I really wanted to like this book but I found myself stopping multiple times while trying to make my way through the book. It started in a weird place, and there was a lot of lore that needed to be built up, the summary and the cover was super enticing but by the time I started reading it I was really off put and disinterested in the book.

This review has been a long time coming. Sadly this book has sat on my TBR pile for a bit too long. Mostly because of the mixed reviews it initially recieved.

Mere Mortals follows Charlie and Reg, who have been vampires for over a century. Now they are in trouble and their punishment is to become mortal again. Now they are living as teens again for real, with high school and fake IDs and living in a place called Nowhere.

This book had a great start, we are immediately with Charlie and Reg as they arrive to be changed into mortals and they are not happy about it. Charlie is actually livid and Reg is upset but kind of looking forward to the opportunity. Chapters 1-10 flew by with both characters settling into humanity but after that it just continued to be Charlie whining about the situation and complaining at every turn and Reg trying to talk her out of her mood. Even in the end, I am not sure either of them had many redeeming qualities. There was little to no plot it felt like, the MCs were trying to become vamp again and they spend most their time just acclimating. The last 5 or so chapters were the action and then it ended so quickly.

I felt like the plot got a bit predictable, though at times it was sweet and funny. I enjoyed the beginning so 3 stars for that reason. It is an easy read all things considered as well, which is always nice and there was LGBTQ+ rep.

Thank you to HarperCollins Children's Books | HarperTeen and to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

This book was a really cute premise. Charlie and Reg were made vampires while they were too young. Now they are turned mortal and must go to high school.

This book was really just fun. I would definitely recommend this book to teens, especially if they are fans of the Twilight series.

This was such a fun premise for a book and it aided to some laugh out loud moments. The writing style was a breeze to read and I felt the story progressed at a good pace. This was a really fun YA vampire novel, and I am here for it.

Could not get into this, sadly. I loved the premise of the novel! I will stay up to date with the author and what other book they come out with. thank you for the arc!

I loved this book. It was a like a campy spin on Buffy, but without the "big bad" of the week.

Charlie and Reg were made vampire at too young of an age (nod to the Twilight-verse) and consequently they are immature and mistakes were made. Their immortality has been revoked and they are now relegated to the rural hellmouth of Nowhere, Iowa with an unappreciated "spirit guide" of sorts. I love the hilariously vapid attitudes and observations of Charlie, who is appalled that she no longer has a vampire sized bank account, vampire-esque perfection, and the cache of vampires. She bumbles her way through high school, offending and alienating the mortals who are unable to recognize her star power. Meanwhile, her brother finds his first relationship and quietly assimilates into the community. Charlie spends all of her waking hours plotting and scheming how to earn their way back into the immortal realm, desperate to return to her life of luxury and irresponsibility.

I loved the way Charlie grew as a character and matured into a new role, a new kind of friend, and a new appreciation for others. The ending was a great twist.

There was something slightly lack-luster about this book. I think that if you're a fan of YA vampire books, then this would be enjoyable, but for someone for whom this isn't their niche, this book is not going to pull them into the genre. I liked the concept of the book, but it didn't quite live up to expectations.

➸ 3.75 ⭐️

"Two teenage vampires are turned mortal and must face the greatest nightmare of all--high school."

This was great and so much fun!
I requested Mere Mortals after reading the first two chapters and honestly not only did it deliver the quick paced fun i was expecting but also surpassed my expectations.
The vampire lore and politics and the way everything was thought out really surprised and impressed me.
The MCs - Charlotte (Charlie) and Reg - were great. They were almost complete opposites and they were both a lot of fun but especially Charlie. She had the best one liners, I laughed out loud so many times.
I've seen some reviews where people call her insufferable and generally dislike her because she is arrogant and selfish etc but I don't think that's fair. She may be all of those things but that didn't just make her annoying it also made her interesting and fun and in the end she had the best development. Also, both MCs may have been 100 year old vampires but they are still very much stuck in their teenage phase and that is explained in the beginning so they were acting exactly their human age, if not even a little older.

"They are children," Adante replied. "It is precisely the problem. Of all the things we shed when we turn - our memories, our illnesses, our physical imperfections - we cannot lose the essence of who we are. If we are children, we are doomed to remain children.''

I loved the supporting characters as well. Sal, in particular, cracked me up on more than one occasion, though the whole gang was awesome. The romance between Charlie and Dex was so sweet, I loved them together.
The ending really surprised me because I didn't expect Charlie and Reg to end up where they did. I loved it but it also made me a little sad and I wish there was an epilogue.

This is a great fall read and if you love stand-alone books with vampires, found family, sweet romance, and laugh-out-loud moments you should check this one out!

Quotes are from an advance copy and may differ in the final publication.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advance digital copy of this book.

I received this book for free from netgalley for an honest review.

Really well thought-out book with amazing characters and excellent setting.

Mere Mortals is such a fun take on the vampire story! Instead of a mortal turning into a vampire, we have vampires thrust into the mundane life of mortals...except it isn't so mundane after all. We follow Charlie and Reg as they live their mortals lives in Iowa as high schoolers. What could be worse? This book was a refreshing take on all the other vampire stories that have been circulating around. Lots of fun and interesting characters that made this a very enjoyable read! Thank you HarperTeen for the advanced copy of this book!

Thanks to NetGalley & HarperTeen for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

Loved it! Vampires are back, baby! A very fun, fast-paced book about two self-centered vampires being turned human again and actually kind of enjoying it. The characters were all very fun, snarky, and lovable. Even the vampire lore was pretty fun to read about!

Fair warning--there is a cliffhanger. I thought this was a one-and-done book but it leaves a plot thread hanging that'll probably be resolved in the next book, whenever it's announced.

