Vampires, Vampires everywhere... and while I'm here for the vampire resurgence normally, this one just missed the mark.
The actions of the characters didn't make a ton of sense - a witch brings home a vampire and it's just no big deal? Maybe I'm not witchy enough but that seems odd to me. It didn't really seem to have any impact and right there is where the story kind of lost me a bit. There seems to be no real rhyme or reason to why they act the way they do.
Also, sorry y'all I've seen someone else say it - The Drainers? what is this. this is the most basic and boring vampire name I could ever even imagine. I expected a little bit better than that.
I really wanted to love this one, it's normally right up the alley of what I love, but this just didn't hit it right.

This book took me right back to my high school days in the best way possible! The vampire theme, the emo music, and the slightly emo/scene feeling of the main character. Even the friend to lovers romance reminded me so much of the book I read back in high school and I loved it!
The romance worked really well. It was obvious their feelings weren't new or forced on them. They felt so natural and I was honestly rooting for them the whole time. They were cute and the way they stuck together and would do anything for their friend was amazing.
I also really loved the sort of darker and deeper ton this book took neaf the end. I don't want to spoil anything but this definitely took a great turn. It was a really great way to separate this story from so many of the other teenage vampire media out there.
This book was quite honestly the feminist vampire book I needed in high school. I am so glad it exist now and that girls are going to get to read it. I loved every minute of this book and I can not wait until I get to read the other two in the series!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the early review copy.

I was intrigued with the cover of this and when I saw it contain vampires, i knew I needed to read this! A very light hearted vampire story that was hilarious and snarky! I laughed so much with this I was crying!

This was one of my most hyped books of 2020 (well, you know for 2021 but I have been hyped about it since 2020). I loved the Dead Is series when I read it in 2016, so I was eager to see what the writer could do in 5 years and what kind of things we would get.

Sadly.. I am giving up on the book. I tried to around 16-20% which is my standard default before I DNF a book. But it just didn't work out. While I grew in 5/6 years, it seems the author stuck to her writing style and it just didn't work for me anymore. It may work for someone else, but I am just not into this writing style any more.

While I understand that granny and her friends are witches, and Tansy is one too, it just struck me as superweird that no one got into a panic when Tansy and Vaughn arrived home with a freaking vampire. HELLO? WTH? I don't know about you, but if I was a wise old witch then I would definitely not just chill brew some special tea. Instead I would definitely be panicking for a moment or so.
There is a part in which Skyler disappears from the room in Tansy's house. Tansy panics for a mini moment, notices her necklace, puts it on and then proceeds to read a book and do some other things. I found that extremely weird. I am sorry, if my best friend turned to vampire was GONE, I would call people, find help. Not chill out and just wait casually for your other best friend (who you want to kiss).
While at times I like it when characters are oblivious to each other romance way, in this one it was just too much. Everyone around them saw that they were into each other, yet both of them just didn't get the freaking hint. Vaughn was constantly jealous. Tansy was constantly confused.
The Drainers, I was just shaking my head. Couldn't a more original and less OMG LOOK WE ARE FREAKING VAMPIRES name be thought of?

So yeah, not my cup of tea. Sadly. :(

Today (February 6, 2021) is my stop on the MTMC Tours & Entangled Teen Bookstagram Tour for THE AFTERLIFE OF THE PARTY! Check out my Instagram post for some pretty photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CK9YRxSgvzt/

Tansy didn’t even want to go to the party. It’s hard enough living in one of your best friend’s shadows and secretly in love with your other best friend. And now she’s leaving it a vampire. Now her best friend Skyler is stuck on the road trip from hell, on tour as a groupie with a literal band of vamps. But when they find themselves in the middle of a vampire war, will Tansy be able to make the ultimate sacrifice to save her friends?

I thought this book was such a fun ride! It was exciting to dive back into vamps & reminded me of some of my favorite vampire media -True Blood, Vampire Diaries & more!

The characters, especially Tansy, all had highlights and were super fun to follow. The romance was sweet and just a little spicy, so it kept me interested in that as well as the fast-paced plot. I felt the settings in California were really well written and I could feel the heat even though it's pretty chilly here right now- I think that really aided the story! I got really frustrated with Skyler as the book progressed, but it seemed that I was feeling how the characters were. In the future book(s) I'm interested to learn more about the supernatural world that Marlene is creating. I really want to have more context into the power struggles that I'm sure will go on in the sequel I'M WITH THE BANNED!

