Review: Filthy Rich Vampire by Geneva Lee

Filthy Rich Vampire by Geneva Lee

Series: Filthy Rich Vampire #1

Publication date: October 24th, 2023

Pages: 364

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Synopsis:

Julian Rousseaux has a problem. He's single, and for the world's wealthiest vampires, the social season is about to begin. Julian would rather stake himself than participate in the marriage market. But as the eldest eligible Rousseaux, he's expected to find a wife before the season ends--whether he likes it or not.

When cellist Thea literally stumbles into his life at a gala, he knows she's the last person he could even fall in love with. She's too innocent, too kind, and way too human. But now that she knows about his world, she's also a walking target. She needs protection. He needs a fake girlfriend to discourage overzealous vampire matchmaking.

So, Julian makes Thea an irresistible offer: pretend to be his lover and he'll change her life. For one year, they'll attend the season's social events together in exchange for his protection and a way out of her mother's crippling medical debt.

She can't say no. But the vampire world is impossibly decadent and darker than Thea ever imagined, and Julian's filthy rich vampire family wants her out of the way. But with each moment they share, new dangers emerge: a desire as forbidden as their stolen touches, an awakening of a long-dead heart, and secrets that could tear them both apart.

Sensual, dangerous, provocative -- step into a daring new world of dark magic, primal attraction, and breathtaking romance.

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Story:

There are books that I absolutely love that are inundated with smut from cover to cover. Then there are the ones that try to use smut as filler when the plot doesn't hold water. As much as I did enjoy most of this book, Filthy Rich Vampires was of that second caliber for me. The main character's reasons for keeping himself apart from his female protagonist were vague and not at all believable. He would hurt her only to run back to her and apologize and hope that it makes everything better. He did that on a number of occasions and it became hard to watch Thea go through it. The story had a lot of plot holes that I am not sure whether they will ever be filled. I will, of course, read on in hopes that it gets better but as it stands, the story is more erotica than it is romantasy. I wanted to be lost in this vampire world where they lived on the cusp of human society with their own government, laws, and rules to abide by. But instead I got a shaky storyline that made me uncertain if the author even had it all fleshed out before she started to write. 

Characters:

• Thea - The saving grace of the book for me. Thea was such a delightfully quirky character that seemed to be blindly innocent and a liability but I liked that there were some times when she showed her teeth and it was then that Julian paid a little more attention. She was no doll to be toyed with and discarded and I think that is what gained her the respect from her vampire lover that she may not have gotten otherwise. For someone thrown into a world where vampires and other preternatural creatures were real, she seemed to handle it a lot better than anyone else would have. Strength or naivety? 

• Julian - Boy did I dislike Julian 80% of the time in the book. He played with Thea far too much. Strung her along, promised her things, and then yanked the rug out from under her. He tried to show her his world while also trying to shelter her from it which does not work in any scenario. He was too busy rolling over and showing his belly to any of his family who demanded it (especially his bitchy mother) instead of fighting for his right to be happy. He was the weakness in the couple, not Thea.

Writing:

The writing was pretty simplistic. There were moments when I would have really liked a little more description of the setting the characters were in so that I could better picture the image in my head. There were times when I would have to go back and read the setting during the dialog because I character would do something that didn't fit with the picture I had concocted. Such as a character standing from a sitting position when I hadn't even realized they had moved to a chair at all. I am hopeful that it may have just been first book in a series jitters and that maybe the next in the series would be better.

Overall:

I didn't overtly hate the book but I would have been a lot happier with the plot and writing being a little more elevated than the were. The characters were likeable one minute then hated the next (especially Julian). The story was decent but there were plot holes the size of the Grand Canyon. I will be reading on in the series because of the monumental cliffhanger that was left behind and I remain hopeful it will be even better than this one.