Um did you read that synopsis? A vampire madam , ghosts, and *gasp* (my fav) ZOMBIES! Sounds super awesome right?Right from the get go, I freaking LOVED Veronica. She's sharp, funny and has a totally killer attitude... and she's a madam! Is it crazy strange that I loved this little idiosyncrasy about her? Maybe so.I HAVE to say that I am absolutely astonished that a man wrote this book, and I don't mean that in a bad way at all! Sharpe made Veronica undeniably real. I've read awesome books written by men featuring male protagonists and I've read amazing YA books by men featuring adolescent chicks... but never have I read a book written by a man featuring such a well-written adult woman.That being said, there is a freakishly shocking (and dare I say gross) sex scene in chapter 9... and you guys know me- I like fictional sex of any kind! I'm not all that particular about it and I'm generally fairly difficult to catch off guard... but whoa. After the 'zombie sex' I was completely ready to recant my theory about his writing women so well- because no woman would do that. THEN, I thought about it for awhile, and realized this Sharpe guy is a freaking genius! Because ONLY a woman would do that to get her child back. Well played!A few words of caution: Blood & Spirits is pretty gory and graphic sometimes. 4.5 Stars and lacking the additional .5 only because I would've liked to see more relationship building with Veronica and Garrett. They have this totally intense relationship with nothing backing it, so I was convinced he was a bad guy throughout the entire thing!