3.5 stars

Initial Thoughts
I read When Life Gives You Vampires at the right time personally. After several plot-dense, complex fantasy worlds lately, this book was light-hearted enough to feel refreshing to read.

What's great about this book?
- Although towards the end of this book I found it a little repetitive, I did appreciate the conversation around body sizes and immortality, especially in the first half of the book. The fact that Lily, a plus-size and image-conscious human, got turned into a vampire and had to learn to love the size she is forever more was a clever little storyline. And whilst I'm not 100% sold on the results of what the author set out to achieve, this book was delightful enough that I kept turning the pages.
- The friendship between Lily and her best friend Cat was really adorable, and I laughed a lot when they were together.
- Lily's internal thoughts are rather humourous at times, and I liked her ability to say no. Whilst she did a lot of pushing people away with these refusal tactics, I appreciated that she felt strongly in some cases to say no and do what she thought was right.
- It's easy to read. You don't need to put in a lot of energy to consume this book. It's predictable, but I liked it. It feels like some vampire movies I watched growing up - sans the really dark and moody vibes. This is definitely more light-hearted. I feel the author got the balance right.
- I liked the different approaches to how Lily saw things as a vampire. What she had to grow accustomed to, and some of the questions she asked herself that I haven't seen addressed in other vampire novels.

Things I didn't quite enjoy
- The romance isn't great. Tristan is just okay as an MMC, and I didn't get the chemistry between them at all. Lily spends more time swearing and arguing with Tristan than she does showing the actual development of her feelings. One minute she's f-bombing him, the next she's in love. It was quite a let down.
- There are times when some of Lily's internal dialogue gets repetitive and drags. This is especially the case with her body hang ups - which as a plus size person, I could relate to in the beginning. But when they were STILL occurring at 90% of the book and then suddenly resolved, I found myself grow frustrated.
- The overused cringey abbreviations, such as "obvi". It's not necessary and it wasn't cute, either.

Final thoughts
If you don't put a lot of thought into the process, this is an enjoyable read. It made me laugh, it had some good moments, and I expected the use of several plot devices coming into it, so I wasn't left unsatisfied.

I received a complimentary copy from Sourcebooks Casablanca for my complimentary copy and all opinions expressed are entirely my own.

This book was Dumpling' meets Twilight and I loved that. It's a stranger/ friends to lovers featuring a plus size heroine . Our heroine is Lily Baines who wakes up one morning after a fun night to discover she is a vampire and not just experiencing a hangover. She navigates her new state with the help of Tristan the handsome man that bit her. I loved how the author tackled body positivity, friendship and romance. This book is perfect for Twilight fans.

Actual rating: 2.5

Lily is a plus size copy editor for a website. She works the graveyard shift. One night she meets up with her best friend Cat at a bar. She meets Tristan and things happen. She wakes up and she's different. Turns out they exchanged blood and Tristan's a vampire.

I think I've read all the vampire books just like Cat. This book was good. Lily has a lot of body issues. Her mother is always trying to get her to lose weight. I enjoyed the book and the characters.

I really wanted to like this book. I’m not sure quite what I expected when I first began reading it, but it did get off to a positive start - I enjoyed the humorous, quirky tone, and I found it quite readable. But that tone quickly became a bit grating - at points I felt like it was trying too hard to be quirky and funny and it didn’t feel very natural.

I never really warmed to the main character, Lily. I knew her body image issues were meant to be a central focus of the book based off the description, but I found them increasingly hard to swallow as the book went on. I never really felt like she came to terms with her body image and I found some of the attitudes towards her body far from positive, aside from reassurances from her love interest, Tristan, or her best friend. I liked that the book did address how selfish Lily could become when she became fixated on her body - that was a nice change - but for me, all of the stuff about Lily’s body image dragged the story down a bit. None of it felt very positive, and that was disappointing.

I also found the romance a little bit bland; I didn’t really feel any chemistry between Lily and Tristan and I didn’t feel a lot of investment in their relationship. The worldbuilding was interesting and I liked the twist involving slayers, but as a whole this book left me cold. There was a lot about it I didn’t really enjoy, and other stuff I just found a bit uninteresting. There were points of solid writing and I could see what the author was trying to do with it, but this book really wasn’t for me. 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 providing a free copy of this book.

Content Notes: Violence, blood, death of a loved one (in past), absent parent, fatphobia, body image issues, infertility (view spoiler), on-page sex, mild OW drama.

I was so excited to see this title come across my Dash on Netgalley, but I unfortunately had to DNF within the first few chapters. I just could not enjoy the writing style and the voice of the main character. I think that the tone of voice was very negative, and not in a helpful way to the story. I really wanted to like this one, but it fell flat for me.

I was drawn in to this one based on the cover and a description that said “a paranormal Dumplin for adults.” Unfortunately, this didn’t feel that way to me. I didn’t connect with the writing style and after reading some reviews that shared a little about what’s to come - decided this one is not for me. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

I hate doing this but I had to give up at 20% on this book. I just couldn’t get into it at all, the heroine was annoying at all times and I just felt like it’s not a book for me. I’m sorry.


