A vampire with a blood phobia is a charming idea. The story starts out with tongue-in-cheek humour and a light-hearted take on supernatural romance, and manages to weave that through the whole novel, beginning to end... But. See further down under "Cons"!
I like that the author tries a fresh
aproach to scientifically explain the existance of vampires - I just don't like the execution, which I…mehrA vampire with a blood phobia is a charming idea. The story starts out with tongue-in-cheek humour and a light-hearted take on supernatural romance, and manages to weave that through the whole novel, beginning to end... But. See further down under "Cons"!
I like that the author tries a fresh aproach to scientifically explain the existance of vampires - I just don't like the execution, which I will also talk about a bit further down. I do like that these vampires are still very much in touch with their human side, and that they live in families - there are no dark, brooding, tortued creatures of the night here, which is a nice change.
Lissi is a nice character, and so is Greg... In fact, all of the main characters are likable. Heck, I even sort of liked the "villain" (at least until he really lost it towards the end.)
The language is a bit repetitive at times, and often, the author over-explains and over-describes. There were a few scenes that got a chuckle out of me, but in many situations, the humor felt forced and construed.
Some of the characters lack depth. Maybe they will be developed more in the other books of the series, though?
The scientific explanation seems more than a little far-fetched to me. I don't want to give too much away, but there are a few details that just don't make much sense. (If you need more blood in your *veins*, then *drinking* blood isn't going to do you much good?) While I usually like it when an author doesn't simply say "It's magic!" and calls it a day, I'd prefer that to an explanation that I can't "believe" in.
For people who are supposed to be very intelligent, both Lissi and Greg are downright oblivious to what goes on around them and/or fail to draw the right conclusions to what they witness. I don't want to spoiler you too much, so here's just a small example:
Greg is abducted by people who can obviously control his mind. When Lissi finds him tied to her bed, she thinks he's dinner. Her young cousins talk about drinking bagged blood in front of him. Lissi's mother looks as young as her daughter. Nobody seems to make much effort to hide what they are. And it doesn't occur to him at all that they might be vampires (or at least suffer from the delusion that they are) until he sees the bite marks on his neck?
The love story between Greg and Lissi is cute but a bit lackluster. From the first time they meet, it's clear that they are going to turn out to be soulmates eventually, but I didn't really feel the the spark. It had all the suspense of a cooking recipe: take one pretty vampire, add a hunky doctor, sprinkle some spicy misunderstandings on top and stir until you get a perfect couple.
It feels like there isn't enough plot there to fill a novel, so the author tacks on two threatening issues: a mysterious person who's out to harm Lissi, and an authoritarian vampire uncle who might have Greg's mind wiped. It's a classic pattern: person A and person B fall in love, but there is conflict C that stands between them and possible villain D that means them harm, so they need to come up with solution E to gain their happy end.
But it shouldn't be so bloody obvious! (Pun intended.) Don't get me started on the "mysterious" person! From the first time he is introduced, it is absolutely 100% crystal clear what's going to happen - and it's absolutely 100% unbelievable that Lissi doesn't even have a clue! Come on, she CAN'T be that dense? I literally groaned out loud when I realized that the book really *was* going to end the way I'd suspected all along; I'd hope that it was a red herring.
I honestly wanted to like this novel because it seemed right up my ally: vampires, a love story, quirky humour and an unusual explanation. But the logical flaws and the utterly ridiculous obtuseness of the main characters sort of killed it for me.
I'm still going to pick up the next novel, because I feel that the author has something here that *could* be really fun and entertaining!
