Tracey Bateman

Dear Readers,

Tracy Bateman is one of those authors that I really enjoy reading, but I don't always remember to recommend her books. They are always interesting, but not earth shattering. I think she is trying to change that with Thirsty, but I don't know that she did.

Most of the reviews I do in this column are positive as I want you to know the good stuff out there, there are enough bad and negative reviews you don't need more. This isn't really negative, but ... I did like this book and I liked the subject matter, I just had a problem with one part of the story.

Thirsty is about Nina Parker, a recovering alcoholic. She has lost everything, her family, her job, her veterinary business, because of her drinking. She always figured she had the right to drink, her father was an alcoholic and her childhood wasn't the greatest. All issues and reasons for her leaving her hometown of Abbey Hills suddenly at the end of her senior year of high school.

Nina returns home and someone is waiting for her. She didn't know that years before a vampire fell in love with her and is now excited to see her home. OK this is where I have a problem with this book. I really have a hard time with story line. The murder mystery, even though it is not hard to figure out, is enough. I am just confused about why there had to be a vampire aspect of this story.

I am not against vampire books in the Christian market. I just would like a reason behind it. I just felt like the storyline of alcoholism was actually interesting enough. There were plenty of things that would have been enough to derail Nina's recovery. I thought that part alone would have made a very good book, but since the vampires kept popping up it seemed to take away from that part of the story.

Is it worth the read, yes. It is a good look at how hard it is to recover from something a difficult as alcoholism. When you have destroyed your family's trust of you, it is hard. When no one believes that you will be"better." How do you show them that you will, especially when things seem to be going so very wrong?

Nina has that. Her teenage daughter returns with her and Meagan no longer believes that Nina will be a "normal" person. She has heard it all before.Nina has promised before and failed before, why would this be any different?Tracey does a great job of writing that into the story. Why would her husband believe her? Why should her son not be disappointed in her? Her sister and parents have no reason to believe that she will not return to drink at the first possible moment.

Now maybe you can understand my frustration with the storyline. I just felt like Tracey wrote a vampire book because you need to write one now while it is popular. It just didn't feel like a natural part of the story.

Happy Reading