Queer paranormal romance? 90s rom-com vibes? Sign me up!
This was such a fun read and I loved reading about this cute witch and vampire romance. I also enjoyed how the author encouraged conversations about mental health. It is also great if you like to read books with low stakes. The way the characters claimed their sexuality in the book clearly, one as a lesbian and the other as bisexual, was so refreshing and a just an extra touch that I loved.

I absolutely loved the relationship between Chloe and Angela. This book is filled with things that I absolutely love. It has vampires, friendship and its queer! This was about a blossoming relationship between Chloe, human, and Angela, vampire. The mental health rep in this is also great. Once I had finally picked this up off of my tbr shelf I could not put it down as I just had to see what happens between them!

Thank you to the publisher for my eARC copy of this book. Unfortunately I didn’t love this book and therefore didn’t finish, I just didn’t connect with this one. Not for me, sorry.

Good characters and writing style. Engaging plot and storyline. I enjoyed this. Thank you for providing me with an ARC.

Thank you to Net Galley for the free advance readers’ copy of this title.  Love Bites is a quirky fun LGBT+ romance between Chloe and Angela, the latter being the vampire doing the biting of the title. I really enjoyed the characters, especially the background character of Great Aunt Esther, who are all distinct and have full backstories. I would highlight that this book does contain content on emotionally abusive relationships, in case that is a trigger for anyone. As a Buffy fan in my teens, this made me very nostalgic for the light hearted fun tone of the Scoobies humour and I was rooting for the romance to work out even though there are so pretty big blocks in place (one of them being undead and all). Definitely recommend this read for anyone looking for a unusual spin on a supernatural rom-com.

I just couldn't get into this story. Based on the blurb I was expecting something along the lines of Carmilla, a webseries I loved a few years ago. Maybe my expectations were too high and that undermined any chance this book might've had once I got past the first chapter. But I simply didn't connect with the characters, and the writing style didn't work for me.

This was surprisingly entertaining!
I didn't know what I should expect from a sapphic vampire romance but this certainly hit it out of the park!
I loved Chloe (damn it where is the double points above the e I only have the German ones and they're not right) and Angela's perspective and though I still have no idea what the purpose of Ari was and why he got his own PoV at random times, I still liked his random mumblings about everything from Marlene Dietrich to devils and other religious endeavors!
My only complaint really, would be about the pacing. While I enjoyed the start we got to the story, I was a bit perplex how quickly the relationship between Chloe and Angela progressed only to then feel like the story was dragging a bit once they got together - I would have wished for a bit more depth to their relationship besides one date looking at meteors, one semi-date of painting and then just - boom - being a thing.
But that's really the only thing that bothered me.
Fun, dark and mysterious with quirky characters, this really was a nice take on the vampire story!

Love Bites
Author: Ry Herman
Publisher: Jo Fletcher Books
Page count: 384pp
Release date: 9th July 2020.


