🩷 Book Review 🩷
📚 Fangs for Nothing
💫💫💫

Thank you Netgallery for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

We meet Lord Alaric, a vampire with a castle he needs to declutter before a visit from his mother (we have all been there). He hires Winnie, a decluttering expert and when his mother arrives with a potential bride-to-be he propositions a fake engagement with Winnie.

I really like Alaric and Winnie. Their relationship growth was one of the most natural ones I have read, nothing felt forced. And Alaric's 'F*&k it' moment was so good and made me giggle a little.

Overall this book intrigued me but it fell short unfortunately. Because I had an issue with the amount of people being introduced that I did not know who was doing what, when or where. Also, I thought it was waiting for the sleuthing but nothing really happened till the end.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3

This book just wasn’t for me. I was really excited to read it because I love paranormal rom-coms but this one missed the mark.

The book is well written but I found a lot of the jokes a bit cringey. That being said the writing style reminded me a lot of Sarah Hawley’s glimmer falls series and I know a lot of people who love that series and it also wasn’t for me, so I think this is a case of personal taste rather than Fangs for Nothing not being good.

I did really love the subtle nods to vampire stories that popped up through the book, for example the leader of the Nevermore coven being called Mina and the WiFi network being called LAN-Helsing.

This book had great potential, but from the first page I knew this was going to be a let down. The dialogue was cringe-worthy; the writing was just so bad, and the characters were so one-dimensional. Plus, the writer just overcomplicated this easy plot, which didn’t progress until 45% in.
2

Fangs for Nothing was like a breath of fresh air. It's been a while since I read any paranormal romance in this vein: with a dose of cosy humour alongside the action and romance. It had early series Sookie Stackhouse vibes at times, which I loved. Alaric and Winnie were both delightful characters who I was ready to get behind from the start, both in terms of them as individuals and in the romance stakes. The romance part progressed nicely and felt realistic throughout. As well as there main pairing, there were well-drawn, memorable side characters, and the plot held interest outside of the romance line. I would happily read more books from this author in the future, and I am happy to see vampires making a bit of a comeback lately after what felt like a dearth of good vampire fiction for a few years. I am giving this book 4.5 stars. It's well worth a read if you enjoy vampire tales and the cosy end of paranormal romance.

This started off so freaking good and had an abundance of absolutely hilarious lines that I felt compelled to write down because I was really looking forward to this review. Lines like:

'I figured you can never have enough god juice'

'This castle has seen some shit'

'Cool it with the gargoyles dude. No one's that Goth'

and my absolute favourite:

'This place looks like a junk store had a drunken hate fuck with a Jackson Pollock'

Sadly this was the last line I wrote down and things just went downhill from here. Full disclosure, I DNF'd this at 45%. It just started to get rambly and ridiculous, and not in the good fun way.

What ended up pushing me to the end of DNF territory was this scene where Alaric and Winnie are at the local pub and he has ordered her dinner. Just after it arrives and she takes a few bites, he is all 'I have a terrible secret that I have to tell you but before that I need to taste you one more time'. Cue the passionate making out and then they are racing home (what about that food you left behind?!). When they get home and Winnie is all lets go to bone town, Alaric is all no, give me this last night before you hate me and walks away.

Argh...sadly this is not the first time Alaric has run away. I get that books need conflict to keep us interested but I was very happy to get off this seesaw.

I've read a lot of Steffanie's books in the past and read the first 6 Nevermore Mystery books which this one is a spin off from and I was nice to see Mina and Quoth in this one. This book is possibly longer than her normal books and maybe if it had more editing to keep things a little tighter it might have been better?

Thank you to Simon and Shuster and Netgalley for the eARC and because I am on holidays and currently typing this in the comfort of my dressing gown, I have given an honest review.

Pre thoughts:
Vampires?

Post thoughts:
- love a book with a map
- Cozy vibes
- Great pacing, the beginning is great.
- A man with hobbies the standard from here onwards.
- Loved how the book club took Winnie in.

Overall
I need the next book in this series. It was a 5 star read and had great development between the FMC and the MMC. The side characters were lovely.

Tropes
- slow burn
- Small town
- Paranormal romance
- Age gap

Stars 5/5 ✨
Spice 2.5/5 🌶️

Thank you to Net gallery and Simon and Schuster (Aus) for the opportunity to review this book. All opinions are my own.