Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Lehane (Love, Hate, & Clickbait, written as Liz Bowery) sets this shrewd and inventive paranormal romance a couple years after supernatural creatures revealed their existence to the human world. Human advice columnist Charlie Wever struggles to make ends meet when the online magazine he works for shifts him to a pay-by-click model. Giving advice on buzzy supernatural problems would make his pieces more successful, but he feels unqualified to counsel the letter writer who recently learned that her eternally 20-something vampire girlfriend voted for Ronald Reagan. Back in his rural Virginia hometown to save money, Charlie bumps into Lorenzo, a centuries-old vampire who dated one of Charlie's friends in college and who holds a grudge against Charlie for advising said friend to dump him. Seeing an opportunity to increase his paranormal knowledge, Charlie lies that he's writing a graduate thesis on supernatural relationships. After Charlie's cheerful eagerness wears down the hilariously formal Lorenzo's resistance, he convinces Lorenzo to bring him along on the odd jobs he does for Virginia's supernatural community. Along the way, lust ignites, leading to some delicious sex scenes. Meanwhile, Charlie's online popularity skyrockets--but what will happen when Lorenzo learns the truth? Lehane's sprawling mythology, which also incorporates trolls and unicorns, neatly unfurls without ever distracting from the genuine and rewarding enemies-to-lovers romance. This is a delight. (Oct.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Lehane (Love, Hate & Clickbait, writing as Liz Bowery) offers a queer paranormal romance that's less gothic than it is fizzy, campy fun. After all manner of supernatural creatures reveal themselves to the world, thoroughly human advice columnist Charlie finds himself struggling to give guidance to his readers. He sees a chance for career advancement when he runs into an old--very old, it turns out--acquaintance, the vampire Lorenzo, and seemingly convinces him to act as a guide to this strange new world, without Charlie telling him his true purpose. But it turns out that Lorenzo is nursing a secret grudge against Charlie and sees their partnership as a way to get revenge. Soon, Charlie and Lorenzo's dislike for one another begins to blossom into something much sexier. This is a fun take on the vampire-human romance, made even more entertaining by the myriad creatures readers meet along the way. In the acknowledgments, Lehane explains that her novel was inspired by the vampire comedy movie and TV show What We Do in the Shadows, and it hits the mark, combining paranormal ridiculousness with real, heartfelt emotion. VERDICT A fresh and funny queer take on vampire romance.--Jenny Kobiela-Mondor
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Charlie Wever is a down-on-his-luck advice columnist who doesn't have the answers about dating magical creatures. Can a chance run-in with a vampire acquaintance be his ticket back to the top? When the online magazine Charlie writes for is bought out, his salary is replaced by a pay-per-click rate, and he's forced to move from New York back to his hometown in rural Virginia. Luckily, he soon runs into Lorenzo, who dated one of his college friends until she dumped him--on Charlie's advice. When Charlie asks Lorenzo to be his guide to the world of supernatural creatures, Lorenzo agrees because he sees the request as an opportunity for revenge. This dubious arrangement seems to benefit Charlie more than Lorenzo, who asks for Charlie's help with a few mundane tasks involving a plumber, a dry cleaner, and a driver's license. When Charlie complies, Lorenzo reciprocates by bringing him to a werewolf prom, a druid initiation ceremony, interspecies game nights, and more. Eventually Lorenzo moves past Charlie's previous betrayal, and they act on their growing attraction to one another. Their plan begins with a fair amount of deception--rather than telling Lorenzo about his advice column, Charlie says he's a graduate student working on a thesis that no one will ever read (hoping to placate the vampire sense of privacy), and Lorenzo invades Charlie's sleeping subconscious to scare him away. Both of Charlie's betrayals seem fairly manufactured, and it's never clear why Charlie needs to lie about writing a column when there are other people publicly discussing intraspecies relationships and mystical creatures are a known population. Lorenzo's supernatural roommates and Charlie's letters from the paranormal lovelorn are the highlights of Lehane's debut. Ambitious and fun, but fails to find the right magic. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
