Scan barcode
angelofthetardis's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
This book has been stalking me for a little while; every bookshop I go into, it's there, front and centre, begging for my attention. And then it came up as an Kindle 99p deal. Trying to be good and not buy books unless I know I like them, so my lovely assistant let me borrow her copy. 50 pages in, and I knew enough. I swear Amazon are trying to bankrupt me 99p at a time!
Generally speaking, chick-lit isn't really my genre. I'm apparently drawn to writing it, but it's got to have something different about it for me to enjoy reading it. Whether it's the fantasy twist in it or not, this book has that something. It's got a little bit of everything; comedy, romance, tension... it's a modern piece, but the leading man is heavily influenced by Regency fiction... it's a complete mish-mash and should be totally ridiculous, but the premise is simple, the main characters are sickly-sweet yet believable within the context of the story and the narrative is light and easy to follow. No, it's not going to win awards for its literary merit, but as a piece of pure escapism and a tool to switch your brain off for a while, it's brilliant.
I'm not generally a vampire fan, but if I'm going down that rabbit hole, my go-to guys are Spike from Buffy (was never an Angel fan TBH)and Mick St John from Moonlight. Our leading man in this case, Frederick, follows more of the Mick St John model, trying to go incognito as a human where he can, and refusing to feed from living sources. It was therefore incredibly easy to picture Alex O'Loughlin playing him. And as a result Sophia Myles was immediately cast as Cassie in my mind. In any event, while the fact that he is a vampire is obviously the focal point of the story, somehow it didn't seem overly important? It felt like more of an odd couple pairing, where he just had a really good excuse for his slightly odd behaviour, dress sense and lack of social skills!
While I haven't read it yet (it's on my bookshelf for when I have two minutes), I suspect that the plot has borrowed quite heavily from the book 'The Flatshare' by Beth O'Leary? The descriptions do seem to match up quite well, so I'll be interested to see if I enjoy that one too. Particularly as that one is straight chick-lit...
The only disappointment for me was the epilogue. I liked the open-ended conclusion to the main narrative; it left room for the reader's imagination to continue the story in any number of ways and again seemed to mirror the ending of Moonlight a bit. However, the epilogue, while sweet and uplifting, does crush the vibe a bit for me as it seems to try and give a nice clean round off to the story while remaining ambiguous. I'd have preferred the commitment either way.
A couple of other small foibles which my brain noted, but don't really make too much of a difference unless you're a real stickler... 1) the author takes the time to explain that a vampire's heart doesn't beat and so wounds take longer to heal etc... so in that case, how is he able to, ahem, enjoy himself 🍆? And 2) Not a fan of the quick fix Reggie and Cassie come up with; if anyone had thought about it for more than 5 seconds they'd have realised what a terrible idea it was! But a quick reminder of suspension of disbelief and you're fine...
Very pleasantly surprised by this one!
Generally speaking, chick-lit isn't really my genre. I'm apparently drawn to writing it, but it's got to have something different about it for me to enjoy reading it. Whether it's the fantasy twist in it or not, this book has that something. It's got a little bit of everything; comedy, romance, tension... it's a modern piece, but the leading man is heavily influenced by Regency fiction... it's a complete mish-mash and should be totally ridiculous, but the premise is simple, the main characters are sickly-sweet yet believable within the context of the story and the narrative is light and easy to follow. No, it's not going to win awards for its literary merit, but as a piece of pure escapism and a tool to switch your brain off for a while, it's brilliant.
I'm not generally a vampire fan, but if I'm going down that rabbit hole, my go-to guys are Spike from Buffy (was never an Angel fan TBH)and Mick St John from Moonlight. Our leading man in this case, Frederick, follows more of the Mick St John model, trying to go incognito as a human where he can, and refusing to feed from living sources. It was therefore incredibly easy to picture Alex O'Loughlin playing him. And as a result Sophia Myles was immediately cast as Cassie in my mind. In any event, while the fact that he is a vampire is obviously the focal point of the story, somehow it didn't seem overly important? It felt like more of an odd couple pairing, where he just had a really good excuse for his slightly odd behaviour, dress sense and lack of social skills!
While I haven't read it yet (it's on my bookshelf for when I have two minutes), I suspect that the plot has borrowed quite heavily from the book 'The Flatshare' by Beth O'Leary? The descriptions do seem to match up quite well, so I'll be interested to see if I enjoy that one too. Particularly as that one is straight chick-lit...
The only disappointment for me was the epilogue. I liked the open-ended conclusion to the main narrative; it left room for the reader's imagination to continue the story in any number of ways and again seemed to mirror the ending of Moonlight a bit. However, the epilogue, while sweet and uplifting, does crush the vibe a bit for me as it seems to try and give a nice clean round off to the story while remaining ambiguous. I'd have preferred the commitment either way.
A couple of other small foibles which my brain noted, but don't really make too much of a difference unless you're a real stickler... 1) the author takes the time to explain that a vampire's heart doesn't beat and so wounds take longer to heal etc... so in that case, how is he able to, ahem, enjoy himself 🍆? And 2) Not a fan of the quick fix Reggie and Cassie come up with; if anyone had thought about it for more than 5 seconds they'd have realised what a terrible idea it was! But a quick reminder of suspension of disbelief and you're fine...
Very pleasantly surprised by this one!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Kidnapping, Cursing, and Sexual content
Minor: Injury/Injury detail
jillkaarlela's review
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Taylor Swift songs: “lover”, “sparks fly (tv)”
-there’s a Taylor Swift and 1989 reference!!! We love to see it!
