The Forsaken Vampire has all the elements of a captivating vampire tale—dark romance, mystery, and a brooding, supernatural atmosphere. Penelope Barsetti creates an intriguing world with compelling tension and emotional stakes that kept me reading. The writing flows well, making it an easy book to get through.

That said, it was just okay for me. While the premise had promise, the character development felt a bit lacking, making it hard to fully connect with the protagonist. The romance had its moments, but at times, it felt rushed or predictable. I also found myself wanting more depth in the world-building to make the story feel richer.

Overall, The Forsaken Vampire is an entertaining read for fans of dark paranormal romance. It has its highlights, but it didn’t leave a lasting impression.

I was given access to this arc to read thanks to NetGalley. A fun romantasy. Great read. Would read more by this author.

This was the first book I've read in this series, so this could be read as a stand-alone. However, this book was left on a cliffhanger. This story has four different points of view, which in the beginning can be bewildering. Once the storyline starts you get ahold of the plot. You will be stuck on the edge of your seat to the audiobook because you have to know what is happening next!
This book does have steamy moments, is unpredictable, and is full of action!
Harlow is a princess and she is heading for a night out when she notices a new guy that she is interested in. The new mysterious man is Aurelias, he has his agenda for the night. He is going to kidnap Harlow and take her to her father's enemy. When he is successful you will follow their journey to the location of his delivery. While on the journey you will notice that Harlow and Aurelias have a connection and to find out what happens to the next step of the journey!
This is a great story! I enjoyed the plot and I'm going to check out the next installment of the series!
I want to extend my gratitude to Dreamscape Media and Netgalley for the opportunity to listen and review this one!

I really enjoyed this audiobook! The narrators were great, and they managed to brought the story alive.
Thank you to NetGalley, Penelope Barsetti, and Dreamscape Media for this audiobook ARC.

If you enjoy fiesty FMC’s, Morally Grey MMC’’s, vampires, and dragons! Oh my! Then this book is for you! The Forsaken Vampire is the fourth book in the Dirty Blood series. The audio has multi POV’s, and amazing narration. So if you’re looking for a quick, spice field, PNR then The Forsaken Vampire is for you.

I really like how the author is expanding the world through each book. And there were so many new characters in this one. Plus dragons. Dragons are always good. This was a fun read and the narrators continue to not disappoint.

This book had a lot of really interesting elements and a fun and intricate plot with a lot of different POVs.

The problem is that this story has an entire cheating arc that’s insensitive and unnecessary. The worst part is that the entire cheating plot is focused on side characters in another kingdom and I can’t understand why it was necessary for the story other than to give the author a platform to say that when a woman falls into a deep depression after a miscarriage and her husband of more than 20 years cheats in order to “get her attention” she needs to apologize and forgive him. Yes you read that right, she miscarried and was dealing with a deep mental illness and not only does the author repeatedly demand that the character apologize for it, they also demand that they forgive the cheater because he said he was sorry and they had 20 good years together.

Here’s the thing y’all, I believe in a good redeployment arc and have read and loved books where cheaters (even ones in similar scenarios in a contemporary setting) committed the same exact act. But those characters showed their remorse, put in the work to make amends, and did it all because they loved their partner not because they believed they were owed forgiveness. The fact that this was not the case, the offending party just decided to drink themselves into a stupor (I’m unsure if additional cheating occurred but I think it did), yet when he decided to get his wife back all the other characters just supported the husband ruined the entire story.

I finished the book, the other elements would have put it at a solid 4 for me possibly hirer, but I was so incredibly mad about this superfluous cheating arc that it just ruined the whole thing.

Book 4 of the Dirty Blood series takes a different turn compared to the first 3 books. This time, we follow Aurelias, the brother of Kingsnake, as he journeys to a distant land to seek the aid of the Teeth in obtaining Golden Serpent venom to help his kingdom. The leader of the Teeth demands that Aurelias kidnap Harlow in exchange for the venom. The story is told from the perspectives of these two main characters: Harlow, the strong and resilient future Queen who can hold her own in battle, and Aurelias, the intriguing yet mysterious brother. While the book contains many spicy scenes, they are fewer compared to the first books, and Harlow is portrayed as a more self-assured and strong female character. However, the repetitive descriptions of male genitalia from the first three books persist in this one, which can be off-putting. Overall, the story is better as it focuses less on romantic pursuits and more on life-threatening battles and journeys. The unnecessary multiple perspectives such as those of Harlow's parents and uncle do not add any value to the story (the dad is there mostly to talk about having sex with his wife and how hot she is and the uncle about his failing marriage). Despite these flaws, the narrators do a good job, and the book, while not a literary masterpiece, is still an entertaining read.

I was a bit confused by this one in the beginning. Aurelias seemed so different in the original trilogy... a human hating jerk if I remember right... and yet he falls in lust with Harlow (a human) in a very short period of time. Once I got past that, I really enjoyed the story. Several different POV was a bit confusing to keep track of, but I assume it will make sense the further into the series we get. The audio was phenomenal!

3.5 Stars

The Forsaken Vampire picks up with Aurelias on his mission to obtain the venom he needs to save his people. His quest to deliver Harlow has various unforeseen, to Aurelias, twists and turns. It gets steamy very quickly. Its a fast, entertaining read as each of the previous books of the series have been. It's not a read to take too seriously. It's a fun, smutty, quick read. I will happily read the next book when I have the opportunity.

