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Give Fangs A Chance
In 1977, Adelaide turned fifty. It should have been the beginning of her life winding down. She was entering her golden years and all she wanted to do was run her sorority and take care of her home. Who knew taking home a stranger would uproot all of that.
Give Fangs a Chance is a sapphic tale about second chances and finding love in the strangest places, like a church graveyard.
Give Fangs a Chance is a sapphic tale about second chances and finding love in the strangest places, like a church graveyard.
444 pages, Hardcover
Published May 18, 2024
16 people are currently reading
143 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 24, 2024
Because I have so much to say about this book, I'm going to break it into sections to keep everything as neat and tidy as possible.
What I Liked:
The entire reason I was interested in this book was the relationship between Misha and Adelaide. I enjoyed the idea of a subverted age gap, given that Adelaide is 50 years old while Misha is 600 years old, but looks 25. I was excited to read a sapphic vampire romance, because who isn't? And I was also excited to read an interracial romance because again, duh.
The relationship between Adelaide and Misha was excellent and exactly what I wanted. I enjoyed their banter with each other and their endeavor to always understand each other even when it was difficult. I'm glad they didn't shy away from difficult conversations and communicated openly with each other. I'm also glad they get together fairly early in the book so I can enjoy their actual relationship, because I like that more than I like the build-up.
I also enjoyed the setting. I like small town settings and as I've lived in them before, I find them very relatable. I liked how personable the town was, and I liked the colorful array of characters we met and how the setting felt alive. It was really cute, and it framed the story nicely.
I also absolutely enjoyed the sex scenes, especially the third one. They were very well-done, and I'm glad they were explicit because we absolutely do need more explicit sapphic romance. I also liked how Misha was often so dominant in those scenes because she's a vampire, and of course I like watching her take control.
Vladan is an excellent villain. He's not necessarily anything to write home about and is about what you'd expect from a vampiric sire, but he is still excellently written. I enjoyed the way he carried himself, the way he treated humans, and the ease with which he moved through the world. He acts like you'd expect an immortal predator with no qualms or hesitance to have. He's fully confident in himself, he does what he wants to do, and it works for him. It also makes him a great foil for Adelaide, who puts others before herself, when he is so blatantly selfish.
Misha deals with her trauma in destructive ways, but I actually think this is good writing. Her jealousy and possessive behavior is in-character for someone who has been what she has been through, and I'm glad she's allowed to express that within the narrative without being judged or treated badly for it. Trauma has so many ways of manifesting itself, and Misha was allowed to be herself, to work through her issues at her own pace. She still has issues by the end of the book, of which you'd expect of someone who's gone through what she has, and I really enjoyed that, too.
Most of all, I liked Adelaide. She's sassy and sweet and fun, she's nurturing and gentle, but she's also realistic and working within what she knows she can reasonably do. She's cautious when she needs to be without being afraid to take risks, and she puts her love for other people above everything else, which is so lovely. She's a beautiful character. I really liked how so many people in the story just loved her, especially Misha's particular brand of possessive love. I would read so much more about Adelaide in a heartbeat.
What I Didn't Like:
I cannot speak to the author's intentions, but the use of third person omniscient or head-hopping is not my preferred reading style at all. It rarely works in a narrative for me, and it definitely did not work here, especially when there were more than two heads to hop between in a scene. Romance, for me personally, is at its strongest in either limited third person or first person. I feel like we often lose a lot of tension because we are constantly in the heads of everyone, so we don't get to witness a misunderstanding or difficult moment from outside of someone.
There are too many epithets used in this book. I understand the struggle of writing queer romance where two or more romantic partners use the same set of pronouns, but it is so much more distracting to come up with a thousand ways to say someone's name rather than just saying it. It's really easy for me not to notice someone's name being repeated, but I will absolutely notice all of the different epithets. And I noticed them here, a lot, every single time they were used.