I really enjoyed this take on vampires in high school lol I feel like it can be overdone but this felt very fresh!

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I am a sucker for the typical teen high school story.

And even more so when there are vampires involved.

When I saw Mere Mortals for request on NetGalley, I knew the book was right up my alley. We all heard the story of human turns into a vampire but what about a vampire turning back/into a human? That is something I haven't seen done before. As such, I was curious about the story and what the vampire main characters would think about humanity from the outside.

I really enjoyed the story. I felt like it was fun, fresh and quirky which is what I wanted even before I opened the book. The pacing was not too slow or too fast but the book did skip over some parts that I really wanted to read more about. For example, we'd be reading about Charlie's anticipation of her second date but the next time we hear about it, it already passed and we didn't really get to experience that moment with the character. As a result, we missed out on an opportunity to delve deep into the characterisation of the love interest and by extension, we missed out on feeling that chemistry between the two characters which would've been vital to the ending for obvious reasons.

The characters I connected to the most were Sal, Reg and Lina and that was mainly because we got deeper glimpses into the former and latter's backstories. Reg was a character I understood early on but as the book continued, I felt more and more distant from him. If we maybe had more moments with him and Charlie, we might've been able to get a glimpse into how his relationship affected him. As such, the way his character arc ended wouldn't have been as out of the blue as it was.

The side characters were essential to the story, as in, so many of Charlie's choices were centred around her relationships with her human counterparts. Their role in the story was to help Charlie see the beauty of being human. I wished they had more of a presence in this book because I felt like everything with their characters felt quite surface level. I wanted to know more about the twins, about Poe and about Dexter. While we got slightly more backstory with Dexter, I still wanted more from him. I wanted to know him more than simply his desire to open an eatery in the future and from being a farmer's son. The fact that Charlie's connection with him felt so instantaneous didn't help this case at all but that's also because my personal preference with romance is slow burn.

Now onto Charlie. I see what the author was trying to do. I think she was trying to showcase the contrast between human and immortal through characterising Charlie as selfish and unkind at the start and then turning her into a selfless and kind human girl towards the end. Charlie was by no means a likeable character, not at the start anyway, but I wish we had more of a smoother transition to showcase this change in her character especially since it was highlighted over and over in the book that this was influenced by the people (specifically humans) around her. If the humans felt more present and we got further glimpses into their backstories, personalities etc then this element would've felt stronger and her choices would've felt more justified.

All in all, a fun story that was quite enjoyable to read. The characters did fall a little flat though. While I was reading this book, I asked myself if this would've been better if marketed towards the younger YA market or even tween readers. I think it would've been a readable book for that age group especially since there were no mature themes and nothing too violent to be considered inappropriate for that audience.

ACTUAL RATING: 3.3 STARS

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest opinion. I really thought I was going to like this book. I love paranormal and vampire books but this one was so boring and wasn't what I expected it to be.

Thank you HCC Frenzy for an ARC via NetGalley

This was such an interesting read! Vampires turned mortal as punishment and then made to attend high school. This led to so many funny moments, and a really enjoyable read.
The writing style was easy to get into, and I was totally into the town of Nowhere with Charlie and Reg as they embarked on being mortal for the first time in a century. The story moved along at a good pace, and it was easy to read. Charlie was a relatable and realistic character, and I liked seeing her struggle with being mortal and her desire for immortality. Her growth as a character was well done, and I liked her even more in the end. Her relationship with Reg was sweet, and I liked their sibling moments.
This was a fun YA twist on a vampire story, and I really liked reading it.

What if you suddenly get your vampirism removed? And if that wasn't bad enough, what if you had to go back to (GASP!) high school? This is the basic premise of Mere Mortals, a story that follows Charlie and Reg after a feeding gone wrong. They've been sent as punishment to Nowhere, Iowa to live with with an old, eccentric caretaker, posing as their uncle. Plus, there's a school dance to get ready for!

This story has a great premise. Reg is an enjoyable characters, as are all the side characters. However, I really struggled to like Charlie. In fact, even by the end of the book (when she had some redeeming qualities), I found her highly unrelatable, and I wondered how teens could relate to this high-fashion snob who is quite annoying. So in this book, I found a lot of things to like, but they were dampened by one big thing I didn't like. All in all, it was an okay book, but it wasn't stake-me-through-the-heart spectacular.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

This is a really fun, fresh take on vampires in YA. It's an enjoyable little book that I had a blast reading. It felt like a fresh way to approach vampires, was a little comical, and had some twists that I did not see coming.

Mere Mortals is about two teenage vampires who become humans and their quest to become vampires again.
Charlie and her brother Reg have been vampires for well over a century and one little mistake resulted in them being punished. Their punishment is mortality. They will now be forced to live their lives out as humans. They now live in a small little town and are teenages attending High School! They have to figure out how to navigate life and blend in . Charlie and Reg want to immortal again and getting their punishment to be reversed is nearly impossible until it isn't.

This is a super cute, fast read and very different from most vampire books I have read. Vampires being turned into humans as punishment is an interesting and refreshing idea. This is one book you will want to sink your teeth into.

This is a perfect book for my teenaged students who are slightly more naive/sheltered. It’s a cute, light romantic comedy that definitely stays PG. (Maybe even G!)

I can’t say I loved the main characters - I wanted a bit more depth to them, and I definitely did NOT like the ending - it seemed out of character for both Charlie and Reg and there wasn’t enough development of either to believe it.

The “fish out of water” trope led to some cute, albeit predictable and not especially original, scenes, and although the plot dragged at times, I still think this would be a sweet diversion for some of my less proficient readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Teen for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.