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This Blood That Binds Us #1
This Blood that Binds Us
Kimberly Burns— a self-sufficient, nineteen-year-old— expects her customary camping trip to be a calming escape from the non-stop demands of college life but the attack from a recently turned vampire changes everything.
Aaron Calem has been trying to resist the blood lust raging through his new body, but the unfamiliar voice in his head won’t let him pass up an easy meal. When he’s left with a girl barely clinging to life,he must choose between loyalty to his brothers or his own morality.
Aaron and Kimberly both want to return back to their normal lives, but their problems are just beginning when they both realize they go to the same university.
When Kimberly is bitten a second time, by an unknown attacker, they must team up to navigate the vampire world together and find the assailant. Soon, they discover that the mysterious past Aaron’s brothers are hiding may hold the key to secrets that could tear apart their own pasts and destroy their future.
S.L. Cokeley’s debut novel, This Blood that Binds Us, is the first in a series that explores the true meaning of family, making peace with the past, and finding friendships in unexpected places.
Aaron Calem has been trying to resist the blood lust raging through his new body, but the unfamiliar voice in his head won’t let him pass up an easy meal. When he’s left with a girl barely clinging to life,he must choose between loyalty to his brothers or his own morality.
Aaron and Kimberly both want to return back to their normal lives, but their problems are just beginning when they both realize they go to the same university.
When Kimberly is bitten a second time, by an unknown attacker, they must team up to navigate the vampire world together and find the assailant. Soon, they discover that the mysterious past Aaron’s brothers are hiding may hold the key to secrets that could tear apart their own pasts and destroy their future.
S.L. Cokeley’s debut novel, This Blood that Binds Us, is the first in a series that explores the true meaning of family, making peace with the past, and finding friendships in unexpected places.
327 pages, Paperback
First published October 11, 2022
1214 people are currently reading
21539 people want to read
About the author
S.L. Cokeley
7 books606 followersSamantha Cokeley was raised in a small town in Oklahoma. Growing up, she always had an active imagination and an interest in crafting stories. She developed a love for writing after college when she discovered anime and fan fiction. If she isn’t spending time painting colorful sea creatures, you can find her with family, including her pug named Kylo. The This Blood that Binds Us series ends this year. But you can expect many more stories with vampires, heartwarming found family, and fluff to come.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 951 reviews
March 2, 2024
This was pure hell to read and hopefully the last time I get tricked by a tiktok writer. I’m resentfully starting to notice with the trend of popular tropes in books becoming the main feature of books- to the point independent writers are specifically forcing a story around very specific tropes just for the sake of marketing. A book like this makes me want to go back to all of my previous one star reviews and bump them up so they’re two stars, because this was so badly written.
This book needed a lot of critical attention. Editing would have been an excellent beginning point to smooth out the very rough dialogue and details like slang and choppy structure. Without it… this book… ya know. (My irritation rose per every ellipsis in this book and dear God, so many. It wasn't like Cokeley had anything super heavy to say, unsure why she went so hard on them).
The author promised a lot with this book but ultimately failed. Not a whole lot happened- the villain was obvious, characters were flat due to specifically being established for trope purposes. Even the romantic angle was a subplot to what the original intention was- the main characters were together the entire time. They never really broke away to have separate lives and separate moments to build their own current ideas and feelings. Instead, a vampire nearly kills a girl, and after a conversation, they basically wind up pitched together for the entire book. No chemistry, no space to develop themselves as separate beings before packaging them together. So, yes. The author managed to string together a very basic and limited concept of vampires in a frat who respected women, but boxed each personality inside of a trope that every character was painfully one dimensional.
Also, the author was really promising a great deal of a “new” vampire story. No creepy age difference, which was appreciated. It would have been nice without the weird girl vs girl moment. Majority of the writing was immature, it would have been interesting if the author had managed to deviate from the early 2000s and produced something less competitive. Positive female relationships are amazing, but also so is not type writing the only other female character as a bitch who’s attracted to the male lead.
It’s frustrating seeing new authors rush to publish independently without taking steps to perfect their work before people pay money for it. Editing is a basic requirement that has to happen in order to properly create a good book. Any story can be ruined with bad dialogue or rough errors that keep popping up. If you’re going to build an audience, you at least want to keep them around and not waste their money.
Ultimately this was a disappointment and not worth the money. Falls into the pit of bad books hyped up via Tiktok and plainly evidence for the importance of using an actual editor.
October 11, 2023
DNF @62%
Made me want to read non fiction.
~•~•~
I liked the cover so here I am. Besides, it's got vampires🤷♀️🫣
Made me want to read non fiction.
~•~•~
I liked the cover so here I am. Besides, it's got vampires🤷♀️🫣
January 3, 2023
this was written like a wattpad book
January 9, 2023
At least the book is pretty
June 25, 2023
what ever happened to taking LITERATURE classes first and learning the basic fundamentals of writing?
August 14, 2023
unexpectedly loved it. WOW.
(review coming soon)
(review coming soon)
April 20, 2023
I would like to say that I went into this book optimistically before I start my piece on the issues I had with it. I came across this book briefly on TikTok where the author was promoting it and as an avid lover of vampires, as well as wanting to support a self-published author, I decided to give this a go. The cover is gorgeous, so I will say that definitely is a plus for this book...among many negatives. Since I have a bad habit of buying books upon books, even when I find myself disliking a story, I push through it since I spent money on it and feel like I need to at least finish it before I donate it to my local library. That being said, reading this took me longer than I normally do with a book at this length because I had to mentally prepare myself each time I picked it up to be annoyed. And annoyed I was.
I have a lot of thoughts bouncing around in what fell flat, so I'll just start off with the general plot and writing. The writing style definitely felt incredibly juvenile and fanfic-esque. Which is not to say that fanfiction writing is low tier because I've certainly read some great fanfiction where the writing and prose rivaled that of many successful published authors. This book felt like it needed to go through many more rounds of edits and especially considering my physical copy I ordered from B&N had grammatical errors up the wazoo which would take me out.
Plot/Writing:
The plot felt very underdeveloped and like it was a first draft rather than a final version to get published. I feel like vampire plots take little effort to make interesting because...vampires. That being said, half this book felt more like the literal frat brother college story that happened to have vampires in it. Now don't get me wrong, I love slice-of-life stories but half of the chapters it was like waiting for something interesting to actually happen. The interesting happened within the last forty or so pages and at that point I was already mentally checked out.
It was certainly a choice to have Aaron, the main vampire protagonist, have fuck-all of vampire knowledge because the author introduced interesting vampire lore that would've been more captivating to learn and explore throughout the book. Instead, we get a lore dump within the last few chapters because villains have to monologue their grievances. The lore itself is unique, which I will give kudos to the author for because it's a fresh take (especially Powerful blood being able to turn new vampires and down the line the blood dilutes with the more people turned ... that was cool), but by the end when all of this is dumped on us and information about Her (the Queen and the Guard and whatnot) and the vampire cult is revealed, I was already mentally checked out. The build up to the Family and what Zach and Luke were involved with was underwhelming and the stakes (pun unintended) felt incredibly low. Somehow the author made the idea of high school boys being indoctrinated into this vampire cult seem childish and like it was just thrown in for mysterious drama about Aaron's abandoned childhood.