Lastly, this book had too much telling and not enough showing for my personal tastes. A lot of this is due to the head-hopping and what felt like a quick and dirty way to establish information about the characters as quickly as possible, which doesn't work for me at all. I feel like we end up with a lot of details that aren't necessary while also not getting details that are important in ways that are engaging.
Critque About The Physical Book:
This is going to be about the physical copy I received when I purchased the book from Amazon, because I do have actual issues with the book itself.
This book has no page numbers. I cannot stress this enough. Unless you are counting, marking pages, or keeping track in some way, you do not know what page you are in. This might not have bothered me, except the book has a table of contents with page numbers attached to each chapter. I don't understand this. You won't be able to find the chapters using a page number anyway.
I also don't like the fact that the chapters don't start on new pages and would have vastly preferred this. It would have made it easier to keep track of the chapters given the lack of page numbers. The text is certainly larger to denote when a new chapter has started, but everything feels very cramped on the page? This may also be because the margins are so wide, so the text occupies a smaller space.
Critique About The Writing:
The sentence structure of the novel made it very difficult to initially get into. The sentences are very short and, as the book goes on, we get a lot of very short sentences as well as many fragments. This works well in action scenes, which the book does have some of, but feel incredibly out of place when we're being given simple description, dialogue, or exposition. A variance in sentence structure would have given the book an overall better flow and made the process of reading a better experience, especially because the author is not bad with actual word choice.
This book also needed line edits. There is a fair few amount of typos, some of which a spell checker should have caught. There are inconsistencies in the way some titles are capitalized, words are sometimes omitted, there are some misspelling issues. The book should have been run through a few programs because I use typing programs myself, and at least one of those should have caught a lot of the much simpler mistakes. There are also some grammar issues in that sometimes periods and commas are missing.
If you are not going to include a scene in your novel, then you should not build up to it. I understand the author has said they do not want to make the book seem like erotica (we'll get to that) and thus did not want to include too many sex scenes, but the Christmas sex scene in particular was set up in two different places and then entirely skipped and referenced with just a couple of sentences. I don't like it when authors do this, and I feel like that page space could have been taken up with something else or we could have gotten the actual scene itself. It's such a bummer, because it was shaping up to be a really good scene, but it didn't happen at all. It was also meant to be facesitting, and it really sucks because one of the best things you can write with a size difference between the characters is that, since Adelaide is both very tall and overweight compared to Misha, who is short and slender. I really wanted to see Misha's face used as a throne, as she put it, and I felt let down when the build-up resulted in that scene just not happening.
While I understand not wanting the book to seem like erotica, there is also the genre of erotic romance, which I wholeheartedly believed the book was meant to occupy when I was reading it. A lot of Misha's thoughts are sexually charged in particular, and Adelaide has a fair amount of her own. I don't think one or two more scenes would have been out of place at all with the tone of their relationship throughout the book.
I saved this point for last: I do not expect authors to tag all potential triggers, but if an author is going to have a list of trigger warnings, then I think they should be as accurate as possible with those triggers.
In particular, I take issue with "jealousy" being tagged as being within the relationship between Adelaide and Misha. Misha is jealous, this is true, but her jealousy manifests as murderous rage that she is not afraid to think about or verbalize. Adelaide enjoys it, and I also enjoy it, but that type of behavior is an abuse tactic in real life, and it should have been tagged more accurately in my opinion. "Obsession" is tagged as outside of the relationship in regards to Vladan's attitude toward Misha, and that would have been more accurate than saying she's jealous.
I also feel like the fact that Vladan groomed Misha should have been tagged as something that was referenced/implied. This is not a triggering topic for me, but it is openly stated on the page, and I think a warning for it is appropriate. Vladan says that he has been "perfecting" Misha since childhood and has been doing so over 10 years. I think having trigger warnings is a good thing, but I think omitting something like this, even by accident, can be harmful in that people are not going to expect it to be there given there is a list, and this isn't on it.
