Okay this was surprisingly cute!! The reviews are pretty low I wasn’t expecting much so that helped maybe? I took the story for what it was - a silly vampire romance with a lot of great twilight references. Otherwise a very surface level story, but quick! Sometimes that’s exactly what you need

Enemies to lovers 🥊 ➡️ ❤️, vampires 🧛‍♂️, vampire hunters 🧛‍♂️ ⚔️, romance author ♥️ 📚, ancient court 👑 with a side of diet culture 🍔 💊.
Quick and fun read - Promising start to a (hopeful) new series.

Check TW*


Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the advance listening copy in exchange for my honest review.

DNF. Based off of a the few passages I’ve read in this book, I am no longer interested in reading and reviewing WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU VAMPIRES in full. When the main character is changed into a vampire, she is more worried about being fat forever than being dead. I also do not like the use of the word “overweight” in the back cover copy. This concept could have been really fun, but I am only interested in spending my time enjoying body positive and empowering fat representation.

I was really excited to read this book - a story with a plus sized MC, YES PLEASE.

However, that's where my excitement ended. As a bigger girl myself, I wasn't necessarily triggered about the fat shaming Lily is constantly throwing on herself, but I can definitely see how it could be for some. I have felt some of those feelings she's felt myself, so it didn't come off out of the "norm" in my opinion.

My low rating for this book is not for "fat shaming" like I've seen others reviewed, but because it was very flat. It's supposed to be a romcom and so I was expecting to laugh and it just wasn't there. There was literally one line towards the beginning of the book that made me actually LOL but other than that, I found I was forcing myself to finish. And while I liked Lily, Tristan was BORING. He's a romance writer with a female pen name - there was so much that could have been done with his character. I actually found myself drawn to Evan more than Tristan, at least he had some kind of character growth.

I really wanted to like this book, but it just didn't do it for me. I DID enjoy the audio narration, but it couldn't save this one.

I would like to thank the publisher and Dreamscape Media for granting access to this title in exchange for my honest review.

When 25 year old Lily Baines wakes up half-dressed and alone on the floor of her bedroom, she doesn't have very many causes to question how she got there. But the fangs and mirror sure give her pause. Will this accidental turning be the (second) death of her?

I received this title as an audiobook. I liked the narrator (Meg Sylvan) and felt they truly captured the mood of the story. I would be happy to pick up more books using this narrator. 5/5 stars to Meg Sylvan's performance.

This book was funny and entertaining at parts, but overall I find it an average read. The plot was easy to follow and gave a different yet familiar "I was accidentally turned into a vampire" storyline. I enjoyed the romance and Tristan was *chefs kiss* gorgeous. My biggest issue with this book was the concerning, possibly triggering language regarding the main character's eating disorder and issues with her weight. I understand that an underlying plot point of the book was body acceptance, but overall I found the idea that you can suddenly accept who you are because this is your only option from now on after a lifetime of body negativity absurd.

This book has DANGEROUS fat representation. Like, DO NOT read if you struggle with body image, ED, or are triggered by fatphobia.

The premise includes vampires, which is my kryptonite, and was the ONLY reason I didn't DNF in the first paragraph. Even if I could get past the constant use of words like "obvi" and referencing of memes unironically, the fat representation was disgusting.

At this point I can't believe this was written by a person that has ever lived in a larger body. Cause tip for authors writing fat characters: fat people don't hate themselves constantly. It is the world around us that is reminding us why we should hate ourselves and we do our best to ignore and love ourselves anyways.


BOOK SPOILER:
Everything this character did always went back to her body. She literally was turned into a VAMPIRE and what she is most upset about is that she will be in a bigger body forever. IM SORRY WHAT?!



I received this book from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

CW: fatphobia, emotional abuse from a caregiver, blood

This was a really cute story - only issue for me was I felt the characters were underdeveloped. I know it’s a romcom but that underdevelopment still hurt the rating.

When life gives you vampires by Gloria Duke is a fun rom com romp about waking up a vampire and the ensuring escapades (and sexcapades!) that follow in our curvy heroines efforts to find out what happened and adjust to her new reality. I loved Lillies can do attitude and her awesome best friend, her coping with her body issues and ultimately learning to LOVE HERSELF (THANK YOU AUTHOR) while also saving the (local) world and getting the guy.

I want to keep this review spoiler free, but I will say that this book DOES meet my criteria for a good book which is that it wraps up nicely and has a ending that I consider happy so for that I give it 4 shining stars! Thank you for this lovely book, I will absolutely read books by this author again anytime. As I also read this as an audio book, I would like to give a shout out to the narrator Meg Sylvan for being peppy and fun and bringing life to the characters and world, I would not hesitate to choose a book with her as my guide again.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for providing me with an advance review copy of this book for free in exchange for my honest review.

I liked the premise of this novel, a plus sized girl adjusting to life as a vampire with a very hot vampire as her vampire master.

However, it lost a lot of points with me for the constant negativity she experienced with her body, and that she only really accepted herself once the hot guy validates her.

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!

