This book was one of my most anticipated reads of the year and it did not disappoint! This had the perfect mix of tension in this psychologically thrilling story of a toxic friendship between two vampires who love the club scene in London. This two POV story really had me hooked into it & I loved every minute of it! I loved the descriptions of the club scene in the late 1970’s & more recently & the story felt glamorous & dangerous all at the same time

When I started this book, I was a bit hooked. I thought the premise was super interesting. It reminded me of Sex and the City but with Vampires, but about half way through, I felt like it lost steam a bit and I found myself struggling to finish. I know others loved this one, but it did not work for me.

I absolutely loved Croft’s first novel Stone Cold Fox and was so excited for her next novel, We Love the Nightlife. I loved that this included vampires and spanned different time periods to tell an interesting story. I really enjoyed the first half of this novel and the overall premise, but it did fall flat during the middle and seemed rushed towards the end. I enjoyed the tension and drama that Croft crafted though, which made this a fun read.

BOOK REVIEW: WE LOVE THE NIGHTLIFE

London, 1979. Two women with a deep love for disco meet on the dance floor, changing the course of both of their lives forever. Nicola, a feisty vampire for nearly two centuries meets Amber from America and offers her an eternity of endless adventures as they enjoy the glitz and glam that London’s club scene has to offer… but there’s more than meets the eye.

I loved Rachel Koller Croft’s first book, STONE COLD FOX so when I heard she had a second book coming out I was soooo excited!! I mean the glamorous London nightlife in the 80s was enough to draw me in but then add in vampires? I was sold! (If you’re a fan of Twilight or The Vampire Diaries, you’re gonna love this one!!)

This story was so different from other books I’ve been reading lately and I loved it! The cat and mouse games throughout as well as the toxic female friendship and alternate POVs between Nicola and Amber had me hooked!! I can safely say Rachel Koller Croft is an auto buy author for me now and you all will not want to miss this one!! Thank you Berkley for my gifted copy!

When Amber met Nicola, she is recently married to a man that loves to stay in. Unfortunately for her, she loves to go out, so she often hits the clubs without him. Nicola however, is a true friend and someone she can hit the night with. Until she realizes what Nicola is, and fully enters into her circle and life. It’s been 50 yes, but Amber is beginning to see the downsides of Nicola and she wants out. If she fails, she will fail hard.

Ok so reading a book about vampires that can’t be in the sun felt slightly strange while soaking up the rays next to the pool, but hey, it is what it is. I won this one from Dennis’s giveaway and am so grateful I got to read it early! I love me some vampires and this story was just so freaking great. After loving Stone Cold Fox, I expected nothing less from Rachel Koller Croft, though I will be honest, I was kind of expecting a thriller in her favorite vacation spot, Marthas Vineyard. IYKYK. Basically I loved this book and you should read it! I don’t want to give too much away!

Thank you to @berkleypub and @scaredstraightreads for my gifted copy of this book!

Thank you @berkleypub and @prhaudio for providing this audiobook for review. All opinions are my own.

After loving this author’s debut novel, STONE COLD FOX, I knew I had to read her next book! I went into it blind, and so I was very surprised to discover it was a vampire story! But as I read on, I soon became involved in this story of toxic friendship and control, set in the London disco scene.

Would you like to stay young forever? That offer proves too tempting for Amber, a young woman who loves the London nightlife. She becomes fast friends with Nicola and soon discovers Nicola’s secret- she is a vampire and she offers youth, eternal life, and fun to Amber. Amber agrees, and she and Nicola enjoy the next 50 years. However, Amber can’t help but check on the loved ones she left behind - a decision she eventually regrets. After 50 years, Amber wants to control her own destiny, but Nicola has other plans.

The first couple of chapters start a little slow, but the action soon picks up. The cast of secondary characters, all vampires, adds definite color to this character-driven story. The story unfolds through the alternating perspectives of Nicola and Amber, two dazzling vampires with very different opinions. I was really drawn into their stories and soon found I
couldn’t put the book down!

Read this if you enjoy:
🧛‍♀️Women’s Rivalry
🧛‍♀️Vampires
🧛‍♀️London Nightlife
🧛‍♀️’80s Disco Songs
🧛‍♀️Original Plots

This book was fun and the twists were great as well. Nicole and Amber were the definition of toxic friendship, but I feel like Amber meant well and was in over her head at times. I loved the dual narrators and will be checking out any books that narrate in the future.
⠀

The nitty-gritty: A pounding disco beat is the backdrop to this tightly plotted, inventive vampire tale. Grab your fangs and join the party!