I'm giving this book 3 stars on GoodReads, but for me it's more like 2.5. There are excellent characters in these pages and an interesting plot, but there is a lot of work still to be done. I haven't read this author's first book and won't because I almost never read YA novels, but I do hope they have improved and continue to improve. I enjoyed this book enough to finish it, but I don't know if I'd recommend it to someone without some serious caveats first.
What I Liked:
The entire reason I was interested in this book was the relationship between Misha and Adelaide. I enjoyed the idea of a subverted age gap, given that Adelaide is 50 years old while Misha is 600 years old, but looks 25. I was excited to read a sapphic vampire romance, because who isn't? And I was also excited to read an interracial romance because again, duh.
The relationship between Adelaide and Misha was excellent and exactly what I wanted. I enjoyed their banter with each other and their endeavor to always understand each other even when it was difficult. I'm glad they didn't shy away from difficult conversations and communicated openly with each other. I'm also glad they get together fairly early in the book so I can enjoy their actual relationship, because I like that more than I like the build-up.
I also enjoyed the setting. I like small town settings and as I've lived in them before, I find them very relatable. I liked how personable the town was, and I liked the colorful array of characters we met and how the setting felt alive. It was really cute, and it framed the story nicely.
I also absolutely enjoyed the sex scenes, especially the third one. They were very well-done, and I'm glad they were explicit because we absolutely do need more explicit sapphic romance. I also liked how Misha was often so dominant in those scenes because she's a vampire, and of course I like watching her take control.
Vladan is an excellent villain. He's not necessarily anything to write home about and is about what you'd expect from a vampiric sire, but he is still excellently written. I enjoyed the way he carried himself, the way he treated humans, and the ease with which he moved through the world. He acts like you'd expect an immortal predator with no qualms or hesitance to have. He's fully confident in himself, he does what he wants to do, and it works for him. It also makes him a great foil for Adelaide, who puts others before herself, when he is so blatantly selfish.
Misha deals with her trauma in destructive ways, but I actually think this is good writing. Her jealousy and possessive behavior is in-character for someone who has been what she has been through, and I'm glad she's allowed to express that within the narrative without being judged or treated badly for it. Trauma has so many ways of manifesting itself, and Misha was allowed to be herself, to work through her issues at her own pace. She still has issues by the end of the book, of which you'd expect of someone who's gone through what she has, and I really enjoyed that, too.
Most of all, I liked Adelaide. She's sassy and sweet and fun, she's nurturing and gentle, but she's also realistic and working within what she knows she can reasonably do. She's cautious when she needs to be without being afraid to take risks, and she puts her love for other people above everything else, which is so lovely. She's a beautiful character. I really liked how so many people in the story just loved her, especially Misha's particular brand of possessive love. I would read so much more about Adelaide in a heartbeat.
What I Didn't Like:
I cannot speak to the author's intentions, but the use of third person omniscient or head-hopping is not my preferred reading style at all. It rarely works in a narrative for me, and it definitely did not work here, especially when there were more than two heads to hop between in a scene. Romance, for me personally, is at its strongest in either limited third person or first person. I feel like we often lose a lot of tension because we are constantly in the heads of everyone, so we don't get to witness a misunderstanding or difficult moment from outside of someone.
There are too many epithets used in this book. I understand the struggle of writing queer romance where two or more romantic partners use the same set of pronouns, but it is so much more distracting to come up with a thousand ways to say someone's name rather than just saying it. It's really easy for me not to notice someone's name being repeated, but I will absolutely notice all of the different epithets. And I noticed them here, a lot, every single time they were used.
Lastly, this book had too much telling and not enough showing for my personal tastes. A lot of this is due to the head-hopping and what felt like a quick and dirty way to establish information about the characters as quickly as possible, which doesn't work for me at all. I feel like we end up with a lot of details that aren't necessary while also not getting details that are important in ways that are engaging.
Critque About The Physical Book:
This is going to be about the physical copy I received when I purchased the book from Amazon, because I do have actual issues with the book itself.
