I loved the premise, a vampire romcom. The execution wasn’t as strong, however. There was no shock or recovery time needed when Lily suddenly finds out she’s a vampire, which seems unusual to me. Everyone around her is nonplussed by the fact that she’s suddenly a vampire, and her best friend (BFF!) has vampire knowledge gathered from popular culture.

Lily is overweight and has dealt with a lot of body shaming. I liked the positive body image messages from her friend and from the guy who made her a vampire.

There are a lot of slang words that don’t add anything to the book, like obvi etc. This is a quick read,
3 stars.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5049953192

I received this book as an arc. This book made me very uncomfortable and it took me an obscene amount of time to finish due to this. Let me disclose I had an eating disorder for 7 years and I’m very aware of the things people say about weight and food. The main character in this book has the type of self negative talk I know people with eating disorders struggle to overcome and that part of the book seemed to mirror real struggles potentially. However, the rest of the book was cheesy and unrealistic in a rom com way. The mixture did not work together. Mainly the growth the main character had wasn’t convincing. So to take so many pages writing out inner dialogue of body dysmorphic statements and then the rest of the book just trying to play cute was cringe worthy. It didn’t leave me feeling empowered and it definitely wasn’t “it” for me. This book doesn’t match the times and I do not recommend. This is not okay. Period.

Gloria writes a story of a plus-size protagonist that has been dealing with boy image issues most of her life. When Lily wakes up one morning, she realizes she cannot remember the night before, how she got home, or why she is suddenly craving a tall glass of A positive blood.

This book is filled with fun Buffy the vampire slayer and Twilight references. I loved how Gloria figures out what she is so quickly, tells her friend who just accepts it fully and uses this show and book/movie for reference on how she should run her life.

Eventually Lily remembers what happens and confronts Tristan the very old vampire who turned her into a vampire against her will (some debate there in the book).

While the concept of this book was fun, and I loved the little remarks about other franchises I love, I wasn't completely sold on this. I think Lily was a bit obnoxious at times, and thankfully she does get called out at the end by her friend. I also didn't really get the romance between her and Tristan. Gloria hits on Lily's body image some and while Lily does deal with things such as her mom/childhood and trying to be skinny then and dealing with her never changing body, I wish this had been leaned into more. I almost think a women's fiction with less romance may have given Lily a lot more depth and I would have felt she was more relatable.

I will definitely read another book by this author as she kept me wanting to read more despite my middle ground rating of the book.

It was alright. The body issues were heavier than I was anticipating. I also sort of just didn’t like the main character. That made it hard to really care about the romance. The vampire lore was fun though.

When Life Gives You Vampires by Gloria Duke is a contemporary paranormal romance. Twenty-five year old Lily Baines is used to waking up hungover, overweight, and underemployed. Waking up with fangs? Not so much. But when it turns out a little light necking has more serious consequences than she ever imagined, Lily's determined to get to the bottom of it. 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 their hides. They strike a 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. Can she learn to love the (plus size) woman she'll be forever more?

When Life Gives You Vampires had a fun premise and a lot of things going for it. In general, I liked the main character ad thought her best friend and the quality of that friendship was fantastic. I liked the honesty and heart to hearts they had together, and Lily's honesty with herself. I thought some of her contemplating her size and hang ups was well done and on point, however as a larger girl myself I felt like it was overdone and maybe could have been handled differently or left out all together in some scenes. I also felt the male characters all fell a bit flat, very little depth in comparison with the female characters, more functions of the story rater than full fledge characters in their own right. I liked most of the plot twists and storyline ideas, but felt like focusing on one or two at a time rather than all of them in a single book might have made for a more engaging read. Since so much of the book is Lily's coming to terms with herself, perhaps some of the story could have been saved for a second book and more time could have been spent in her figuring things out with her best friend and mother rather than vampiric drama. There is so much more room for sequels, that I felt that some of the storylines could easily have been put on hold for them. I did enjoy the read, and it was entertaining, but I see so much potential for it to be even better that it was a little disappointing in some regards.

When Life Gives You Vampires is a entertaining read with great potential. I look forward to seeing what the author does next.

Lily Baines has been accidentally turned into a vampire. Yes, accidentally. What was supposed to be a hookup ended up changing her life. Now, Lily has finds herself tied forever to Tristan, her maker (aka, hookup). Unbeknownst to Lily, however, accidentally creating vampires is against vampire law and the paranormal higher-ups are very unhappy. Tristan tries to train Lily so that she can get used to her new supernatural abilities, however neither of them can ignore the fire from their first encounter. Will Lily and Tristan be able to face the vampire council alone?

I was really excited to come across this book on NetGalley. It sounded perfect for me because I love vampires and paranormal romance. However, I did leave out one major subject of this book in my description: Lily's character is obsessed with her weight. With that being said, I almost DNFed this book because there was just so much negative self-talk and don't get me started on the fatphobic mother. All of the talk of dieting and clothes that don't fit; the list goes on and on.