I always like when there's a new take or twist on the classic vampire story. This one finds a self-conscious woman being turned into a vampire. This is the story of how she learns to adapt to her new "life" as an undead being. Of course there's romance and a vampire villain to defeat too.

I see a bunch of other reviews had a problem with the language used by the characters and many thought the main character focused too much on her weight problem. I guess I didn't think that neither of these issues was a problem for me. So you may or may not find these annoying. I didn't.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for an ARC audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This was fine. I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it. I’m fat and I’m always down to read a romance with a fat main character. Love to see the representation. The thing is that I would have appreciated if she like had a personality other than just a girl who was always thinking about her body and being down on herself. I really don’t think she had any other notable traits. The internal monologue was a bit much at times. I know we can’t love our bodies every second, I certainly don’t but it was just not fun to listen to.

The spicy scenes were good though. The blood drinking, okayyyy. I liked the storyline. I would read a book about the friend and the slayer if she wrote it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for this Advanced Reader Copy, in exchange for my honest review.

When Life Gives You Vampires by Gloria Duke was a light, quick read. The story of Lily, a plus sized woman, who wakes up to find that she has accidentally been turned into a vampire. Lily now must learn to live in the skin that she was not happy in when she was mortal and learn to be the undead as well. And also learn to live with her super-hot sire, Tristan, who is literally clinging to some antiquated gender roles.

The story was definitely reminiscent of the Sookie Stackhouse books. There is a lot of pop culture references that were fun, like all of the Twilight comparisons. And the book sets itself up for the beginning of a series.

The book is categorized as adult fiction and the situations do line up with that, but the writing style was a tad bit juvenile. There was a lot of current lingo and slang, that may date the book in the next few years.

Overall, a cute book. I would very likely continue to read about Lily and her best friend, Cat. I will say that the body positivity messages that can be taken from the book were pretty great to read.

DNF at 35%. I just couldn’t get into this one. The premise sounded so good! I’m sad it was boring and not what I wanted in a spooky Rom com.

I haven't read a vampire novel in a long time and this was such a fun dive back into the genre! It was surprisingly refreshing to have a freshly-turned vampire protagonist, Lily, that wasn't 10/10 beauty standards. However, I did find her personality and dialouge grating at times. How can someone use the word "Obvi" was used so many times!?! And who says "dick boogers" other than ten year old boys?

Spoiler: It felt unrealistic to me that Lily could just stand in front of the grand master of vampires and just demand that they change their archaic ways.....and then having several Vampires ultimately agree with her. She was a vampire for a week, was apparently the only one to be able to stop a slayer from killing her? Like, what?

All in all, this was a fun and easy read.

OMG what a delight to read this. I love Lily as the strong female lead. Despite her insecurities, which us as women all have, she is really able to be body positive for the first time in her life. I think to hear that internal struggle being modeled and overcome is really powerful.

Also, as an aside, I love how the audio book narrator said "okay" for Lily throughout the book. It made me laugh every time.

Reasons to Read:
The main characters body positivity journey
Learning to accept love in all the forms it comes in
Best friend goals
Spooky season romcom
Vampire’s with lots of baggage to unpack
Journalistic instinct to the max
This was such a sweet read for the beginning of the fall season and totally helped me get into the spooky mood! I loved Gloria Duke’s use of imagery and thought this whole book was a fun way to hit on some really big issues and have a little bit of spice thrown in too!

DNF at 33%. The fatphobia and internalized fatphobia is just too much. Lily is absolutely obsessed with her body and wanting to be skinny to the point that she makes really crappy remarks about her skinny friend and doesn't believe anyone who does actually give her a genuine compliment. There's also so many references to dieting and all of that unhealthy culture. This is just a huge no from me.

Super pumped to get a copy of the ARC audiobook, because I loved the concept that this book was going in. The summary made it seem like something I could get behind and really enjoy. A plus size character who finds self love in a body she'll have forever all while seeing how perfect she is through her love interests eyes.

The beginning started all really good and I really enjoyed the direction the story was going in. The language at some points felt a little outdated and like there was too much trying to make it cool or trendy to how people talk and I felt like it made it slow to read/listen to. Otherwise this was a fun and cute spooky read that is definitely in line to make this spooky season's reading list for me!

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Thank you Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for this advance copy of this audiobook. I liked Glori Duke’s When Life Gives you Vampires for the most part. And have to add narrator Meg Slyvan did a great job bringing main characters of Lily to life after she turned into a vampire. I would love to hear more of her plus her emotion scenes where stellar and she brought action to life.

For me this book was a book about Lily with a little romance and adventure thrown in. Lily just got turned into a vampire and was inserted into a war between two older male ones. While lily and some character for the most part where flushed out well and I love her and Cat’s friendship as well as Raven. I couldn’t get into Tristan’s story as much. The secret felt anticlimactic and the thrown in character that died just was not flushed out well enough for me to care. The romance just didn’t grab me as much as Lily’s other relationships and the action adventure side of the book. Those where the things that stole the show for me. While the romance was not as I usually want it at I did enjoy what this was am giving it 3.5 stars (upgraded to 4stars on this scale). The narrator really intrigued me and made the main character come to life so I hope people listen to the audiobook.