I recently listened to the audiobook of "It Kills Me" by Penelope Sky (aka Penelope Barsetti) that is a mafia romance. That audiobook has the same narrators as The Forsaken Vampire. My brain was adamant that the vampires in this book were also apart of the mafia. A nice added layer if you will. Narrators did really well. I tend to favor Ferraiuolo's style for narration but really enjoy the whole performance.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penelope Barsetti, and Dreamscape Media for this audiobook ARC.

I love where this story picked up from the end of book 3 but I did have a little trouble following since I did not read The Forsaken King series.. I think if I had read that, I would have been able to follow along a little easier.

Overall, I enjoyed the audiobook! I really enjoyed these narrators and the emotion and infliction on words.

I would recommend this audiobook to PNR lovers!

3.75 Stars
A quick and steamy read!

In this installment, we follow the story between Harlow and Aurelias. While I found their relationship to progress quickly, I feel that there is still room for further character development, particularly for Aurelias. However, I am optimistic that the next book will address this issue. Additionally, I believe that the author could have maintained a consistent point of view by focusing solely on Harlow and Aurelias' perspectives, which would have enhanced the flow of the novel. Despite these minor issues, I enjoyed reading this book and look forward to the next novel.

***Thank you to NetGalley, Penelope Barsetti, and Dreamscape Media for graciously sending me the audiobook to review. As always, all thoughts are my own.***

This wasn't the book for me. I liked the idea and concept. but I just couldn't get behind the dialog of the characters. they seemed really one dimensional and.... it just didn't click

this was…awful. unfortunately.

Check my highlights on Goodreads for some examples, but aside from the dialogue (primarily on Harlow’s end) being wildly childish and inconsistent with the era this book is set in, I couldn’t get over how a side character (Ian’s wife) was expected to get over her husband having cheated on her.
She was repeatedly told to “move on”, and that her “behavior was unacceptable” lmfao. The woman had a miscarriage and experienced depression; her husband fucked someone else. God forbid she leave him I guess? Despite the characters ridiculing her to her face presenting as “progressive” for the rest of the entire book?

My biggest ick was the inconsistencies: between Harlow calling her mom “a hot piece of ass”, using the term “cool”, etc., while wearing 1500s attire in a 1500s castle, and the king telling his sister in law to shutup and get over her husband being pathetic and screwing someone else while his wife, understandably, was going thru some mental hardships and didn’t want to sleep with him for a few months.

I liked the story premise, a lot. But there was too much to outweigh what I did enjoy. Harlow’s random dialogue choices violently ripped me out of the story.

I love this series and it just keeps dragging me in more and more. I could not put it down!!! Aurelias and Harlows tension was there! The passionate and captivating storyline makes you become an addict!!! You just can’t stop waiting to see what will happen next with your favourite characters.

Love this series it's so good and even better audiobook! The story was fun and action packed! We love a good vampire story!

I loved the first 3 books in this series and I was thrilled to be able to listen to this one.

It is a family affair! Not only do we have Princess Harlow the MFC and Aurelias the MMC's story, but we The Forsaken Vampire tells the love story of her parents and her uncle. So lots of angst and spice with 3 different couples. You have to pay close attention to this audiobook to make sure you know what couple you are listening to as there are sometimes only slight differences in the voice narration. But all of their stories are really unique and interesting.

Beyond the multiple romances, this is a good continuation of the previous books in the series that focused on Aurelias brothers. I was really engaged with this audiobook and know it will set the stage for the ultimate battle to come

I also really liked all of the strong women in this book including Larissa who will stand up to any man. They are very vocal as well as physically trained to fight.

Overall, The Forsaken Vampire is an entertaining listen (I really enjoyed the male narrator's voice) and I can't wait for the next audiobook in the series.

Thank you NetGalley for the audiobook
This one is a hard one to review.
A princess who has trained all her life to follow in her father's footsteps as ruler of kingdoms is kidnapped by a mysterious man she has been screwing. She discovers he is not a man at all and is in for a little twist when he changes his mind about handing her over to the enemy.
Essentially for me, the storyline is there, it has potential and is generally something I would want to read. The execution however... was lacking.
I'm not sure if it was the narrators or the text, but it came across very bland and repetitive. With parts thrown in that were wholly unnecessary just to cover another trope I would assume. There was also some terminology thrown in that seems inaccurate with the sword fighting, dragon riding setting the author portrayed.

Disclaimer: This is my first book in the series so I’m not sure if I would rate it higher if I had the back story for some of the characters first.
I think if this book was longer I would’ve been more into it, for me I felt because there were so many POVs by the time I was getting interested in the story it was over!
I think the author did a good job at making each character interesting in a short amount of time but I did find myself getting a bit frustrated that we weren’t getting more time with the main characters/storyline.

Dropped my rating .5 for the take that it’s a grieving woman’s responsibility to sexually fulfill her husband and it’s partially her fault he cheated?? I didn’t see indication that this was a terrible thing to say or that the king was wrong for placing blame on her.

I wish we got a bit more plot development but the dynamic between the characters and the premise was interesting.

I DNF'd at 34% so I won't be giving a star rating on any social site but I do think I know enough to give feedback. I don't mind nicknames, but the word "baby" for every encounter with all men to females was obnoxious, as was no other word for breasts than "tit" and the multiple use of cliche descriptors like "sharp as a tack". I couldn't sit through the rest and I stopped caring where the story was going - I read the description and got the idea.