Imagine if Louis and Lestat from Interview With the Vampire were gorgeous young female vampires who love to party all night at the disco, and you’ll have an idea of what to expect from We Love the Nightlife. This book was seriously fun, but it’s not just party girl fluff. A decades-long, toxic friendship between Amber and Nicola, woven throughout, adds a darker tone to the story, not to mention the vampires here are bloodthirsty killers. Come for the frantic disco beat and never-ending cocktails, and stay for a highly entertaining and intricately plotted game of cat and mouse.

The story takes place in London and alternates between the two main characters, Amber and Nicola. In the present, Amber is a forever twenty-three year old vampire, long time companion to her maker Nicola. They bonded over their love of music and dancing, but after several heart wrenching betrayals, Amber realizes it’s time to cut ties with Nicola and go her own way. That’s going to be extremely difficult to pull off, though, because Nicola is a controlling, vindictive vampire, and Amber will have to trick her into letting her go.

In the past, Nicola tells her story, beginning in 1979 when she spots Amber at a nightclub and decides she’ll be the perfect companion—after she turns her into a vampire, that is. We also dip back into the year 1835 when Nicola was a young girl, before she became a vampire, following her fraught family life with her beloved sister Georgie. Nicola’s chapters move through the years, leading up to the present, when she decides to join forces with a couple of other London vampires and open her own nightclub. Amber uses this distraction to set her complicated plan to leave Nicola in action, hoping to find another young party-loving girl to perhaps take her place.

But Nicola isn’t so easily fooled, and she’s determined to have the last laugh. As New Year’s Eve approaches—the opening date of the club as well as the culmination of Amber’s plan—it’s anyone’s guess as to how everything will play out.

Wow, this was so much fun! Rachel Koller Croft manages to combine a lighthearted party girl vibe, complete with disco balls and Donna Summer hits, with a fast-paced plot and plenty of darker moments as well. I found We Love the Nightlife to be a unique take on vampires, and it didn’t hurt that Amber, Nicola and even the side characters are vibrant and charismatic. Amber is an Olivia Newton John-like girl who was seduced by the promise of eternal life (and eternal club hopping!), and she’s gone along with Nicola’s overbearing demands for years. But now she realizes just how trapped she is, so she’s plotting her escape. The ins and outs of how Amber manages this make up the main thread of the plot, and I was riveted the entire time. She’s playing a dangerous game with Nicola and it was extremely stressful!

Nicola is a proper villain, scary as hell but with a touch of unexpected vulnerability. I mostly hated her (she really does some awful things to Amber), but as her backstory is revealed you also start to understand her a little. And despite Amber’s desire to escape her clutches, there are plenty of happy moments between the two women. Theirs is a complex relationship that wasn’t always black and white. I also appreciated the fact that friendship is the main relationship in the story, although there are a couple of side romances between Amber and various men. In fact, male characters take a backseat to the women, and Amber and Nicola only feed off males for the most part. 

And of course there’s the music, the one thing Amber and Nicola can agree on. Their love of disco (and other 70s-80s musical genres as well) shines through, as they flit from club to club in their sparkly dresses and heels, wielding their vampire wiles and dancing the night away. The author name drops lots of songs from the era, and having been a huge disco fan myself, I loved this trip down memory lane.

The ending was suitably nasty and shocking, perfect for this unique genre mash-up. Spin some Donna Summer or Alicia Bridges while you read this, and get ready for some wild, audacious and bloody fun.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

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

This was such a wild ride! 4.5 stars! I could give this book a 5 stars for that ending! But overall it was closer to a 4.

This was such a fun book to read. It had a slow start, but once they talked about opening the club and Amber met Roddy it really started to pick up. I didn’t want to put it down! There were so many twist and turns throughout. I couldn’t read fast enough by the end of it.

This was a book filled with characters you love to hate. I don’t really think anyone is 100% good in this book, except for a couple of them. They were mostly people you shouldn’t want to root for but you can’t help it.

At first I wasn’t a huge fan of Amber’s character. She didn’t really seem to have a personality at first, but once she started growing a back bone, the more I liked her. I was rooting for Amber to escape the whole time, but I thought Nicola was a more interesting character at the start. Amber was boring at first, but she charmed me the more I read! I really enjoyed her character.