Angela was dead to begin with.
Please indulge my deliberate misquote of Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' there, but I can find no better way to indicate the state of the first main protagonist.
This fun, well-written LGBTQ Vampire romantic comedy, starts in 1998, Scottsdale, Arizona, with Angela awakening mid rigor mortis and rather discombobulated.
As Angela spends three nights, as per vampire lore, coming back to a semblance of life, Tess, her girlfriend, watches her, noting changes, in between processing photos in her darkroom.
On the third night, Angela wakes, confused and very thirsty, and wonders what the hell Tess has done to her.
Tess on the other hand is quite happy, afterall, Angela can't leave her now. Or so she presumes.
A year or so later, she's escaped Tess, is in Massachusetts with a couple of housemates Shelly (submissions editor) and Mike, whilst working on her thesis and hitting the clubs in goth gear to grab a quick bite.
Literally.
Second main protagonist Chloe has the delightful job of going through Shelly's slush piles. And desperate for help, she sublets her rental to Ari (Ariel) a very androgynous guy with long hair and a strange air about him. He seems quite nice, well, that is until he tells her about the religion he's created.
And then there's strange aunt Esther who teaches Ari to play cards, whilst also predicting various futures, and sharing centuries old stories from her life.
There's a wonderfully wry wit to the narrative as stereotypes are embraced and played with: from cult leader to goth wanabee, I chuckled very often as I recognised the characters and got the meta references.
Ari's faux sermon in chapter three 'The Parable of The Monster and The Girl', whilst being a fun parody, is also frighteningly realistic. It's an accurate allegory of domestic abuse and gaslighting. This is one of the serious issues explored within the novel, as well as self harm and depression.
For anyone who writes, edits or has worked within the publishing industry, it's also a great look through the lens of the slush pile reader, and also has very witty moments, with examples of horrendous submissions.
For this '90s ex rock-goth youth, the scene setting is incredible and the whole thing is like a love child of Nancy A Collins' Sonja Blue books with a generous helping of LGBTQ Pride. Ascension, the club Angela chooses the first night we see her hunt, is painted black, but still vibrant with flashing lights, very much reminding me of my time at The Nightingale, a well known haunt in the Gay Village, Birmingham. Herman paints it so well, I can hear the music and feel the warmth of the community and almost smell the sweat of all those dancing bodies. It's terrific writing.
Herman, writing about depression and loneliness, captures the aching loneliness Angela feels, her guilt at biting to stay alive, the need to connect in a real way with someone, just as Chloe, sitting alone in her room at night, is lost and seeking comfort.
Even her cat is called Entropy.
It’s clear Chloe’s depression is bordering on suicidal ideation, not surprising when we find out about her last partner, but even in the midst of such thoughts, Herman offsets the darkness with humour aimed at poor unfortunate slush pile readers. One word folks; pineapple.
Chloe’s incredibly messy apartment is a metaphor for her life, and her Aunt Esther who comes to visit is a breath of fresh air.
The thing about these characters though, is that they're all connected in some way, which is revealed as the book progresses.
Chloe is destined to meet Angela.
Given she’s taking her post grad in Astrophysics, it could almost mean it was destined in the stars.
The hints at world building here, reminded me in part of Kelley Armstrong’s ‘Otherworld’ and there’s much that could be explored.
Overall though, this is a romance.
It’s not actually a rom com in the traditional sense, because the humour is acerbic and definitely grounded in the tropes of supernatural fiction, but it is most definitely funny.
I laughed out loud quite a few times, but also loved the wider story and the romance between Angela and Chloe.
A terrific, vibrant, emotional and funny read.

Definitely a book out of my comfort zone. I am not quite into fantasy/ SCI FI but I have to say that it is very well written and characters are growing as you go deeper into the story.
A good read for lovers of the genre

Vampires are not straight!! I loved this book so much, firstly women loving women vampire and human sign me up! This was the perfect paranormal rom-com. I want to read so much more from this author. The romance was swoony, it was so funny, ah I just loved it!

Love Bites does successfully build a f/f romance that is sparked between a vampire and a human but without the usual cliches used to roll this trope. With a quirky narration that builds up to supernatural surprises, the complexities arising in this budding romance is more than the paranormal aspects, and this certainly enhances the reading experience. The themes of abuse, identity, and mental health are worth appreciating for the emotions they easily impart. However, the overall pacing might be disappointing to some readers for it drags but worth picking up for what the book essentially offers—a well-developed queer paranormal romance.

I do love a good vampire story, and the 1990s setting sounded great.. however this book didn’t really do it for me.
The book felt very long, and the story took a while to get started. The plot was disjointed with different timelines, and the intermittent diary entries depicting Angela’s experimental log jarred the flow of the story. There were a good few unanswered questions, and the characters were largely uninteresting - apart from the cat.
The main characters do have some depth at points, and how past relationships affected their present mental health was interesting.
I just felt that this was a slow burner and I had no real desire to finish.

