Hunger Pangs

True Love Bites

By: Joy Demorra

Narrated by: Catherine Bilson

Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

In a world of dwindling hope, love has never mattered more....

Captain Nathan J. Northland had no idea what to expect when he returned home to Lorehaven injured from war, but it certainly wasn't to find himself posted on an island full of vampires. An island whose local vampire dandy lord causes Nathan to feel strange things he'd never felt before.

Particularly about fangs.

When Vlad Blutstein agreed to hire Nathan as the captain of the Eyrie Guard, he hadn't been sure what to expect either, but it certainly hadn't been to fall in love with a disabled werewolf. However, Vlad has fallen and fallen hard, and that's the problem.

Torn by their allegiance to family, to duty, and the age-old enmity between vampires and werewolves, the pair find themselves in a difficult situation: whether to love where the heart wants or to follow where expectation demands.

The situation is complicated further when a mysterious and beguiling figure known only as Lady Ursula crashes into their lives, bringing with her dark omens of death, doom, and destruction in her wake. One thing is for certain: Nothing will ever be the same.

©2020 Humerus Intentions Publishing LLC (P)2022 Humerus Intentions Publishing LLC

Amazing!!!!

Truly an excellent read! I can't recommend it enough. Absolutely burrowed into this one, the romance, the world building, the character interactions, everything is top notch!

Could not stop listening

I've been eagerly awaiting the audio book for this series. I am so excited to say I was not disappointed. The author's choice in Voice is perfect. Cathering Bilson has a lovely voice that manages to land squarely between male and female roles. I could not stop listening, and usually I reserve audio books to listen to while I work. For the story, I love the hints of dry humor, a hint of Terry Pratchett in how it comments on social issues. There's something so human to all the characters, be it their personalities, and their flaws. I also loved the casual way disability aids are handled as though it's just normal. Something that other authors would use as a pain/woe point the author uses as just a facet of the person. I am so excited to see where the story goes in the next book, and everyone in my life is sick of how excitedly I've been talking about this book. I've even gone to my friend that writes papers about queer fiction to yell at her about the bisexuality and disabled representation. I reupped my audible membership solely to buy this book.

Amazing story meets amazing narration

My only complaint is that I didn't want it to end. But alas it had to. This book scratched an itch that hasn't been scratched in years! I sincerely wish this book never ended! I need more and eagerly await the next one! Finally, I would listen to C Bilson narrate the phonebook. Bi4Bi4Bi and so hot it's on fire, paired with that voice. Try to avoid listening to the steamier scenes while driving.

love love love

this book is so much fun to listen to and the story is one I can't wait to hear more of.

A good book, just feels a little incomplete

Overall, a fun listen and a breath of fresh air after some very long and torturously bad books in my library.

I heard about this book because it was recommended to me as a polyromantic novel. The summary seemed to reflect this as well, so I was a bit confused for the first hour or so until I realised that it was more “gay monogamous romance with flirty remarks towards a third”

I enjoyed the experience of listening to this. I think it was worth the time to listen to and to buy, but it felt a touch incomplete in terms of the plot. While the story being told is coherent and comes to a resolution, there are still several unanswered questions and plot threads.

With that said, I’m rating at 4 stars because it seems likely that this is the first in a series, and those threads will be tied up in the future.

a delightful story ! can't wait for more.

I don't usually write reviews so this will probably be a little clunky, and while I have listened to a lot of other books with romance involved they're usually more side plots rather than main plots. (Unless its the reverse.... but honestly I think Hunger Pangs breaks that binary a bit.)

First things first though, Catherine Bilson does such a wonderful job narrating! If I see her as the narrator on another book in the future it'll definitely make me more interested in getting that book.

Plot(s):
As I mentioned above it's clear that Hunger Pangs is just the first step in the series to come. I would consider this book to be laying the foundation of what's to come, but while still keeping things a bit of a mystery. I'm a little more used to series where things are more concretely wrapped up, or if it's continuing on, explicitly laid out what the "Big Bad" is and while Hunger Pangs maybe does that, it also sort of leaves things up in the air-- which is NOT a bad thing, I actually like the bit of mystery and I don't think that it would be necessary for this particular book.

The description of the book is pretty accurate: this is mostly about Nathan and Vlad coming together and what that entails in a world (or perhaps just country) where non-human citizens are second class, even when they hold titles. Admittedly, most books I've listened to/read haven't actually had much in the way of vampires or werewolves (not for lack of interest) so it was just so delightful for the book to go into cultural differences between the two in this particular setting, as well as biological differences.

Nathan and Vlad are both very relatable characters - each one struggling with their own issues that struck close to home, at least for me. But not in a way that was painful- a lot of the book is them dealing with their issues in ways that provide relief. Things are handled so nicely.

I especially enjoyed how nonchalant the book was about neutral pronouns. While transness never explicitly came up, it's clear from the way pronouns are used that it's probably not some Big Issue for residents of Eyrie, at least. It's such a breath of fresh air, as a trans person myself, to see stuff like this.

Spiciness:
Now I've listened to quite a few spicy books and so maybe that's colored my experience here, but in terms of actual spice, I'd consider Hunger Pangs to be pretty mild. This edition definitely contains spice, but to me I'd put it as a step above "fade to black" rather than full on... you know. Not something you'd want someone to overhear either way, though.

Loved it and am excited for more!

Lots of great characters, the romance is so sweet, and interesting world building. I am particularly excited about the polyamory and disability representation. The narrator also did a great job. I will definitely be listening to this again!

There was a lot of setup for the next book and I can't wait for more of these characters.

I love this book so much

really and truly love this story so much that I have it across various mediums. paperback. ebook. and now finally I have my hands on the human read audiobook version!

maybe now I can get my partner to listen to it as well since she has ADHD and reading the book and listening to a robotic voice read versions! I truly know she'd be enamored with it as much as I do 💙

Can't wait for more

The characters are delightful, the romance is on point and I super invested in the politics of this fictional world.

Regretfully bad

This is the first audiobook I listened to where I just couldn’t get over the narrators voice. Not her natural voice, necessarily, but the acting voice she puts on for the men and women characters.

When men speak, they get a super deep gravely tone, almost sounds like they gargled rocks. The women, on the other hand, (except Ursula, who is LITERALLY not like other girls) get a bit of a Minnie Mouse treatment. They are practically squeak toys. Non-binary, feminine characters for some reason generally speak in a neutral tone. The infantile, cartoonish piping thus feels almost like a commentary, however unintentional, on women specifically as a gender. Women don’t sound like that. They just don’t. So why the voice?

The story was also unfortunately 2-star for me. 14 hours and most of it is fluff developing the relationship between Vlad and Nathan. I like a slow burn, don’t get me wrong. I can wait 4 books for the love interests to even kiss and still be happy. But I’m also interested in mystery- what was the deal with the former captain of the guard? What is the Count scheming? Does it have to do with the mines on Eyrie? The Litch wars? Elizabeth? How did the ancestral trees get poisoned? Surely it wasn’t a coincidence.

But not only do these questions, and more, not get answered. Our POV characters don’t even think about them. Nathan is content not knowing what happened to the previous Captain. Ursula doesn’t so much as wonder aloud at the improbability of what’s happening to the ancestral trees. Vlad is completely, entirely, frustratingly uncritical of the Count’s potential machinations. There’s a lot going on for sure, but in my subjective experience this book is… not good. I am very sorry. I will probably read the next one though because my Bookclub loved Hunger Pangs (except me, I am mortified).