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 that 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.
Review:
This was cute! Not bad at all for a debut book (it wasn’t obvious from reading that it was a first book, so that’s a win if you ask me). It made me laugh out loud more than once, and definitely did remind me of The Flatshare (sharing a space by having opposite schedules–though this time they had their own rooms–and communicating via notes) and What We Do in the Shadows (with Frederick’s often awkward attempts to assimilate to modern times–he’s not nearly as bad as most of the vampires in the show, though, since he at least does want to learn), and I definitely didn’t hate that.
That said, this book is absolutely its own thing–the author has made her own “rules” here, some of which are fairly unique (Frederick’s “special talent”–I don’t want to spoil it, but I don’t think I’ve seen a talent quite like it in all of my vampire-related media consumption) and others that she’s selected from existing lore. Nothing really made me say hey, wait a minute…, at least not any more than the usual (how *do* vampires get a….well, you know…without a beating heart?) and that’s not the author’s fault, since vampires as a whole don’t always make a lot of sense.
The story is from Cassie’s POV, but we do get some insight into Frederick’s thoughts and feelings with the passages that start each chapter (text messages with a vampire friend, diary entries, and a few other Frederick-adjacent documents) and his notes to Cassie, all of which were a lot of fun. Especially the text threads–those had me LOL more than once. It’s never quite clear why Frederick thought he’d be able to find an appropriate human to teach him 21st century survival just through an ad for a roommate, or what specifically about Cassie made him so obsessed with her so quickly–the (undead) heart wants what it wants, I guess.
Cassie and Frederick were really cute together, and although there were some aspects of the plot that felt a little too convenient or a bit obvious, that didn’t detract from my enjoyment. Cassie’s plan for saving him at the end seems almost too easy, but that was part of its charm. Overall this was a cute read and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for more from this author, whether it’s written in this universe or another!
Rating: 4 stars / B+
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.