No spoilers:

I'm in love with this book. I loved it from the first page to the last. The last line gave me chills. It was a great adventure with lovable characters. I'm a sucker for a book where your fave story/characters are real OR you get trapped in your fave story. As much as I loved Tess and Callum, I do have to say I loved Octavia, Joni, and Hamish more. This book is so funny and I found myself highlighting something on almost every page.

Great storytelling! There are two things I think the author did that were really smart. The first is using media at the beginning of chapters as a vehicle for world building and storytelling. Using podcasts, articles, emails, reddit posts, to show how popular the books are and give background info on what's already happened was fantastic. It was nice experiencing it through that as opposed to two characters talking to each other or the main character reflecting. The other thing was making the isle the vampires are trapped on a mirror image of New York City. It's familiar to the reader but still creative and different.

Things I loved:
-FMC is a size 16 and almost 30
-Sapphic rep
-Korean MMC

Some of my fave quotes:

"Cate Blanchett is the only Dark King Daddy I acknowledge."

"Did Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson get back together or did the cheating ruin them forever?"

"You're doing us dirtier than Charles did Lady Di, and you know I don't say that lightly."

"I never took orders from men as a mortal--I'm certainly not going to start in my sixth century of life."

Thank you for the arc! This was a treat.

I was so excited to receive an ARC of this book from NetGalley, Kate Stayman-London, and her publisher Random House and Dial Press! This book is a twisty take on vampires- it turns out that the vampires of a popular book series are real and the events of the book have/are actually happening- but not all is as it seems.
 
Fang Fiction follows our main character Tess. After an incident during her time as a PhD student at Columbia (please check TWs), she leaves that life (and her best friend Joni) behind. 5 years later, Tess is still recovering from what happened and continues to cope with her and Joni’s favorite book series, Blood Feud. When vampire Octavia from the series shows up at Tess’s hotel and begs Tess to go to the Isle (where the vampires have been trapped in another dimension I guess) to tell her twin brother (bad boy Callum) what happened, this starts Tess on an adventure she never anticipated. Back in the real world, Octavia is trying to adjust to being back and Joni is searching for Tess for answers on why she disappeared 5 years earlier.
 
This book was super fun and comes just in time for spooky season! If you love vampires and wish your favorite ones are real, this is absolutely the book for you.

An absolute MUST for fans of Buffy, The vampire diaries and True Blood, this fan fic vampire romance adventure was pure gold!! I loved how the bookish content was based on real life vampires, the sexual assault trauma for the FMC was all too real and the great Sapphic romance side story for the best friend was another highlight. By far my favorite by Kate Stayman-London, this was wonderful on audio narrated by Amber Benson, an actor from Buffy and includes a must listen author interview at the end. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy and @prhaudio for a complimentary ALC in exchange for my honest review! Fans of Katee Roberts will not want to miss this book!!!!

A fun and sweet RomCom, and a great pick for spooky season if you don’t like stuff that is too horror -ish or too romance driven.

I loved the premise for this book, and the pacing is unusually good for a RomCom. It unfolds more like a mystery. And because these days most RomCom’s mostly forget the comedy part, I’m extra appreciative of a book like this that avoids schlocky romance tropes and is legitimately funny all the way through the story.

I loved this as a friendship story too, and while I didn’t love the protagonist’s backstory, I did like seeing two friends value and support each other this way even when their relationship was struggling.

I knocked one star off what would have been a five-star read because I really did not like the rape backstory. This has become disturbingly common in women’s fiction, and I don’t think it’s appropriate to ask assault survivors to relive this stuff over and over because it happens to make a good backstory plot-wise. Especially in what is an otherwise light, joyful read. To the author’s credit, she did handle the material well.

Despite that, the tone of the book is mostly very good, and I really enjoyed the buddy comedy vibes that factor heavily into this book’s plot.

This was a fun story to read. The writing style was different than any other story I have read. Part of the story was written in third person. Part of the story was written as a transcript of a podcast. Part was told as text messages. Part was told through portions of another book and part as other documents.

The premise of this story is that there is a very popular series of books about vampires which are separated into two covens. One has the heartthrob, Felix as its leader and the other has the bad boy, Callum. in it. Callum's favorite past times are s*x and killing. The books say that all of the vampires are trapped on a island in another dimension. The books have legions of fans who are divided into teams Felix and team Callum, Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Within these fans, there are superfans who write fan(g) fiction and think that the vampires and island are real. FMC Tess is such a fan and much to her surprise, she is proven correct when one of the vampires escapes the island and seeks her out. The next thing she knows, she is the only human on an island full of vampires who have been vanquished for eleven years and she finds herself in the company of Callum.