Being fat myself, I've gotten to a point my life where I dislike that ideology and I don't like fatphobia in anything I watch or read, which is why I almost quit this book. However, I was really intrigued about the general plot and found myself wanting to know how the story progressed so I stuck with it and overall I liked it pretty well. Lily eventually realizes that there's nothing wrong with her body (even though it takes getting into an argument with her best friend for her to get it) and that she will be "stuck" with that body for eternity so she should just love herself.

After reading another review, I do realize that everyone has their own body and self-love journey and the road looks different for everyone. For over 20 years of my own life I hated my body, but now that I've educated myself and cleaned out my social media/media in general, I feel differently than I did back then. So, while this book may not be for everyone, I do think that it's a good way to reflect on how we look at and treat ourselves.

Nice vampire book and it was okay-ish. I'm a bit disappointed in some parts.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Unfortunately, the plot revolves way too heavily around the internalized fatphobia, and my brain tells me that enough, I don't need a book doing the same thing. I wanted this to be really fat positive like Olivia Dade. And it sadly wasn't.

I don't know about you but reading about a main character with constant internalized fatphobia and not learning to love the body she's stuck with permanently is an absolutely not for me.

There's no shock quite like going out with a friend, meeting a cute guy, having him buy you a drink, feeling a connection with him, leaving the bar with him to go somewhere more private, and then waking up a vampire the next day (night?).

But that's precisely what happens to Lily Baines. Once over the shock, Lily is pulled into a centuries-long rivalry between her "master" Tristan Newberry, and Gideon - head of the vampire council.

With their fates resting (not so securely) in Gideon's hands, Lily gets a crash course in her new vampire life. But that also means Lily is confronted with her own insecurities. And she'll have eternity to come to terms with it.

I like that Gloria Duke challenged the typical vampire story. I mean, when I think about vampires in fiction, the image that comes to mind is typically this ethereal confidence and exceptional beauty. Lily's insecurities mean that she looks at her plus-size figure and sees everything wrong. She's spent her entire life trying to fit into what she believes is the ideal body which is not her body - according to Lily.

Now, she's kind of thrown into this new life where she has to begin to love and appreciate herself because vampires don't age. As much as becoming a vampire has ultimately changed Lily's life, it's also forced it to remain the same in many ways. One of those ways is her body. A lot of the story deals with Lily's newfound vampirism and the revelations of things lost and gained. We often think of immortality as something great, offering new freedoms. But there are also downsides and Gloria Duke explores those really well.

Because Lily's body image hasn't only been something that has impacted her self, it impacts her relationships. I think when we don't love ourselves, or think kindly of ourselves, it's difficult to see how others could love us.

This is especially apparent in Lily's relationship with Tristan. They have a kind of love-hate start to their relationship. There's an undeniable attraction, but you know, he changed Lily into a vampire altering her entire existence plus it's his grudge with the head vampire in charge that has put them in danger. There's also the fact that not being comfortable in her own skin means that she can't understand why Tristan would be attracted to her.

Basically, in order to come to terms with her relationships, Lily needs to learn to value herself. The book spends a lot of time on this and I think it's safe to say that a lot of progress is made. If this continues into a series - which there is certain potential for - I'd like to see Lily with her new sense of self-worth and how that informs her actions.

Now, I'm not too sold on Tristan as the romantic hero here. I think that Gloria Duke wrote him exceptionally well in that his antiquated views certainly speak to a life lived in the past. Along with Lily, I want to see Tristan making moves to the present which I can totally see happening in another book as Lily kind of brings that freshness to his life.

Overall, I enjoyed this story, I'm very interested for it to continue. I think there's plenty left for Lily to explore in her new life and new outlook, but there's just as much opportunity to get a different perspective.

So I love the concept of this book. Like what would happen if you get turned into a vampire and have to live your life in the same body that you are not completely happy with. This book was a ride and I enjoyed it at times and at times I could care less for it. It took me a while to get through to this book. Maybe it was due to the fact that I wasn’t a fan of the writing style. And also a book that I thought to be a little bit more funnier had to deal with some issues. We’re dealing with a friend who is thin and a mother who is fatphobic.

I struggle with the non-consensual way of turning her into a vampire. I don’t know why, but I often felt like when people turn someone into a vampire it’s a big deal and they need a person to be also willing to be aware that you’re going to be a vampire. She’s a baby vampire and he’s a lot of training and I think that would be preferred if I was the main character to be aware of like what’s happening. But as you can tell, I’m not a vampire reader, so this was an interesting book for me.
Other then that I did have a really fun time reading some of the parts of this book and I would recommend it if you are into vampires and you’re looking for any fat representation.

