If Stephanie Plum or Kinsey Millhone were vampires, their best friend would be Veronica. This is a very entertaining read that revolves around a vampire's journey to be able to die. The premise doesn't sound that likable but I'm pretty sure that everyone to whom I recommend this book will love it.

Absolutely loved this book! It was like if Stephanie Plum and True Blood had a baby on menopause. I laughed so much through reading this book. The author did an amazing job and I want more like this. Forever 51 is the laugh I needed to start my 2021. Great work, Pamela Skjolsvik!

Veronica Bouchard is a vampire who breaks her 10-year-long commitment to sobriety by drinking human blood soon after killing a 19-year-old employee at a tanning centre who has the temerity to mock her age. For there is no fury like that of a menopausal vampire.
Poor Veronica is forever 51 years old. Doomed to suffer an eternity of hot flashes and crazy hormones, she is desperate for any solution out of this mess. Being a vampire allows her to regenerate and erase bullet wounds, but at 51, it does nothing for her vanity.
A fervent member of Alcoholics Anonymous, which helps her cope with her hunger for blood, Veronica has, for the most part, restricted herself to an ethical meal. This ethical way is to drink from somebody at a terminal disease, already on the verge of death. The hospice at which she works, on the night shift, is the perfect hunting ground.
Then one day out of the blue, Veronica receives an FB friend request from her 15-year-old daughter, Ingrid, who turned her over a hundred years ago and then ran off with her hot, much older vampire lover, Desmond.
On the way to see her, Veronica acquires a friend, 21-year-old Jenny Pearson who suffers from hemochromatosis and severe drug dependency issues.
On responding to Ingrid’s friend request, Veronica becomes aware that there is a way to not only be able to see your reflection in the mirror but also to get your soul back. It involves offering a heartfelt apology to all those she has turned.
Determined to re-gain her soul and become mortal again, Veronica sets out on a road trip across the country to connect with and apologise to the five vampires she has turned.

The book is written in the past tense in the omniscient viewpoint. The tone is both mocking and indulgent towards vampires, and overthrows a few myths about vampires while reinforcing others.

Starting in the present in Texas, the book sees Veronica take us along across Massachusetts, Detroit, New Orleans, Nebraska and North Dakota as she sets out to meet and apologise to all those who turned vampires because of her, including her granddaughter, Millicent.
I don’t generally fancy vampire stories. I read Count Dracula back in the day, but I was put off by the Twilight series, and the film didn’t help at all. I picked this one up because the premise was so uproariously funny and offbeat.
The cover, though simple, hinted at the snarky story within, with its image of those protruding canines and that single drop of blood. Immortality's a bitch, and you'd better believe it.
Unlike Twilight, Forever 51 reminds us that being a vampire is nothing but endless days of monotonous nothing. For all the romance that the Twilight series conjured up around vampires, this book does away with the glamour of immortality and reminds us about the risks, hiding from reflective surfaces, never being able to socialise, and being incredibly lonely. Forever 51 romances the idea of mortality and living, the joys of eating ice cream and smelling, even if it means aging, since that is a part of life.

The word, vampire, isn’t mentioned until Chapter 3, but we have no doubt that V for Veronica and Vampire is sassy and big on attitude. She loses her cool when the tanning centre girl, flush with beauty at age 19, suggests she try Botox. Nobody likes to be reminded of their age, least of all a vampire. She keeps her temper under control thanks to AA’s sobriety programme whose catchphrase is HALT – Are you Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired?
Veronica’s vampirical nature allows her to comment on the times we live in. She moans that she is still alive in a world in which food which used to sustain life is now its own addiction. She is disturbed by modern slang, like the word, solid, standing in for the word, favour. But she is grateful for the invention of stretchy pants.
You can’t help liking Veronica. She can’t stand men who hurt women, physically or emotionally.

The violence is implied but the sex references are casual and gratuitous. There is a lot of bad language and loads of pop culture references, some of which I got and many I didn’t. The analogies were entertaining, just like Jenny.

Just two mistakes. At the end of Chapter 5, we see a reference to Ingrid’s laptop. It should be Annika’s laptop, since we haven’t met Ingrid at this point. In another place, Gandhi was misspelled as Ghandi. I hope the author rectifies these minor errors.

Finally, this modern-day picaresque novel with Veronica behind the wheel, and Jenny, and us, in tow, is one great ride and read.

Favorite Quotes:

I love bacon. I used to be a vegetarian, but I couldn’t give up the bacon. It’s like the gateway meat to a carnivorous lifestyle…

These photos are horrible. You need to work on that resting bitch face if you’re going to start posting selfies.

If there was ever a myth about vampires that truly bothered her, it was that they were dramatic, evil, universally untidy creatures. She prided herself in the clean and clinical nature with which she could suck a person dry without spilling a drop… The last thing she wanted was to splatter someone’s blood on her eighty-five-dollar yoga pants or even on her hospital scrubs. It was difficult to get out in the wash.

You’re young, but I’d like to let you in on a little secret. What gives life meaning is that one day it will be over. Which is exactly what makes being a vampire suck. It’s like that movie Groundhog Day, except there’s no Bill Murray and it never ends. Ever.

I knew I was different. I think my parents suspected as much and sent me off to one of those crazy camps where you are supposed to pray away the gay. At camp, two things happened. One, I met my first girlfriend, which was awesome, but I don’t think we prayed hard enough or something because we made out every chance we got.