This story jumps back and forth between dimensions and the different casts of characters as well as time periods and the different types of story telling. At first, I wasn't certain I was going to enjoy the story telling style, but the author did it so well, that it was not confusing at all and was actually very entertaining. The story also has some fun references to other vampire series like Twlight, True Blood, Vampire Diaries and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If you liked any of those series, you will like this book and the vampires make it a perfect October read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author Kate Staymen-London for allowing me to read this one early! I enjoyed it.

This book is fun! I go in and out of my vampire moods a lot and I read this one when I was back in it.
It touches on real subjects but does a good job of working through them.
Do check your TW though.

Everything about Fang Fiction drew me in: the witty title, the premise of essentially waking up in your favorite vampire series, and an academic heroine with a penchant for pop culture. And while so much of this book delivers exactly what I was hoping for, with winks to vampire series like Buffy, The Vampire Diaries, and Twilight, as well as to fan fiction and fandom, there were times that I felt frustrated with the pacing, especially regarding the romance here.

Kate Stayman-London takes great pains to establish her vampire world, the popularity of the Blood Feud series, and her vampire characters that both lean into and subvert archetypes, and while I greatly admired what she's done with this story, there were times that the plot felt very slow—but even so, when the romance began to really kick in, it felt as if things were a little bit in the insta=love territory—a serious vampire genre trope, to be sure, but still, the romance for me felt underbaked here.

That said, I did enjoy that, ultimately, this was a story of learning how to be more than a victim. I appreciated that the book includes a note at the beginning regarding the main character's sexual assault—which informs so much of her character and the choices she's made—and that she ultimately is able to harness her inner strength and take back her own story, while also discovering that one of her favorites is not actually fiction.

I had a fun time with this book. I am a little biased because I'm a sucker for any vampire book (see what I did there) and this one was definitely enjoyable.
I think the sensitive topic of SA was handled well and I appreciated how Tess found a way to get her power and confidence back; I just wished it occurred outside of the context of another man. It felt as if another man loving her and respecting her unlocked that side of her, and I wanted to see her reach that in a different way, and then have it emphasized by the way she let love in.
This was an homage to Buffy, Vampire Diaries, Twilight and so many other famous vampire stories, and the book also wasn't afraid to make fun of itself.
There were some corny and cringey parts, yes, but it felt like in the context of an after school special type of writing.

Liked
-I know people may be annoyed by the mixed media in the book (excerpt from a fictional book, transcripts of a podcast, email excerpts, voicemail transcripts, text messages, etc) but I personally enjoyed it. It gave an aerial view to all that was transpiring in the book. I did think they did a little too much of it in the Epilogue and would have preferred dialogue and action in the epilogue instead of so much mixed media.

-Tess and Callum's love story was believable, and I stan Octavia wholeheartedly.

-I actually enjoyed 3rd person, because I liked being in everyone's heads overall.

Disliked
-The villains were kind of dramatically exaggerated, and the ending felt quite rushed to me, and it kind of didn't make sense as to why the actual author of the vampires was who it was.

Definitely a cool way to kick off the month.

3.5 stars!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

4.5 stars rounded up.

What a fun read! If you’re looking for action, some spice, vampires and having it all come to life - this is your book. Just published, it’s a perfect read for this spooky season!

Thank you NetGalley, Kate Stayman-London, and Dial Press Trade Paperback for the advanced copy!

DNF @ 16%

I don't like the writing style. It's all tell, no show. And I don't really care for the plot. Or the set up of the story.

Decent book nothing to write home about. The writing could have been better for sure. Felt a touch fanfictiony.

I didn’t enjoy reading this book due to the impetus for the main character’s conflict was a trauma she went through that she kept hidden from her friends. She had an amazing support system and blew up her life. The writing was also campy. I couldn’t tell if this book wanted to be a friendship story or a romance. I was so put off by the main character that this wasn’t really enjoyable but I did love the supernatural elements.

If you go into this knowing that it is a book about a girl that winds up literally inside of her favorite adult vampire book series, Kate Stayman-London absolutely delivers. Is it written a bit like a (good) AO3 fic? Yes, it's a book called Fang Fiction. It's also a little over the top, dramatic, cliche, and the characters accept that vampires are real a bit too fast for the real world. But it's fun, especially for a book that does contain some pretty serious themes (which I thought were handled well - the main description of the assault is vague enough to not be re-traumatizing and pretty self-contained in its own chapter [20] if you want to avoid it).

Also, I want to read Blood Feud - it's giving Buffy x Twilight.

Thank you to Netgalley & the Publisher for this e-arc of Fang Fiction.

While it was a bit slow getting started, I ended up really enjoying it. It was a great premise, vampire novels "come to life", with a twist. I definitely appreciated that the traumatic event that happened to the main character was handled so delicately.

Fang Fiction, is a fun way to kick off spooky season. The world of Tess’s favorite book series, Blood Feud, is real. The only problem is she’s stuck there and it’s full of blood thirsty vampires. At least they’re hot blood thirsty vampires.