Nicola was such a fascinating character. She was so intimidating and scary most of the time, but I loved it. She could be so cruel, but it made her interesting. At first I liked her a lot more than Amber, but as the book went on I switched to liking Amber more. Even so, there was just something about Nicola that made me not hate her 100%.

Their dynamic was so interesting. Amber wanted to leave Nicola so badly, yet when others got her attention or fell into her plans, she got jealous. It was interesting to see that pull between them. We knew they had a deep history, and it was very good once, so you can see how Amber may not fully want to betray her.

One complaint I had was what was a seemingly female power driven book, they relied on men a lot. Which is whatever. Maybe I had different expectations going into this book and it wasn’t meant to be the feminist tale I thought it would be. There were a lot of feminist themes throughout the book, but still, a lot of the focus was surrounded by men, which I wasn’t expecting.

I liked a lot of the side characters like Roddy and Jonathan. I super loved Jonathan especially! He was so sweet and deserved better. Pierce was very interesting as well. He seemed sleazy, but he was a good antagonist against Nicola.

Courtenay was super cute as well! I do think the way things ended with her was a little quick moving. Slight spoilers here but one minute Amber was really annoyed with her at the end and the next she cared a lot. It was a little jarring, but I liked her so I didn’t mind it that much.

Another writing style issue I had, but it was very small so it didn’t take away from the story at all. Throughout out the book, the characters were worried something would happen then a line or two later it was confirmed to be fine. It’s fine to build suspense, but it happened a lot that it got repetitive.

Something I liked about her writing style was she had so many moments of, did she really just write that? In the best way. It had shock value and good story telling. My jaw dropped at some lines.

The past was important to see how Nicola was and it came together at the end, but I didn’t care for it much. I just wanted to be in the present to see how Amber got away. That is part of what dropped my rating to 4 stars.

I really enjoyed this book though! I highly recommend giving it a chance! Even if you don’t get into it right away, the ending is worth it to keep reading!

After loving STONE COLD FOX, Rachel Koller Croft's newest book was at the top of my TBR. I absolutely love books with vampires and couldn't wait to read this one. Toxic female friendships between VAMPIRES?? Sign me up. The alternating POVs kept the story interesting as we get the past pre-vampire from Nicola and then the present from new vampire Amber. However, I felt this was missing a little something and focused a bit too much on the night club lifestyle which made the story drag in parts. While this wasn't my favorite, I'll def check out more by this author in the future.

Toot. Toot.

🇬🇧 London.
🪩 Disco.
🕺Club scene.
👯 Toxic Friendships.
🧛‍♀️ Vampires.
🐈 🐁 Cat and Mouse

What happens when the party is over, but you've tied yourself to a lifetime of being the companion to a vampire. Amber thinks joining Nicola in the underworld is the answer to her mundane life, who wouldn't want to have the friendship, the power, the glam, the never-ending party life. But years later, secrets and betrayals have taken their toll; the shine of the new life begins to dull, and Amber is done. Will she be able to get out alive, or will her future always be with Nicola?

Offered an advanced digital copy by the publisher through netgalley (I appreciate the copy), I wasn't entirely sold on the vampire aspect. It's really not my thing. But the novel called to me, maybe it was the former club hopping party girl in me. I'm so glad I took the chance on this book. I absolutely loved it. Yes, the plot does go a bit horroresque, I'm mean they are vampires, and vampires gonna do what vampires do. But the characters were so well fleshed out, complex personalities, with flaws and weaknesses, the toxic friendship, cat and mouse thriller plot line was able to be up front and center, while the biting people stuff became more of a sub plot. Suspenseful and tantalizing, I couldn't and didn't want to stop reading. You have to love a book when you get to the end. You're reading the last few lines, and you crave more of the story. That's me. I wanted this story to keep going. I loved the writing style of @rachelkollercroft . I'll be looking for her next novel as well.

Publication date: August 20th 2024

I recommend giving this book a try. Don't let the vampire thing deter you if you're normally not a vampy kind of person. There is enough meat to this story to sink your teeth into it. (See what I did there).

Beep. Beep.

I thought this was a pretty good story, though I think it might have been better if it were just half as long as it dragged a bit for me. But I enjoyed how it all wrapped up, so I’m glad I stuck with it. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a femme fatal vampire story about toxic female friendship that I ate 👏🏻 up 👏🏻

It took me a minute to get into it, but this was truly a dazzling story. This had drama, betrayal, seduction, and disco. This book made me yearn for eras I wasn’t alive to witness, and nostalgic for ones that have passed me by.

