Romancing the Dead by Tate Hallaway

Garnet Lacey, a witch formerly hunted by both the F.B.I. and the Vatican, is finally feeling a little better about her situation. The Vatican Witchhunters believe she is dead, and the blame for the murder of her former covenmates has fallen on Riley, her vampire ex-boyfriend. Current vampire boyfriend Sebastian has proposed to her and she's accepted his diamond ring. Oh, and Lilith, the goddess living in her belly, has seemed to settle down and is being marginally less bitchy. Life is good.

But Garnet's efforts to start another coven bring her nothing but trouble, saddling her with some of the unlikeliest of fellow witches, to whom she must confess not only harboring a dark goddess in her belly, but the blood-sucking tendencies of her boyfriend. But now she's seeing wolves- or dogs resembling wolves, everywhere, and one of the people who showed up to her "coven open house" is an Ojibway who seems to want nothing more than the goddess in her belly.

And when Sebastian goes missing, she's going to have to steel herself and look into the persons and habits of the female ghouls her lover feeds from... all of whom seem to hate her for marrying Sebastian and taking him away from them, as he is getting rid of all of them before he marries her. And despite Sebastian's claims that none of the Ghoul girls know magic, Garnet is definitely under magical attack. And now she must team up with Sebastian's ever-adolescent son, Mátyás, to find her missing fianceé from whoever has stolen him away... and in the process discover why. And she'll be doing it without Lilith... as Micah has managed to do what she thought impossible and steal Lilith away.

But should Garnet be happy that Lilith is gone? Or scared? And when the image of another Goddess, Hel, enters the picture, Garnet is going to have need of Lilith, and fast! But how can she go up against a God, Coyote, to get her back?

This was a book I really enjoyed, being both an easy and fast read, and a strong heroine who is pretty kick-ass when the chops come down to it. In this book, she is bereft of fianceé, goddess and confidence, but comes back to regain all three and move against those who have attacked her. She even manages to make her peace with and work with Mátyás, Sebastian's forever-stuck-at-17 year old son, who has worked with the Vatican in the past, but also worked to protect Garnet from discovery.

More secrets are revealed in this book, primarily that Mátyás is a dream wanderer who never has dreams of his own, but is forced to wander through those of others. And that others have the same problem that Garnet has, with a God or Goddess stuck in their body. Unlike Garnet, though, some are doing this willingly (Micah) and some have forced the Goddess to inhabit them and prevent her from leaving (the one with Hel in her body). Unlike those, Garnet has Lilith staying with her because Garnet shares an uneasy truce with the Goddess, but by the end of the book, she works out a compromise that allows Lilith a more complete union with her. This also solves the problem of her upcoming marriage to Sebastian: that he, as a vampire, is ageless, and she will grow old. But to learn how, you'll have to read the book!

I recommend this series to anyone who enjoys supernatural stories and supernatural chick-lit. It's not precisely a romance. but shares similarities with one. The ongoing story will bring you back whether you enjoy the romance or not. And that's the real draw here.