I was already a fan of Kate Stayman-London’s writing from One to Watch and was really excited to see what she would do with a story that is fantasy based. Fang Fiction is an adventurous, fun, funny, and emotional read. It was really easy to fall into the world and the characters are super lovable. It was so satisfying seeing Tess’s journey and finding the strength to confront her past and I also really loved her relationship with best friend Joni.

The exploration of fandom was also so much fun and the podcast transcripts, text messages, and book chapter interludes were a great way to explore the fandom and the world of the novel. We spend time moving between the real world and The Isle were anything can be glamoured and the vampires are being kept, but there was never a feeling of disappointment switching povs as we follow the characters of Joni and the iconic Octavia in the real world and Tess and in the danger and magic filled Isle. Would also like to note that this book does include the topic of SA but it was handled very thoughtfully and with care.

Vampires, witches, magic and intrigue make this a super fun October read. Would recommend for fans looking for vampires (of course), loveable characters, adventure, and romace.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing. I received an advance review copy, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Dnf at 62%

This didn’t work for me. It felt too long and it seemed like it just dragged on.

I didn’t like the characters, human or vampires.
And the plot wasn’t moving fast enough.

Please note: This has a cutesy cover but check the trigger warnings, please.

Now that that's done...I LOVED THIS STORY.

As someone who has felt JUST like Tess and her kicking her anxiety and fears butt, the whole story was full of funny moments, magic, strength, and love.

This was low spice but it fit the story so well! You don't miss out on it!!

*3,5

I was immediately drawn to this book by its premise: a woman finds out the characters of her favorite book series are real, and they need her help; oh and they're vampires!

The book definitely delivers on that. Overall, it's a very fun and enjoyable story, especially if you're already a fan of vampire media. (Seriously, if you ever watched Buffy, you'll want to watch it again after reading this book.)

I did struggle in some parts. More speciafically, I would've loved to see the human characters actually struggle to understand and/or accept that these characters existed, no matter how much they wanted to believe it beforehand. Also, the adventure was lacking, especially in the middle, and it felt like the stakes weren't high enough.

I enjoyed Stayman-London's One to Watch in the past so I was excited to read something new from them!

Fang Fiction mostly follows Tess, a current night manager for a fancy hotel in NYC who used to attend a Masters program at Colombia before abrupting leaving and abandoning her roommate and best friend at the time. Tess soon finds out that the vampire book series she's loved is real; and she needs to help one of the main characters get back to her brother who's trapped back on the prison island with all other vampires.

I had a lot of fun with this even though I anticipated a bit more of the story taking place in NYC rather than the vampire island, the Isle. The Isle certainly sounds cool though and is juxtaposed against NYC landmarks with its own so its not a completely new location. I was also a little surprised by the POVs we got! I anticipated a dual POV between Tess and our MMC, Callum, which we do get but we also get POVs from a few other characters that helps round out some of the plot that's occurring across these two realms! I also really enjoyed the little mixed media pieces thrown into the start of each chapter! A bit of the vampire book series, some fan podcast transcripts, undelivered text messages - these were all great additions to bring the atmosphere of the story all together.

This story definitely feeds into some fandom culture, most similarly is probably Buffy. Tess and her best friend are huge fans of the book series and Tess regularly rereads the stories to fill her time and as a comfort. The relationship between Tess and Callum, felt a little lackluster. I think this was the case because we received less time with them when cutting away to others. There was a bit missing there and I wish we got a bit of a longer lead in to their love blossoming.

Fang Fiction is a standalone paranormal romance follow ex-PhD candidate turned hotel manager Tess, as she finds herself draw into a fantastic world when a vampire from her favourite fictional book series asks for her help to free the star villain, trapped on an island. Yet as Tess finds connection with said sexy villain she realizes there is a chance of true happiness...if she can overcome the trauma of her past.

This book was a DNF for me.

First I'll mention the things I did like. I found the representation of trauma to be appropriate - you see how much Tess struggles and the coping mechanism she has made for herself as she avoids seeking therapy. It felt realistic and I truly felt for her. I like the premise and the chaos that came with it. I like the LGBTQ rep with Tess' best friend finding love. with the vampire.

Now, the biggest problem I had was that I just couldn't connect to any one thing. There are so many flipping of past, present, POV, story, interview, blogposts, and more - all with different characters. I need more time to sit with things but it would switch to a new perspective so quickly.

I also struggled with cheesiness of some of the writing and the jumps in logic - for example I still have no idea why this vampire sought out Tess specifically and I honestly didn't feel there was enough convincing to Tess it was a good idea.

I didn't get far enough to check spice. I did read the ending and it did answer some of my big questions and had a cute send off of characters. I just wish I could have read the whole story with the same enjoyment.

Thank you Random House Publishing for this arc