Midnight Brunch by Marta Acosta

Publisher: Pocket Books / Simon and Schuster
Pages: 327


From the Cover: What's A Girl To Do When She Discovers She's The Main Course On The Menu?

Hip, funny Milagro de los Santos thinks she's finally found love and a home at the California ranch of fabulous Oswald Grant and his urbane relatives, who have a rare genetic disorder that some call vampirism. But Milagro is bewildered when she's excluded from an ancient and mysterious midnight ceremony whose participants include Oswald's unfriendly parents, a creepy family elder, and Milagro's ex-lover, the powerful and decadent Ian Ducharme. What skeletons are the vampires keeping in their designer closets? When Milagro's life is threatened by a rogue family member, she flees to the desert to hide. Instead of solitude, she encounters an egomaniacal actor, a partying heiress, a sly tabloid reporter, and a lavish spa full of dark secrets -- all of which might help her find a way home.


Milagro De Los Santos is up to her ears in vampires again. Milagro has been infected with a rare disorder that makes her heal better and faster, and her boyfriend, Oswald, enjoys a little taste of blood now and again, as does his family, though they swear they're not vampires. Her best friend, Mercedes has a hoppin' nightclub called The Dive and thinks Milagro just needs to work harder, writing isn't really work. Her friend, Nancy - former roommate at F.U. (Fancy University), is getting married to a member of CACA. Milagro's former beau, Sebastian (aka SLIME) and former head of CACA, has been forced to live in the darkest part of Nebraska for his attempts on her life and Oswald's family, far from his illustorous beginnings and his demanding public. Nancy's fiancee hates her now his best friend, SLIME, can't be in his wedding. Oswald's parents really wish he could find someone closer to his social status and blood background. It seems that our Milagro can't catch a break.

Milagro is tired of being excluded from Oswald family functions, including the naming ceremony of Sam and Winnie's baby. Oswald is heading south of the border to do charity work and can't even make it to Nancy's wedding. When Ian Ducharme offers to fill in for Oswald, Milagro happily accepts because who wants to go to a wedding alone? What she doesn't know is someone is gunning for Ian and when she accidentally gets in the way, she suffers an injury that forces Ian to give her some of his blood to help her heal or he could choose to let her die. After ingesting Ian's blood, weird things start happening to her. Also a mysterious vampire, Silas, who was at the baby's naming ceremony has taken a sudden interest in Milagro. But, she's getting the sneaking suspicion that all he's really interested in is her blood. In fact, he like to have her blood.. all of it..who are these weirdos who want to use her blood? Why does she always attract the weirdos? What is going on in the vampire community? In good news, she has been hired to re-write a screenplay, but it's in the middle of the desert at a resort in a town called La Basura (the garbage) and there's all kind of weird stuff going on at the resort, Paragon, too. There's even a mummy man. What has Milagro gotten herself into now?

Midnight Brunch by Marta Acosta is another excellent addition to the Casa Dracula Series. I can hardly wait to read Bride of Casa Dracula. Milagro is a character who is fabulously funny, curvaceous in all the right places, and wickedly smart. She's inquisitive and adventurous, which is one of the things that almost leads to her demise in this book. If she hadn't been snooping, she would have never witnessed the strange goings on during Libby's name ceremony. Her inquisitiveness almost leads to her being the main course at Silas' vampire club. She's so sweet and naive that she allows herself to be drawn in almost everytime, always willing to give everyone a chance. With Ian Ducharme's added pheromones, she's a new and improved Milagro, better and faster than before, although some of the blood thirsty additions aren't exactly an improvement. Oswald is still smitten with Milagro, much to the chagrin of his mother and father. But, then who would be good enough for their son? Edna is her same self, her no nonsense attitude that carries throughout the book, although she has a real love for Milagro and her distinct way of making a point. Cousin Gabriel is trying very hard to be heterosexual, but why? What Milagro craves above all else is what she was denied as a child, the love of a family, to belong and be wanted for who she is. The Grants are trying to fill that need in her life, but by excluding her from parts of their lives, they're keeping her an outsider. Milagro works her way through these difficulties in an unique fashion, worming her way further into their hearts and that of the reader too. I thoroughly enjoyed Midnight Brunch and would highly recommend this book for all readers who love romance, fun, and laughter. I love Ms. Acosta's ability to weave two languages together, creating a feeling of oneness in the two cultures. Midnight Brunch was fast (I read it in one sitting, I couldn't put it down) and fun (laughed continually from one misadventure to the next). You can't go wrong reading it. For more information about Marta Acosta and her wonderful books, please go to her website or her blog.