2 B R 0 2 B

“Hunt someone for me.”
“I don’t take requests.”
The next flash of fangs was intentional. “And I don’t recall making any.”

I enjoyed this paranormal mystery/romance a lot for the vibes and not so much for how the book's constructed. It felt almost like the author had subtly changed opinion on what they were writing as they worked, but forgot to tweak the beginning of the story to match the resolution.

The thing I loved the most is all the vampire lore. There are some VtM vibes here, and also some Buffy vibes on the monster hunter side of things, and plenty of original ideas stewing in the pot. Given that VtM and Buffy were my two gateway drugs that hooked me on vampire media for life, I got super into the setting here. Every time there was a new tidbit of information revealed about the vampire society and Cassian's past, I expected it to become a big part of the mystery plot and pay off at the end. Unfortunately, plenty of those threads were instead left hanging and the real mystery... well, let's just say I feel lukewarm about it.

When it comes to the romance aspect, the beginning of the book absolutely hooked me. Belar and Cassian had an outstanding dynamic that promised lots of enemies-to-lovers slow burn. All of their interactions were so emotionally charged, and there was that strong underlying feel of "a habit of flirting with death manifesting as an attraction to a vampire" that I weirdly dig in vampire romance. Unfortunately, around the middle a switch got flipped and the slow burn changed to a romantic development that I'd call rushed. I actually don't think it would feel that rushed to me if it wasn't for how differently the "romance pace" was set up at the beginning, but alas.

At times, there was also a disjointed feel to the narrative: each scene was strong enough taken in isolation, but the way they flowed into each other was sometimes a bit awkward. In particular, I was taken aback by how the second POV was first introduced in the middle of chapter 3, when I was already coming to expect a single POV novel. Why not start the chapter with it? At the same time, there were some twists and reveals that, while sudden, felt perfectly placed—such as certain things about Belar's heritage.

All in all, fun has definitely been had on my part, but all those assorted discrepancies definitely stood in the way.

He decided he liked me and wanted to stay. I decided I liked him and wanted him to. And that was it.

This is a fairly sweet and fun romance story that by no means should be taken seriously. Honestly, the whole superhero universe painted here was almost too cartoonish and slapstick to my liking, but I still stuck with it because I found Xander just so damn entertaining. He's a bit of the "only sane man" in this entire setting—or rather, practically the only living, breathing kind of character who wouldn't be out of place in something just a tad more serious/grounded. He's also witty, has a nice balance of "a bit of a wreck inside, but projects infinite confidence when necessary" going on, loves cats, and wants to murder people for hurting his boyfriend. A man after my own heart, really.

Butch was... very much a himbo, yes, but not the best rendition of the trope ever. I like my himbos the way I like golden retrievers: seemingly ridiculously goofy, but with a lot of emotional intelligence going on and actually smarter than they seem. I'm not sure Butch delivered in that second department. Also, I found his habit of substituting words like "sugar" and "honey" for curses utterly ridiculous and annoying. Not only don't they sound like any expletives I can think of (come on, just say "fudge" instead or something!), but they're also fairly common endearments, so quite a few times I was like, "Is he randomly calling Xan Sugar, because this doesn't seem to fit their dynamic??? Oh, right, he just doesn't know how to say damn like a normal person," lol.

Anyway, there were quite a few entertaining moments, even more sweet ones, and I mostly liked how kink was handled. The relationship developed a bit too quickly, but it also matched the overall vibe of the story in a way, so I'm not really complaining. I might have expected a bit more enemies-to-lovers vibes for some reason, and it was barely present even when Xan and Butch were in costumes and didn't yet learn about each other's identities. But the mistaken identities trope without that vibe is good, too, I guess.

All in all, I wouldn't say this book is anything to write home about, but it sure was a nice distraction for a few evenings!