A review by mesal
Not Another Vampire Book by Cassandra Gannon

funny lighthearted fast-paced

2.5

This was a book! It was honestly the exact type of book I like to read when I'm looking for something lighthearted and humorous: a parody of popular tropes, isekai via book, an easy-to-read writing style that doesn't take itself too seriously. Initially, I found myself enjoying the book despite the grammatical errors in passages that weren't reproductions of Eternal Passion at Sunset; however, soon the plotholes and confusing narrative choices that Karalynn insisted Tanya kept introducing to her book started seeping into Gannon's own. Often important plot points would only be mentioned after the fact, thrown in to explain away why Damien couldn't immediately rescue Kara, or why he had very little time to do so. Infodumping done wrong, basically.

Probably the worst thing about this book was the animal metaphors. I am not a fan of animal metaphors. If I see the words "purr" or "growl" or "territorial" or "male" or particularly "mate" in any context outside of actual animals, you can bet I'm immediately turned off. Romance is already a genre I try to avoid, and throwing fated mates into a book I did not expect to find them in just makes the experience that much more unpleasant.

It would work for certain audiences, I guess. Damien was actually nice until the "animalistic side of his nature" suddenly showed up on page. What I will say, though, is that he is by no means the first character in history to pull off glowing black eyes: that honor goes to Astrophil's Stella.

When Nature made her chief work — Stella’s eyes;
In colour black, why wrapt she beams so bright?