Louisiana

Light and funny. A quick read. The phrase “Cajuns do IT better” comes to mind.

From the back cover:

Tara LeBlanc is really upset when her sisters, both Christians, have somehow convinced Grandmere to leave voodoo behind and become a Christian, too.  Who's going to teach her voodoo now?  When both her grandmother and the lady who steps into the breach in her training are struck down into mysterious comas, Tara is willing to do anything in her power to find out who is behind their illness.  Will Sheriff Theriot help or hinder her as she tries to figure things out?  And why is he so good-looking and attractive all of a sudden? 

Series: Maybe This Time

"You saved my life, Jackson Tremain. Now make it worth living."

After a near-death experience, Teri Taylor wasn't so sure she hadn't died and gone to heaven. Waking up in the strong arms of Jackson Tremain, her high school nemesis--and secret infatuation--she realized he had saved her life ...returning the very breath he'd stolen with his kiss.

Felicia Trahan never dreamed that volunteering at the Christian Crisis Hotline could put her life in danger.  Pastor Spence Bertrand has secrets of his own that he's hiding.  Falling more and more in love with Felicia, he feels unworthy of her.  When Felicia's best friend Jolie is murdered and her own home trashed by an intruder, life becomes dangerous in the bayou...

This is the first Sookie Stackhouse "Southern Vampire" mystery.  I've read others in the series and was curious as to what started it all out.  Good for lovers of vampire fiction who wonder what it would be like if the Japanese invented synthetic blood and they could "come out of the coffin," so to speak.  When barmaids who date vampires start getting killed, Sookie becomes a target.  Could it be her Casanova-like brother, Jason, as the police suspect, Sookie's new boyfriend, Bill the Vampire, or is it someone else? 

Alyssa LeBlanc loathes the bayou town of Lagniappe.  It represents the nightmare of her parents' death in a fiery car crash, the crash in which she almost lost her own life.  Forced to return by her Grandmere's unexpected trip to the hospital, Alyssa is greeted by witnessing the attempted murder of the Sheriff.  Her quick thinking saves his life, but puts her in danger, along with fellow reporter Jackson Devereaux, the man who unknowingly got "her" job.  Her natural prejudice against him keeps her from acknowledging her increasing attraction to him. 

This is a great story about a nurse who's lost her license, who ends up surviving Hurricane Katrina. She volunteers with an emergency medical team set up in the heart of the French Quarter, and there meets dedicated a dedicated doctor who goes to disaster sites a la Doctors Without Frontiers. The not-so-young heroine struggles with a lot of issues, including drinking.

An awesome beginning for new novelist Robin Caroll, who takes us into the Louisiana bayou country with the authority of a native.  Her voice is authentic Southern with a Cajun accent, and she will transport you to another world, filled with heat and humidity, alligators, old secrets, and murder.