Characters:
This may just be a Me issue but having your main dude's name be Aaron Calem with varying last names starting with C for fake identity reasons, Aaron Carter just kept coming into mind despite my many efforts of purging the Aaron's as a joint vision. But while on the topic of characters, each fell into a trope that I can tell the author just assigned to each brother and decided that was enough to flesh out their character. Newflash: it didn't. Aaron is the golden retriever frat boy and I genuinely believe that's how he was thought up as. In terms of personality and development, there isn't much to him aside from a) being the loveable golden retriever frat boy he's written as and b) a simp for the main female character. Side note, but for these four Calem brothers living in a frat house, the way that they openly talk about their hidden secrets of being a vampire and being hunted by the ominous Family is a tad worrying. They're on the run but don't worry about any of the other frat brothers hearing them because logic. Then again, that would require the author to write interesting side characters that last longer than a chapter. Which they do not... aside from Chelsea (which I will get to soon because I have more thoughts #JusticeForChelsea).
Under most circumstances, I love when the main guy is obsessed (in a good, non-creepy way) with the main girl. This is not a normal circumstance, because literally Aaron takes a chunk out of Kimberly in the first chapter and after meeting her for the first time post-attack he thinks she's the coolest girl ever because of her red hair and love for hiking, I guess. His whole conversation with her in the courtyard after nearly killing her is meant to be endearing, but the fact that Kimberly is endeared by Aaron's aw-shucks Debby Ryan-ing tucking hair behind his ear so quickly despite...I don't know...nearly being mauled to death by him a day earlier is poor writing? She does a complete 180 on her feelings toward him because of the aforementioned golden retriever energy of Aaron. But because Aaron is cute and Kimberly was born without a backbone or a shred of self preservation, here we have the rest of the book where suddenly they have instant-trust in one another and think the sun shines out of the other's asshole.
Now our girl Kimberly Burns. What can I say other than she has fiery red hair, abandonment issues, and isn't like other girls because she enjoys hiking? Not much. That mainly has to do with the fact that there isn't really anything else about her personality that sticks out. This has more to do with choices by the author which reflect into Kimberly, but her complete judgment of Chelsea because she's a blonde sorority girl who makes her interest in Aaron known is distasteful. I usually don't have an issue with prissy characters who draw up angst between our two love interests because I love me a good slow burn. This wasn't the case because the author writes Chelsea in such a way that gives very much girl against girl, and the brothers talking about Chelsea having trust issues with men because of shitty experiences of never being treated right is mentioned lightly and like we're meant to pity her? When I say pity her I mean in the sense of, like, they find her clinginess laughable because Aaron showed her kindness when no other man has, so she latched onto him in hopes of their friendship/relationship going somewhere. Leading to the camping trip, when Kimberly realizes Chelsea is actually quite nice and they have stuff in common once the issue of a man between them is gone. You know, until Aaron turns into an asshole for an entire minute and shits (metaphorically) on Chelsea, resulting in her leaving in tears after gross shit being said to her. Which Kimberly is upset about for one minute, until it's forgotten about paragraphs later. Solidarity!
There's little room given to ever flesh out side characters, but even more so when it comes to the few women we're introduced to. Unsurprisingly, most of which are written in a negative light with little good things to be said about them. It's literally only Kimberly that we hear good things about because she's not like other girls. That being said, the pacing in this could have used work and especially room to breathe between scenes. Kimberly has no friends with the low effort put into actually making any, which bleeds into the rest of the book and leads to no anticipation for future Aaron/Kimberly scenes. This is because there are rarely any scenes where the two of them aren't together and it leads to fatigue.
They're together too much of the time where I wanted scenes of them separated, so I can see more of Kimberly doing shit on her own and Aaron doing shit on his own. Instead, they're only kept apart for a minimum of a few paragraphs, but it certainly doesn't feel like it because you're reminded of them in each other's prolific monologues about how cool Kimberly/Aaron is and how much they love being around them. It falls into the telling more than showing. I'm constantly being told how cool they think the other is an how well they get along. I keep being told of how much chemistry there is between them except all I see is a tumbleweed passing by from how dry their conversations are.
The only time I can think of a significant gap where the two of them weren't together is when we're introduced to William and the follow up scenes where the author thinks they're being clever in baiting us with a fake romance when it's clear off the bat that William is creepy and will become our villain. That being said, when it's revealed (unsurprisingly) that William is our big bad he's turned into a cartoonish villain who wears leather jackets and chuckles darkly all the while we can hear the smirk in his voice. Whenever he's presented in a scene as the antagonist and meant to be doing something bad to our beloved Kimberly and Aaron, it felt very CW bad guy. Like a Wal-Mart attempt of a Klaus Mikaelson. He just said some ominous shit, mocked Aaron, and laughed smugly before exiting stage left and ruffling some feathers. Then it's revealed that he's...British? I honestly can't remember his exact nationality except it being revealed that he has an accent. Unless that's false and I'm making shit up in my brain's natural defense of trying to forget this book. Either way, the author is inconsistent in keeping up with his accent toward the end. Randomly words ending in g are cut off (Ex: "I don't relish makin' a kid suffer the agony of a torturous, slow death, no.") Making being cut to makin'. Except it's done inconsistently and only on random words that it leaves me wondering what the purpose is for. Add in that again, inconsistently and randomly, he says ya instead of you (Ex: "Is this normal for ya?"). If William is meant to have an accent that is showcased through dialogue, I would rather the author committed fully instead of cherry-picking specific words. Otherwise, it comes off as ridiculous and random.
Off topic, but if vampires can only be turned through The Family's blood, then how was William and the rest of his murderous anti-vampire squad turned? Their goal is to rid the planet of the evil of The Family but isn't the call coming from inside the house? It's also very possible in their monologuing toward the end I missed some explanation as I sped-read through it in the middle of Texas Roadhouse while waiting to be seated so I could mark this book as finished. Truthfully, Zach and Luke would've been more interesting if they had done some culty shit like it's hinted at, except the Calem brothers are all uwu boys who survive off their undefying brotherly love for one another so they can't outright do anything bad because it would take away from their golden retriever vibes. This just came to mind that I'm still confused about, but William mentioned that it was never Kimberly he was after, but rather Aaron and his brothers. I can accept this because as far as interesting main characters go, there isn't anything about Kimberly that would make William go feral over ala Bella Swan and James. But if that's true, then why would he bite her after the frat party without taking any blood, then proceed to steal her purse? I feel like that Charlie Day meme from It's Always Sunny as I try to make sense of these plot points that just make no sense.
Something that bugged me big time that I noticed time and time again throughout the book was that whenever the Calem brothers ever said or did anything, they were always smiling. Smiling coyly, smiling playfully, a beaming smile, a wide smile, a warm smile ... smile smile smile. We get it, they're friendly and sweet frat boys in which they exist as an oxymoron. Aaron also has the energy of a middle schooler who discovered coffee for the first time, which easily teeters off into the realm of annoying and not as endearing as the author wants it to be. Case in point: Aaron turning into a child in the grocery store and literally...yeeting? Kimberly's debit card further into the store. But because Aaron is a cute boy with golden retriever energy it means he's easily forgiven <3
Overall, I felt myself getting more frustrated the longer I read this book and my optimism for what it could've been fell to cynicism. Kimberly and Aaron's love story felt forced with little organic growth for them to trust the other, let alone thinking the other super cool and fun before seeing the other romantically. The dialogue, while aiming for quirky and funny, came across like it was trying too hard. Not to mention there are times where the author forgets the blocking of the characters and where they are in a scene or what they're doing and becomes confusing. The chemistry between our two leads was near non-existent and was dryer than my skin's moisture barrier come winter. There isn't really any need for a sequel, but I can't fault the author for securing the bag. This book will be a nice addition to my pink color blocking section on my bookcase, but I don't plan on reading the sequel.
