The fact that Lily had to squeeze into restricting shapewear to fit into her vintage Levi’s wasn’t enough - Tristan, the man who she left the bar with… bit her? When she bites back with more than just words, she throws herself into a world she didn’t believe existed - as a vampire.

Despite its paranormal ties, this books skewed more contemporary for me, and I thought it was pretty sweet. I loved Lily’s best friend, Kat, and how supportive of a friend she was, even knowing that Lily is a vampire. We love a ride or die who won’t let you hurt yourself in your ignorance about vamps and sunlight 🙌

One thing that I was apprehensive about at the start of this book was the toxic diet culture behaviours that Lily was soaked into - buying clothes that don’t fit, trying different diets, assuming that being skinny is the key to happiness, etc. Especially, given the dynamic between Lily and her mother, it made me nervous about how this was handled. It takes a while (uprooting yourself from something so ingrained in our society is not a quick task!), but there is growth from her as she accepts that no aspect of her body would be changing from this moment on, as being a vampire basically freezes her current body in time due to her immortality. That being a big part of Lily’s identity that she is deeply uncomfortable with lends to a arc of acceptance that I really appreciated.

The heat between Lily and Tristan is fun, but after I finished the book, it was her friendship with Lily, the start of healing the relationship with her mother, and her new outlook on her body that I want to remember most.

Overall, this was a fun listen, and I’d recommend it this spooky season! Be mindful of the diet culture talk if that’s a sensitive topic for you, and do what’s right for you 💖

When Lily Baines wakes up hung-over she quickly realizes there's more going on. She's craving blood, and yep, she has fangs. As Lily tries to remember the situation that got her here she keeps coming back to Tristan, the handsome stranger she left the bar with last night who seems to be stalking her.

As Tristan explains Lily's accidental vampire turning (he thought he had her permission and then she bit back) is causing a major vampire incident, and the punishment could be Lily and Tristan's death.

My favorite part of the story was Lily figuring out she will be in her large body for eternity and starting her journey of body positivity. That was fun. My least favorite part was the distracting overuse of "obvi" for obviously. Maybe it was because I was listening to it, or maybe it's because I'm over 40, but I almost DNF'd the book.

Thank you Dreamscape Media for my #gifted ALC!

Calling all Vampire Diaries fans, this one is for you. If you are someone that does not like a YA vampire love story, you will want to stay clear. Lucky for me, I love Vampire Diaries and really enjoyed this book. Here are a few things I loved:

1. The narrator did a great job, and it was easy to follow.
2. Body positivity - I really liked how the author incorporated this topic.
3. Lily, the main character, had a great sense of humor.

This was such a fun, quick read. I think the last vampire book I read was Twilight so I’m glad I gave this one a shot. I found Lily’s struggles with her body very relatable; so many of her thoughts mimicked ones I’ve had over the years however negative or annoying they may be. However, from a romance aspect there was so much potential with Tristan that I don’t think was ever fully realized. By the end I was also getting annoyed with the excessive use of “obvi” and Tristan’s “indigo eyes”. All in all, if you’re looking for a romance with plus-size rep and a vampire twist, you may want to give this one a try.

3.5/5 Stars rounded up to 4.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for this ALC in exchange for an honest review!

I had seen mixed reviews for this one that said it focused too much on body image/acceptance, and while yes, the FMC mentions her body a lot and is trying to accept her body as it will forever remain in her vampire form, I think people cut out too soon. I enjoyed this book, it was fun, it was different. I liked that when the FMC became a vampire the author didn't automatically make her prettier or skinnier, or "vamp" her up as we see sometimes in books or media with vampires. The FMC remains as she is, and I think that's important. Overall, this is a fun story that's a little different and unique from your regular vampire stories and I think it deserves a little more credit, because ultimately, it's got everything you want this spooky season - romance, mystery and spooky fun.

I loved this book! The way Lily thinks is so on par with many people’s struggle with internalized fatphobia. I completely related to Lily’s body struggle and felt like the fat rep was so good because of how relatable it was. I really felt seen when Lily was talking about how she admires how gorgeous body positive influencers are but doesn’t get why she can’t put that same view on her own body.

I do have to agree with some of the reviewers commenting on the writing style though. At first, I loved the real voice that Gloria Duke gave Lily. Her internal monologue sounded exactly like a normal person. However, halfway through the book, the “uhm” and “well” and “like”s started to get stale and a little annoying. That was my main issue with this book.

This book had a lot of potential that was never realized. Tristan was a great potential love interest with his broody past and romance writer career. The vampire council and new vampire hunter were a good foil for Lily. However, Lily wasn't a great main character. I never got on board with Lily's narrative voice. Her dialogue and character were over the top and didn't feel realistic. I never cared about her, and I wasn't compelled to keep reading. This book had a good foundation, but I didn't love the finished project.

I saw some reviews of this book and decided I couldn't write it off without giving it a chance. After listening to a few minutes, I knew the reviews were right. This is a dated, fatphobic book. I don't know who thinks this is an appropriate book for 2022 as it is so focused on dieting, bad body image, etc. Also I hate that it starts out with date rape parallels. Idk who would want to read this.