If you love vampires, especially the teenage ones, I would really recommend giving this one a go!

I loved the "Death is..." series and I was excited and curios to finally see a new book by Marlene Perez. I didn't know it would be a series when I started the book, but maybe I didn't check that out, so that's probably on me. I liked the fast pace and the funny moments in the story. Sometimes I wanted to smack Tansy because she can be annoying and always knows best. But, I liked "The Afterlife of the Party" and I really want to know how Tansy is dealing with all the open questions.

3.5 stars!
The vampire renaissance is here and I am living for it! I was intrigued by the synopsis of this one, and thought it would be fun.
Tansy and her best friends Vaughn and Skylar go to a party. Skylar's boyfriend is in the band, and turns out, he (and the rest of the band) are vampires. And they want Skylar and Tansy. Tansy leaves the party a vampire, and Skylar is taken by the band on their tour. Now Tansy and Vaughn are on a mission to find Skylar and save her from the band of vamps. But when they find themselves in the midst of a vampire war, will Tansy be able to make the sacrifice to save her friends?
This was definitely a quick and easy read. I liked the premise of the story, and there's a lot of interesting elements. I did find it to be a bit choppy at points, and things got wrapped up and worked out rather quickly. And then there's other times where things feel more difficult than they should. And I felt like there were a few moments where Tansy could have saved Skylar and it didn't always make sense to me why things happened the way they did. I liked the characters, but didn't feel much of a connection to them. And some of my favorite characters were side characters I hope play bigger parts as the story continues. There's also some definitely cliche things in this one, sometimes giving me a cringe moment.
Overall, I liked the story. It's fun, it's easy, it's fast paced. But I hope that the pacing will improve over the course of the next books, and I'm curious to see where things go.

Witches hunting vampires… I LOVE IT!! This story is adorable in all the right ways! I like that there doesn’t seem to be any veil between the human and paranormal world in this book. The fact that the two worlds mingle and intertwine and even interbreed is entertaining. The depths of the love between the main characters is almost shocking. They would literally do anything for one another, making the scenes feel as real as possible. I recommend this fun read!!

** A very special “THANK YOU” to Entangled Publishing and NetGalley for the { #Gifted } copy of this book to read and review.

I definitely enjoyed this YA PNR story, the characters were good, I love vampires so this was one I wanted to read, the pacing of the story was fast or slow at times, the friendship side of the story was good. Skyler, Tansy, and Vaughn best friends. It had a bit of a Twilight feel when I first read the blurb, but it didn't go that way at all, it was a fun light read, I would like to read the next one to see how things develop.

Thank you so much @entangledteen for sending me a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

I looooove reading about vampires. I don't read enough with them! This was a very intense read. I enjoyed so much about it!

I will say, there were a few things that kinda annoyed me (which is why the rating is lower) BUT, I still loved it! I am excited for the next book.

𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲: Vampires, Friendships, Family, Adventure, Action, Bands.

I really enjoyed this book, it’s a great balance between being a little goofy and light, like the not so talented emo vampire band; while dealing with some heavy topics. It does a really good job of illustrating the importance of consent and how people can be manipulated into consenting to bad situations. The vampire control is obvious, but the groupie peer pressure and how the fans were lied to also led the girls into the path of danger and made it hard for them to leave. The book does feature violence and abuse that may be hard for some readers to handle, but overall it is done in an age appropriate and sensitive way.

On the lighter side of things I really loved the friendship and support between the main characters they would all do pretty much anything to protect each other and I love their goofy happy moments too. Tansy’s grandmother is also an awesome character and I loved her helpful witchy book club. The story also has great humor that had me laughing out loud. All around I greatly enjoyed this book.

“The song was full of longing and promise, the singer whispering that he knew all my secrets but they didn’t matter. He would love me anyway. Forever.”

?/5 (DNF)

I really loved the concept of the book: girl tries to save her best friend while fun humored vampire shenanigans occur seemed like so much fun.

Part of it has to be that I wasn’t really in the mood since I know I’ve sat through worse than this, but I think I just didn’t click with the book.

The book starts out with a pretty cliche set up. The descriptions of the places, people, and things did set up a cool atmosphere, but it was an atmosphere that reminded me too much other books I’ve already read and prefer. In that sense, the book didn’t have a lot to offer me.

The magic system is cute, but didn’t feel real or have real stakes. Get it? Stakes? And I love vampires, trust me! But I guess I wasn’t feeling it.

I’ll most likey try to read again in the distant future, but this one is definitely going on the shelf for a bit.

TL;DR: I wish I liked it! But it just felt too cliche and kitchy in the writing.

E-galley provided by Entangled Teen and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All quotations and opinions are based off an uncorrected proof.

The Afterlife of the Party by Marlene Perez
Tansy is a witch with a crush on Vaughn, one of her best friends. The three of them go to a party with their mutual friend Sky because she’s dying to see a new band perform. She’s supposedly dating one of the band members and wants Tansy and Vaughn to meet him. Once they arrive at the party, he doesn’t treat Sky any differently than any other girl and seems overly interested in Tansy, to the point where he bites her neck. Vaughn and Tansy freak out and Sky seems to be in some kind of trance that they can’t snap her out of. They manage to get Sky and leave the party and go to Tansy’s home to get help and advice from her grandmother. Sky is missing the next morning, so Tansy and Vaughn leave to find her. They’ve infiltrated a vampire cult and, with Tansy and her grandmother being witches, they have some power to use against the bloodsuckers. When Travis bit Tansy, he unknowingly created a striga Vie which gave her more powers against the vampires. Tansy also learns things about her mother that have been kept secret from her. I like Vaughn’s character and the values he has. The strong relationship between Vaughn and Tansy warms my heart. We all need true friends like that. 4 stars for this witch/vampire story combo!

I received an e-arc of this from netgalley for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

So I was hooked on the story after chapter 1!
I hadn't read a vampire book in ages so I was excited to delve into it!

We meet Tansy, our witch in training and her two friends, Skyler and Vaughan. Skylar convinced her friends to go to a party where a band, the Drainers, is playing. She tells Tansy that she is dating the lead singer and it goes from there.

The mystery and plot was really interesting. I liked the mythology of the vampire.

I loved Tansy, she was badass and driven. She never gave up on Skyler and put herself in harms way for the love of her friend. Vaughan was the same and I freaking loved him so much.

The plot moved well and kept me engaged.
I really enjoyed the twists at the end and can't wait to see Tansy and the others again in book 2!

I had fun with this book! I like vampire stories so I decided to give this book a try. I hoped to find an entertaining story within the pages, which I did, but I did really expect to find a unique tale with a good dose of humor mixed in. I found this book to be very entertaining and I am glad that I decided to pick it up.

Tansy goes to a party at the start of this book, along with her best friends Skylar and Vaughn. Skylar's boyfriend is in a band, The Drainers, who will be playing at the party. It becomes evident pretty early on that this is not your normal party and soon Tansy and Vaughn learn that Skylar's boyfriend and his band are really vampires. And they want Skylar and Tansy for themselves.

I liked the characters in this book. Tansy is a witch and after she is bitten at the party strange things start to happen to her. I loved that she was willing to do whatever it took to save her best friend and Vaughn was right there with her. Vaughn and Tansy made a very strong team and I think that they really tried to do what was best in every situation. They were both very brave and I found them to both be very competent.

I enjoyed the lighter tone of the story. There are some terrible things that happen in the book but those scenes were balanced out by the more comical parts of the story. There was quite a bit of excitement in this book and there were times that I was really worried that Tansy and Vaughn were not going to come out of everything in one piece. I loved that the book was able to keep me guessing and there were some pretty big surprises along the way.

I would recommend this book to others. I thought this was a well done young adult vampire story with great characters and enough excitement to keep things interesting. I am looking forward to finding out what in store for Tansy, Vaughn, and Skylar in future installments in this trilogy.

I received a digital advanced review copy of this book from Entagled: Teen via NetGalley.

The Afterlife of the Party follows Tansy, who is dragged to a party in Hollywood Hills by her best friend Skyler, and leaves one as a vampire. Now her and Skyler are stuck on the road as groupies with a band of vampires. But when the girls find themselves within a vampire war, will Tansy be able to save her friends?

