Thank you Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for this advance copy of this audiobook. I liked Glori Duke’s When Life Gives you Vampires for the most part. And have to add narrator Meg Slyvan did a great job bringing main characters of Lily to life after she turned into a vampire. I would love to hear more of her plus her emotion scenes where stellar and she brought action to life.

For me this book was a book about Lily with a little romance and adventure thrown in. Lily just got turned into a vampire and was inserted into a war between two older male ones. While lily and some character for the most part where flushed out well and I love her and Cat’s friendship as well as Raven. I couldn’t get into Tristan’s story as much. The secret felt anticlimactic and the thrown in character that died just was not flushed out well enough for me to care. The romance just didn’t grab me as much as Lily’s other relationships and the action adventure side of the book. Those where the things that stole the show for me. While the romance was not as I usually want it at I did enjoy what this was am giving it 3.5 stars (upgraded to 4stars on this scale). The narrator really intrigued me and made the main character come to life so I hope people listen to the audiobook.

Fun vampire romp. I liked the idea of a plus-size vampire dealing with her insecurities in the light of FOREVER. I really appreciated the times when the lead got called out for the way her constant bad-mouthing herself affected those around her. I did not appreciate the fact that her mother's body-shaming and abuse got fiddle-dee-deed away as if she hadn't been the main source of the leads body-image issues. I also didn't like the introduction of another plus-sized character only to have her fridged for motivation.

I thought it was silly that in all the "I'm too fat for him to like me" it never once came up that he was hundreds of years old and might have a different concept of the "ideal body" than modern men would. He was repeatedly described by the lead as having old-fashioned views but it never occurred to her that those views might also extend to sex appeal?

I liked the various characters and it seems as though maybe we're being set up for sequels which I wouldn't be against reading.

I want to thank Dreamscape Media and Netgalley for allowing me to listen to this audio book as an arc.

This was a 3/5 star read for me.

In this book we follow Lilly our plus size main character, after she was accidentally turned into a vampire. Through the book she learns how to live as a vampire, how to love her body that will now be fat forever, and try to stay alive because the vampire counsel is after her and her master Tristan.

I would call this an enemies to lovers romance, because when Lilly first finds out the Tristan turned her, she absolutely hated him, and wanted nothing to do with him. Even after accepting his help, she didn't like his old time ways (he is like 400 years old so cut him a break).

There are a couple smutty scenes but after the build up of how hot vampire sex is I was really wanting a little bit more. It was still enjoyable but not as steamy as I was expecting.

This book does has a plus size main character which I absolutely love. To have that representation is really nice. I also like how the author included how her self-hated and negative self talk effect those around her. I do wish that the change to hating her body to loving her body was a little more gradual. Most plus size people know it doesn't happen over night and that is how this book felt.

There are a lot of references to Twilight in the book as well, and is how Lilly gains her knowledge on vampires before she agrees to take Tristan's help. The book had a few cringy parts and that was one of them.

Overall I do think it's an enjoyable book. There are some really funny parts of the story and I think anyone that really enjoys vampires, and enemies to lovers would enjoy this book. I would have loved to see it in a duel POV with 2 narrators but with that being said, I still liked this narrator

I was very excited about a plus-sized vampire romance for the spooky season. However, I was a bit disappointed in this story for a few reasons. I would imagine if you are a twilight fan you may like this more. As someone whose never read or watched the series I feel like this is very close to that series.

I loved a plus-size main character I don't love a plus-sized main character who clearly doesn't love herself and is resentful of everyone who I smaller than her and only feels sorry for herself. I want her to love her size and embrace it or celebrate it.

I wasn't a fan of Lily, I found her extremely self-absorbed and listening to her narrate this story was hard as she thought were often scattered and full of relevant observations

I wish I got Tristan's POV, I think that would have added a nice element to the story since he was the one who accidentally turned her.

What a waste that the ending was with the villain. The ending was a little rushed with the villain - very anti-climatic and I already know a second book will be made including this same villain.. if its a thought please don't do it - it's too easy

Anyways, like I said if you are a fan of twilight I feel like the vibe of this book might stay with you. The narrator did a great job, especially with Tristain voice and the other characters - I truly felt their emotions and storylines via the audio

Rom Com/Paranormal Romance mesh ups are one of my favorites. I liked Lilly and Tristan. I know a lot of other readers were put off by Lilly's attitude about her body and lack of self confidence. Can we just be truthful though and say we have all been Lilly at some point in our life. I am my own worst critic and I am sure if some of the things that I said about myself would be spoken out loud that I would cringe too. Outside of her carrying on about it which was a bit over played in this book, not that I didn't appreciate making the character relatable but I did feel that it did distract from the plot of the story. Other than that it was a delightful read and I enjoyed the narrator for this book.

Another big oof from me. It's not so much the millennial slang, which I think the narrator did a great job making sound authentic but would make me cringe so bad on page, but more the whole...everythingness of this book. Lily- at least I think (I'm not going to lie, I've already forgotten the main character's name,) is a mid-twenties woman Making It In The Big City who Can't Open Up to Anyone and Struggles With Body Image Issues. She's also Not Like All The Other Girls and Hasn't Met Her Prince Charming Yet. Look, there's nothing wrong with a good cliche that's self aware it's a cliche, but this wasn't it. The Ick factor also got me pretty good with the fairly graphic descriptions of drinking blood, eating rotten food, etc. Disappointed, as this one seemed like it had promise.