The only real stand out in this for me was my bisexual king Presley. He didn't get the development he deserved aside from making quips and smiling majority of the book, but no other character had a decently fleshed out personality either so it's less of a sting. There are probably some grievances I'm missing out on, but I'll end my ramblings here so this doesn't get any longer.
I have a lot of thoughts bouncing around in what fell flat, so I'll just start off with the general plot and writing. The writing style definitely felt incredibly juvenile and fanfic-esque. Which is not to say that fanfiction writing is low tier because I've certainly read some great fanfiction where the writing and prose rivaled that of many successful published authors. This book felt like it needed to go through many more rounds of edits and especially considering my physical copy I ordered from B&N had grammatical errors up the wazoo which would take me out.
Plot/Writing:
The plot felt very underdeveloped and like it was a first draft rather than a final version to get published. I feel like vampire plots take little effort to make interesting because...vampires. That being said, half this book felt more like the literal frat brother college story that happened to have vampires in it. Now don't get me wrong, I love slice-of-life stories but half of the chapters it was like waiting for something interesting to actually happen. The interesting happened within the last forty or so pages and at that point I was already mentally checked out.
It was certainly a choice to have Aaron, the main vampire protagonist, have fuck-all of vampire knowledge because the author introduced interesting vampire lore that would've been more captivating to learn and explore throughout the book. Instead, we get a lore dump within the last few chapters because villains have to monologue their grievances. The lore itself is unique, which I will give kudos to the author for because it's a fresh take (especially Powerful blood being able to turn new vampires and down the line the blood dilutes with the more people turned ... that was cool), but by the end when all of this is dumped on us and information about Her (the Queen and the Guard and whatnot) and the vampire cult is revealed, I was already mentally checked out. The build up to the Family and what Zach and Luke were involved with was underwhelming and the stakes (pun unintended) felt incredibly low. Somehow the author made the idea of high school boys being indoctrinated into this vampire cult seem childish and like it was just thrown in for mysterious drama about Aaron's abandoned childhood.
Characters:
This may just be a Me issue but having your main dude's name be Aaron Calem with varying last names starting with C for fake identity reasons, Aaron Carter just kept coming into mind despite my many efforts of purging the Aaron's as a joint vision. But while on the topic of characters, each fell into a trope that I can tell the author just assigned to each brother and decided that was enough to flesh out their character. Newflash: it didn't. Aaron is the golden retriever frat boy and I genuinely believe that's how he was thought up as. In terms of personality and development, there isn't much to him aside from a) being the loveable golden retriever frat boy he's written as and b) a simp for the main female character. Side note, but for these four Calem brothers living in a frat house, the way that they openly talk about their hidden secrets of being a vampire and being hunted by the ominous Family is a tad worrying. They're on the run but don't worry about any of the other frat brothers hearing them because logic. Then again, that would require the author to write interesting side characters that last longer than a chapter. Which they do not... aside from Chelsea (which I will get to soon because I have more thoughts #JusticeForChelsea).
Under most circumstances, I love when the main guy is obsessed (in a good, non-creepy way) with the main girl. This is not a normal circumstance, because literally Aaron takes a chunk out of Kimberly in the first chapter and after meeting her for the first time post-attack he thinks she's the coolest girl ever because of her red hair and love for hiking, I guess. His whole conversation with her in the courtyard after nearly killing her is meant to be endearing, but the fact that Kimberly is endeared by Aaron's aw-shucks Debby Ryan-ing tucking hair behind his ear so quickly despite...I don't know...nearly being mauled to death by him a day earlier is poor writing? She does a complete 180 on her feelings toward him because of the aforementioned golden retriever energy of Aaron. But because Aaron is cute and Kimberly was born without a backbone or a shred of self preservation, here we have the rest of the book where suddenly they have instant-trust in one another and think the sun shines out of the other's asshole.
Now our girl Kimberly Burns. What can I say other than she has fiery red hair, abandonment issues, and isn't like other girls because she enjoys hiking? Not much. That mainly has to do with the fact that there isn't really anything else about her personality that sticks out. This has more to do with choices by the author which reflect into Kimberly, but her complete judgment of Chelsea because she's a blonde sorority girl who makes her interest in Aaron known is distasteful. I usually don't have an issue with prissy characters who draw up angst between our two love interests because I love me a good slow burn. This wasn't the case because the author writes Chelsea in such a way that gives very much girl against girl, and the brothers talking about Chelsea having trust issues with men because of shitty experiences of never being treated right is mentioned lightly and like we're meant to pity her? When I say pity her I mean in the sense of, like, they find her clinginess laughable because Aaron showed her kindness when no other man has, so she latched onto him in hopes of their friendship/relationship going somewhere. Leading to the camping trip, when Kimberly realizes Chelsea is actually quite nice and they have stuff in common once the issue of a man between them is gone. You know, until Aaron turns into an asshole for an entire minute and shits (metaphorically) on Chelsea, resulting in her leaving in tears after gross shit being said to her. Which Kimberly is upset about for one minute, until it's forgotten about paragraphs later. Solidarity!
There's little room given to ever flesh out side characters, but even more so when it comes to the few women we're introduced to. Unsurprisingly, most of which are written in a negative light with little good things to be said about them. It's literally only Kimberly that we hear good things about because she's not like other girls. That being said, the pacing in this could have used work and especially room to breathe between scenes. Kimberly has no friends with the low effort put into actually making any, which bleeds into the rest of the book and leads to no anticipation for future Aaron/Kimberly scenes. This is because there are rarely any scenes where the two of them aren't together and it leads to fatigue.
They're together too much of the time where I wanted scenes of them separated, so I can see more of Kimberly doing shit on her own and Aaron doing shit on his own. Instead, they're only kept apart for a minimum of a few paragraphs, but it certainly doesn't feel like it because you're reminded of them in each other's prolific monologues about how cool Kimberly/Aaron is and how much they love being around them. It falls into the telling more than showing. I'm constantly being told how cool they think the other is an how well they get along. I keep being told of how much chemistry there is between them except all I see is a tumbleweed passing by from how dry their conversations are.
The only time I can think of a significant gap where the two of them weren't together is when we're introduced to William and the follow up scenes where the author thinks they're being clever in baiting us with a fake romance when it's clear off the bat that William is creepy and will become our villain. That being said, when it's revealed (unsurprisingly) that William is our big bad he's turned into a cartoonish villain who wears leather jackets and chuckles darkly all the while we can hear the smirk in his voice. Whenever he's presented in a scene as the antagonist and meant to be doing something bad to our beloved Kimberly and Aaron, it felt very CW bad guy. Like a Wal-Mart attempt of a Klaus Mikaelson. He just said some ominous shit, mocked Aaron, and laughed smugly before exiting stage left and ruffling some feathers. Then it's revealed that he's...British? I honestly can't remember his exact nationality except it being revealed that he has an accent. Unless that's false and I'm making shit up in my brain's natural defense of trying to forget this book. Either way, the author is inconsistent in keeping up with his accent toward the end. Randomly words ending in g are cut off (Ex: "I don't relish makin' a kid suffer the agony of a torturous, slow death, no.") Making being cut to makin'. Except it's done inconsistently and only on random words that it leaves me wondering what the purpose is for. Add in that again, inconsistently and randomly, he says ya instead of you (Ex: "Is this normal for ya?"). If William is meant to have an accent that is showcased through dialogue, I would rather the author committed fully instead of cherry-picking specific words. Otherwise, it comes off as ridiculous and random.
