I dnf at 46%

The constant changing of pov was jarring. There is just something icky about a main character names Kate when the authors name is Kathryn. The use of classic mythology in a new way was a fun twist but I think it falls flat. Really I was reading just to get it over with which isn’t a great feeling. This book may be for some but it really didn’t work for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

There were so many different characters and paranormals in this book that I was totally confused, and found it hard to follow.

I started, stopped, reread, and reread again. I finally had to take notes and was constantly referring to them just to follow the story.

It was just to much. I finished, but would not recomnend.

Thank you NetGalley and Victory Editing for this advanced copy.
A Vision in Crimson is the first book of the Frostbite series, and there is a LOT going on-world building, character introductions-I felt like a lot was thrown at readers right from the get go. This is high adventure, with more than a smattering of smut, and I’m not sure that any character got their due diligence with so much going on. What started out as an interesting premise unfortunately just didn’t connect with me.

A Vision in Crimson, is the first book in the Frostbite series. It is a captivating blend of fantasy and romance. The author weaves a rich narrative, introducing readers to a world where mythical creatures and human emotions collide. The protagonist's journey unfolds with a mix of suspense and passion, keeping the reader engaged from start to finish. The author's vivid descriptions and well-developed characters contribute to the overall immersive experience. It sets the stage for an enticing series that promises both adventure and romance in a fantastical realm. The writing style and world-building make this novel a compelling read for fans of the genre.

A Vision in Crimson had amazing world building.
This book was very smutty and fun to read. The only thing that I didn’t enjoy was the instalove trope. Like the FMC and MMC spoke only a word to each other and they were already love

I recently delved into this fantasy story where Katelyn's desperate grip on her uncontrolled magic leads her to Luca, a half-vampire. Their journey through a realm brimming with danger and magic was captivating, though their instant deep connection felt rushed. The story weaves through assassination attempts and dark forces engagingly, but I yearned for more depth in the magical lore and character backstories. Despite these gripes, the novel's blend of dark fantasy and romance, peppered with mythology, kept me hooked. The story's potential shines through, making me hopeful for a more explored universe in the sequels. It's a compelling read for those enchanted by the melding of genres and the dance between darkness and light.

“A hunter without a purpose. A witch out of control. Together, they will burn.”

- Vampires / half vampires
- Witch & magic
- Magical / mythical creatures
- Greek mythology
- Vampire hunter
- Dark(ish) fantasy
- Insta-love
- Spice

I was instantly interested in this book after reading the blurb, half-vampire and witch working together in a world full of magic & mischief sounded really interesting. Also the first few pages seemed really promising. But sadly the book wasn’t nearly as good as I hoped and expected.

The MMC Luca was an interesting character and I liked the way he was introduced. The book is told in his pov. The FMC Kate just stumbled in the middle of the plot, but luckily she was introduced better later.

Other than the MMC and FMC the book has way too many characters. Most of them were completely pointless and were just thrown into the story without introduction.

The world building could have used a bit more
work, especially considering that the story
takes part in multiple worlds.

I wasn’t a fan of how Luca just dropped everything and went with Kate to her world after just meeting her. Also didn’t like the insta-love between Luca and Kate after what felt like 5 minutes.

The book had some spice, but the spicy scenes weren’t that well written.

The plot of the book was confusing and jumped from one thing to another without a reason. Also a lot of plot holes.

The ending was weird and left me feeling confused.

Overall a promising and interesting idea, but would have needed some more work. The writing overall seemed rushed.

After some editing this could be a 3-3,5 star read but now 2,5 stars.

Will leave a review in Amazon a few weeks after the release date.

A decent storyline! It was a little fast paced with the insta-love but overall it was decent! I enjoyed the witch story with a half vampire. Definitely something that’s not seen often!

This book was quite distinctive! The story continued to pique my interest after the first page. The world-building in this novel could have been made clearer because there were so many different species represented that I wasn't sure where all the characters originated. While I hadn't missed anything, I did find myself skimming back and forth in certain spots, which indicates that the plots were piquing my curiosity and that I wanted to learn more but couldn't find that crucial detail. Apart from this, I liked how the bond between Kate and Luca evolved during the book. The complexities of the plot melded nicely with the romance, and it didn't feel forced. Excellent ideas that could be balanced out with proper planning for the following book in the series.

The story is good however, it lacked much real action and what of it there was, was minimal. There are one or two unmistakable plot holes and typos, it felt like it didn’t flow when reading. The ending was disappointing and was much too quick.

On a brighter note, the story is filled with different types of magical creatures, although brief, very sweet.

Luca - a half human, half vampire known as a Dhampir who leaves the world he knows, to follow a woman he loves into a world in which she reigns.
However, things aren’t as they seem, and a dark character follows.

This book had so much promise - I was drawn in completely by the blurb and the premise, but somehow I just couldn't persuade myself to really enjoy it as I'd hoped I would.

