Sloane is about to turn 36 and she’s dreading it, to be honest. But then, Joel, her husband of 10 years, surprises her with a lavish girls’ weekend to a resort on a lake and with her absent but still best friend since 14, Naomi! She should be thrilled, but she knows Naomi is in Europe and feels guilty she’ll come all this way, and part of her wonders if Joel is just trying to get rid of her so he can cheat. Again.
However, once she talks to Naomi, who encourages her to live a little, Sloane finds herself looking forward to unwinding with her bestie. But Naomi has other ideas and she blows into the trendy cottage like a perfume-soaked tsunami with a definite agenda in mind: getting dolled up and going out to dinner and a club… which is the opposite of what Sloane had in mind. But Naomi’s boyfriend, Levi, is a literal rock star who is on his European tour with her handling PR for him, so she is used to the party-hard life of a jet-setter. Meanwhile, Sloane is a somewhat unhappily married woman used to settling, since her heart was broken in college and her resulting bender nearly cost her everything, including her life. So out the door pliable Sloane goes, in Naomi's glamorous wake.
Dinner is fine, but the club is a bit boring, especially since Naomi abandons Sloane at the table all night for a flashy Eastern European dude who dresses like a disco pirate. Sloane’s a little bitter, but at least the next night, her actual birthday, Naomi promises a huge surprise. Imagine Sloane’s shock when Ilie, the dashing Euro from the night before, pulls up in a fancy sports car and the girls head to his friend’s lake house for a party.
The pair meet the other friends at this party including statuesque blonde Elisa; Costel, with his blonde buzzcut and tattoos; Miri, a coy brunette; Tatiana, an imposing redhead wearing nothing but lacy lingerie; and lastly, Henry, a handsome brooder with a 90's grunge vibe, lurking in the corner. When Miri and Costel start aggressively making out and Naomi eagerly joins in, Sloane has the awkward realization that her best friend brought her to an orgy at a house with a bunch of strangers. And on her birthday, no less.
Then Henry comes over to chat and the pair hit it off and go upstairs for a change of scenery, with Sloane getting distracted by some odd noises behind a door on the way. One thing leads to another and Sloane and Henry start kissing and begin opening up to one another, with Henry deciding to share his weird truth with Sloane. You guessed it - he's a vampire and he is into her.
Let's just say some stuff goes down and the only solution is for Naomi and Sloane to be turned into vampires. Since Naomi is dying, Sloane makes the choice for them both. Once turned, Naomi is all about her new vampire buddies, but all Sloane wants to do is get the hell away from them, which is ill-advised, as new vampires aren't equipped to deal with their new thirst. But go they do, back to the resort, in the hopes of wrapping their heads around their new reality and just what it means for them and their significant others.
The rest of the book is a sort of Thelma and Louise adventure with Naomi and Sloane cutting ties to their old lives and trying to not commit murder in their new lives, which is easier said than done. Naomi's parents have a cabin in North Carolina where they could hide out for a while, so the plan is to head that way. There are mishaps along the way, including a would-be rapist at a rest stop (who turns out to be delicious), chaos at a gas station where their new friends step in to assist, and the bungled robbery of a blood bank. Naomi and Sloane are far more Keystone Cops than they are gangster, to be honest. The vampire club even runs into an old acquaintance in a ghost town named Ms. Alice, an elderly woman who is definitely not what she appears.
Along the journey, Sloane and Naomi play the blame game - "You made me a vampire! You drank the whole bag of blood!" - and fight a good bit, but eventually Sloane realizes she's been settling her entire life and has an opportunity for eternal happiness here, if she'll only just accept it. While I wasn't sure how I expected this book to end, I rather enjoyed how it wrapped up.
I think So Thirsty was darker and less comedic than other books of Rachel Harrison's that I have read, but I still enjoyed it tremendously. It's definitely a strange ride, but she never fails to entertain. Definitely one to read in the upcoming spooky season.
