This was definitely a strong debut novel by this author.
Was there room for improvement in some areas? Yeah, I'd say so. Which, I think this author did with her Christmas story. But this was still a strong showing overall.
Blair is 23, and ever since he was 8, he's lived with his abusive aunt in a small town in Oregon, all the way across the country from a small town in Maine where he grew up before his parents tragically died.
But after being badly beaten by her, he finally found the courage to leave, to take off and hopefully never look back.
When he gets to the small town, Elmwood, things are strange from the start. Most people aren't out in the daytime, but places are hopping at night. Some people come into the diner where he gets a job but don't any of the food the order. Or some order raw meat and eat it without any utensils, etc etc.
Funnily enough, Blair has always had a fascination with vampires and other supernatural creatures, and isn't too opposed to believing they're real.
And it just so happens, Richard, 25, is one. Has been for the past 6 months. And the minute Richard sees Blair, he's hooked.
Only, Blair meets his younger brother, Collin, first, and because the whole supernatural thing has to be kept secret, Collin speaks in vague terms, and Blair misinterprets what he means when he talks about his family and them not accepting something about him (that he wants to stay human and not take the change in a vampire. As Richard and Collin's whole family took the change and are vampires except Collin.)
But Blair thinks he means they're all homophobic and don't accept that Collin is gay.
So when Blair and Richard first officially meet and Blair finds out who Richard is, he...isn't exactly receptive to him.
Miscommunication abounds as Richard has no idea why Blair seems to hate him and Blair doesn't want anything to do with the brother he thinks is homophobic and treats Collin, a sweet teenage kid, like crap.
Although once he sees how much time Collin spends with Richard and seems happy to be around, I dunno why Blair doesn't rethink his assumption and wonder why Collin would happily spend time with his asshole, homophobic brother. But also families are complicated and no one knows that better than Blair, so maybe he thought Collin puts up with Richard, as maybe he might be the best of the family or something. Would make sense.
Anyway, this is a slowwww burn. Like...slowwww.
Yes, these two don't even kiss until past the 60% mark. They do sex stuff around 70+% but don't have full on penetrative sex until around 78, 80%.
Yeahhh, it takes a longgg time. And we only get two explicit sex scenes, and only one of them penetrative.
Which yeah, annoyed me. It wasn't too big a deal in the grand scheme of things. The romance was still so good and the build up was done really well. I just wanted a lot more steam, as I am a greedy fucker like that. What we did get was excellent but nowhere near enough for me.
It felt a little...like...unfair that we had to wait so long for the sexy stuff to happen and then when it does it's basically all we get. I was, of course, left feeling bereft. And yeah, that's part of my reason for my star off.
I just think more sex could have been fit in among all the plot happening.
Which yeah, I'd say slowed this down at times, another reason for my star off.
It wasn't too bad, honestly, and the story kept me engaged through most of this long, almost 600 page book.
But there were times, especially when there were long stretches without Blair and Richard interacting, that it got a little slow for me.
Like it was good to be establishing other relationships with side characters too and all, but I just don't give as much a crap about those relationship as the main romantic one, I just don't. So having long stretches of Blair interacting with all these people besides Richard made it drag just a little at times.
Not too bad, as once Blair and Richard really got into their relationship, those long stretches became almost non-existent, but still
This was such a slow burn at first that those stretches were a lot at first and I just wanted Richard and Blair to interact, like pronto.
So yeah, those things annoyed me, so I couldn't get this the 5 stars I gave this author's other work.
Maybe if this had been cut down, those slow moments wouldn't have been there. If there hadn't been so much of other characters and such, ya know?
But, I did enjoy so much about this too. I did adore Richard and Blair together, and their romance was developed really well. Their connection was very well done, and seeing them fall for each other was so great.
The plot was very interesting too and very well done. It had me guessing on some things, where I was wrong on some things, but right on others, and it did have me tenses as I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. I was especially surprised about one revelation, though, and I'm definitely interested to see how that goes in the next book.
Which, I think will be about Jeffery, Blair's cousin/guy who became like a brother to him and I think I have his LI in mind too, although I could be wrong.
So, overall, I enjoyed this a lot and it definitely is worth a read. Definitely a strong first outing from this author, although yes, there were ways to improve. Which I think author did with her newest novel, and hopefully in the next installment in this series as well.
But still worth of two thumbs up, for sure! I really enjoy this author and very excited for more from her, for sure.
Can't wait for the next one! 🥰