Age rating: 16+ (1 spicy scene, 0.5/5🌶️)
This book was just such a great time!! I don’t think I’ve read a physical book this fast in a long time! If you are looking for a fun, quick read that is good vibes only, with spooky vibes this is the book for you!! I have absolutely zero complaints, it was great!! The romance was amazing, the plot was super quirky and funny and just as enjoyable as it sounds.
Also Frederick is literally the ideal man??? He is so funny and caring and OBSESSED with her and I love it so much!! He is literally so freaking adorable and sweet, love him.
A customer at the bookstore I work at, who has become a friend, recommended this to me and my coworkers and she was so right!!
-there’s a Taylor Swift and 1989 reference!!! We love to see it!
Age rating: 16+ (1 spicy scene, 0.5/5🌶️)
This book was just such a great time!! I don’t think I’ve read a physical book this fast in a long time! If you are looking for a fun, quick read that is good vibes only, with spooky vibes this is the book for you!! I have absolutely zero complaints, it was great!! The romance was amazing, the plot was super quirky and funny and just as enjoyable as it sounds.
Also Frederick is literally the ideal man??? He is so funny and caring and OBSESSED with her and I love it so much!! He is literally so freaking adorable and sweet, love him.
A customer at the bookstore I work at, who has become a friend, recommended this to me and my coworkers and she was so right!!
Content Warnings
Minor: Blood and Injury/Injury detail
kaziaroo's review against another edition
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
This was a light, fun book, so long as you don't think about it too hard (which I'm not very good at). The characters were adorable and the romance was lovely. I got quite tired of the over-the-top physical attraction between the main couple. The writing was good on the whole, if a bit repetitive – characters were constantly staring at the floor or their shoes. I didn't really find the humour that funny (apart from "the Tiktoks") and kept forgetting it was a romcom rather than romance, but that's just me. The juxtaposition of quirky romcom with actual vampires was jarring but in a fun way.
The title is quite confusing for a British audience – I'd assumed they actually shared a room, but actually they're more flatmates than roommates.
Two things that did really irritate me:
1. The texts and letters were completely unbelievable throughout; they read like spoken dialogue and were never convincing for written language. For example, near the beginning Frederick writes in a handwritten letter "Not... Exactly" – who writes with ellipses like that on paper?! Let alone someone from his period, who's trying not to act suspicious. This kind of thing ruined my immersion in the story whenever there was a letter involved.
2. Following on from that, the author clearly did not research the historical period Frederick is from. She keeps saying he looks like he's stepped out of a Jane Austen novel, but the way she describes his clothes (suits and wingtip shoes) is more like early 1900s fashions, i.e. a century after Austen's time. His speech and style of letter writing also didn't feel convincing enough for the time.
I was also a bit disappointed that there was never a solution to the whole stealing from bloodbanks thing. I know the author didn't want Frederick preying on people, but that still seems like a pretty big ethical issue. Cassie also was just way too comfortable and accepting of the fact that vampires were real and she was living with one.
The title is quite confusing for a British audience – I'd assumed they actually shared a room, but actually they're more flatmates than roommates.
Two things that did really irritate me:
1. The texts and letters were completely unbelievable throughout; they read like spoken dialogue and were never convincing for written language. For example, near the beginning Frederick writes in a handwritten letter "Not... Exactly" – who writes with ellipses like that on paper?! Let alone someone from his period, who's trying not to act suspicious. This kind of thing ruined my immersion in the story whenever there was a letter involved.
2. Following on from that, the author clearly did not research the historical period Frederick is from. She keeps saying he looks like he's stepped out of a Jane Austen novel, but the way she describes his clothes (suits and wingtip shoes) is more like early 1900s fashions, i.e. a century after Austen's time. His speech and style of letter writing also didn't feel convincing enough for the time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Blood, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Death and Alcohol
carlyjoann's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Blood, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail
wilybooklover's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
3.25
This was really fun! It's so nice to read a romcom that's actually funny and light in tone. I really enjoyed how most of the book was just Cassie and Frederick having conversations and getting to know each other, especially the epistolary element with all of their notes and letters (reminded me a bit of The Flatshare in that way). Their romance was really cute and I loved how low-conflict it was. Frederick trying to adjust to the modern world was hilarious.
It went a bit downhill at the end for me. AlthoughI appreciated how Cassie and Frederick didn’t break up, the third act conflict fell flat and felt a bit underwhelming. I think it would have been better if it had been more of a surprise to the reader and had more urgency to it. The resolution was honestly ridiculous.
It went a bit downhill at the end for me. Although
I also wish the worldbuilding was a little stronger. It felt more like a contemporary in which one of the characters happened to be a vampire than a paranormal. I wanted to know more about vampire society, their rules, how they’re governed. There’s no apparent concern when Cassie unexpectedly finds out Frederick is a vampire and runs off, even though he later says humans finding out can be dangerous. It’s never really explained why Frederick moved to the US or how he became wealthy. Some of the editing in regards to timelines was a bit off as well.
Overall though, this was a cute, entertaining romcom and I had fun reading it!
Overall though, this was a cute, entertaining romcom and I had fun reading it!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Confinement, Blood, and Kidnapping
Minor: Murder, Misogyny, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
karapillar's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Blood
Minor: Kidnapping, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Outing, Sexism, Confinement, and Stalking
More...