I have such mixed feelings about this book.

Lets start at the easy pary, the good: The humor is great, I love me some nerdy references, and the sex scenes are kinda really nice though I would have preferred some more.

The bad: seriously having to listen to so much of the garbage that comes out of Lucia's mouth and takes her from a character I liked and put her more towards a character I tolerated... and barely at that. Look I get that this is like carmilla meets dracula, mixed with more than a little inspirationg and nearly direct quotes of Jennifer's body.... but that still doesn't make the crap that came out of Lucia's mouth okay. That tone only really worked in Jennnifer's body, because we all knew we were gunna hate that MC.

and the iffy: There was a lot of ground to cover and a lot of things to tie in, so this felt entirely too long for me, and the plot gets a little screwy over all with some plot built up and ultimately ignored at the end. Also I don't partically enjoy how the ending is wrapped up.... its hard to swallow that kind of wrap up.... especially when Mindy lost her shit over just sneaking around behind her parent's back for like .5 seconds of the book.... but this ending? yeah no problem. Mindy could totally go down that plot line without the slightest quibble. *insert eyeroll here* ( )

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review)

When I finished this book, I said to my friend "It may be the adrenaline rush of that ending talking but that was the best YA vampire romance the world has ever seen or ever will." A few days later, I'd tone down the hyperbole a bit, but I still think it was amazing. When I first heard about this book, I was expecting a fun paranormal romp with bonus gay. And it most definitely is that, but also much more.

It's probably the best Dracula spin-off I've ever read. Not just in the way every vampire novel is kind of a Dracula spin-off either. It's really faithful to the original, keeping loads of little details most vampire stories skip and adding in a few extra bits that ring true with the rest. I can easily buy that this takes place in the same fictional universe a few hundred years down the line.

It's also one of my favourite YA fantasy romances. That genre doesn't usually do much for me, to be honest - I mean, I read them and I enjoy them, but I often end up rolling my eyes and thinking "Enough of this ~passion, can we please focus on the plot?". Mindy and Lucia's relationship was awesome, though. I was every bit as invested in how they felt about each other as how they dealt with the vampire problem. They were cute and hot and silly and serious and - gah. And they definitely had their rough spots, they could be awkward, they could be assholes (Mindy and Lucia are such teenagers!), but their relationship was so deeply rooted in genuine friendship and caring that I didn't doubt for a second it was worth it.

The feelings and jokes and horror and excitement were all really well done. Love it. ( )

This book was a wild ride, sadly not one I really enjoyed... Some scenes and interactions just were really overdone for my personal taste. Drunk dialogues can be really exhausting (in books as well as in real life).

But of course there were parts I enjoyed. The friendship between Mindy and Lucia is a really fun one and I wouldn't have minded to read about them being friends for hours. Their romantic relationship was... okay? The sex scenes were very steamy and in them they did have chemistry.

I liked how disgusting some things were as well. A horror novel by this author would be a lot of fun, I'd say.

Disclaimer: I was provided by the publisher with a free copy in exchange for an honest review. Thank you. ( )