Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - Mi compañero de piso es un vampiro

Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Mi compañero de piso es un vampiro by Jenna Levine

82 reviews

dlsmk's review against another edition

2.25

<spoliers ahead>

I didn't like this book. I liked Freddie, Cassie and Reggie. I loved Sam and Scott's marriage. Frederick and Reginald's banter was very fun.

But I just did not like this arranged marriage subplot. It felt unnecessary. I think we could have taken that out and studied the vampirism thing more, how were you changed, why did Frederick change Reginald? These were things given a sentence in the book or an off the cuff line meant as humour.

I can't help feeling disastrously disappointed in all the potential this book did have. The ending was totally left field and the epilogue **eye roll** (this said, I despise epilogues anyway so after a mediocre final act this epilogue wasn't going to do this book any favours). I also feel that perhaps the relationship was underdeveloped. I don't think they had any conversations of substance. I felt nothing for the budding relationship and felt that when they finally did get together it was just thrown at you like the author was confused about how to pace the last 50% of the book. I thoroughly enjoyed Sam and Scott and would have loved to have seen them more, however after the first two chapters, the two men became after thoughts.

They also were not shown to find out about the whole vampire human dating thing (again something that could have transpired had we lost the whole arranged marriage unnecessary, quite frankly boring and too easily resolved, sub plot).

This being said, I have all the hope in the world for this author to hone and shape their craft, the ideas are there, the executions leave a little to be desired. However, when the next book is released I would enjoy giving it a go as Reggie did get a few laughs from me and I did thoroughly enjoy him.

Plus I did thoroughly enjoy the one sex scene in this book. *chef's kiss*

Content Warnings

angelofthetardis's review against another edition

Go to review page

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!

Content Warnings

scrubsandbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I knew this started off as a Reylo fic but neither actor in said roles appeared in my head for me. So if you're not a Reylo fan, you might be able to detach yourself from that fandom completely while reading this (in fact, the MMC was Jonathan Bailey in my head). This was a very easy to read light-hearted romance book with a rushed and a bit of a silly third act conflict. If you're looking for fluff and comedy with some spicy scenes, this is a good one to pick up.

Content Warnings

conina's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

emilywemily6's review against another edition

Go to review page

funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This book was a cheesy, fluffy paranormal romance with very lovable characters. I adored Frederick’s character and how the relationship between him and Cassie developed, though I didn’t like Cassie as much (she seemed pretty average and not a lot of interesting personality traits). It was funny to see how Frederick interacted with the world and their relationship was so awkward as they caught feelings for each other early on but tried to fight it. I breezed through this book is like a day and a half and had a lot of fun. The spice was nice too and was quite the slow burn. This book could have been longer and gone deeper into Frederick’s past and how he adjusted to the modern world. The “third act conflict” felt out of proportion with the rest of the book and also resolved way too easily. This was fun but not phenomenal in its execution.

Content Warnings

efsimpkin's review against another edition

Go to review page

lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

The only redeeming feature of this book was the fruit, and it didn’t then come up at the point where it was plot relevant which shows how consistent the actual characterisation was.

Good lord, this was two dimensional. They took vampires and made them BORING. That’s a crime in itself.

Frederick doesn’t really actually have a personality beyond his flaws, which Cassie spends a lot of time poking fun at and are continually presented to the reader as humorous. Cassie is just not interesting, at all. There was no chemistry. The sex scene was cringe, I have read better “bad” fanfiction than that scene.

It’s poorly written with an insane amount of tell not show. The editing leaves a lot to be desired. The pop culture references are cringeworthy and I was rooting for absolutely no one. As soon as I found out this was a reylo fic transplant it made sense but GOD. I wish I could get back the hours I spent reading this book. I’m so mad. Don’t waste your time.

Content Warnings