Review: ‘My Roommate is a Vampire’ by Jenna Levine
My Roommate Is a Vampire
by Jenna LevineSeries: My Vampires #2
Published by Berkley on August 29, 2023
SubGenres: Paranormal Romance
Format: AudioBook
Pages: 352
Narrator: Gilli Messer
Length: 8 Hours And 59 Minutes
Source: Library - Libby
Audience: 18+/Adult
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True love is at stake in this charming, debut romantic comedy.
Cassie Greenberg loves being an artist, but it’s a tough way to make a living. On the brink of eviction, she’s desperate when she finds a too-good-to-be-true apartment in a beautiful Chicago neighborhood. Cassie knows there has to be a catch—only someone with a secret to hide would rent out a room for that price.
Of course, her new roommate Frederick J. Fitzwilliam is far from normal. He sleeps all day, is out at night on business, and talks like he walked out of a regency romance novel. He also leaves Cassie heart-melting notes around the apartment, cares about her art, and asks about her day. And he doesn’t look half bad shirtless, on the rare occasions they’re both home and awake. But when Cassie finds bags of blood in the fridge that definitely weren’t there earlier, Frederick has to come clean...
Cassie’s sexy new roommate is a vampire. And he has a proposition for her.
My Roommate is a Vampire is Jenna Levine’s debut novel. I love finding new authors, especially when it’s their first book. I read this book to fulfill the Fated Folly prompt for the Romanceopoly Challenge I’m participating in this year–Read a Paranormal Romantic Comedy. Unfortunately, this book wasn’t as comical as expected and was more silly than anything when I was listening to it. I should have picked up another book to fulfill my prompt for the reading challenge, but I pushed through it, hoping it would get better.
I should have known better when picking up this book because I’ve been a Vampire Romance girlie for years now, thanks to authors like Anne Rice. I expect vampires to be scary and intimidating. The MMC, Frederick J. Fitzwilliam, was in no way intimidating or even frightening. He was more silly than anything, in my opinion. The vampires in Twilight were more scary than him and they sparkled.
The gist of the story is that Frederick has been in a coma and has finally woken up after so many years. He needs a roommate, and Cassies is skeptical at first to rent a room from him, especially when it’s only $200. I would be, too, if I were her. When she does agree to move in, he sleeps during the day and wakes at night, and she does question certain things but just deals with it. She doesn’t even ask why she can’t go into specifics until much later. When the truth does come out, she freaks out about it but gets over it pretty quickly.
This is when the story gets over the top silly for me because I find out certain things about Frederick that are absolutely ridiculous. One of them is that he’s still dealing with his mommy dearest, who wants to marry him off to someone else who he never wanted to marry in the first place, and he can’t say no to her. He then summons certain things that even he finds ridiculous, and other vampires make fun of him for it. Yeah, he’s not scary at all to me.
I wasn’t even invested in the romance between Frederick and Cassie because there wasn’t much tension or chemistry between them, and it felt more rushed than anything. I think if there had been more high stacks, I would have enjoyed it more. There’s also one sex scene, and since Frederick is a vampire and has a risk of biting her and losing control, but nope, this part was just swept over and dealt with in a silly way.
I’m actually more interested in learning about Reggie, a secondary character in this book and the whole reason Frederick was in a coma anyway. Reggie seems to be the more intimidating vampire, and yes, I plan on reading his book. Just because I didn’t like this book doesn’t mean I won’t check out other books Jenna is writing.
Overall, this book only gets two stars from me. Unfortunately, it wasn’t funny to me, but it may be enjoyable and amusing to other readers who pick it up.
Also, this author must have issues with Libertarians since she compared them to axe murderers, which means she won’t like me because I’ve been a registered Libertarian since 2008. Oh, well. My Democrat best friend loves me, and my Republican Dad deals with me. 😂
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About Jenna Levine
By day, Jenna Levine works to increase access to affordable housing in the American South. By night, she writes romance novels where ridiculous things happen to beautiful people. When Jenna isn't writing she can usually be found crying over k-dramas, starting knitting projects she won't finish, or spending time with her family and small army of cats.
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My obsession with reading started over 30+ years ago when I went to my first Scholastic Book Fair and found R.L. Stine's Fear Street series. Later, I came across Anne Rice's novels at my public library when I was fourteen when my obsession with vampires started. I was the girl who preferred to be a vampire over a princess any day. My husband says I would leave him a heartbeat for a vampire that looked like Spike or Angel (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) or Damon Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries. (It's true, though, and he's accepted it.)
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