So lighthearted and fun ! Loved all of the Buffy and twilight references 😂😂 even though Lillis self loathing was a bit repetitive and annoying, I ultimately grew to love her and think she had great character growth.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Firstly I had access to the audio version of this book and I thought the narrator did a nice job. The story was entertaining enough that I was certainly investing in finishing the book. I am all for the big vampire literature comeback for the 2020's but this book felt exactly like a vampire romance from the early 2000s. Most specifically one of Mary Janice Davidson's Queen Betsy books- just without the royalty. I also struggled with the amount of fat shaming the narrator, Lily, inflicted upon herself. I understand body issues, believe me but Lily moved straight to thin-shaming her friends and pretty much hated her own body. It may be accurate for some people out there and I feel horrible if so, but for this light hearted vampire romance, it was too intense. And it was the only really intense thing about the book. I also did not like the hero. He was a caricature of every other vampire romance interest ever and not as interesting as many of them. I never believed his relationship or feelings for Lily. Still the book was light and breezy and fairly entertaining.

A bit cheesy, but it was fine. I like vampire stories in general, but I specifically like lighter hearted vampire stories - Twilight, Vampire Academy, Crave, etc. - so this one was up my alley.

I'm not gonna lie though - I did find it weird that this girl was turned into a vampire and the thing she chooses to fixate on is that she'll be that weight forever and her body will never change. Yeah.... Forget the blood diet and burning in the sun... Having a bigger body type is the bigger issue.

That wasn't the whole story though. I enjoy a sire/vampire romance and I liked that a new slayer arrives when a new vampire is born. That was cool. I also liked that her friend immediately just went with it. No "you're crazy, you're not a vampire." She was all in the from the get go and just wanted her vampire friend to be safe lol. It was cute.

All in all, fun for a one time read.

When Life Gives You Vampires has an interesting twist on supernatural romance which is marred by characterization from the early- to mid-2000’s. Twenty years ago, I would’ve been thrilled just to see a fat character on a romance cover regardless of the content, but the discourse on body image has thankfully grown leaps and bounds since then. Lily’s constant thoughts about her size or jealousy of her slender friend (ugh) seemed shallow and immature for a woman of 25. I hope the author’s next book starts with a character who has the maturity and depth befitting an adult.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca and Netgalley for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to love this one but the writing style felt kind of cringe-y and the constant references to dieting, negative body image, etc. cancelled out the plus-size representation. Honestly, it felt like it should come with a big content warning re: dieting and self image. In addition, it just felt repetitive and uncomfortable to read. I'm so bummed this one wasn't for me!

This was a fun, lighthearted read. It is unabashedly reminiscent of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I loved it. I would have enjoyed this book thoroughly as just a vampire romance, but the author went a bit further.
In When Life Gives you Vampires, the protagonist has to work on healing herself and learning to accept who she is even while she is falling in love with a dashing vampire-- and I AM HERE FOR THIS.

I had high hopes based on the adorable cover of this book but from the very onset the lingo and writing style screamed elder Millennial or Gen X writing for a younger audience... and it's pretty cringey. Her inner-voice is kind of obnoxious and there is nothing really body positive or revolutionary about a plus size heroine who obsesses about how much she hates her body. When I see beautiful plus size cover I am always hoping for something more than the standard self-hating big girl and am constantly getting disappointed. Like damn, this woman just got turned into a bloodsucking monster and she's still worried about her thighs and fitting into jeans? I couldn't get past the 25% point

A great novel of self love and understanding who you are as a person... even if you are an undead. 10/10!

This book was so much fun! I found it so addicting! Some of the narration was a bit cheesy but overall, I enjoyed this book so much!

I kind of struggled with how I felt about this book. I was so excited for a vampire rom-com with a plus size heroine. But I was not prepared for the constant thoughts of this heroine continuously realizing that she would be the same size forever. And she wasn't at a weight she would want to be.

There were problematic thought processes that the main character had, and reading them as someone who has been through them, it felt more hurtful than helpful to have a character talk about how gross her body is. And then, her very skinny best friend telling her she was being selfish and that she 'had bad days too' felt warranted, even though it jabbed more at the "this character is plus sized and has made it her whole personality" feeling.

I wish I liked it more. I'm glad for the rep, but I wish it wasn't as... toxic of a rep, I guess?

I didn’t make it very far into this one because of the writing style. It was wayyyy too “modern.” I couldn’t stand all the pop culture references to things like GrubHub, Netflix, and pop icons. The writing was choppy, and the sarcasm was just annoying and didn’t make me laugh at all.

And I couldn’t tell if it was an actual human narrator or if it was one of the computer generated voices. Aside from the writing style, I couldn’t get into the book because the narration was so rough.

Bring on more Vampire romances like this one!! It seems like there's a TON of witchy romances (and I'm not complaining) but the era of vampire romances feels like a thing of the past almost. This book was HILARIOUS and such refreshing fun with a great focus on body positivity and self-acceptance.

Lily is your average plus sized 25-year-old until she wakes up one morning realizing she's not just hung over but has somehow become a vampire! What follows is her learning more about what her new life is going to look like, getting to know (and slowly fall for) Tristan, the vampire who accidentally turned her and finding a way to accept that her body is never going to change now that she's immortal.

This book exceeded all my expectations! Perfect for fans of Olivia Dade or Julie Murphy and anyone nostalgic for an updated, more modern Anne Rice like story. I also got strong Buffy and iZombie vibes reading this book! Great on audio too. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

CW: toxic parental relationship, fatphobia, body-shaming, negative self-talk