This book has no page numbers. I cannot stress this enough. Unless you are counting, marking pages, or keeping track in some way, you do not know what page you are in. This might not have bothered me, except the book has a table of contents with page numbers attached to each chapter. I don't understand this. You won't be able to find the chapters using a page number anyway.
I also don't like the fact that the chapters don't start on new pages and would have vastly preferred this. It would have made it easier to keep track of the chapters given the lack of page numbers. The text is certainly larger to denote when a new chapter has started, but everything feels very cramped on the page? This may also be because the margins are so wide, so the text occupies a smaller space.
Critique About The Writing:
The sentence structure of the novel made it very difficult to initially get into. The sentences are very short and, as the book goes on, we get a lot of very short sentences as well as many fragments. This works well in action scenes, which the book does have some of, but feel incredibly out of place when we're being given simple description, dialogue, or exposition. A variance in sentence structure would have given the book an overall better flow and made the process of reading a better experience, especially because the author is not bad with actual word choice.
This book also needed line edits. There is a fair few amount of typos, some of which a spell checker should have caught. There are inconsistencies in the way some titles are capitalized, words are sometimes omitted, there are some misspelling issues. The book should have been run through a few programs because I use typing programs myself, and at least one of those should have caught a lot of the much simpler mistakes. There are also some grammar issues in that sometimes periods and commas are missing.
If you are not going to include a scene in your novel, then you should not build up to it. I understand the author has said they do not want to make the book seem like erotica (we'll get to that) and thus did not want to include too many sex scenes, but the Christmas sex scene in particular was set up in two different places and then entirely skipped and referenced with just a couple of sentences. I don't like it when authors do this, and I feel like that page space could have been taken up with something else or we could have gotten the actual scene itself. It's such a bummer, because it was shaping up to be a really good scene, but it didn't happen at all. It was also meant to be facesitting, and it really sucks because one of the best things you can write with a size difference between the characters is that, since Adelaide is both very tall and overweight compared to Misha, who is short and slender. I really wanted to see Misha's face used as a throne, as she put it, and I felt let down when the build-up resulted in that scene just not happening.
While I understand not wanting the book to seem like erotica, there is also the genre of erotic romance, which I wholeheartedly believed the book was meant to occupy when I was reading it. A lot of Misha's thoughts are sexually charged in particular, and Adelaide has a fair amount of her own. I don't think one or two more scenes would have been out of place at all with the tone of their relationship throughout the book.
I saved this point for last: I do not expect authors to tag all potential triggers, but if an author is going to have a list of trigger warnings, then I think they should be as accurate as possible with those triggers.
In particular, I take issue with "jealousy" being tagged as being within the relationship between Adelaide and Misha. Misha is jealous, this is true, but her jealousy manifests as murderous rage that she is not afraid to think about or verbalize. Adelaide enjoys it, and I also enjoy it, but that type of behavior is an abuse tactic in real life, and it should have been tagged more accurately in my opinion. "Obsession" is tagged as outside of the relationship in regards to Vladan's attitude toward Misha, and that would have been more accurate than saying she's jealous.
I also feel like the fact that Vladan groomed Misha should have been tagged as something that was referenced/implied. This is not a triggering topic for me, but it is openly stated on the page, and I think a warning for it is appropriate. Vladan says that he has been "perfecting" Misha since childhood and has been doing so over 10 years. I think having trigger warnings is a good thing, but I think omitting something like this, even by accident, can be harmful in that people are not going to expect it to be there given there is a list, and this isn't on it.
I'm giving this book 3 stars on GoodReads, but for me it's more like 2.5. There are excellent characters in these pages and an interesting plot, but there is a lot of work still to be done. I haven't read this author's first book and won't because I almost never read YA novels, but I do hope they have improved and continue to improve. I enjoyed this book enough to finish it, but I don't know if I'd recommend it to someone without some serious caveats first.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 1, 2024
Such a feel good queer romance. The antagonist was so tangibly punchable, and yet harrowingly ominous. He was a clear threat. The little backstory reveals were so interesting. There’s so much love in this book.