I personally was never really much of a paranormal reader back with the original wave of vampire content in YA books and TV/film, but lately, I’ve been enjoying it much more. So when I saw The Afterlife of the Party available for request, I thought it would be a great fit for me. There’s vampires, there’s bands, and it sounded like a really unique adventure and an interesting start to a trilogy. And while the plot did prove itself to be unique and fun, I wish we got so much more out of the book.

The Afterlife of the Party takes place in our present day, but with the presence of paranormal creatures like vampires and witches. Tansy is a witch herself, and upon finding this out early on in the book, I was excited to learn more about the world and how witches tied into the story. However, I feel like we never really got that. There’s never any sort of in-depth, fleshed out explanations about the paranormal worldbuilding and the detailed origins or backstories of paranormal life. Each time I thought there would be more depth, the explanations barely scraped the surface, and I was really hoping we’d see more of that, at least in the first book.

I also struggled with the characters at times. They are supposed to be in their late teens, but if I didn’t know better I would have considered these characters to be tweens by their levels of maturity. That being said, this book might be better suited for readers around the age of thirteen, but if your expectations are for older teenage characters, you may find that they act much younger for their age. Ultimately, I feel like their behavior conflicted with the situations that they were in because of this. Despite this, I really did like the exploration of Tansy and Vaughn’s relationship as they navigated everything that was thrown at them throughout the book.

At the end of the day, I feel like The Afterlife of the Party has a really cool and fun concept, but I really wish we got more details and backstory than was there. I find paranormal stories to be much more interesting and fun when there’s more to learn about the world behind the paranormal characters themselves, and I do wish that this book had more of that as the first in the series – I would love to see more of these explorations (especially Tansy’s family and history as a witch) in book two.

Oh what a thrill reading about life where quarantine isn’t a thing.. Thank goodness for books nowadays to take us away, into another world.. with vampires!

The Afterlife of the Party, was definitely what I needed. Lighthearted, full of all the paranormal, witches, vampires, and magic. Fast paced, and quite quirky and fun!

Imagine an adventure to save your BFF, and your other BFF (aka crush) is also in the picture, and well some things go right, while others.. incredibly not right! Friendship, humor, romance, and Vampires! Yes Please!

This title falls under YA, but definitely Middle Grade friendly for anyone interested! I recommend it!

Overall, this was a fun teen vampire book. Since I'm not the target audience for this book, I'm not going to judge it through that lens. I think if you are a teen or 2o-something you will really enjoy this book and the themes in it, but as a not teen to 20-something, it didn't resonate with me. But, yay, for the come back of vampire novels. Bring'em on because vampires are my favorite creatures of the night.

Did you say a cheesy vampire romance?? Sign me up!!! The Afterlife of the Party was a super quick and cute read! I’m always up for a good vampire book and this one checked many boxes! Vampires? Obviously! A sweet and attractive love interest? Yup! Friendship? Totally! A crazy road trip! You bet! And a badass grandmother whose a witch? Oh yeah!! There was also a Taylor Swift reference in there which is a double thumbs up from me!! This book is a must read for fans of twilight or really any vampire book!!

Thank you to Netgalley and Entangled Teen for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Rating: 3.5

Overall I enjoyed this book! It was a super quick read, I started and finished it in an afternoon.

What I liked:
- this book heavily focused on friendship, with Tansy and Vaughn going to great lengths to save their friend!
- Vaughn! Cinnamon roll character and hottie with a body 😘
- vampires! I’m a sucker (HAH) for a vampire read, no matter how cliche.
- fast paced. I love a good fast paced read that keeps me reading.
- fake dating: this is one of my favorite tropes and I really enjoyed how it was done!

What I didn’t love so much:
- at times things were just a bit too convenient while at other times things were way more difficult than they needed to be
- pacing: again, at times the story was progressing too quickly or too slowly. This led to me skimming at times.
- very very cheesy cliche story. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind a cliche BUT the cliches in this were a bit over the top.

Overall:
#IsThisAKissingBook? YES!
Will I read the sequel? Yes again!
Who would I recommend this to? Perfect for fans of Twilight!