Midnight Brunch (Casa Dracula Series #2) »

Marta Acosta received a degree in English literature and creative writing from Stanford University. She is a regular contributor to The San Francisco Chronicle and the Contra Costa Newspapers. Her debut novel, Happy Hour at Casa Dracula, was a Book Sense Pick.

What's a girl to do when she discovers she's the main course on the menu?

Hip, funny Milagro de los Santos thinks she's finally found love and a home at the California ranch of fabulous Oswald Grant and his urbane relatives, who have a rare genetic disorder that some call vampirism. But Milagro is bewildered when she's excluded from an ancient and mysterious midnight ceremony whose participants include Oswald's unfriendly parents, a creepy family elder, and Milagro's ex-lover, the powerful and decadent Ian Ducharme. What skeletons are the vampires keeping in their designer closets?

When Milagro's life is threatened by a rogue family member, she flees to the desert to hide. Instead of solitude, she encounters an egomaniacal actor, a partying heiress, a sly tabloid reporter, and a lavish spa full of dark secrets — all of which might help her find a way home.

Publishers Weekly

When last seen in Acosta's debut, Happy Hour at Casa Dracula(2006), aspiring writer Milagro De Los Santos had fallen for wealthy, dashingly handsome Dr. Oswald Grant, a board-certified plastic surgeon and part of a vampire dynasty whose members refer to their condition as a "genetic autosomal recessive disorder." In this amusing sequel, Milagro has recovered from a vampirism infection and is living on Oswald's California ranch when she's informed she won't be allowed to attend the naming ceremony for his cousin's baby. While Oswald takes off on a humanitarian medical mission, Milagro must escape the subversive clutches of clan weirdo Willem Dunlop and Silas, Willem's "aide de corpse," whose terrifying Project for a New Vampire Century features a juicy sacrificial role for Milagro. Acosta doesn't spare the cilantro or the jalapeño in this addictive combo plate of romance and vamp satire. (May)