I also like how the narrative dips toes into the thoughts of even one-off characters. It highlights the mind-reading aspect and makes the world feel richer. Little tidbits like what happened between Justin and Rick? Makes me curious but doesn’t delve into it because there’s more pressing matters.
And the spicy scenes? Oh boy. Made me feel like a teenager again reading my first lemon.
Only critique is in the paperback large print I got for my library, the chapters didn’t wait until the next page? Like they weren’t spaced out. Also the page numbers were always on the right side, even on the left page. But that’s more of a printing nitpick and not the writing, so no docked stars there.
Great job, Tat!
I also like how the narrative dips toes into the thoughts of even one-off characters. It highlights the mind-reading aspect and makes the world feel richer. Little tidbits like what happened between Justin and Rick? Makes me curious but doesn’t delve into it because there’s more pressing matters.
And the spicy scenes? Oh boy. Made me feel like a teenager again reading my first lemon.
Only critique is in the paperback large print I got for my library, the chapters didn’t wait until the next page? Like they weren’t spaced out. Also the page numbers were always on the right side, even on the left page. But that’s more of a printing nitpick and not the writing, so no docked stars there.
Great job, Tat!
June 28, 2024
I'm so glad I read this book. I love a good vampire story and this one was different in a good way. You never get the vampire love story with someone fully grown and mature. Adelaide is an adult and that makes the direction a lot more interesting. Dealing with the hang ups of her time finally adds some realism that we just don't normally get from vampire novels. Misha is interesting in her own way, a little possessive but I'm interested to learn more about the vampiric history, especially after the end.
July 14, 2024
Sapphic Vampire Thriller
If the headline isn’t enough to make you buy the book I’m not sure how else to convince you myself. So, I’ll just throw in a few final thoughts. I loved the character development and storyline. This book is funny, smart, and the right kind of scary. I didn’t want to put it down. I personally love the multiple POVs but head hopping can be confusing if you aren’t paying close attention.
If the headline isn’t enough to make you buy the book I’m not sure how else to convince you myself. So, I’ll just throw in a few final thoughts. I loved the character development and storyline. This book is funny, smart, and the right kind of scary. I didn’t want to put it down. I personally love the multiple POVs but head hopping can be confusing if you aren’t paying close attention.
May 21, 2025
5/5 ⭐
-I have never been so happy to finally read a book! I have followed Tat since 2020 and I am so proud to see what they have done and that they managed to finally share their amazing storytelling with the world.
-The characters are perfect and I found myself laughing and enjoying every page.
-Please never stop writing, I can't wait to see and watch how your writing and stories grow from here 😊
-I have never been so happy to finally read a book! I have followed Tat since 2020 and I am so proud to see what they have done and that they managed to finally share their amazing storytelling with the world.
-The characters are perfect and I found myself laughing and enjoying every page.
-Please never stop writing, I can't wait to see and watch how your writing and stories grow from here 😊
June 14, 2024
Absolutely loved the pacing of this story! Loved the devotion between Adelaide and Misha, and loved the communication in their relationship! The relationship between Adelaide and her children also warm my heart, love how she was such a safe space for them, even during the terrifying moments that unfolded in the book.
July 7, 2024
Sexy and smashing paranormal romance
Give fangs a chance was a fun read. I loved how the relationship grew between Misha and Adelaide.
I would have liked a little more detail on Vladen and the dance academy, but overall it was fun, sexy and full of classic vampire tropes.
Give fangs a chance was a fun read. I loved how the relationship grew between Misha and Adelaide.
I would have liked a little more detail on Vladen and the dance academy, but overall it was fun, sexy and full of classic vampire tropes.
May 31, 2024
Mediocre, just completely and utterly mediocre. Uninspired too- don't waste 4 dollars on this.
July 31, 2024
This book literally took me on a rollercoaster of emotions and gave me gray hairs. When's the second one releasing??????
July 3, 2025
Just two women who deserve nice things, and those nice things just so happen to be each other 💕
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews