.

Katie MacAlister throws in lots of paranormal circumstances that, coming from someone who knows about the paranormal, she has done a great job in presenting some things very accurately.  Her take on Vampires, or as she calls them "Dark Ones", is not completely unique but very intriguing all the same.  She also doesn't throw in the sex for no reason, it fits into the story line wonderfully and doesn't overwhelm the story at all.  I will definitely be reading the other books in her Dark One series, and probably some of her other series as well!