This book was so much fun! I found it so addicting! Some of the narration was a bit cheesy but overall, I enjoyed this book so much!

I didn’t make it very far into this one because of the writing style. It was wayyyy too “modern.” I couldn’t stand all the pop culture references to things like GrubHub, Netflix, and pop icons. The writing was choppy, and the sarcasm was just annoying and didn’t make me laugh at all.

I was really excited to read this one - I thought the cover was great and the preview was very intriguing. It definitely had a some funny moments as well. This paranormal rom com was a fun read that moved pretty well.

Lily’s journey to not only embracing her new life as a vampire but accepting herself and body positivity was the main theme of this novel and was definitely interesting to read. Her realization of how her negative self image affects her and her relationships especially with her friends was a powerful one. Her dynamic with Tristan is interesting. He seems very stuck in his old fashioned vampire ways and he’s loaded with secrets and mysterious ways. You don’t get a good feel for him until later on in the book and he takes little while to warm up to him.

I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book from NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca and this is my honest and fair review.

This book made me laugh and I could stop reading it. Gloria Duke has delivered a fun book on vampires that any paranormal fan wii love.

Okay so there were a few things I didn't completely care for but I did genuinely enjoy this book! Honestly, it was exactly what I expected and I'm not bad about it. I really meshed with the authors writing style right away which I loved.

When Life Gives You Vampires
Gloria Duke
Release Date: 10.4.22
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☆/5
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Lily Baines is a plus size 25-year-old journalist from NYC that has always struggled with body image issues. One evening, while out with her best friend Cat, Lily meets the handsome and charming Tristan Newberry. The two hit it off and the evening seems to be going well...until Tristan bites Lily. Even more surprising, Lily bites Tristan back. Fast forward to the next evening, when Lily awakens to discover she's been turned into a vampire, and soon, the realization dawns that she's now not only immortal, but immortal in her current body that will never change. To make matters worse, Grand Master Gideon of the Vampire Council is out for her and Tristan both, as it's against vampire law to turn a human to a vampire without permission.
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I wanted to love When Life Gives You Vampires. I really did -- the blurb had me instantly excited. A plus size vampire heroine in a paranormal romance? Sign me up. Unfortunately, this book fell flat in every single way. I nearly DNF'd in the first 5 or so chapters of the book but kept going, hoping that things would get better -- they never did. The way Lily speaks is ridiculous and honestly cringey. Lily and Tristan have zero chemistry; their relationship felt forced from the beginning and never clicked. To me, it reads as Lily falls for Tristan because he convinces her she's 'pretty, for her size', essentially. Every conflict is resolved SO easily, and so unbelievably. It was a frustrating read from the very beginning, and really missed the mark for me. This book felt like a very rough first draft that, with a lot of polishing and editing, could become a really fun read.

Thank you so much to Gloria Duke, Sourcebooks Casablanca, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love vampire romances but I've never read one like this one. The new vampire is a 30something woman who has always had problems with her weight. She has tried all the diets and fads. It don't help that her mother has bugged her about her weight. In this book she leans that she is beautiful no matter what her size. (She also uses the self control she's learned from diets to keep from biting people.) Redemption at the end which is very satisfying.

Bring on more Vampire romances like this one!! It seems like there's a TON of witchy romances (and I'm not complaining) but the era of vampire romances feels like a thing of the past almost. This book was HILARIOUS and such refreshing fun with a great focus on body positivity and self-acceptance.

Lily is your average plus sized 25-year-old until she wakes up one morning realizing she's not just hung over but has somehow become a vampire! What follows is her learning more about what her new life is going to look like, getting to know (and slowly fall for) Tristan, the vampire who accidentally turned her and finding a way to accept that her body is never going to change now that she's immortal.

This book exceeded all my expectations! Perfect for fans of Olivia Dade or Julie Murphy and anyone nostalgic for an updated, more modern Anne Rice like story. I also got strong Buffy and iZombie vibes reading this book! Great on audio too. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

CW: toxic parental relationship, fatphobia, body-shaming, negative self-talk

ARC REVIEW

When Life Gives you Vampires
By Gloria Duke

Publishing Date: 10/4/2022

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Lily is  a plus size New Yorker who has always hated her body. She feels being "skinny" would cause all of her life problems to vanish!  But when waking up one morning, she discovers FANGS. And slowly puts the pieces together.  Has she become a.....VAMPIRE?! How? What?! WHY!  Now her life problems became a whoooooole lot more complicated!!!

This book is a super fun ride that tackles body positivity issues, unnecessary family pressure to be thin, love, and oh yeah......THE GRAND MASTER VAMPIRE THAT WANTS TO KILLY LILY!!

Review: I seriously LOVED THIS. Now I will say...It's a fiction book. It's not meant to change the world OR solve every  piece of fat shaming that happens in our society. I read some reviews and readers feel that Lilys negative self talk and diet culture at the beginning, is enough to turn them off from reading. To each their own and everyone has their own triggers.  But I personally thought it was a fun adventure!

Lily has a nice character development where we see her go from hating her self to acceptance and pride in her body.  As a former plus size gal myself, I was not triggered and loved it from the start!

The vampire aspect was so fun and I got a kick out of all the twilight references. I found myself laughing numerous times!

Overall, It was a nice escape from my typical romance reads and PERFECT for the upcoming spooky season!

Definitley add this one to your TBR for Halloween next month!

