ARC Review: My Vampire Plus-One by Jenna Levine

📝 What is My Vampire Plus-One About?:

Amelia Collins, tired of her family’s pressure about her single status, enlists centuries-old vampire Reginald Cleaves to pose as her date for a family wedding. As their fake relationship deepens, Amelia realizes Reggie might be the perfect match—fangs and all.

📚 Genre: Romance

🎧 Format: ARC E-Book

💞 Feels: ⭐⭐⭐.5

This book was very similar to My Roommate is a Vampire in taking a page from most cozy fantasy books and making the stakes so low they were unimportant. I wasn’t concerned about The Collective, the “big bad” in this story after seeing how they chose to taunt Reggie after breaking into his home. They were comical bad guys. So I focused on the romance and kept moving along from trope to trope, because there were many (see Getting technical below).

I’m not quite sure if the reader is supposed to disregard The Collective as a threat or be concerned about them. They’re present in the book just enough to make you think they’re going to be an issue. By the end, they sort of fizzle out, though – which had me questioning if I should’ve cared at all or been laughing at them the whole time. It was also very easy to put two and two together as to their identity, when it was still a “mystery.”

The expansion of Reggie’s character was great. He had a lot of personality and was starting to be more than the surface level snarky friend. Amelia could’ve used a little more love, some more information beyond being a workaholic, who didn’t date and was being pressured by her parents. Why do the vampires get to be more complex than the humans?

With all that said, it was a good escape and palate cleanser before my next read.

Getting technical

SPOILERS: We’ve got a meet-cute, fake dating, black cat/golden retriever, stuck in a storm, one bed and a clean resolution.

I found this book formulaic. It followed the exact same pattern as the first book, it was easy to consume. I did find Frederick and Cassie’s dynamic to be more endearing than Amelia and Reggie’s relationship. Because I almost forgot the most egregious trope – miscommunication, was present in this story.

A lesson Reggie learned from the first book was to be honest from the beginning. But in typical fake dating fashion there was questioning the other persons intentions AND outright disbelieving a person when they confess a secret to you. I chuckled at the secret reveal, but it is an interesting thought experiment to wonder what would’ve happened if Amelia had believed Reggie from the beginning. How would the dynamic have changed and what challenges would that have brought up?

I enjoyed the different modes of storytelling. I found the update of the text message conversations being labeled (they weren’t in My Roommate is a Vampire), clarified who was speaking in the dialogue. There were snippets from history books, Reddit/Discord servers, bullet journal entries, text chains and chapter POVs all relating the plot of the story. It was very engaging and kept the book moving forward.

You’ll like this book, if…

You’ll like this book if you’re a fan of cozy fantasy books with low stakes, even better if you’re also a vampire obsessive.

✅ Spinoff novella nomination:

Zelda the witch, who’s now off the radar in California, would be a good spinoff candidate. A new setting a different paranormal being and she was barely in this book. I want to know more about her!

What are you reading? Let me know in the comments.

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