This is a debut novel which I was drawn to by the cover in all honesty plus, vampires!

So firstly, my favourite character was the cat, Entropy. Loved that it was crazy and opened drawers to empty them. Secondly, the main characters themselves were really interesting. Throughout the book, Angela and Chloe faced their mental health issues left from previous relationships and I think this was handled really well to be honest. Herman tackled anxiety and depression without being condescending, including some symptoms not usually used in books which I really appreciated.

The downside for me was how long it took me to actually get into the story, it was a really slow burn for me in the beginning and because of the multiple character narratives I found it quite disjointed. This did get easier the more I read and got into the characters but it did take away some of the enjoyment in the beginning and made me feel it was a little unnecessary having so much back and forth early on.

All in all it was a cute little story with some sweet f/f romance. Plus vampires!

Love Bites follows two characters struggling with their lives in very different ways. While both are dealing with bad break ups, Chloë is dealing with mental health (TW: suicide is contemplated regularly) and Angela is dealing with, well, being undead!
When their paths cross, they tumble into an unexpected whirlwind romance and they’re both hiding their struggles from the other.
I really like both characters. If you ignore the fact one of them is a vampire, they’re very realistic characters! I do wish there was a bit of a warning in terms of Chloë’s mental health, because it’s a lot more severe than I expected it to be. There’s a lot of domestic abuse too.
The narrative is VERY jumpy. The narrative seems to change randomly, switching to first person from Angela or Esther’s POV every few chapters. It made the narrative a bit disjointed and all honesty it didn’t add to the story for me at all.
I liked the romance. I love that two people with difficult past relationships found each other. I found as well that their relationship actually helped develop their characters more. As their relationship grew you saw each character open up more.
It did seem a liiiittle cliche at times. Particularly the last quarter, like once you’ve found out one paranormal entity is real you suddenly find out two others in your life are also paranormal.
I enjoyed it overall though!
TW: domestic abuse, women being spiked with drugs, mentions of suicide.

DNF'D 20% in.

I really struggled to get into this book. I felt the writing was over descriptive and I didn't care for the characters at all. Little bit gutted as I was hoping to possibly find a new favourite vampire book.

I was lucky to get a copy of Love Bites by Ry Herman and published by Quercus Books which I got through Netgalley. It is a Sci-Fi Fantasy Romance and this is where one of my problems with the book lie. It doesn't seem to know what it is and my reply would be a romance between two women. I did like the story of Chloe and Angela's romance but the constant going back and forward to Angela's past life with Tess made the book in my view a bit long. I do understand that the backstory of how Angela had become a Vampire had to be mentioned and that was was well written at the start but the constant back and forward actually did spoil the book for me and the only saviour was the Romance it was cute and comical. I did like however was how Ry wrote about Boston they made it come alive and for someone who doesn't come from there it did enthrall me. For these reasons I have to give Love Bites 3 stars

First thing first: this is a gripping and entertaining read even if it's a bit slow at the start.
It's an unusual and sweet paranormal romance but it's also a story that talks about abuse, health mental issues and accepting oneself.
It's an LGBT love story but it's also about accepting the other with all the emotional baggage and trying to make think work.
Chloe has to accept that there's an entire paranormal world and her own acceptance, Angela has to understand her new self and what it means.
The villains in this story are not likable at all and their abusing is emotionally charged and realistic as much as their victim reactions.
It made me laugh and it made me think and I really appreciated the well rounded characters and the well thought world building.
I hope in a follow up featuring Michael and Shelley, Ari or Aunt Ethel because I'd like to meet them again and get to know them better.
I was a bit wary at the beginning but after some pages I was hooked and read it in one day.
Can't wait for another book by this author, strongly recommended.
Many thanks to JoFletcher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

This was a good paranormal romance with queer representation, the characters were well developed and likeable and I was fully invested in seeing where the relationship went. I liked that they both had their own issues but wanted more for each other. I thought it was also a strong novel in raising awareness of mental health issues, it is one of the first books I have read that mentions intrusive thoughts.