Off topic, but if vampires can only be turned through The Family's blood, then how was William and the rest of his murderous anti-vampire squad turned? Their goal is to rid the planet of the evil of The Family but isn't the call coming from inside the house? It's also very possible in their monologuing toward the end I missed some explanation as I sped-read through it in the middle of Texas Roadhouse while waiting to be seated so I could mark this book as finished. Truthfully, Zach and Luke would've been more interesting if they had done some culty shit like it's hinted at, except the Calem brothers are all uwu boys who survive off their undefying brotherly love for one another so they can't outright do anything bad because it would take away from their golden retriever vibes. This just came to mind that I'm still confused about, but William mentioned that it was never Kimberly he was after, but rather Aaron and his brothers. I can accept this because as far as interesting main characters go, there isn't anything about Kimberly that would make William go feral over ala Bella Swan and James. But if that's true, then why would he bite her after the frat party without taking any blood, then proceed to steal her purse? I feel like that Charlie Day meme from It's Always Sunny as I try to make sense of these plot points that just make no sense.
Something that bugged me big time that I noticed time and time again throughout the book was that whenever the Calem brothers ever said or did anything, they were always smiling. Smiling coyly, smiling playfully, a beaming smile, a wide smile, a warm smile ... smile smile smile. We get it, they're friendly and sweet frat boys in which they exist as an oxymoron. Aaron also has the energy of a middle schooler who discovered coffee for the first time, which easily teeters off into the realm of annoying and not as endearing as the author wants it to be. Case in point: Aaron turning into a child in the grocery store and literally...yeeting? Kimberly's debit card further into the store. But because Aaron is a cute boy with golden retriever energy it means he's easily forgiven <3
Overall, I felt myself getting more frustrated the longer I read this book and my optimism for what it could've been fell to cynicism. Kimberly and Aaron's love story felt forced with little organic growth for them to trust the other, let alone thinking the other super cool and fun before seeing the other romantically. The dialogue, while aiming for quirky and funny, came across like it was trying too hard. Not to mention there are times where the author forgets the blocking of the characters and where they are in a scene or what they're doing and becomes confusing. The chemistry between our two leads was near non-existent and was dryer than my skin's moisture barrier come winter. There isn't really any need for a sequel, but I can't fault the author for securing the bag. This book will be a nice addition to my pink color blocking section on my bookcase, but I don't plan on reading the sequel.
The only real stand out in this for me was my bisexual king Presley. He didn't get the development he deserved aside from making quips and smiling majority of the book, but no other character had a decently fleshed out personality either so it's less of a sting. There are probably some grievances I'm missing out on, but I'll end my ramblings here so this doesn't get any longer.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 9, 2022
3 stars
"I'm sorry... for everything. I really screwed your life up."
I smiled, wiping a few tears. "No. You didn't. I'd do it all again. All of the good. The bad. To meet you."
Being the first person to review this book on GoodReads is stressing me out LOL but here it goes!
A few months back I found S L Cokeley on TikTok. A new emerging debut author, writing a vampire book set in college with a GORGEOUS pastel pink cover? Sign me up! I have been anticipating this release for a while now, so once it became available I instantly had to read it.
This was a completely different vibe from most vampire books I've read. I loved the college campus setting, the non-misogynistic frat boys, and the respect and love these characters had for each other. Aaron is definitely a standout character for me. He is THE golden retriever male MC of everyone's dreams with a dash of overprotective "if you touch her I will kill you" energy. What is not to love?
This book felt nostalgic for me. It took me back to my 13-year-old self reading Twilight and fanfiction. The writing is simple, sometimes repetitive, but super easy to grasp. There are lots of common tropes that felt familiar, albeit sometimes overused. It almost felt like a YA book, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. There is no spice and the romance is more of a slow burn friends-to-lovers situation, so not much actual romance occurs within this first novel. (There is another book scheduled to come out next fall.) I know some people might not enjoy a slower burn, but I loved it. I totally ship Aaron and Kim and I just know when things get more serious between them, it will be so worth the wait.
In fact, if there is one thing I think Cokeley NAILED in this novel, it is the pacing. The plot unravels at a very comfortable pace, the romance takes its time in the best way, and everything feels right in terms of the timing.
As far as the plot goes, I expected that Kim wouldn't know too much about vampires at the beginning of the book, but I didn't love how clueless Aaron was as well. I understand why this choice was made in terms of the plot, but it made reading the book less enjoyable for me. I think I just prefer vampire MCs who know a bit more about their purpose, traits, etc. I'd much rather read the book from Zach or Luke's perspective if I am being honest. And since for 75% of the book, both Aaron and Kim (and us as readers) are pretty clueless about what is going on with "The Family" and the vampires in general, when everything was eventually revealed it felt... lackluster? I was expecting more shocking twists and revelations. I just hope the next book really packs a punch and takes the plot further and deeper, because this first book was quite surface-level. The plot twists were pretty obvious from the jump, and nothing really shocked me as I had hoped it would.
TLDR: If you want a cozy vampire book with a romance subplot that has: camping trips, a college setting, golden retriever boys, and a gorgeous display of a found family... then you'd love this. If you're looking for a super angsty vampire book, this is not the one for you.
Overall, excited to read the next book whenever it comes out. Still obsessing over this cover and can't wait to have the physical copy on my shelf. I wish Cokeley all the best in her writing career moving forward! This book sure was a fun and cozy place to start. ♡
"I'm sorry... for everything. I really screwed your life up."
I smiled, wiping a few tears. "No. You didn't. I'd do it all again. All of the good. The bad. To meet you."
Being the first person to review this book on GoodReads is stressing me out LOL but here it goes!
A few months back I found S L Cokeley on TikTok. A new emerging debut author, writing a vampire book set in college with a GORGEOUS pastel pink cover? Sign me up! I have been anticipating this release for a while now, so once it became available I instantly had to read it.
This was a completely different vibe from most vampire books I've read. I loved the college campus setting, the non-misogynistic frat boys, and the respect and love these characters had for each other. Aaron is definitely a standout character for me. He is THE golden retriever male MC of everyone's dreams with a dash of overprotective "if you touch her I will kill you" energy. What is not to love?
This book felt nostalgic for me. It took me back to my 13-year-old self reading Twilight and fanfiction. The writing is simple, sometimes repetitive, but super easy to grasp. There are lots of common tropes that felt familiar, albeit sometimes overused. It almost felt like a YA book, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. There is no spice and the romance is more of a slow burn friends-to-lovers situation, so not much actual romance occurs within this first novel. (There is another book scheduled to come out next fall.) I know some people might not enjoy a slower burn, but I loved it. I totally ship Aaron and Kim and I just know when things get more serious between them, it will be so worth the wait.
In fact, if there is one thing I think Cokeley NAILED in this novel, it is the pacing. The plot unravels at a very comfortable pace, the romance takes its time in the best way, and everything feels right in terms of the timing.