Thank you SO Much to @netgalley and @sourcebookscasa for this unexpected gem!
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Great fun read. If you love the vampire diaries or twilight you will love this story. Great writing.

This is a super fun book! There is a lot of talk regarding body image and I think most of us have all felt the way this character has felt and it's nice watching her grow and learn to love herself.

I mean who doesn't want vampires to be real?! nice, hot, fun vampires anyways...!

This is a great book to read in October.

I recommend this book to anyone who is just looking for a fun easy book to read!

When I saw this book, I was super excited. Paranormal romance is my favorite; add in a plus size heroine, and I’m sold!

Reading a book with a plus size heroine always ends up making me feel heard. As a plus size girl, I know a lot of the struggles that Lily was going through. It hit me so hard when she was talking about trying to force herself to be body positive by reading all of the material but just not having it sink into her own thoughts. Lily’s journey throughout the book was extremely relatable and, at times, enlightening. When Cat finally tells Lily that her own self-hate is affecting their friendship, it made me re-evaluate some of my reactions to see if I was doing something similar. For a book about something as unreal as vampires, this book had some very real and thought-provoking situations.

It’s always hard for me not to like the love interest in a book, but I came out of the book not liking Tristan too much. I liked that he was always there for Lily and loved her no matter what. However, his constant secrets and manipulation made him extremely unlikable. I wish there was more brought into his character that was discussed before the latter fourth of the book.

I think the way that the book had slang written throughout could have been left out. Words like “obvi” make sense to me but could be isolating to some of the older crowd. I think highlighting the youth of the character through their speech is one thing, but having it in their inner dialogue is a little much, in my opinion.

Overall, I thought the book was a cute approach to a body positive book. It was very entertaining to read, and I’ll definitely pick up more of Gloria’s books in the future. Check this book out if you love vampires (of course!), body image revelations, and admirable friendships.

Special thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for an advanced copy of this book!

Review posted on Instagram on 9/8/22 at link below

I absolutely adored this story. As a plus size girl myself, I don’t find there are a lot of plus size representation out there. I related so hard to lily and just over all loved the story. Only lost a star because I didn’t care too much for the weird phrases like “holy d!ck boogers”. Made the book seem a bit immature and made me roll my eyes every time. Other than that, the story was lots of fun!

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for allowing me to read this arc. I thought it was cute and a quick read but I don't think you should read this if struggling with body positivity. I really would have liked to see a more campy plot around revenge on diet culture than seeing a character struggle to accept herself. I agree some of the dialogue is a little unrealistic. I'm a millennial and I say "Obvi" in texts but I would never say it in real life that much. BUT that did not really take away the story for me. Would have liked a little more character development, it felt fast but still thought it was okay overall. Going to really depend on what you're looking for in a story.

As a big fan of twilight and plus sized characters, I knew I had to read this book. Throughout the whole book you can see Lily's journey of accepting her body and feeling positive about it which really resonated with me as a plus sized reader. I had a lot of fun reading this book.

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. Right off the bat we have a Twilight reference that makes her best friend a supposed vampire expert. *sigh* ok, I keep going. Then we have more “um”s in two pages than you should have in an entire novel. I was so looking forward to this, especially since it had plus size representation, but within the first 5 chapters I was too annoyed to continue.

This book! Oh my gosh! I loved this! It had everything I could ever want. There was a plus sized main character, vampires, a sexy romance, and a great found family bestie! I honestly could not have asked for me.
Lily is everything I could want in a main character! She was smart and funny and sexy. I couldn't tell if I wanted to be her best friend or her girlfriend. I wanted her to know she is absolutely gorgeous and amazing. She makes this whole book worth reading.
The relationship between Lily and Tristan was great. It wasn't exactly a slow burn but it was enough of a build up to make the final moments amazing. I did wish Tristan had a bit more character development but that is just a person thing. Tristan was a great character i was honestly just jealous as heck Lily liked him.
The vampire element was also great. I love vampires and while these guys stuck with the original definition of a vampire it was still so much fun. Lily was exactly what I think normal people would act like after being turned.
Please do yourself a favor and read this book. This is perfect for the spooky season but it great for all year long as well!

This book was great! Funny and didn't take itself too seriously, thank goodness. As any book that contains vampires there are some plot holes, but that's to be expected when dealing with the undead. I really liked the conversation about consent happening in context of the vampires, but I didn't love the "if you drink from me you want be able to control yourself and we'll have sex" thing. Honestly, it seems too easy and it takes enthusiastic consent a little bit out of the conversation. I loved that she knows before hand the "consequences".

Lily and her best friend: goals! I loved their dynamic, and whether I want to or not I related to a lot of Lily's feelings about her body, diet culture, the body positivty movement, and well meaning mothers. It was a relatable story with heart even before we learned more about the vampire world of New York.

Lily wakes up after a night out as a vampire... Tristen did not mean to turn her into a vampire but he did and it can not be undone. Then they fall in insta-love amid the backdrop of a long-standing feud between Tristen and the leader of the vampires, a newly minted vampire slayer, and Lily's body positivity journey.

It is a far out plot with lots of fun and funny moments. The serious parts are a bit difficult to take seriously but overall this was an entertaining read with a side of our heroine's journey to body acceptance.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing my early access to read and review this book before publication.

Vampy and fun with a heavy side of cheese. It's Twilight for grown ups. I really enjoyed this one. I'm crossing my fingers for a book 2!