I also really enjoyed learning some theories behind constellations and the suits in a deck of cards as I had never heard that before and will look out for more information on that.

I did feel like there was a lot of unnecessary parts, I don’t feel that the angle character and the parables brought anything to the book, if anything they made me a little a annoyed as it was almost as if the author didn’t think you would understand why was being implied so was spelling it out for you.

CW: Love Bites, and so this review, includes themes of physical and emotional abuse and also suicide.
Love Bites is an absorbing, modern romance novel that just happens to concern a vampire. In events set in and around Boston leading up to Christmas 1999 we see Chloë and Angela struggle with their pasts, with the ways they've been hurt, to imagine a future together.

Graduate astrophysics student Angela has escaped an abusive relationship with photographer Tess. Abusive, but formative: Tess very much shaped the person that Angela is, from her taste in clothes to her lifestyle. But Tess hurt Angela badly and Angela is concerned that she may inflict the same pain on others - if she gets too close. She may not be able to help herself. So she's wary when the pattern seems to be playing itself out again.

Publisher's reader Chloë has suffered from mental health problems. She is on medication, but sometimes harbours dark thoughts ('Gun, the thought enters her mind, unbidden. You could shoot yourself in the head. It'd be quick and simple.') Coming from a strictly religious background and having entered into a disastrous marriage, her self-esteem is often low. ('Cooking is too much of an effort, anyway. She's worthless.')

When the two women meet, it's bound to get complicated...

If that wasn't enough, Love Bites also introduces a (possibly) centuries old witch, who might play the role of fairy godmother here but then again she might just be talking rubbish, and an angel who seems to be branching out and setting up his own religion. We also see a lot of Chloë's workmate Shelley and her partner Mike - together the characters form a believable group (Herman has a knack of making the weird seem credible - maybe something to do with grounding the unbelievable in the dilemmas of everyday life - work, rent, relations with an ex, cat sitting) and in fact a very sympathetic one. The paranormal element is here but the meat and drink of the story (perhaps I should say the blood...) is relationships, not doomy overcoming-supernatural-evil. I enjoyed that.

I liked the notes that one character penned in seeking to understand her, totally inexplicable, staten of being. What are the limits now being a vampire? What can you safely do and not do? How many of the myths are true? Subjected to a scientific investigation, maybe there might be answers... or maybe just more frustration.

There is also some sharp writing here, from scene setting as our protagonists go about their daily lives ('Brookline is still sleepy, not yet hurrying along in the caffeinated press of rush hour', 'She is, after all, young and over-educated') to the intoxication of a new relationship ('She's young and in love and dancing') to some very tender sex scenes (not going to quote) to the sadness of a chilly family (Chloë's parents, whose main reaction to her attempted suicide is irritation that have to pay for the ambulance). It also has a great, if chilling, exposition of the progress of an abusive relationship leading up to 'And then, once day, when she slaps you...'

There's a lot of fear here, and guilt, and a hope to be better but honest doubt whether you can be and whether it is fair, or just demanding, to seek forgiveness. And risk and trust and the potential, perhaps for new starts, not knowing all the answers but seeking honestly to find them. It's funny in places ('It gives him the vague impression that he's a member of a depressed drum-and-bugle corps. Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Goth Club Band') but can turn poignant in a flash ('Sweat is already soaking the ridiculously impractical waist cinched dress Tess is having her wear today', 'She can't spend her life not trusting anybody').

It's a heady mix and a book I greatly enjoyed. Do try it. (It would also, I think, make a great Christmas present for just the right person...)

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. An LGBT+ vampire romance novel that's not badly written smut? Love Bites includes discussions on mental health, sexuality, consent, abusive relationships & religion. I really liked how everything was woven together, and I hope to read more by this author.