As far as the plot goes, I expected that Kim wouldn't know too much about vampires at the beginning of the book, but I didn't love how clueless Aaron was as well. I understand why this choice was made in terms of the plot, but it made reading the book less enjoyable for me. I think I just prefer vampire MCs who know a bit more about their purpose, traits, etc. I'd much rather read the book from Zach or Luke's perspective if I am being honest. And since for 75% of the book, both Aaron and Kim (and us as readers) are pretty clueless about what is going on with "The Family" and the vampires in general, when everything was eventually revealed it felt... lackluster? I was expecting more shocking twists and revelations. I just hope the next book really packs a punch and takes the plot further and deeper, because this first book was quite surface-level. The plot twists were pretty obvious from the jump, and nothing really shocked me as I had hoped it would.
TLDR: If you want a cozy vampire book with a romance subplot that has: camping trips, a college setting, golden retriever boys, and a gorgeous display of a found family... then you'd love this. If you're looking for a super angsty vampire book, this is not the one for you.
Overall, excited to read the next book whenever it comes out. Still obsessing over this cover and can't wait to have the physical copy on my shelf. I wish Cokeley all the best in her writing career moving forward! This book sure was a fun and cozy place to start. ♡
September 22, 2024
1 star for the cover, cuz it's pretty.
December 28, 2022
Probably one of the worst books I’ve ever read.
I couldn’t even tell you what it is about, since there is no plot.
The characters are nothing new, but the way they act/talk seems so forced. Everything in this book seems forced. The story itself and the characters are really bad imo. I kept on reading because I thought a major event or a story would happen, but nothing. I am confused on how you can write a whole dann book without a plot. Even pure romance books have some kind of plot.
I was so hyped for this book and now I am deeply disappointed. Hopefully this is the last time I get tricked by a TikTok author.
I couldn’t even tell you what it is about, since there is no plot.
The characters are nothing new, but the way they act/talk seems so forced. Everything in this book seems forced. The story itself and the characters are really bad imo. I kept on reading because I thought a major event or a story would happen, but nothing. I am confused on how you can write a whole dann book without a plot. Even pure romance books have some kind of plot.
I was so hyped for this book and now I am deeply disappointed. Hopefully this is the last time I get tricked by a TikTok author.
March 3, 2024
Ohhhh this was fun, fresh, had allllll the moments I wanted from it…it really felt like old paranomal YA and I had a lot of fun!
I feel like I just devoured this so fast! I LOVED the brothers, the dual POV’s between Aaron and Kimberly were really fun to go between and the lore of the vampires in this one was really different and interesting! I can see where stuffs been pulled from TVD and Twilight but I think that just added to the fun a bit for me because vampire media has always been my thing! I can’t wait for the next one, I need to know what happens next honestly! (I ALSO NEED A KISS SCENE PLEASE GOD MY HEART I’M SO INVESTED IN THIS DISASTER ROMANCE AND I DONT EVEN LIKE ROMANCE )
I feel like I just devoured this so fast! I LOVED the brothers, the dual POV’s between Aaron and Kimberly were really fun to go between and the lore of the vampires in this one was really different and interesting! I can see where stuffs been pulled from TVD and Twilight but I think that just added to the fun a bit for me because vampire media has always been my thing! I can’t wait for the next one, I need to know what happens next honestly! (I ALSO NEED A KISS SCENE PLEASE GOD MY HEART I’M SO INVESTED IN THIS DISASTER ROMANCE AND I DONT EVEN LIKE ROMANCE )
March 21, 2022
So freaking excited for this book. Saw it on Tik Tok. Need to read it ASAP
January 3, 2023
I had to DNF this book. The TikToks made by the author truly had me excited for the book but after only reading a few chapters, I could not get myself to pick it back up. The writing is very juvenile and the characters were so bland. It felt like I was reading Twilight fan fiction. Just wasn’t my cup of tea. The cover is beautiful though.
December 20, 2022
This filled the Twilight shaped hole in my heart and I CAN'T WAIT FOR BOOK 2!! ALSO once again books like this are the reason WE SHOULD JUDGE BOOKS BY THEIR COVER CAUSE THIS IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BOOK EVER?!
I love that there is no weird 100 year old vampire difference like in Twilight which is the main thing I dislike about Twilight! I love how pure their relationship is and it's not insta love, it starts as friendship and develops like it's the perfect pace! Both the main characters are so wonderful and just nice good people which I love. I enjoyed the dual POV because then I know I can trust both the characters and their intentions but that may be just my trust issues. I think the characters are written very well too, like they act the age they are described to be! I honestly loved it, it had me hooked, I loved the characters, I loved the strong friendships and family bonds! Honestly couldn't put it down.
The only reason it doesn't get 5 stars is cause it could have probably done with like a wee bit more editing in terms of the writing but honestly it wasn't that noticeable once I really got into the story!
I love that there is no weird 100 year old vampire difference like in Twilight which is the main thing I dislike about Twilight! I love how pure their relationship is and it's not insta love, it starts as friendship and develops like it's the perfect pace! Both the main characters are so wonderful and just nice good people which I love. I enjoyed the dual POV because then I know I can trust both the characters and their intentions but that may be just my trust issues. I think the characters are written very well too, like they act the age they are described to be! I honestly loved it, it had me hooked, I loved the characters, I loved the strong friendships and family bonds! Honestly couldn't put it down.
The only reason it doesn't get 5 stars is cause it could have probably done with like a wee bit more editing in terms of the writing but honestly it wasn't that noticeable once I really got into the story!
March 28, 2023
Do not let the pretty cover, the five-star reviews from people WHO HAVE NOT READ IT, the fun TikTok promo videos, or the premise of this book fool you. I have never hit my "I wish I DNF-ed" shelf button so hard. This book was borderline painful to get through. And I am sad about it because I think the author genuinely had a great idea and great intentions - but boy, do neither of those things actually make a good book!
I have seen TikTok POV videos with more gusto and emotion than these 308 pages combined.
So let me break down and explain exactly where everything in this book went wrong for me.
let's start with the biggest one for me, the writing in this book.
THE WRITING:
OH MY GOD is it bad. This book reads like a 2012 Wattled story that should have never even been up on that app. This story was so badly in need of an editor that I'm curious if it was written in the notes app - because some of these mistakes should have been fixed through Word or even having gramercy installed.
I am talking about misplaced words, poor punctuation, starting sentences with lowercase letters, and repetitive sentences such as "my wearing suit-wearing best friend." The punctuation, at times, just took me from a physical book I was holding to an iMessage chain; I had to double check I wasn't reading my 2012 texts. Having "!?" "?!" in a book just feels immature. There are better ways to depict that emotion - if the author is capable of it. The same goes for the use of multiple letters in a word, for example, "Annnnd" which is a direct quote. If you absolutely need to depict that inflection, try "Aaron sang, dragging out the middle letter" or ANYTHING else. Along those lines, the random capitalization throughout the book threw me off. Like TASER being in all caps, not in dialogue, just within an inner monologue. Why? The author multiple times also forgets which POV she is writing in, and characters will randomly refer to themselves mid-sentence in the third person - by accident - because NO ONE EDITED THIS, not even Word.
A great example that nearly made me throw the book out the window: is the blatant lack of knowledge of the greek alphabet. For the love of all things good in this world. If you are going to write a book about a frat boy vampire - and market it as that - GOOGLE THE GREEK ALPHABET, PLEASE! Because this author had the audacity to name a sorority Sigma Sigma Ki (which is later changed to Kappa Kappa with no explanation).. but let me just say KI is NOT a greek letter. Chi is. But KI? No one bothered to google that? And then, as I mentioned, they go to the same girl who was in said sorority at the end, and suddenly it's the Kappa Kappa house - someone needed to edit this even for clarity. But also... so much more.
