This is the first book in the Vampire Related Crimes series by Alice Winter. It was first published 2020 with the second book following close after. The book is a Vampire MxM story with a lot of snark and a comedy as the story follows the human Finn and the elder vampire Marcus. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Michael Ferraiuolo. It was passable, I did notice sometimes that the narrator forgot the voices he had made for the characters and suddenly Marcus was a brit or a man from southern America. Though to be fair, we don’t know about Marcus background so who knows.
The story is set in a crime unit called the V.R.C, Vampire Related Crimes, where only vampires are allowed to enter. Well, until Finn forces himself into the crime unit in hope of getting help to stop a vampire stalker who ripped his arm and leg off. The vampire has stalked him ever since, and he hopes to seduce the handsome, and very powerful Marcus to help him. Something Marcus isn’t as willing to do as he is focused on solving the case of vampires going berserk, while avoiding the annoying human. The story follows their journey as they fall in love while helping keep the fragile peace in world ready for war.
Finn is from an abused background, his human mother being insane, feeding his half vampire sister blood. Getting rescued by his sister’s vampire father, he is raised by him only to later get attacked by an Elder vampire, so strong that no vampire has since then been able to scare Finn. He jokes and lies in the same breathe, unable to reveal his true feelings after so long of hiding them.
Marcus is broody, hard ass and no one really likes him even if they respect him for his power. Old as the stones, this vampire just wants human out of the way, believing them to be fragile. Especially that damn Finn, so small and annoyingly stubborn and flirty. Unfortunately, Finn seem to be able to get affections from everyone even his traitorous dog who normally hates everyone.
This book had me laughing my ass of several times, and I liked the blend of dark tones and lighter moments. Normally it doesn’t work, but it does here since it is pretty obvious why Finn jokes around and cannot keep serious even for a moment. To hide his true intention and emotions he is eager to lie and joke to lighten the mood, but some readers might think that it is a bit much. Even the emotional scenes often break off with Finn not being serious which diminishes the scene, but I enjoyed them nonetheless.
The writing is good, and the language is suited for the modern setting. The characters are great, and despite some of them being a bit of the stereotype, they have enough personality for you to like them despite being familiar. The setting is nothing new, the story is nothing new. Vampire living peacefully with humans, only to have humans make a drug that makes them go berserk to show everyone how dangerous they are. It has been done before. So if you are looking for something new, then this book might not be for you. Personally, I didn’t care and the characters are interesting enough to stand on their own and give life to the story.
I liked that the author did tackle Finn’s emotions and struggles with being handicapped. I feared that, like so many, the handicap was only there to try to make the story more diverse and new, but the author actually tries to tackle the subject. The feeling of wanting to handle themselves while the world sees them as something fragile and wants to hide them away. The feelings comes across beautifully and really develops Finn as a character.
Overall, I really liked this one. It was fun, I adored the characters and enjoyed seeing an author actually try to tackle the subject of being handicapped. It is a bit stereotypical, but the story has enough nuances to make it feel alive and interestic. I must say, it was really well written and Alice Winters made sure that the reader would want to continue reading this story. I will give it a rating of 9 out of 10, only removing 1 point for the stereotypical part of the story. I would highly recommend it for people who want a book filled with snarky dialog, making you snicker as it makes fun of stereotypes while giving you characters who you will love.
With Kind Regards
Senefer.
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