Fang Fiction Review

By Kate Stayman-London

Star rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Spice rating: 🌶️

Audio rating: 🎧🎧🎧🎧

Pub date: 10/1/2024

Blurb

Tess Rosenbloom is no stranger to the dark. An assault survivor and grad school dropout, she spends her nights managing a chic Brooklyn hotel and her days curled up with her favorite vampire novels, Blood Feud. Tess even dabbles in online conspiracies that Blood Feud is real—it’s fun to hunt for clues! But deep down, Tess doesn’t believe vampires actually exist…

Until one walks through her door.

It turns out Blood Feud is real, and the sexy villain of the novels is trapped. Eager to escape her life, Tess agrees to help rescue him, and soon she’s in a fantasia of lavish palaces and enchanted forests, on a secret island where the sun never shines and she’s surrounded by deadly vampires—and against her better judgment, she’s falling in love with one of them. (And unbeknownst to Tess, her estranged best friend is having a sapphic affair with a beautiful vampire of her own back in New York.)

Visiting the world of your favorite story is any fan’s dream, but will Tess be able to outrun the demons of her past (and vampires of her present) before it becomes a nightmare? In this darkly glamorous rom-com, Tess will find out whether it’s worth risking her neck—and her heart—for a chance to reclaim her future.

Category: Paranormal Romance

 

Read if you Like:

🩸 Surviving trauma

🩸 Vampire adventure

🩸 Multiple POVs

🩸 Morally gray vamps

My Thoughts:

There may be nothing I relate to more than using paranormal romance to escape from psychological issues caused by a PhD program, so I really enjoyed that aspect of this story. My issues were luckily just the result of general grad school stress and not an assault like Tess but I enjoyed getting to watch her overcome her trauma. There were moments where I questioned her path to healing but it's not like I have any stats on how quickly a vampire adventure can improve anxiety for survivors so at the end of the day Kate Stayman-London's guess is probably as good as mine.

I loved that Tess got to immerse herself in the world that had given her so much comfort. I liked getting to see her prove she was brave. I also liked watching her find a real-life vampire love interest. I wasn't expecting this book to be multiple POV but I did like getting to see some other perspectives than Tess and her love interest.

I think if you like paranormal romance and have dreamed of jumping into your favorite book this is for you. I would check the trigger warnings and skip this one if stories about assault survivors are not something you want to read. This is a closed-door romance so if you are looking for vampire spice, this is not the book to pick. This is a really fun story and I'd love to read more set in this world though I didn't get the feel a sequel to this one was coming.

I listened to the audiobook version of this story and really enjoyed it. Amber Benson is a new to me narrator who has a bit of a dramatic style. I think this audiobook won't be for everyone so if you are a picky audiobook listener maybe listen to a sample or read with your eyballs.

Thanks to PRH audio and Dial Press for providing me with early access to this title. All opinions are my own.