I know I am using capitalized words now, but this is a review, not a published book I'm selling to people under false promises for money. But that killed me throughout this book.
But, speaking of internal monologues, the cringy borderline and flat-out third wall breaks killed me. It was so unnecessary that it made this book feel middle-grade as opposed to even young adults. And the dialogue is just plain awful. "He bit me… and took a lot of blood. I had to go to the hospital.”WHO is talking like that? No one. - “Shoulders dropped from my ears” every other sentence why is everyone walking around like that? I would like to know.
THE PLOT:
This section will be short, because there isn't much to it. This is marketed as a vampire romance with a "cinnamon roll male lead" which let me tell you - boring is what he is - what they all are but I'll get to that later.
Romance? No. If you want a slow burn that burns so slow you don't get a kiss - even in the epilogue - then sure. But there is no actual romance or love in this story. She grabs his wrist and that's about it. Even their final "proclamation" of love is FILLED with the word "hypothetical," and I mean that literally.
The climax, and in turn resolution of this story are downright weird and underwhelming. It was clearly supposed to be a plot twist, but because the plot was so thin and flimsy, to begin with, I found myself bored out of my mind and unable to care. There is no real resolution there, no real reunion of the characters following the climax of this story - which was an opportunity to make me care. Instead, we are just rushed forward a week, and everything is fine and dandy and back to normal.
THE CHARACTERS
Let's just say everyone in this book exists to fill a typical book trope and moves in no direction forward or back development-wise throughout the entire story. Everyone is boring, everyone is one-dimensional, and it is bland.
Chelsea could have been cut from this book entirely and nothing would change. But we needed a petty sorority girl for our "not like other girls girl" to compare to and have a conflict with. I damn nearly saw my brain with how hard I rolled my eyes every time she was in a scene.
that's all. I can't even say anymore because this has simply taken too much of my brain power.
I would give you a zero, but I can't so you get a one.
I have seen TikTok POV videos with more gusto and emotion than these 308 pages combined.
So let me break down and explain exactly where everything in this book went wrong for me.
let's start with the biggest one for me, the writing in this book.
THE WRITING:
OH MY GOD is it bad. This book reads like a 2012 Wattled story that should have never even been up on that app. This story was so badly in need of an editor that I'm curious if it was written in the notes app - because some of these mistakes should have been fixed through Word or even having gramercy installed.
I am talking about misplaced words, poor punctuation, starting sentences with lowercase letters, and repetitive sentences such as "my wearing suit-wearing best friend." The punctuation, at times, just took me from a physical book I was holding to an iMessage chain; I had to double check I wasn't reading my 2012 texts. Having "!?" "?!" in a book just feels immature. There are better ways to depict that emotion - if the author is capable of it. The same goes for the use of multiple letters in a word, for example, "Annnnd" which is a direct quote. If you absolutely need to depict that inflection, try "Aaron sang, dragging out the middle letter" or ANYTHING else. Along those lines, the random capitalization throughout the book threw me off. Like TASER being in all caps, not in dialogue, just within an inner monologue. Why? The author multiple times also forgets which POV she is writing in, and characters will randomly refer to themselves mid-sentence in the third person - by accident - because NO ONE EDITED THIS, not even Word.
A great example that nearly made me throw the book out the window: is the blatant lack of knowledge of the greek alphabet. For the love of all things good in this world. If you are going to write a book about a frat boy vampire - and market it as that - GOOGLE THE GREEK ALPHABET, PLEASE! Because this author had the audacity to name a sorority Sigma Sigma Ki (which is later changed to Kappa Kappa with no explanation).. but let me just say KI is NOT a greek letter. Chi is. But KI? No one bothered to google that? And then, as I mentioned, they go to the same girl who was in said sorority at the end, and suddenly it's the Kappa Kappa house - someone needed to edit this even for clarity. But also... so much more.
I know I am using capitalized words now, but this is a review, not a published book I'm selling to people under false promises for money. But that killed me throughout this book.
But, speaking of internal monologues, the cringy borderline and flat-out third wall breaks killed me. It was so unnecessary that it made this book feel middle-grade as opposed to even young adults. And the dialogue is just plain awful. "He bit me… and took a lot of blood. I had to go to the hospital.”WHO is talking like that? No one. - “Shoulders dropped from my ears” every other sentence why is everyone walking around like that? I would like to know.
THE PLOT:
This section will be short, because there isn't much to it. This is marketed as a vampire romance with a "cinnamon roll male lead" which let me tell you - boring is what he is - what they all are but I'll get to that later.
Romance? No. If you want a slow burn that burns so slow you don't get a kiss - even in the epilogue - then sure. But there is no actual romance or love in this story. She grabs his wrist and that's about it. Even their final "proclamation" of love is FILLED with the word "hypothetical," and I mean that literally.
The climax, and in turn resolution of this story are downright weird and underwhelming. It was clearly supposed to be a plot twist, but because the plot was so thin and flimsy, to begin with, I found myself bored out of my mind and unable to care. There is no real resolution there, no real reunion of the characters following the climax of this story - which was an opportunity to make me care. Instead, we are just rushed forward a week, and everything is fine and dandy and back to normal.
THE CHARACTERS
Let's just say everyone in this book exists to fill a typical book trope and moves in no direction forward or back development-wise throughout the entire story. Everyone is boring, everyone is one-dimensional, and it is bland.
Chelsea could have been cut from this book entirely and nothing would change. But we needed a petty sorority girl for our "not like other girls girl" to compare to and have a conflict with. I damn nearly saw my brain with how hard I rolled my eyes every time she was in a scene.
that's all. I can't even say anymore because this has simply taken too much of my brain power.
I would give you a zero, but I can't so you get a one.
August 30, 2022
I received a copy of this book for free to review.
First of all, I want to mention I first heard about this book on TikTok, something that's becoming more and more of a thing recently. I was quickly enamored by the idea of a new supernatural fiction book, and my God did this scratch that itch. I quickly fell into the book, absolutely devouring it over a few days. This book was fun, witty, tense at times, and most of all it was enjoyable.
This book follows two main characters, Kimberly and Aaron. We get a split POV between the two of them, which I love. You can learn so much about a character from how they perceive the world around them, but also from how they are perceived by others.
Our cast is fun and quirky. We have Aaron, our happy-go-lucky force of positivity; and Kimberly, our more guarded and wary counterpart. They balance each other out well, occasionally swapping roles depending on their situations.
Then we have our supporting cast. Aaron has three brothers that are all very close to each other. There's Luke, the dependable oldest brother and twin that keeps everyone together. Zach, the younger twin and the muscle. He's a bit harsher and harder to get on side, but no less caring in his own way. Lastly there's Presley, who is happy-go-lucky in a different way to Aaron. He's fun and sneaky and flamboyant.
All of this makes up an incredibly fun cast in our more tense and worrying plot. Seeing these characters deal with the rough situations they end up in means we get to see how their views change throughout this. I found this incredibly satisfying to watch.
All in all, I greatly enjoyed this book. Even though I was lucky enough to receive a free ARC of this book, I’m planning on buying a physical copy when it releases. The cover is absolutely gorgeous, and I plan on rereading it in preparation for the sequel which I am very excited for.