There are a lot of varying opinions on this book, but I will just say it was an easy, quick romance with a spin.

Lily wakes up one day, and finds herself to be a vampire. Soon she has to figure out a way to live her new life, and balance the overbearing, protective vampire that turned her.

So here's the thing: love a book with a plus size character. However, this book is almost solely about Lily hating her body, and believing no one could ever love her, with a SIDE of turning into a vampire. Seriously. It almost feels falsely advertised, so know that going in!

Sidenote, specifically for the audiobook: I loved the narrators voice for Lily, HOWEVER she was really not good at doing a male voice. Would have loved dual narrators.

Twenty-five-year-old Lily Baines wakes up one morning thinking she’s hungover. However, she soon discovers that she’s not hungover – she’s a vampire! Tristan hadn’t meant to turn Lily into a vampire, but now that she is, they need to team up to survive because turning her was against vampire law. Lily has to deal with her new vampire world, a coworker turned vampire-slayer, and her mom’s tone deaf dieting and relationship advice. Lily always struggled with her weight, and now she has to accept that this is the body she will have forever. Can she learn to love herself and find a place in the vampire world?

I enjoyed this humorous vampire novel and appreciated Lily’s struggle and eventual acceptance with herself. Unfortunately, I didn’t really feel the chemistry between Lily and Tristan. She liked him because … he was hot, and she couldn’t believe someone that attractive could like her? I really hope we get a sequel with Evan and Cat! Meg Sylvan did a great job narrating the audiobook.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an audio ARC of this book.

Chalk this one up to "not for me."

There are several writing tics that felt like they were first draft material that hadn't been edited out enough. The number of times Lily says "obvi" would have been a problem even if she'd used the full word, but the shortened version grated even more. And how many times can you make the same formulaic joke of "reference to life or living or alive etc," then "um [literally the written out filler 'um'] correction to undeath and then a "whatever" or "you get the picture."

Oh, yes. We DO get the picture. We get it over and over and oooooover.

For the fat rep.... I'm of two minds. I feel like it might work for some people, but for me, a lot of things were just glossed over. On the one hand, it didn't do the thing of "well the character is fat but we're never mentioning it again and it doesn't affect her life in any way" which depending on how it's handled can be either refreshing or, more often, feels like a cop-out. On the other, and this could just be a case of this representation doesn't match my lived experience, it really didn't feel like the body positivity arc WENT anywhere. It felt like the love interest stood in for all the things Lily should have learned about her own self worth.

And let's talk about the love interest, hm? So broody. So mysterious. So hot. So.........

I'm sorry I nodded off there for a minute. So, yeah, 400 year old vampire who writes romance novels and has the personality of a cardboard cut out. There's this scene where he and Lily's mom are talking and it's played off as one of those supposed-to-be-funny situational comedies where the character's parent is embarrassing them and the love interest plays it deadpan while obviously enjoying themselves enormously at the main character's expense. I'm not a fan of those scenes generally but this one was AGONIZING because Lily's mom is so hideously fatphobic. And yet it's played as oh yes, his eyes were twinkling isn't this funny? Later, Lily thinks to herself somehting like "well, he stood up for me in front of my mom...sort of" and even with that qualifier I am just...baffled about how she could interpret the situation that way.

There's also a weird scene between Lily and her best (thin) friend, where the friend is like, well I can't complain about my horrible day to you because you always have a story about someone fat shaming you and then I feel bad. And....again, I'm in two minds about this one because yes, fat people can be self-absorbed and not in tune with the emotions of their friends, because fat people ARE people, and sometimes that's what people are like. But the framing of it felt a little awkward. It was framed as Lily's problem, but from where I stood, it seemed more like her friend needed to stop expecting Lily to be clairvoyant about her emotions.

Anyway, the supernatural stuff kinda didn't work for me either. The Big Bad is supposed to be this terrifying Vampire Authority but he just kind of faffs around sending Lily arcane and serial killer-esque death threats.

I'm disappointed because I had high hopes for this one, but YMMV on the fat rep and other things I brought up.

FWIW, I really liked the narrator and thought she did a good job with what she was given.

Lily isn’t surprised to wake up hungover, but when she can’t remember the night before and suddenly has a thirst for blood, she’s pretty sure something isn’t quite right. As she gradually remembers trying to squeeze into a new pair of too-small but cute jeans, she also remembers meeting someone handsome and charming…who may have turned her into a vampire. As she recovers her memory and struggles with the newness of being a vampire, she also tries to face down her insecurities and the Vampire Council, who may not be too happy she exists.

The concept of this story was fun, but it just didn’t do it for me. I wanted to like this work since it’s supposed to be about body positivity and accepting yourself, but that character “growth” was hardly included and was emphasized in a clunky, poor way.

Lily was an obnoxious protagonist. Seventy percent of the book is her hating on herself, hating on others for judging her, but then also making judgments about others, and it became a struggle to read. She also talks like she’s a teen from the 2000s and has stupid temper tantrums. I love protagonists who undergo character growth and have flaws, but it wasn’t until the very end of the book that a switch flipped and suddenly everything was good – not relatable, realistic, or engaging.