This was such a fun book with a sparkling dialogue and a fantastic heroine. What happens when you find yourself turned into a vampire. In this book it seems you find yourself in different adventures and finding more about yourself than you knew as well as fun romance. This is an enjoyable read that is easy funny and highly entertaining

I really wanted to like this book, because the overall plot sounded really fun and interesting. However, I just could not continue reading this book. In the first chapter alone, there are 7 instances that mention the main characters hate/dislike of her body or mention her unhealthy dieting habits. It continues on into the next few chapters.
I went and read other reviews and it is mentioned that this doesn't ever really go away. She doesn't ever really learn to love her body and I just can't suffer through this book.
Thank you to NetGalley and SourceBooks for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not going to lie, this was the spooky read I needed! Something about it reminded me of Buffy episodes, kind of cheesy but entertaining, if you know what I mean?

Right from the start, I was intrigued. Lily wakes up and something is clearly amiss. As she begins to realise what happened, I had to laugh at the way she was employing her dieting strategies to keep herself from biting someone and drinking their blood. The way I winced when she mentioned some of them too because...been there, unfortunately, and done that.

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from this book, if I'm honest but I had a good time reading it! Lily's adjusting to life as a vampire, there's some romance with the vampire who turned her and I wasn't sure if there was going to be a love triangle at one point! I loved the whole 'every time a vampire is made so is a Slayer' aspect to it and it was a pleasant surprise as I'd been expecting a rival werewolf love interest! I was also quite pleased by the lack of love triangle, if I'm honest!

Anyway, there's the whole Slayer aspect going on and then there's the fact that her maker may have broken the rules but it's kind of deeper than that and there's the whole big battle against the Council thing. Seriously, it really reminded me of Buffy, but also a few of the old paranormal romances I used to read both YA and adult. I really did get the oddest nostalgic vibe from the book! The Buffy references didn't help the vibe either but I did cheer every time she got a mention!

I thought Lily's narrative was entertaining, and I could really relate to her and her struggles with her body. I loved the message behind it all and the focus on it because obviously she has her insecurities and now she's stuck with this body for, well, eternity. Lily comes to some important realisations and her BFF left kind of a resounding message with me towards the end of the book.

All in all, this is just good vibes. It's super easy to read, Lily's funny and relatable and the romance doesn't overwhelm the message the author is trying to communicate. It's super easy to read, but there's some enjoyable plot twists to it as well!

The main aspect that drew me into reading this book was the aspect of having a plus size, female, main character. I really loved the idea of this book based off of the description, but in all honesty, I think this one just sort of fell flat for me. The MC, Lily, just kind of annoyed me throughout the book. I alos never really got that moment of realization I was looking for when Lily would be in love with her body, ahd who she is. I also didn't quite feel that the love interest was written that well either. Overall, I think the book was just ok. It missed a lot of the elements I was looking forward to, and overal just missed the mark.

It was hard to see the heroine be so hard on herself because of her looks but it was that more realistic and gratifying when she learned to accept herself. The romance the friendships everything I loved it. When I finished I just wanted more I highly recommend.

When Life Gives You Vampires delivers a realistic portrayal of a fat woman on the tumultuous journey to accepting her own body, and for once there is no *one* life-changing event that flips the switch from being insecure about one's weight to sudden all-encompassing confidence in this fictional account. That was, I'm sure, the story the author intended to tell, but unfortunately decided to wrap up in some sort of genre disguise. If only both the romance and comedy - which, yes, this is a rom-com - did not entirely disappoint, it could have worked just fine!

The twist of vampires' appearance remaining as it is the day they are changed, forevermore, is interesting if you consider that one can never lose (or gain) weight for the rest of their immortal life, according to this lore. Especially if your entire life so far has been governed by insecurities and unhealthy dieting. Been there, done that! I would have loved to see that genre-bending thought pursued some more, instead of the droning on about our personality-less hero's thin ex-girlfriends. By god, I just couldn't get into him, he is so forgettable.

The heat level in this book is also weirdly mid, in that it probably won't appeal to more demure readers due to some language choices, but also won't pull in any fans of explicit smut with its short, lifeless sex scenes. I'm afraid the transparent paranormal plot and the annoyingly quirky, meta vocabulary did nothing to cover those writing weaknesses. Repeatedly used words like "obvi" or the capital-letter "FYI" were apparently meant to add character to the protag, but only brought me closer to snapping each time. Cringe vocabulary unfortunately does not substitute humour.

That is to say, there definitely is potential here! I hope to see Duke continue writing relatable protagonists with complicated feelings - and that next time the important messages take up a bigger part of the narrative.

Thanks to Sourcebooks Casablanca, Netgalley and the author for an ARC of this book - I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I have never read anything by this author before, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will be looking out for her work in the future.

I love a curvy heroine and also like the fact that Lily doesn't shy away from her insecurities about her body. I loved Tristan, who wouldn't though - he is a super-sexy vampire. But I also like the fact that he isn't perfect either.

I enjoyed learning about the other characters, especially Raven, who I hope will show up in more of these books. There's plenty of steam, if that's what you are after, which I was. It's the season for spooky and this is just what the witch doctor ordered.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review! It was incredibly well done and I loved the plot. Cute, funny and a quick read!

We do not believe being fat is a problem in this home. We do not recommend books that contain fatphobia. That's all.