First of all, I want to mention I first heard about this book on TikTok, something that's becoming more and more of a thing recently. I was quickly enamored by the idea of a new supernatural fiction book, and my God did this scratch that itch. I quickly fell into the book, absolutely devouring it over a few days. This book was fun, witty, tense at times, and most of all it was enjoyable.
This book follows two main characters, Kimberly and Aaron. We get a split POV between the two of them, which I love. You can learn so much about a character from how they perceive the world around them, but also from how they are perceived by others.
Our cast is fun and quirky. We have Aaron, our happy-go-lucky force of positivity; and Kimberly, our more guarded and wary counterpart. They balance each other out well, occasionally swapping roles depending on their situations.
Then we have our supporting cast. Aaron has three brothers that are all very close to each other. There's Luke, the dependable oldest brother and twin that keeps everyone together. Zach, the younger twin and the muscle. He's a bit harsher and harder to get on side, but no less caring in his own way. Lastly there's Presley, who is happy-go-lucky in a different way to Aaron. He's fun and sneaky and flamboyant.
All of this makes up an incredibly fun cast in our more tense and worrying plot. Seeing these characters deal with the rough situations they end up in means we get to see how their views change throughout this. I found this incredibly satisfying to watch.
All in all, I greatly enjoyed this book. Even though I was lucky enough to receive a free ARC of this book, I’m planning on buying a physical copy when it releases. The cover is absolutely gorgeous, and I plan on rereading it in preparation for the sequel which I am very excited for.
February 26, 2023
*3.5/5- i had a fun time, if this at all interests you i recommend my issues just lied in the fact that i think this book could have gone through another round of editing and i found some stuff mainly to do with the vampire characters powers to be super i consistent and create plot holes. but anyways i will always eat up a vampire book.
January 13, 2023
3.5✰
this is a nice vampire story! it’s not one of my favorites, but there’s a possibility i’ll pick up the next book once it’s released.
also, before i start…the cover art???? omg. it’s so pretty.
kimberly burns is a strong-willed and independent character, contrasting aaron calem, who’s super positive and full of excitement. i think they had great chemistry and a respectful relationship. they’re both very protective over each other and always try to be truthful with one another (which i really appreciated).
the dynamic between the four brothers, luke, zach, aaron, and presley, was great and i really enjoyed reading about it. at times, i did feel that the three older brothers were a bit overwhelming. the author posted on tiktok about how luke and zach were the over-protective brothers and aaron was a big cinnamon-roll. i felt like it was too much in some areas. like the author was trying really hard to make them fit those characterizations and ended up making luke and zach over-protective in areas that other characters didn’t even need protection and aaron an overly-spiced cinnamon-roll that made him seem immature. (hopefully everyone understands what i’m trying to get across.) again, this was in some scenes and not throughout the entire book.
presley was definitely my favorite character. i loved how chaotic he was and overall enjoyed his character better than the other ones.
the plot was alright, but by page 40, i already knew who the mysterious attacker was. the ending was also a little off for me but i didn’t hate it.
other than the things i talked about, i really did enjoy my time reading it! i literally finished it in two sittings if that says anything and i can definitely see it becoming someone’s comfort book. so i definitely recommend reading it!!♡
➪ my favorite quotes:
“her heartbeat was identifiable, thundering. it was beautiful music to my ears. the best sound in the entire world.”
“i wanted to hold his hand forever.”
“our unspoken bond could never be broken. not even in death.”
➪ spice rating: 0/5
➪ age rating: 13+
this is a nice vampire story! it’s not one of my favorites, but there’s a possibility i’ll pick up the next book once it’s released.
also, before i start…the cover art???? omg. it’s so pretty.
kimberly burns is a strong-willed and independent character, contrasting aaron calem, who’s super positive and full of excitement. i think they had great chemistry and a respectful relationship. they’re both very protective over each other and always try to be truthful with one another (which i really appreciated).
the dynamic between the four brothers, luke, zach, aaron, and presley, was great and i really enjoyed reading about it. at times, i did feel that the three older brothers were a bit overwhelming. the author posted on tiktok about how luke and zach were the over-protective brothers and aaron was a big cinnamon-roll. i felt like it was too much in some areas. like the author was trying really hard to make them fit those characterizations and ended up making luke and zach over-protective in areas that other characters didn’t even need protection and aaron an overly-spiced cinnamon-roll that made him seem immature. (hopefully everyone understands what i’m trying to get across.) again, this was in some scenes and not throughout the entire book.
presley was definitely my favorite character. i loved how chaotic he was and overall enjoyed his character better than the other ones.
the plot was alright, but by page 40, i already knew who the mysterious attacker was. the ending was also a little off for me but i didn’t hate it.
other than the things i talked about, i really did enjoy my time reading it! i literally finished it in two sittings if that says anything and i can definitely see it becoming someone’s comfort book. so i definitely recommend reading it!!♡
➪ my favorite quotes:
“her heartbeat was identifiable, thundering. it was beautiful music to my ears. the best sound in the entire world.”
“i wanted to hold his hand forever.”
“our unspoken bond could never be broken. not even in death.”
➪ spice rating: 0/5
➪ age rating: 13+
November 10, 2022
DNF. Yeah, no, this needs quite a bit of editing. There are multiple typos, continuity errors and other mistakes that really take you out of the story. I would not have been able to finish this.
Also - Aaron after meeting Kimberly twice: "she's the coolest girl I've ever met", but she hasn't done or shown anything that could be deemed cool? Just seemed kinda ridiculous and made Aaron seem very young.
Also - Aaron after meeting Kimberly twice: "she's the coolest girl I've ever met", but she hasn't done or shown anything that could be deemed cool? Just seemed kinda ridiculous and made Aaron seem very young.
April 19, 2023
this actually wasn't so bad
March 7, 2023
Das Buch war soooo unterhaltsam!
Schreibstil war sehr angenehm, flüssig und schnell zu lesen.
Aaron und Kimberly und auch Aarons Brüder sind mir sehr ans Herz gewachsen. Mochte die alle wirklich sehr gerne.
Fand die Freundschaft zwischen Aaron und Kim hat sich - wenn man das Kennenlernen 👀 bedenkt - sehr schnell entwickelt, aber ist mir echt egal, weil mich das Buch durchgehend unterhalten hat.
Fands sehr gut, dass wir zwei POVs hatten und nicht nur in Kims Kopf waren.
Jetzt muss ich nur viel zu lange auf Band 2 warten. Bin aber gespannt was da auf uns zukommt, da die Autorin mit dem Ende doch noch einen interessanten Plot für Band 2 entstehen hat lassen.
Schreibstil war sehr angenehm, flüssig und schnell zu lesen.
Aaron und Kimberly und auch Aarons Brüder sind mir sehr ans Herz gewachsen. Mochte die alle wirklich sehr gerne.
Fand die Freundschaft zwischen Aaron und Kim hat sich - wenn man das Kennenlernen 👀 bedenkt - sehr schnell entwickelt, aber ist mir echt egal, weil mich das Buch durchgehend unterhalten hat.
Fands sehr gut, dass wir zwei POVs hatten und nicht nur in Kims Kopf waren.
Jetzt muss ich nur viel zu lange auf Band 2 warten. Bin aber gespannt was da auf uns zukommt, da die Autorin mit dem Ende doch noch einen interessanten Plot für Band 2 entstehen hat lassen.
