Not A Vampire by Auryn Hadley

 

This was a BR with my friend, Brianna! She has been patiently waiting for me to finish for weeks while I've just been like, YOLO. I'm not sure why people agree to do BRs with me, to be honest. I either sit on a book forever or I read it in a whole day, I am the WORST.

Auryn Hadley is one of my go-to KU authors. I think she has a lot of really interesting ideas and she's good at writing flawed female heroines. So far, I've mostly just read KISS OF DEATH and the Gamer Girl books, but I was really impressed with both-- especially since they were two such drastically different books and styles.

NOT A VAMPIRE is about vampires. Well, sort of. The hero is a guy named Thane who is a vampire slayer and the heroine is something that's like a vampire but not called an eidolon. She's also pan and has a sexual Thelma and Louise thing going on with her Chinese vampire girlfriend, Mei.

There were a lot of things I liked about this book. It has self-indulgent '90s vampire fic vibes to it, which I liked. The smut was also abundant and really great. I also liked Mei and Dahlia a lot as a couple-- more so than I did Thane, who was kind of an asshole. I actually didn't like him much at all. Like, there's this one scene where he's on a date with a Christian school teacher and sneaks away during the date and then has sex with Dahlia in a bathroom-- and the teacher hears him! WTF. This basically sets the tone for Thane's asshole playboy character.

Not sure I'd read more from this series but NOT A VAMPIRE definitely reminded me why Auryn Hadley is worth reading. I really need to get back into those other series I read from her and didn't finish. I have commitment issues lol.

2.5 out of 5 stars