Very grateful to the publisher for my review copy

Thank you to Netgalley and Gloria Duke for this ARC.

I found this really hard going to begin with, I almost gave up a few times. It wasn't until I got to about 40% that I started to get into it, and then I found it enjoyable. I felt that by the end, I wanted to read more about Lily and Tristan. I feel like there's easily another story there.

I enjoyed the overall premise of this book. I love the concept of waking up as a vampire and the vampire who turned you happens to be an uber attractive immortal. I liked the body positivity aspects and having a plus-sized mc. I just felt that the beginning of the story moved really quickly before suddenly dragging out towards the middle. The writing itself felt very YA in terms of dialogue, descriptions, and pace. I think there is maybe a target audience for this type of writing that maybe I just don’t quite fit? I would recommend it to people that enjoy cheeky writing and somewhat cheesy plots.

4.5
Thanks, NetGalley and SourceBooks for granting me access to read this ARC.
I truly enjoyed this light comical vampire romance. This was a great escape for me being in my senior year of undergrad and finding an hour here and there to read this was fun. I looked forward to Lilly and Tristen's antics that just made the story funny to me. I would love to hear more about Lilly’s mom and her father though.

When Life Gives You Lemons... Savor It!

This spooky season, I had the honor and privilege (thanks to Netgalley for this amazing ARC) of reading a combination of a few of my favorite things: the paranormal, a curvy queen, and just enough soul-searching to temper the com of the rom.

Gloria Duke's When Life Gives You Vampires hits all the early romance beats. A whipsmart heroine with relatable insecurity, a swoony love interest with old world manners and a deadly smile, and a meet cute to leave you cackling and ravenous for more.

But what makes this romance extra unique is the journey of our accidental vampire vixen, Lily Baines. The author, Gloria, starts the story with a gentle trigger warning for any who might struggle with mentions of diet culture. Lily is a woman who has not yet learned to love all her dimples and curves, and it is part of her character arc to struggle with her body image, rationalize how anyone could love her body when she can't, and realize the impact her own negative self-talk affects her loved ones. If this theme is triggering for you, tread carefully!

Lily's Bridget Jones' Diary-esque demeanor is so relatable. While it always takes a moment for me to settle into first person narrative and whatever makes the character's voice stand out, including her millenial pop culture references and Rebel Wilson-like catchphrases like "obvi," I acclimated quickly to Lily's self-effacing voice because it was so like my own as a plus size woman. But if you think Lily's always down on herself, I promise she isn't. She knows she's smart, she knows how to handle her estranged but well-intentioned mother, and her kickbutt attitude had me swiping through the pages of my ebook until I had a book hangover to match that of the main character's very real hangover at the start of this delightful story.

Want to know an extra treat for after reading? Gloria Duke has a delightful series of tweets where she takes pictures "on location" from important scenes in her book. Make sure to check them out!

Interested in meeting Lily and her sweet, sexy, and very undead beau, Tristan? Be sure to preorder your copy now. This fanged fiction releases October 4th and is available for preorder at The Ripped Bodice (because we do love to support our indie bookstores). But if money's tight, you can still support the author by requesting it at your local library.

Happy reading, y'all!

xoxo, Katie Rose

Lily is a plus size vampire heroine, Tristan is the one who made her immortal.
Netgalley gave me the opportunity to read this book and I am grateful for it, but I found it too mundane. The plot is trivial, the characters and their stories have been constructed too simply. It's an evolved Twilight, for an older age group, but it doesn't have the same effect. It has the comedy that amused me in many parts and some (predictable) twists that made me happy. When I read it at school I often had to refrain from making my usual expressions to avoid getting caught. Definitely an enjoyable book, but not five or four star.

Let me start off by saying I really wanted to like this book. A plus sized vampire finding love and surviving murderous vampire politics sounds like a lot of fun. Unfortunately it wasn’t.

If you’re looking for a book about a confident and loveable plus sided FMC this book is not for you. The amount of fatphobia in this book is staggering. The FMC’s mother encourages to try diet after diet and intentionally buys her gorgeous clothing several sizes too small to “motivate” her. But none of this compares to the amount of internalized fat-phobia the FMC has. L

After being turned Lily refused to look at herself in the shower because she hated her body so much before that now she couldn’t bear to look at herself with her enhanced vamp vision. She also said would rather be murdered than stay her current size for the rest of her immortal life. Which I suppose makes sense because her main dream in life is to be thin and all of the rest of her dreams hinge on this. She finds herself so repulsive and unworthy of love that she cannot imagine that anyone might be genuinely attracted to her which frankly is a self fulfilling prophecy because I don’t like her at all and it isn’t because I don’t like her weight.

I disliked Tristan from the moment he thought coerced consent using his vampire powers was the same as actual consent. When he learned he didn’t successfully manipulate Lily into consenting he was deeply offended that she objected and made himself the victim. I don’t expect consent from vampire books when it comes to feeding because they are vampires after all, but his reaction really rubbed me the wrong way. I get that he is hundreds of years old but he was incredibly condescending. I fully believe that Lily is being incredibly shallow and only likes him because he is attractive. They don’t seem to like each other or have anything in common except for being vampires.

