Review: My Roommate Is a Vampire by Jenna Levine

My Roommate Is a Vampire by Jenna Levine

Series: My Vampires #1

Publication date: August 29th, 2023

Pages: 352

Spice: 🌶️🌶️

Synopsis:

A USA TODAY BESTSELLER!

A September Indie Next Pick

One of Amazon's Best Romances of September

One of Apple's Best Books of September

True love is at stake in this charming, debut romantic comedy.

Cassie Greenberg loves being an artist, but it's a tough way to make a living. On the brink of eviction, she's desperate when she finds a too-good-to-be-true apartment in a beautiful Chicago neighborhood. Cassie knows there has to be a catch--only someone with a secret to hide would rent out a room for the price.

Of course, her new roommate Frederick J. Fitzwilliam is far from normal. He sleeps all day, is out at night on business, and talks like he walked out of a regency romance novel. He also leaves Cassie heart-melting notes around the apartment, cares about her art, and asks about her day. And he doesn't look half bad shirtless, on the rare occasions they're both home and awake. But when Cassie finds bags of blood in the fridge that definitely weren't there earlier, Frederick has to come clean...

Cassie's sexy new roommate is a vampire. And he has a proposition for her.

Available at:

Story: 

Throughout the story we follow Cassie as she navigates her new life living with her vampire roommate. Of course, that isn't how they immediately started out. Cassie cluelessly didn't catch onto the same hints as Bella did with Edward. His skin was cold but the sparkles were lacking. I guess that is what threw her off. However, eventually she learns the truth and what all comes with that. I feel like the lead up of the story was great. Watching Cassie make decisions within her love life while trying to get her life on track again was titillating and the slow burn between the main protagonists was amazing to watch. But it seems once the author reached over half way through the book something changed. Whether they decided it was too much fluff and not enough action or their editor told them they needed more drama, it absolutely ruined the book for me. It made absolutely no sense. You're telling me Cassie can make a bluffing threat like she did and everything just resolves automatically? No fallout? Nobody hurt? Then what was even the point?! What was the meaning of the whole side quest we went on with Frederick's family and betrothed? It read like a children's book where you're not expected to understand how conflicts work entirely so easy resolutions are just accepted as the way of things. I was so disappointed with the last 25% of the book.

Character(s):

I really liked Cassie as a character. She seemed awkward but at the same time she had a vision of what she wanted her life to be. She had motivation and a big heart that made her completely endearing. She was willing to step out of her comfort zone for someone and even willing to accept an unknown entity as a potential romantic partner. Frederick gave a little bit of Bridgerton and a dash of golden retriever energy. Not exactly what you would think of when you think about a vampire. He waffled between his Victorian era thought processes to a sheepish man who doesn't have a clue what to do about his developing feelings. I have never witnessed a bloodsucking fiend appear so awkward. Any other characters didn't have much of anything to even discuss. They either were interjecting themselves into situations only to cause useless drama or they were background white noise half the time for me.

Writing:

I only saw a few instances of grammar or spelling errors but some of the sentence structure was not as strong as it could be. Add to that the fact that the development of the characters and sticking to their strict rules the author sometimes waffled. One minute Frederick would be speaking like a proper gentleman of his time and the next time he was speaking like he was a modern day man. I feel like the author didn't keep to Frederick's character limits and instead tried to make him interesting to the point of entering the dreaded 'cheesy' level. He was from the 1700s but talked about all the people he bedded over a century ago, even slipping in casually that he was bisexual. That sort of thing did happen but it was not something discussed openly so him being so off the cuff with it didn't feel like someone of his age would view things. I feel that was a slip-up in the writing for the author. But other than that there wasn't a lot to complain about.

Overall:

I am so incredibly disappointed. I really liked the book up until the 75% mark where the author flipped the entire story on its head and rushed to towards its conclusion. I was enjoying the slow burn between the characters without any drama added in. I know some should be interjected to draw a reader in but it was so ridiculous that it ruined my overall opinion of the book. This book went from really pleasant to read to being a middle of the road read.