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A review by spaceseal
How To Bite Your Neighbor & Win A Wager by D.N. Bryn
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
The first 80% of the book would have gotten a bit over 4 stars from me: I absolutely fell in love with the world and how vampirism is handled so differently. The plot was actually interesting for a romance book, and I got invested in it enough to consider the plot a mix of romance and mystery, and I expected it to evolve more as the story went on. The relationship felt real and relatively well paced, if a bit fast and jumpy at times. The issues that come up are handled ok in my opinion, but this is the thing where we kind of slip into the rest 20% of the book.
The rest of the book drops it clearly under 4 stars, and if I didn't like the set up so much, I would give it 3. The ending chapters highlight that the genre of this book is more simple romance rather than a mix of romance and mystery/adventure, and after such an interesting building and storytelling, I just felt myself crunching my nose, slightly dissatisfied, and the last 45 minutes I was actually disappointed. It is FINE for the romance genre, since the bar is not that high, but I felt like the whole world and the relationship was simplified to a very general happy ending (and not the spicy kind!) that was not specific to these characters or this story in any way.
Also I think that the whole biting kink at the beginning felt a bit spicy, but it desperately needed to evolve into something more, chemistry wise. I think that the book tried to dip its toes in there a bit, but lacked the courage or will to explore it more, which kind of left it feeling a bit... well, like a racial kink, when you take into account the rest of the world.
Still, I think that this world is worth getting into. It's not anything too deep, but interesting and different. And the characters are lovely!
The rest of the book drops it clearly under 4 stars, and if I didn't like the set up so much, I would give it 3. The ending chapters highlight that the genre of this book is more simple romance rather than a mix of romance and mystery/adventure, and after such an interesting building and storytelling, I just felt myself crunching my nose, slightly dissatisfied, and the last 45 minutes I was actually disappointed. It is FINE for the romance genre, since the bar is not that high, but I felt like the whole world and the relationship was simplified to a very general happy ending (and not the spicy kind!) that was not specific to these characters or this story in any way.
Also I think that the whole biting kink at the beginning felt a bit spicy, but it desperately needed to evolve into something more, chemistry wise. I think that the book tried to dip its toes in there a bit, but lacked the courage or will to explore it more, which kind of left it feeling a bit... well, like a racial kink, when you take into account the rest of the world.
Still, I think that this world is worth getting into. It's not anything too deep, but interesting and different. And the characters are lovely!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Hate crime
Minor: Death of parent, Violence, and Self harm