I’m not going to get as in-depth as I could about Tristan and the romance but let me say this – just because he’s hot and says, “I wouldn’t have done that without your consent, but you totally gave me your consent, but I’m sorry if you feel like you didn’t” doesn’t make him a swoon-worthy romantic. All of the characters felt like caricatures, including the two MCs, that none of them were engaging.

Some other quick notes that detracted from this work – the pacing was awful (intense action then chapters of nothing), the villain felt like he was just tossed in for some cheap conflict (no real sense of danger or threat, no depth or real character for him), Lily’s mom’s unexplained 180 at the end of the work (seemed like it was only included to make a too-neat, happy ending), unexplained things we’re just supposed to accept (not including these because spoilers), constant Twilight and Buffy the Vampire Slayer references (we get it)...I’m going to stop here.

I can see why some might enjoy this book, but I can’t recommend it. I listened to the audiobook version of this work, and if I never hear another person say “obvi” again in this life, it will still be too soon (that being said, the narrator did a great job, it wasn’t her fault she had to say it so much). My thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for allowing me to read and review this book. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I really wanted to like this one but found myself struggling to finish it...I wish I would have saved time and just DNFed it. There is rampant fat phobia throughout, the writing isn't great quality (I get she is aiming to portray a millennial, but it feels like the author never actually encountered someone in that age range in her life), the description of vampires isn't interesting, and I found the attempts at pop culture references insufferable (I get it the author LOVED Twilight!!!). This one just wasn't for me.

I really really wanted to like this book. But it just didn't do it for me. Between the fat phobia and unoriginal depiction of vampires [like you're telling me that a baby vamp is able to go into a CROWDED SUBWAY hours after waking up] I just couldn't get into this book. (And honestly this book 100% should be sapphic purely based on the description of her best friend)

I DNFed this audiobook at 35%. It just wasn't working for me. I'm a huge fan of the vampire romance genre and will give the stories a lot of leeways when it comes to cheesy tropes. But When Life Gives You Vampires went above and beyond. It frustrated me that we got so little of a unique vampire world, rather than using other vampire novels and films to hold the story up. It didn't help that I found Lily to be unbearably vapid. I give this audiobook a generous 2/5 stars.

I was invested in the story, but didn't care for the main character. Don't get me wrong, I love a strong female character, but she was "strong" to a fault. Anytime her male counterpart wanted to help or protect her she immediately argued "I don't need your help!" or "I don't need your patriarchal BS!" It was too much for me. And, as much as I related to her body image problems, that was also over the top. I'd give this book a 2.5 rounded up to 3.

I liked the premise of this book. Waking up a vampire is a unique spin. But it fell flat. Seeing as the MC didn’t believe vampires were real, she came to the conclusion she is one awfully fast. It also felt like two separate stories that didn’t fully mesh.

I enjoyed this Paranormal Rom Com! We have Lilly who wakes up after a night out as a Vampire. And why they try to figure out what happened she learns to accept her self as she is and they work to change the old vampire laws and with Lilly fighting change the old laws. I know a lot of people didn’t like this book because of the negative thought process lily had about her size and peoples sizes around her. And why I do think we do need positive plus size role models in books I really thought this showed what goes on in the mind of a plus size women. Lilly had grown up with a mother who was obsessed with her weight, and Lilly never felt good enough which she related to her weight. If she just could lose some weight life would be perfect and she really sees life that way. Thinking that beautiful skinny women have it perfect. And I really think the way she thought was the way most of us think who struggle with weight! I know I’ve had those thoughts for years! And I know I have lowered my self value the more weight I put on, I learned it from women in my family who passed it on to me. No one thought twice of saying “thunder thighs” or “a moment on the lips forever on the hips” and even tho they didn’t mean anything, it sticks with you. But becoming skinny won’t solve those negative thoughts it’s not a magic fix all, you need to learn to love your self as you are (which I’m still working on). I also loved the side characters in this novel I loved her best friend cat she was so funny and such a good friend to lily! I loved that she was honest with lily about the way lily thinks affects people around her, I also really liked the love story in this but I think I would of enjoyed it more as dual POV. Overall I liked this story and hope there is more in the series to come!

I loved this book i loved how unique it was it felt fresh i loved the message about self /body love it felt a tad bit repetitive in the number of timea mentioned but other then that great book highly recommned and i wasnt a twilight fan so it worked

This is a paranormal romance book about a plus-size girl who gets accidentally turned into a vampire. Chaos ensues when the Vampiric Council founds out she was turned without their approval. Romance and spice mixed in with our MC as they try to figure out how to confront the Council.

Things I liked about this book: cozy feel, insta-love for the MC's love interest, good amount of romance/spice, and an enjoyable read.

Things I didn't love about this book: Your main character is so self-deprecating about being plus-sized it seems like her lack of confidence/self loathe is her only characteristic. I would have love to see her be more well-rounded and doubt herself a little less to feel like a real person.

I received this as an ARC through NetGalley, however, all thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.