August 7, 2025
Легка, наївна, затишна книга про милих вампірів. Нагадує перегляд підліткового серіалу, типу "Сабріни" початку 2000-х. Я добре відпочила з цією історією. Головні герої такі мімі 🥰 Аарон просто звичайний хлопець, навіть без кубиків преса! 😁 Я нічого не очікувала від книги, навіть не планувала читати продовження. Але історія братів-близнюків дуже цікавить та й розвиток стосунків Аарона та Кім. В книзі зовсім немає спайсі, навіть поцілунків. Але я не відчувала, що мені цього не вистачає. А ще книга дає цікавий гачечок на наступну 😊
January 21, 2023
I was really looking forward to this book. Like many others, I found this book through TikTok and was immediately intrigued. I patiently waited for it to release, and when I bought it I was so excited to start it. But ultimately, this book is a catfish.
Despite the beautiful and intriguing cover, the book is boring and dull. It got to a point where I was just skimming the pages because of how bored I was. The only reason I even finished it was because I paid for it.
The characters are just painstakingly dull. I understand that the author was going for a "respectful" play on vampires, but there was a way to do that without making them lifeless. (pun intended) The main character was also just as dull as the rest of them.
The plot had sort of a mystery thing going on, which could have worked except the author was transparent the entire time. Anyone with any semblance of critical thinking skills could have figured out who our villain was, and why he was targeting them.
Overall, I think the book had potential. It's just the plain characters, and underwhelming plot that ultimately sucked the life out of this book. (again pun intended) I know that there will be another book in this series, but I already know I do not plan on reading it.
This Blood that Binds Us is just a pretty book to have on your shelf, nothing more. Don't judge a book by it's cover.
Despite the beautiful and intriguing cover, the book is boring and dull. It got to a point where I was just skimming the pages because of how bored I was. The only reason I even finished it was because I paid for it.
The characters are just painstakingly dull. I understand that the author was going for a "respectful" play on vampires, but there was a way to do that without making them lifeless. (pun intended) The main character was also just as dull as the rest of them.
The plot had sort of a mystery thing going on, which could have worked except the author was transparent the entire time. Anyone with any semblance of critical thinking skills could have figured out who our villain was, and why he was targeting them.
Overall, I think the book had potential. It's just the plain characters, and underwhelming plot that ultimately sucked the life out of this book. (again pun intended) I know that there will be another book in this series, but I already know I do not plan on reading it.
This Blood that Binds Us is just a pretty book to have on your shelf, nothing more. Don't judge a book by it's cover.
November 20, 2022
This was a DNF for me. I had high hopes for this book and it just did not live up to my expectations.
The characters were perfectly defined. I loved how the brother interacted with each other, but Aaron interacting with Kim was just weird to me. Someone just being alright with a vampire biting you after a blink of an eye is unrealistic to me. There would still be some tension there.
The world building was lacking. They’re supposed to be in a frat house and I keep forgetting that fact with them being so open about being vampires when they’re supposed to be hiding? Doesn’t make sense to me.
Then there was the writing. It was not the best. There were some typos, which isn’t the end of the world but if I had to look at one more “….” I was going to scream. They are everywhere. I was also over 150 pages in and there was just nothing that made me want to keep reading.
The characters were perfectly defined. I loved how the brother interacted with each other, but Aaron interacting with Kim was just weird to me. Someone just being alright with a vampire biting you after a blink of an eye is unrealistic to me. There would still be some tension there.
The world building was lacking. They’re supposed to be in a frat house and I keep forgetting that fact with them being so open about being vampires when they’re supposed to be hiding? Doesn’t make sense to me.
Then there was the writing. It was not the best. There were some typos, which isn’t the end of the world but if I had to look at one more “….” I was going to scream. They are everywhere. I was also over 150 pages in and there was just nothing that made me want to keep reading.
April 25, 2022
Been seeing previews on TikTok and am so excited to read it! I hope it is published soon!
January 22, 2025
judged a book by it's cover and judged incorrectly
June 2, 2024
2.25/5 Stars
So, this definitely had Twilight vibes which I'm all here for. The story kept me entertained enough, but it had some plot holes and at one point I felt like it was a bit all over the place. The general feeling is that the story overall needed more structure.
The chemistry between the two main characters had potential, especially at the beginning, but unfortunately it died down as I feel like it was not developed enough. I truly hope this aspect will be better developed in the next books. Speaking of which, I might check out the sequel just to see if they get better or not.
So, this definitely had Twilight vibes which I'm all here for. The story kept me entertained enough, but it had some plot holes and at one point I felt like it was a bit all over the place. The general feeling is that the story overall needed more structure.
The chemistry between the two main characters had potential, especially at the beginning, but unfortunately it died down as I feel like it was not developed enough. I truly hope this aspect will be better developed in the next books. Speaking of which, I might check out the sequel just to see if they get better or not.
October 11, 2022
Hello! This was read as an ARC—thank you so much for this opportunity to review this as is was one of my most anticipated reads this year and it truly did not disappoint! I believe this is spoiler free just vibes so here we go 😊😊
Aaron! Is! The! Bestest! Boy!!!! I love this brotherly dynamic in this book. This is without a doubt the least toxically masculine group of vampires I’ve ever read. (I know we have to be careful of the potential antisemitism in vampire lore but I feel this was super well done and flips the initial concept of vampires on its head (although I am not Jewish so I absolutely cannot speak for the community but it was something I keep in mind when reading vampire stories)).
Our FMC, Kimberly is too pure for this world and she is just such an easy fit into Aaron’s family. She’s so kind and supportive. I think one of the biggest draws to this book is like hey! Nice family dynamic! Not toxic! Family that mostly likes each other! So I think it’s important to note that Aaron’s brothers are wonderful guys. They are kind but strong and are willing to drop everything to protect each other.
Every character was so well developed and it was the most enjoyable first in a series book I’ve read in years.
It was a complete pleasure to read this and I would say it’s easily one of my top reads of the year. I highlyyyy suggest everyone picks this up in October upon its official release! I hope you enjoy it too!
Aaron! Is! The! Bestest! Boy!!!! I love this brotherly dynamic in this book. This is without a doubt the least toxically masculine group of vampires I’ve ever read. (I know we have to be careful of the potential antisemitism in vampire lore but I feel this was super well done and flips the initial concept of vampires on its head (although I am not Jewish so I absolutely cannot speak for the community but it was something I keep in mind when reading vampire stories)).
Our FMC, Kimberly is too pure for this world and she is just such an easy fit into Aaron’s family. She’s so kind and supportive. I think one of the biggest draws to this book is like hey! Nice family dynamic! Not toxic! Family that mostly likes each other! So I think it’s important to note that Aaron’s brothers are wonderful guys. They are kind but strong and are willing to drop everything to protect each other.
Every character was so well developed and it was the most enjoyable first in a series book I’ve read in years.
It was a complete pleasure to read this and I would say it’s easily one of my top reads of the year. I highlyyyy suggest everyone picks this up in October upon its official release! I hope you enjoy it too!
August 29, 2022
I was fortunate enough to receive an ARC for this book and was barely able to put it down once I started!
I've read a lot of vampire books over the years, but this one was perfectly different in every way - so refreshing!
This book jumps straight into the story and has you hooked from the first page. And I love how carefree Aaron is, like I said: so refreshing!
Going off the ending, it's clear to assume that this story has only just begun....
I've read a lot of vampire books over the years, but this one was perfectly different in every way - so refreshing!
This book jumps straight into the story and has you hooked from the first page. And I love how carefree Aaron is, like I said: so refreshing!
Going off the ending, it's clear to assume that this story has only just begun....
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