**Please Note: This is set after Wicked As They Come, the first Blud book and before Wicked As She Wants, the second Blud book.  As such there is spoilers regarding Casper...and nothing must said about Criminy or Tish**

Blud 1.6

This e-novella follows Casper to London as he begins to rise to stardom. When lonely pet shop owner Frannie Pleasance takes in a new lodger, odd things begin to happen. Fire fighter Thom Maccallan might be the only one who can keep her safe.

I was a little confused at first because I had somehow forgotten that Casper was not the male love interest for Frannie.  He puts on less of a good show here then he did in Wicked As They Come, but Frannie has less reason to indulge him (point in fact she has no idea he's not from 'her' London.  Still as delightful as before were the odd little quirks and differences that Dawson introduces.

For instance Sense and Sensibility is transformed into Sagacity and Susceptibility with a much less...pleasing ending for all parties concerned.  This is a good reflection of the different world outlooks however--if there were bludkittens running around ready to gnaw my shins to bloody tatters I'd feel a lot less sanguine about things.

Which oh my shiny stars how cute BLUDKITTENS!  They're now on my list of the most adorably terrifying concept (right there with bludbunnies, who sadly make no appearance).

The underlying mystery, who wants Frannie dead, is sometimes muddled as Frannie genuinely has no idea who would want to hurt her (outside of a former beau, who she continually dismisses out of hand as too lazy or uninventive) and the cast is quite small.  I found myself halfway believing its all a mad coincidence on occasion.

I found Thom (who wore kilts whenever he wasn't working, ah the Scottish) to be the perfect sort of hero.  Hardworking, charming, insightful enough to give a lady space and devoted to protecting Frannie (or helping her find her birds).  Frannie was very likeable, though I was a little irritated with her frustrating attitude towards Casper (which not her fault, she didn't know his whole story).  Casper was as charming as ever, though he really does have a bad run of it women wise.  I kept wishing he'd confide in Frannie, but given her hang-ups with how much he resembled her brother I'm not sure that would have been wise anyhow.

In the end this was a nice little tidbit in the world of Sang.  It built up my interest in what was going on with Casper, but more importantly reminded me why I loved Dawson's writing so very much.