Edie is a nightshift nurse on the mysterious Y4 ward of County Hospital. She didn`t start out her career thinking she`d end up in a dead-end job with a dead boyfriend and more strange patients than you can shake a thermometer at, but when the mysterious beings called Shadows offered her the job in exchange for making her junkie brother high-proof, she took it.

Edie`s been saving her brother`s ungrateful behind her whole life, but Y4 is nothing like she`s ever seen before. She has to deal with rejuvenating zombies, almost-vampire humans, out of control weres, on top of the normal day-to-day politics of nursing.

It`s enough to drive a girl to drink (which Edie doesn`t do because of her brother) but Edie lets out the stress by going dancing and picking up one-night stands. When she accidentally lets one of her charges hurt himself, Edie finds herself drawn into vampire politics in an attempt to save a mysterious girl named Anna.

This is not your usual urban fantasy. I loved how much inside, realistic, nitty-gritty nursing procedures and details were in this; it brought me back to the early days of reading barmaid concerns in Charlaine Harris` first Sookie Stackhouse book. But as much as I love the gritty reality as a base of supernatural doings, the resemblance ends there. Don`t look to this book for gothic romance or vampire sex. While Edie does have fairly uninhibited, modern sexual encounters, the author has made her relationships an aspect of her loneliness rather than focusing on the romance.

I am a romance junkie, so I spent some of the book wishing Edie could hook up emotionally as well as physically, but felt the end of the book was true to her character as well as how events played out in the story. Truthfully, the supporting cast is so much fun (german ghost in a cd player) I didn`t miss the lack of `shipping too much.

If you thought you were tired of urban fantasy, or enjoy a heavy dose of reality with your supernatural, this is the book for you. I can`t wait for Moonshifted to come out and see what Edie gets into next.

This Book`s Snack Rating: BBQ Kettle Chips for the distinctive flavor of gritty nursing details on solid characters and urban fantasy world building