When Life Gives You Vampires

De: Gloria Duke

Narrado por: Meg Sylvan

Twenty-five-year-old Lily Baines is used to waking up hungover, overweight, and underemployed. Waking up with fangs? Not so much. But when a little light necking has more serious consequences than she ever imagined, Lily is determined to get to the bottom of it or die (again) trying.

Tristan hadn't meant to turn Lily—it's against vampire law—but now that she's here, they need to team up to save both their hides. They strike an uneasy truce, fending off other vampires, Lily's work-rival-turned-slayer, and her mother's tone-deaf romance and fitness advice...all while Lily faces down her insecurities about the fact that she lives in a diet-obsessed world with a body that will never age, never die, and never change.

Falling for her maddeningly gorgeous sire? Easy. Surviving an ancient vampire Master determined to see her twice-dead? Piece of cake. But can Lily ever truly learn to love the woman she'll be forevermore?

©2022 Gloria Duke (P)2022 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Maybe I’m too old..

To enjoy the slang used. Never do I ever want to hear “obvi” start a sentence again.

“Stop trying to make fetch happen! It’s not going to happen!”

I was along for the ride until about halfway through…then it became the same repetitive circle of “omg I’m keeping you safe” and “Obvi I don’t need it” with a heavy dose of not being ok with her body until SUDDENLY she is. And her judgmental mother is. And her poor skinny friend has clearly been skinny shamed while riding the privilege of fitting conventional beauty standards… I don’t know. I respect trying to cover the topic, but wow I don’t think it was done justice here.

Will not be continuing the series, would consider looking at other books she has written if they aren’t written like she wants them to be YA.

Just, Yes

Overall I loved this book, I’m not sure it’s the type of book I’ll re-listen to but it’s a wonderful romp through a story I wish I had as a kid. I am fat, I’ve always been fat, and Lily is who I was, and sometimes still am, through my everyday life. The romance is good, that wasn’t the primary interest to me though. There was a lot of self reflection and realization from Lily that was a balm to my soul. She gets stuck in her head, she makes mistakes, and she spirals in ways I can relate to.

I do agree some of the slang is a little a excessive. I say ‘obvi’ too, but with Lily it’s a lot. Some of the dialogue does feel a little wooden and doesn’t make the most sense. I feel like the love interest doesn’t have a whole lot of personality. Attractive tragic backstory vampire who’s rigid in his ways and slowly learns to loose control. I wish we delved more into him.

Despite the flaws this story has a lot of heart. I binged it in a day and I can see the world building and a potential of sequels. I’ll definitely pick them up because I’m curious where it goes.

Also the narrator is phenomenal. I loved her in Touch of Darkness series and she brings it to the table here.

Great easy read

Enjoyed reading this however one thing I didn’t like so much is the way main character would whine about her body / weight a lot felt that went on too much otherwise enjoyed it and some good characters

Fun Listen

I was looking for something different and light and this fit the bill. It’s a fun story with quick pacing and looks to be the start of more adventures to come.