My Review:

I rarely read paranormal tales as I am far too lazy for all that complicated world-building, but I’d read them on the regular if I could find crisply written and snappy ones like this. Forever 51 was a pure delight and full of sharp wit and clever snark from a fifty-one-year-old vampire trapped in perpetual menopause. The plot was unmatched in originality with curiously compelling storylines that amused and entertained while sucking me into a mysterious subculture that began to feel surprisingly real given the weirdness of the world we’ve been inhabiting during the last four years and especially the unholy, calamitous, and disastrous year of 2020. I will be ever so grateful to crack the spine on next year’s calendar.

I was unfailingly engaged and fascinated by the uncanny and keenly honed characters who were often dumpster fires and beyond peculiar yet were also intensely intriguing. I adored every well-chosen word of this oddly captivating, surreal, and dynamic missive. Pamela Skjolsvik is the bomb-diggity. I think I just might be besotted with her mad skills and covet her delectable and snarkalicious word voodoo.

This book has the most unique take on vampires that I have ever read and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Forever 51 had me hooked from the very beginning, and didn't let me go until it was over.. When I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it and what was going to happen next.. It was funny and had me laughing out loud, and was full of snark, sass, and some dark humor. It had some twists and turns that I didn't see coming especially at the end. and I can't wait to read more by this author..
Veronica is a 51 year old menopausal vammpire who is just trying to lead a normal life.. Well as normal as possible, working as a hospice nurse and getting spray tanned for a friends wedding.. She is married to husband number 5, and this one really gets her.. When she gets a facebook message from her daughter at the perfect moment she decides to head out for a visit..
She learns a few things on the way, like not all the myths about vampires are true, and that she can become human again.. All she has to do is go on a roadrip with her side-kick Jenny, and talk to all the people she had previously turned in to vampires.. I mean that should be easy right?

I really enjoyed reading this book, I thought it was great. It was fun, I loved the characters, and the pace of the book. The story was terrific ,and it was different. I have always loved well written vampire books, and this was well written, and original and kept me entertained. I want to read more by this author I like her style and sense of humour.

Super fun contemporary vampire story. Witty/goofy Veronica! Cracked me up through the whole book. This will be fun and easy to recommend to readers! What a clever premise.

OMG, a 51 year old menopausal vampire..... this book was great, all she wanted was to be mortal and grow old and out of menopause..... great story with lots of excitement and twists ....different than any other vampire story I’ve read....a must read

So I don't normally read books about vampires but when I saw the blurb, a menopausal vampire seemed like it would be a good read! I loved it! It's an interesting plot, a vampire turned years ago at the age of 51 and therefore forever menopausal, looking for a way to redeem herself. It has all the feels, laughter, sadness, anger, love. The characters are very well developed and most you can't help but cheer for. Great original story!

I really enjoyed reading this book, which is the story of a vampire who was turned years ago, and so remained a menopausal 51 year old. She has made a life for herself, with several husbands and children, moving on whenever people began to question why she never aged. She works as a nurse, with the terminally ill, some of whom she feeds from, some of whom she helps over the threshold to death. Then she meets a young girl on a plane, and her life will change forever.

The book does not take itself too seriously, but at the same time maintains a credibility. I enjoyed the writing style and loved the way the story developed.

Well worth a read, even if you are not generally a vampire fan! Pure escapism at its best.

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When you think about vampires chances are you´re picturing beautiful, ageless creatures (possibly even the glittery kind).
But a book about an eternally menopausal vampire on a road trip with a cause? Add a politician´s daughter with a drug problem as a sidekick into the mix, and we find ourselves in the middle of a quite unusual journey.
This was a fast-paced read that kept me interested until the end. I especially enjoyed the flashbacks to the protagonist's past.
4.5 stars!

Thanks to Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Of all ages to become a vampire 51 is one of the worst – if are going through menopause – permanently. [I just couldn’t do that again…]And if you had had children and the myth about being turned making you slim, gorgeous and with all your body/hair faults being rectified is false – then 51 is not good….
And of course if you can’t see yourself in a mirror means that you can never tell if your hair is sticking up, how clean your teeth are – do you have spinach in them? – or if your bum looks big in those trousers…
Now Jenny was an interesting girl. Her life as a member of a Texan politician’s family must have been far from normal and you can totally see why she might have wanted to ‘check out’ now and again.
So a very different, enjoyable and rather wry story about vampires – and how not to become a vampire if the myths were true.

Original, thought-provoking, and full of wit, Forever 51 is an outstanding debut. Veronica is a great character, flawed and complex with plenty to root for. The banter and snarky humor were effortless and had me chuckling throughout. I loved the interactions among Veronica and the secondary characters and all of the situations they got themselves into during the story. By using vampirism as a metaphor for aging, addiction, and more, the author breaks new ground and tells an interesting story. Highly recommended for fans of quirky, unique takes on favorite tropes.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Forever 51 is one of the most original debut books I've read this year.

Women of a certain age. Most people don't even know what that means.

Mothers, daughters, menopause (yes, Pamela Skjolsvik writes about menopause!) and vampires). What could go wrong?

What did I love about this book? Everything! It's snarky, fast-paced, and the characters are so well-formed they practically crawl off the pages. I found myself cheering them on and I'm definitely looking forward to the next in the series. This is a sequel, right? Another book? I certainly hope so!