I didn’t buy the ending at all. The OW drama was completely manufactured. I didn’t understand why Lily suddenly wants the man who has been driving her nuts the entire book. Probably the most unbelievable part was her mom suddenly not caring about her weight and apologizing for if she ever made Lily feel less than beautiful. If? If?I feel like Will Smith came in the the neuralyzer and gave them all new personalities and priorities.

Thanks so much to the publisher and to NetGalley for giving me access to this book. I wanted to like this book but I can't say I did. The main character was meh. The storyline never captured my attention. I will not be recommending this book.

Lily is a plus size woman in New York, and is used to yo-yo diets, starving herself and then binging. She’s self-conscious and has always played third wheel for her best friend Cat. Until Saturday night. A gorgeous stranger is interested in her, is talking and laughing with her. Everything is going great, until she wakes up the next morning alone with no memory of the night before. Oh? And she is craving blood, nocturnal, has fangs and no reflection in the mirror. She races over to Cat’s to try and figure out what happened, and Cat knows all things pop culture related. And who is this extremely handsome stranger that keeps popping up everywhere she goes?

This was a quick read, and I enjoyed Lily’s quest to self love and body positivity. Cat is the ultimate BFF and the star in this book for me, honestly. Be prepared for a lot of snark, banter, swearing (I would be dropping an f bomb a lot too if I woke up a vampire, let’s be honest) and a couple of bedroom scenes. They are more mild taco sauce from Taco Bell on the spice scale, but not a closed door romance. I was slightly annoyed with both main characters, but not overly so. Tristan (the handsome vampire) was the broody, non communicative type that would have saved so much trouble if he would have just refused to talk about things (hitting close to my miscommunication trope hatred) Lily had built up walls so damn high that they weren’t being broken down even by a battering ram. Overall a good book, and I would read a sequel about Cat, because she was my fav.

I really wanted to like this book...I REALLY did. I just felt that the whole book was nothing but the stereotypical fat girl dialogue that we always see. As a fat person, I'm over it. It was really. hard to get past that.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was so excited about this book because it screamed rom-com vampire book and the character on the cover was not a straight-size. But I honestly couldn't get through this book without rolling my eyes with the narrative voice. She used short-term slang like "perf" and "obvi" and literally typed out BFF. I loved the plot with the vampires and and everything, but the ending was.. lacking.. a lot.

I think honestly I just expected a lot more from this book and I am just sad that I didn't enjoy it to my expectations.

I haven’t heard of Gloria Duke before - and then learned this was her debut. It was brilliant writing and storyline for a debut! I never would have known… definitely couldn’t tell. She writes like a seasoned author. Great job and I really enjoyed it. It held my attention the entire way through, and even really surprised me a few times.

4.5-stars

Other than a number of mentions about body image concerns (a huge part of the book - main character Lily is a big, beautiful woman but a lot of her life is spent on fad diets and her mom trying to convince her that a smaller size is not just attainable but a good goal to purchase and aim for - a very bad mentality and way to live for everyone), I really connected with the book. The body issues are something I want to get away from when reading because I live it daily. The pressure Lily lived was painful to read (internal and from her mom).

This is the story of a bigger girl with a gorgeous best friend, who is always in the background. She meets a cute guy at a bar one night … and wakes up to discover that he turned her into a vampire … and a whole new world of trouble comes from that. Not to mention - she’s now frozen in a body she never loved, and has to learn to love it. Her new vampire boyfriend seems to. She’s a gorgeous girl in her own right, and can certainly change the world, when she’s set on it.

Audio version - narrated by Meg Sylvan, who gives a fantastic performance (as you can always expect from her), as the sassy Lily. She also does a great job voicing the other characters to give us distinction. Great job!

I received an advance review and advance listen copy from NetGalley, Sourcebooks Casablanca, and Dreamscape Media, and this is my honest feedback.

I sadly had to DNF this. The writing style really was not for me. Then there were the issues of the main character's obvious fatphobia, even though that is what she was supposed to be fighting?? I'm sorry, but if you find yourself beautiful only through the eyes of others, then you haven't grown to love yourself at all. This was really difficult to read, trigger-wise, because of the way it handled fatphobia and eating disorders. There was also the way she was non-consensually turned into a vampire and fell in love with that creep afterwards?? I couldn't let that fly, I could not keep reading this.

2.75 stars
Our main character Lily goes out one night, meets a guy and then wakes up a vampire. My favorite part about this book is the journey that Lily had when it comes to herself. She is a plus size women and has struggled with this her whole life, creating a unhealthy relationship with her own body but also food. It was really great watching her journey from being harsh to herself to self acceptance throughout the book.
The rest of the book was just ok for me. Being a mainly fantasy reader this book did not really stand out in anyway ( other than mentioned above.) Tristan was not my favorite person. Cat is the best friend that helps throughout everything (amazing for her to check her fear of her friend's new state.) The pacing of the story was a little strange as well with everything ending rather quickly compared to the rest of the story pacing.
Overall, it was a good debut novel and I enjoyed Lily's personal journey.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of this title.