T's Stuff: The Puritan Coven Series book 1 by Louise Cypress

Author: Louise Cypress

Narrators: Reba Buhr, Alexander Cendese

Length: 8 hours 2 minutes

Series: The Puritan Coven Series, Book 1

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Release date: Jan. 10, 2019

Genre: Paranormal Romance; Young Adult

A nerdy high school senior transforms into a vampire vixen who's unaware that her hunky date for prom is the slayer sent to destroy her.

Morgan Taylor-Jackson can't wait for high school to end. In six months she leaves for UCLA and says goodbye to La Jolla, California, and her parents' messy divorce. But when Morgan is bitten by a four-year-old boy, she becomes infected with a mysterious condition. Fever, insomnia, and a new bustline are only the beginning; Morgan morphs from nerd to bombshell.

As far as Van Xander is concerned, all vampires are evil, even the ones who reject human sacrifice and call themselves Puritans. When Helsing Incorporated sends Van to La Jolla to investigate the local coven, Morgan is his prime target. Pretending to be interested in her, Van asks Morgan out and puts her through a series of tests to determine her killer nature.

Morgan is thrilled to be dating a hot guy like Van and falls for him hard. As Van strings Morgan along, he grows increasingly guilty. Morgan is kind, compassionate, and a gooey romantic. Just as Van's mind begins to change, evil forces threaten everything. When prom night arrives, there are only two ways out of the ballroom: death or immortality.

Louise Cypress believes in friendship, true love, and the everlasting power of books. She has never met a vampire or a mermaid, but she has been to a Love Sucks concert on Valentine's Day. She can often be found curled up with a romance novel on Saturday night, diet soda in hand, secretly wishing bustles were back in fashion. Louise is from San Diego, California, where the beach is crowded and summer is immortal.

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Reba Buhr grew up in the Pacific Northwest and now lives in Los Angeles, working in theater, film, and television. She has degrees from Occidental College in theater and classical voice. Reba began recording audiobooks in 2012 and has turned her love for performance into a passion for narrating characters that jump off the page. Reba is an accomplished voice actor and has lent her voice to many commercials, video games, and animated projects, including Popples and Knights of Sidonia for Netflix, Toonami's Hunter x Hunter, and Zagtoon's Zak Storm.

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Alexander Cendese is a New York–based actor/narrator whose credits include roles on and Off-Broadway, in films, and on popular television shows, including Law & Order: SVU and All My Children. He holds a BFA from the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama.

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This was my first book by Louise Cypress, and it was a great start for me and a great start to this series. It really wasn't what I had envisioned in my mind it would be. I figured it would be a run of the mill YA vampire story with some clumsy kid style romance tossed in. The characters after all are teenagers just trying to get through the last 6 months of High School. Boy was I wrong. The book is very well written and kept my attention. Reba Buhr and Alexander Cendese kept my attention as well with their narration of the book.

The story line starts out with Morgan Taylor-Jackson is your typical upper class teenage girl trying to get to Graduation. Her mother is over bearing and also has a new boyfriend to boot. One night while at dinner with the mothers new boyfriend she is bitten by a vampire and changed.

Van Xander is a member of Helsing Incorporated. His job is to rid the world of Vampires that feed off of other humans, and to check on the Vampires that are called the Puritans. Puritans do not drink human blood.

Van and his family are called La Jolla to check on the local Puritan Coven when he meets Morgan. Instant sparks fly between the 2 and they fall for each other. In the end run it is up to Van to either help Morgan in becoming a Puritan or take her out.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Louise Cypress. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Q&A with Louse Cypress, author of BITE ME

Question One: BITE ME is about a nerdy high school senior who transforms into a vampire vixen, unaware that her hunky date for prom is the slayer sent to destroy her. What inspired you to write about vampires?
- Louise: As a reader, sometimes I just want to read a book for fun. It’s the same thing as an author. In my day job, I write a lot of technical things that can be boring, so at night when I sat down to write fiction, I wanted to entertain myself. Like many readers, I can’t get enough vampire romance in my life, and BITE ME has humor mixed in, so hopefully it will make people laugh too.
Question Two: You mentioned humor, is BITE ME intentionally funny?
- Louise: Yes, hopefully you find BITE ME to be laugh out loud funny. One of my favorite scenes is right at the beginning when Morgan is bitten. She’s in the bathroom, drying her hands on a towel, and a four-year-old vampire enters the room without knocking. Eighteen-year-old Morgan thinks to herself, “Don’t preschoolers understand about privacy?” This is a book that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Question Three: In BITE ME, Morgan has a special relationship with her Grandma Mimi, who’s a real fashionista. Was that character dynamic inspired by your own grandmother?
- Louise: Yes, in fact I dedicated the book to my Grandma Gerry, who always wore stockings, a silk dress, flashy jewelry, and a full face of makeup. She had her hair done once a week at the salon.
Question Four: Are there more books planned in the Puritan Coven Series?
- Louise: Right now this is a three book series. Tantor Media is publishing the unabridged audiobook versions of BITE ME, HUNT ME, and SLAY ME.
Question Five: What’s HUNT ME about?
- Louise: HUNT ME is a second chance romance about Morgan’s friend Esma, and her ex-boyfriend Chase. Here’s the hook: “An all-girls vampire camping trip turns deadly when a sasquatch hunter is accidentally killed.” Be ready to get sucked into the Puritan Coven!

Why YA Books Matter to Teens and Adults

By Louise Cypress

I love reading YA because the stories are full of hope and optimism. The world is still full of possibilities. There are no bills to bay, baskets of laundry to fold, or weeds to pull in the backyard. Reading a YA novel lets me escape to a time in my life when my biggest worry was getting good grades so I could go to college. Listening to a YA book on audio is even better, because it lets me accomplish all of the “adulting” tasks I need to do, like cleaning the house or walking on the treadmill, while immersing myself in a story.

Young Adult books matter to teens and adults. I've seen research that suggests that up to 60% of all YA readers are over the age of eighteen. For indie books, that percentage is even higher. There is something about the YA genre that attracts readers of all ages, yet you don't see that happening with other branches of KidLit. Yes, an adult might buy a picture book to give to a niece or nephew, but she doesn't circle the release date on her calendar and download the picture book on her Kindle the moment it comes out. YA is special.

I love writing YA because when I was in high school I was so focused on studying that I didn't make time for fun. I went to a couple of dances but missed my senior prom. I had a boyfriend for a couple of weeks, but that was it. In high school I always felt too nerdy to love. All of my YA books feature main characters who are nerdy, but who eventually become brave enough to date and embrace romance on their own terms. Of course, in BITE ME, Morgan runs into a bit of trouble. She doesn't know that she's a vampire, or that her hunky date for prom is the slayer sent to destroy her. At least my high school experience didn't involve Promageddon!

Top Ten Reasons Why Twihards will love BITE ME

You love it when Dracula-lore is reinvented in a fresh way.
You can handle campy humor.
You enjoy books where you root for the main character.
You appreciate a good transformation scene, like when a main character becomes a vampire.
You don’t think YA books have to have sex in them.
Vampire family dynamics intrigue you.
You’ve imagined what it would be like to be a vampire.
You’re a Twihard, but don’t like love triangles.
In addition to Twilight, you also love Buffy.
You believe in true love!