Don't get me wrong, I adored the insta-love and attraction between the two main characters, the plot points and ideas, but the storyline felt much too jumpy for me. I couldn't follow it logically, and was thrown by certain scenes as I hadn't realised their setting.

However, I loved that Luca and Kate found acceptance with each other, as well as the reimagining of the Dracula myth. I think perhaps if the plot was slowed, and more detail was put into each scene and its transition this could be really fabulous.

I ended up DNFing this read unfortunately. It wasn't for me personally. I struggled to get into the story and found it a little hard to follow in parts. I feel like there was so much piled into the front end of the story that it was hard for me to follow and keep up with.

*REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!*

2.5 stars.

I received an ARC for this book and was really excited about it because the description sounded right up my alley. Unfortunately, the execution did not meet expectations.

It was very much an instalove situation (which is generally not my favorite). They were already all over each other by about 22% in. Without the build-up, I was not convinced by their love. It seemed more like lust paired with desperation and major attachment issues resulting from their experiences with loneliness and emotional neglect). The level of smut overshadowed the plot. It got to the point where I rolled my eyes at the inclusion of ANOTHER spice scene (as it sometimes felt inappropriately timed such as right after the “death” of her ex-lover.)

This book seemed more character-driven than plot-driven. There were several plot points that were set up that felt under-explored and unresolved which led me to feel a bit confused on what the book was even supposed to be about at certain times (for example, the vampire hunting/searching for Dracula aspect was basically just dropped for the MMC pretty early on, the mining for quartz expedition was pretty brief so felt less important than it was initially set up to be, etc.).

There was A LOT going on in this book (a vampire-hunter who is half vampire, a time travelling witch, Dracula—yep, that Dracula, Hercules—yes, that Hercules, a talking Pegasus, nymphs, fauns, Minotaurs, a giant talking rat, etc.). I didn’t have as much of an issue with the inclusion of all of this as I did with the fact that most of these characters and creatures didn’t really seem to have a purpose…like what was the point of throwing all of that in there? It’s like the author tried to cram too much into one novel and instead of adding to the story, it made things feel a bit chaotic.

The POV would switch between characters from one sentence to another which could get a bit confusing at times, but overall wasn’t too hard to follow. I thought the inclusion of her ex-lover’s POV as a flashback to a spice scene between them felt really unnecessary. It just felt like it was added for additional smut, but it felt kind of icky to have to read that as it was juxtaposed with her new relationship. Like I don’t want to read a more intimate sex scene between her and the MMC and then shortly after, read a rough sex scene about her and an ex-lover. It was a bit off-putting. In my opinion, the spice should’ve been kept between the two MCs.

There were also some conflicts set up between characters, but then the dynamics would abruptly shift (for example, with her ex-lover, with her brother, etc.) so this just left me a little confused about dynamics and confused about the point of setting up the conflicts only for them to become pretty much imemdiately irrelevant.

I thought that the use of modern vernacular (for example, certain word-choices, phrases used, slang, etc.) especially during dialogue between characters didn’t seem to fit the story or setting. It felt a bit too casual/informal and modern for the world it seemed to be set in.

The world-building could have been better as well. I was confused on the time period it was supposed to take place in, I was confused on the different worlds (like was it earth, future earth, and then a secondary world? Idk). Even the FMC said she didn’t know where she found MMC. There was not much explanation for certain things; for example, how did FMC open portals to transport between worlds? How did FMC come to be queen? Even she said she didn’t really understand how she became queen which, honestly, seemed kind of like lazy writing. That said, the world-building felt a little sloppy to me. To give the author the benefit of the doubt, I assume/hope there would be more explanation on some of these things in the next book, perhaps.

All of that said, there were some positives too. The writing style was easy to read and the story was fast-paced and held my attention throughout. The beginning quickly captured my interest and drew me in. I loved the broodiness and angst of the MMC (though, that faded a bit when his whole personality seemed to shift to being a lovesick horn-dog). I appreciated that the FMC was “older” (approaching her 30s) compared to many FMCs in the Romantasy genre. It was a bit refreshing to have a FMC that was around my age rather than in her teens or early twenties. I liked that she was both badass and compassionate. I think the story was creative and the concept had a lot of potential!

I am grateful to NetGalley, Victory Editing, and Kathryn Troy for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review! I am so sorry I couldn’t give it a more positive review!

The premise of this story sounded amazing, we have a half vampire - Luca and a time traveling witch - Kate that fell in love and is the two against the world kind of romance. Unfortunately, is also an instant love kind of romance which I’m honestly not a fan, at all.

