Carrie Pulkinen tells the tale of protagonist Cassie and vampire Branan in her short story "Bewitching the Vampire." The 71 page story moves along quickly with very few spelling, grammar or punctuation errors. This story would be classified as a 'cute' read more than anything; if not for the sex scene at the end of the tale, this reader would say it belonged in the young adult genre. The problems the characters faced were easily relatable from headlines and school horror stories - shaming and bullying, with hate groups that humans might join to go after supernaturals. Even Pulkinen's writers voice carried a younger tone that would likely appeal to teens and young adults. The main characters fell in love very quickly, without truly knowing one another; while it is acceptable for a vampire to love this quickly due to fated mates or brides, it seemed out of the scope of reality for Cassie to fall in love so quickly. The quick love-forever-after between the characters actually diminished the tale a bit, in this readers view, giving it a cliche feel to the tale. The story takes place in New Orleans and not much description was given to setting, to truly make one feel they are there... but then again, a writer might make editing choices to keep the word count down. Characters were given just enough description to allow a reader to visualize them, although they could have been fleshed out more; however, they were described fairly well for a short story with so much action taking place. Dialogue was interesting and authentic to character. Pulkinen had vampire Branan reveal something to Cassie at book end that this reader cannot recall any other writer having done before, and it took me both by surprise and I found it quite a delightful gem to read. Much kudos to Pulkinen on Branan's tidbit! And I have absolutely no idea why, but for some strange reason the love between Cassie and Branan brought to mind the love between Buffy and Angel when they finally "did the deed". This reader has absolutely no qualms recommending Carrie Pulkinen's story for a quick, cute read. The tale was steamy at times, although never quite sensuous in this readers view. The pacing was so fast, this reader never thought of putting the book down until it was finished. Was it my favorite read of the year? No. But interesting enough to keep the name Carrie Pulkinen firmly in mind, when perusing books to read. ** Review originally posted to Amazon reviews on November 28, 2017 and to Goodreads on the same date. **