Nicola and Amber are vampires and life long companions. Nicola sought Amber out after watching her dance back in the 1970s and pursued her friendship. She manipulated her until she agreed to become her companion for life, but what sounded glamorous and intoxicating turned out to be toxic and isolating. It’s decades later and Amber has finally had enough and wants out, but it isn’t easy to get away from your creator when there is a power imbalance of this magnitude. You can’t just end a friendship that’s meant to last for eternity.

This was truly a memorizing cat and mouse story that had a spectacular finish. I loved the character driven plot, the flashbacks, the shifting POVs, and the vibes of the story.

Thank you Berkley for this ARC!

“We’re only young once….or so I thought at the time.”

Picture it. London, 1979. Disco still rules, but its days are numbered. This is where Nicola and Amber first meet, locking eyes while dancing the night away. For the idealistic Amber, nightclub nights allow her to escape a young, yet ailing marriage. But for the nefarious Nicola, the dancing is far more decadent.

What the reader (and Amber) soon learn is that Nicola is not the typical party girl. In fact, she’s technically not a girl at all-but a 200 year old vampire who has set her fangs on Amber, hoping to make her an eternal companion. After some initial hesitation, Amber obliges, a testament to her untested youth. But turning and everything that comes after in a word-bites. Now some fifty years later, Amber is tiring of the ever evolving party scene and being under Nicola’s nocturnal whims. What she really craves is a world outside her maker’s grasp. But it’s finding her true freedom that proves to be the real bloody nightmare.

We Love the Nightlife is the tale of a toxic female friendship posing as a vampire novel. I don’t really read much vampire fiction, but the meatiness of the story makes you almost forget its parasitic premise. Instead, this book is an engaging mix of feminine flirtation, magical mystery, and even a bit of neoclassic nostalgia, making Rachel Koller Croft’s sharp writing a seductive escape to sink your teeth into this summer.

Two women meet at a disco in 1979 and it changes their life forever. Amber joins Nicola, a beautiful and glamorous vampire, in eternity. Now fifty years later, Amber wants out out from under Nicola’s control but that is dangerous.

It’s not often I read books about female vampires, so this was interesting. If you love reading about nightlife and clubs, you’ll like this. It’s all one big party and scene, with backstabbing, drama, and blood.

“We need to eat, but do we need to be evil? We’re all God’s creatures - sort of.”

We Love the Nightlife comes out 8/20.

This was for the Twilight thriller girlies! Sprinkle in a little bit of disco and you've got yourself quite the unique paranormal tale in your hands. The back and forth timelines established an intriguing mystery. However, there were some slumps in the story that made it difficult to power through, but I think this was fun! I definitely need to get my hands on Stone Cold Fox now by Rachel!

Vampires and disco? Sure, why not?
The vampire angle really isn’t my area of reading genre but the disco era is so I enjoyed those aspects of the story and the flashbacks to the music and the beat of 1979.
Vampires are the undead so Nicola and Amber amble through the decades trying not to bite into each other.
Readers can sink their teeth into this book.

I loved Koller Croft's debut, Stone Cold Fox, and I had eagerly been awaiting her sophomore novel, We Love the Nightlife. Honestly, I am not much of a paranormal person so when I heard this was vampire themed, I was hesitant, but still wanted to try it as I love a toxic friendship story. Unfortunately, this one missed the mark for me a bit with the shifting timelines and vampire plots, I had a hard time engaging with the plot as much as I would have liked. I hope Croft's next novel is a better fit for me, a la Fox.

I enjoyed the authors debut and was looking forward to this one. I’m a big fan of vampires and loved the concept of this sophomore novel.

I would say this fits in the same category as cold stone Fox as women’s fiction with a little suspense. Toxic female relationships are always fun to read about.

I think what was missing was more of the good years between Amber and Nicola. The focus of the story is Amber wanting to break free and that started to really drag in the middle.

My interest ebbed and flowed.

I do think the author is talented and I did overall enjoy the reading experience. I could have used more fun times between the two and more surprises.

Thrillers? Yes, love. Vampires? Hmmmm. While this is not normally my genre, (paranormal thriller??) the summary was quite appealing AND Croft’s storytelling didn’t disappoint. I was hooked from the start!
Diverse, dark London 1979 setting. Toxic and controlling female friendship. Did I mention vampires? Music, dancing and nightclubs. Betrayal. Dual points of view. Croft weaves this all together into a deliciously clever and unique novel.