I could feel the touch of the gothic mysterious atmosphere, but it was just for a while since it quickly lost traces of it throughout the story. The plotline was also a bit confusing, and it seemed like we were introduced to a lot of characters that had almost no purpose to the story itself. The written wasn’t bad but didn’t allow me to feel connected with the characters and didn’t feel involved in the story itself. It felt a bit rushed specially in what concerns the romance between the main characters, but it has a lot of smut.

So, if you read it for the spice instead of the plot it may be good enough for you. I wished it had a bit more depth into the plot and kept it gothic atmosphere, but it was an easy read, nevertheless.

Thank you, NetGalley & the publisher, for approving me to read this arc and write this review.

This story starts off with Luca, a half vampire half human bound and determined to hunt and kill vampires especially he one that fathered him-Dracula. After hunting and killing a vampire in a cave and saving the kidnapped women from a local village, the villagers refuse to pay him and drive him out of town. He takes to the ground in a forest to rest, and is awoken by a red haired beauty named Kate who thinks he was attacked and buried by someone else. These two have the very definition of “insta love”. They know very little about each other, never truly talk about each other’s lives or history but are somehow madly in love. The relationship between these two was difficult for me to really be invested in, as it felt like they had very little chemistry on page other than physical attraction (and he thinks her blood smells good). We learn that Kate is some sort of witch/fae/magic wielder, and is traveling with a group of creatures including Hercules (yes, that one), some fae, and a Pegasus named Phillip, lives on some other planet named Icarya that is also home to many other magical or mythical creatures and came there as a human but is somehow queen? That part is never really explained very clearly.

This story has a lot of promise, but overall felt underdeveloped to me-it has all the makings of a great high fantasy novel but was all shoved into a 328 page book. Because of that, everything was sort of rushed, skimmed over, and the writing came across more YA than adult fantasy. The conversations between characters felt shallow and “facts only”-nothing else to make it feel like a real conversation. The ending of the story was sudden-we have Dracula suddenly in Icarya and doing I don’t even know what his goal is? The next in the series might be something I will pick up in between reads, but I don’t feel like I will be seeking it out.

instant love trope? i cannot.

how’re you going to have dracula’s son and this 300 year old “human” in the same story as the innkeeper saying “lay it on me, baby”? the entire vibe is practically ruined and immediately takes me out of the story.

(tell me why the FMC is doing pushups as soon as she’s done kissing luca)

this all felt unfinished? it had such a promising blurb and i loved the cover but this was not it at all. the writing left me wanting and there was literally no plot, just smut.

thank you netgalley for the arc but i’m on to my next read and i hope it’s miles better than this.

This book had a lot of potential but sadly did not live up to it for me. The writing felt very rushed especially when it came to the main relationship. I felt like the main characters didn’t have a lot of chemistry but were instantly together. I would have like to see more angst and turmoil in the story. However, if you like instant love and a cinnamon roll here then this is the story for you. The beginning of the book had me intrigued because there was a lot of mystery. However, the story ended up being mainly focused on the main characters relationship instead of a strong story plot.

The description of this book really grabbed me. A half vampire, Luca, and a time traveling witch, Kate, against the world and falling in love. The start of the book was great and I was really hoping Luca would find the family he deserved. The concept was great, the execution just wasn't there.

This book was 'lust at first sight' and the character development was lacking. The world building had too much going on and not enough explained. It was a mix of Greek mythology, but also not? This usually can work well, but it was just so random and not well explained.

The characters were endearing and if you are reading for the spice and not the plot, you may like it. Personally just not enough depth in the plot and characters to hold my interest. I left with more questions than answers, but not in a positive way.

Luca is a dhampir who has been ostracized his whole life while hunting vampires, but mostly trying to find the one that fathered him. He's had no love or companionship the hundreds of years he's been alive.
Katelyn is using magic to hunt through time and space trying to find what her world needs to survive.

I enjoy the concept of this book, and the description is attention grabbing, unfortunately it all seemed to be too much for the size of the book. The focus was more on the spice and less on the story, so I had a difficult time getting in to the story. So much seemed to jump around, and characters were introduced, but hardly utilized.

The point of view in the story also constantly changes, and I often had to go back a page to see what character was now driving the story.

This is definitely a cliffhanger, and nothing is resolved in the book.

I really wanted to delve so much more in some of the things mentioned, but as it stands, this wasn't the book for me. There are some really unique things that were great about this world though!

First, thank you to netgalley for sending me the ARC of this book.

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. It had the potential to be interesting and had a lot of creativity, however there were some things I just could not get past.

- the instant love between Luca and Kate was difficult to accept since they lacked chemistry and dropped everything to be with each other within 24 hours. I also felt like Luca was only really interested in Kate because she was interested in him.
- There was not really a plot and I never really was sure what was going on or going to happen (not in a good way).
- The world building was confusing and seemed to squeeze in anything and everything into it (Dracula, Hercules. a witch, menitor etc)

A plus for some readers would be that there is a lot of smut, so if that is something you enjoy, give the book a try!