Happy Hour at Casa Dracula by Marta Acosta

Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Pages: 314

From the Cover: Latina Ivy League grad Milagro de Los Santos can't find her place in the world or a man to go with it. Then one night, at a book party for her pretentious ex-boyfriend, she meets an oddly attractive man. After she is bitten while kissing him, she falls ill and is squirreled away to his family's estate to recover. Vampires don't exist in this day and age — or do they? As Milagro falls for a fabulously inappropriate man, she finds herself caught between a family who has accepted her as one of their own and a shady organization that refuses to let the undead live and love in peace.

Milagro De Los Santos is your average everyday young female American trying to survive in a male dominated world. She did everything right. She went to the big Fancy University, she had a sweet boyfriend, she went to all right parties... so why isn't she taken seriously. She wrote novels about political issues and substituting zombies for the nasties. Sebastian has had no trouble getting his insipid book published. She went to F.U. too, so what's the problem? Who doesn't like politics and zombies? Apparently, the agents and publishers didn't.

Milagro makes money doing odd jobs, even though her parents are well to do. Her mother, Regina, convinced her father that her next face lift was more important than a Master's Degree. Milagro is a personal reader, works in a nursery, and does other menial jobs to keep her crummy basement apartment which she thinks is rat infested.

Then, one evening at a reading of her ex-boyfriend Sebastian Beckett-Witherspoon's new book whom she hates with the fire of a hundred suns; she happens to meet a strange man. He's wearing an old fashioned suit, but wears really well, she notices. In fact, she notices, he's really kind of fabulous looking. When this strange man approaches Milagro, she's a little frightened. He seems to draw her to him, capturing her attention.

When he introduces himself as Oswald and asks her back to his hotel to talk about publishing, at first she wants to refuse, but as she gazes into his eyes, she finds herself agreeing. What's wrong with her? When Beckett-Witherspoon tries to chase her down, they rush to leave. But at the hotel, it seems that Oswald only wants to talk about Beckett-Witherspoon, so she offers Sebastian's phone number and wants to leave. As Oswald reaches out to stop her, they trip and fall on top of each other. A drop of red blood oozes from Oswald's lip as Milagro realizes she wants nothing more than to kiss that bloodied lip, and she does but, her lip is bitten as well.

That night, Milagro becomes ill, it's the flu, she thinks. She's worse the second night, and the night after. But, then she starts to feel better, her hearing is better and her vision has gotten better, she no longer needs her contacts. But the cravings she's having are really weird. She decides to talk to her friend and nightclub owner, Mercedes, but Sebastian is waiting outside for her, professing his long lost love; offering dinner and ride in his limo. She decides she can afford him a second chance, but Sebastian has other devious plans and tries to kidnap her instead, showing how much he actually loathes her. He has joined CA-CA and his organization works to eliminate vampires. Okay, so Sebastian has lost his marbles, vampires don't exist....or do they? She must save herself from Sebastian and the evil CA-CA if she is to survive.

Gabriel, Oswald's cousin saves her and takes her away to the family's country estate. There, she meets Oswald's fiance, Winnie, who is cold, but who can blame her...Milagro was swapping smooches with Oswald and now she has been infected with a rare blood disorder causing her to have weird cravings for the red fluid. Oswald's grandmother, Edna, who's as prickly as a catcus, has no love for Milagro, or so she thinks. Sam, Oswald's other cousin, is sweet to Milagro and tries see to her needs, but does he want something? What will she do? Who can she trust?

Happy Hour At Casa Dracula by Marta Acosta is a fun filled laugh riot. Milagro is always taken by the next mess that turns out to be her life. She just can't get ahead no matter what she tries. You never know what's going to happen, except that she's attracted to Oswald, but knows he's engaged to someone else. That puts him into the creep column for asking her to his hotel, she doesn't usually do things like that. She needs to be taken seriously, trying to channel great thinkers to help in the writing process. Unfortunately, beach reads are all she attracts. In the meantime, Oswald and his family is trying to foil the evil CA-CA and he needs to find out what she knows about Sebastian and his organization. Milagro is a vulnerable heroine who has never know the love of her family. She learns gardening from one of father's employees, even though her father has a huge landscaping business. The person she loved the most, her abuelita - her small grandmother, was killed in a car accident. Her grandmother was totally devoted to Milagro, she goes from having love to having nothing. Her mother, Regina, only loves Regina and what money can buy for her. Her father only loves making money and her mother, Regina. Oswald is a misunderstood hero who wants one thing from life, to be happy. He isn't happy with Winnie, but their DNA is a perfect match. Too bad they can't stay to touch each other. The one thing he wants is Milagro, his beautiful young spicy love. I loved this book, I started laughing on page one and didn't quit until the last page was turned. There were times when I felt Milagro's pain of a loveless life and a hopeless future, but she never lets it get her down for long and she wins in the end. If you want to read a book with a fresh look and feel, and all about a very rare blood disorder (vampirism), then Happy Hour At Casa Dracula is for you. I highly recommend this book for those who want a fast fun filled look at the life of a girl who does everything right, attends F.U., works hard, and writes about issues important to her, but life keeps throwing her for a loop. For more information about Marta Acosta's other great books please see her website or her blog. Both are fun and interesting.

Here's a peek at the book trailer Marta Acosta made, it shows the story so well. The music was deleted, but my son added some......he's a big Tenacious D fan.