*I was given a copy of How to Fake-Date a Vampire in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Bonnie Doon Press and Linsey Hall for my copy of the book*
Synopsis:
Faking it with a vampire duke should be simple, right? I’ve got one chance to prove to my coven that I’m worth my wand. But to do it, I’m going to have to make a deal with a vampire duke. I get to use his gorgeous estate in Cornwall to host the Beltane Ball–and in exchange, I’ll pretend to be his girlfriend. But it’s all a show for his grandmother. The rules of our fake relationship are No flirting. No emotion. No sex. Simple, right? Except I can’t seem to ignore the allure of the infuriating and devastatingly sexy vampire. Falling for a duke isn’t an option, though. I would lose the anonymity that protects me and my coven, and that would ruin my life.
Review:
How to Fake-Date a Vampire was a very entertaining read, despite its paper-thin plot. I had really high expectations going into this book as fake dating is one of my favourite tropes, but even that element fell a little short. I am still giving this book a decent rating as I did have a good time reading it.
Alaric being a vampire made no difference to this story. The drinking of blood is mentioned a few times and maybe strength (can’t remember) but it’s also said that he isn’t immortal, can basically only move a bit faster than humans and sunlight doesn’t affect him. What’s the point of him being a vampire then? At least the witches actually did spells of a sort, there wasn’t any need for him to be a vampire.
If you took a shot every time the duke’s grandmother was referred to as ‘the dowager duchess’ you’d be on the floor in three chapters. It’s actually ridiculous how many times it is said in this book.
Using American English for a book set in the UK is a strange choice. I actually forgot this was set in the UK until it randomly mentioned they are in Cornwall. This obviously isn’t a major issue but you’d think a book set in the UK would use UK English.
The biggest conflict in this book is the witches’ collection of ‘joy batteries’ being smashed. Does the joy battery smasher get revealed? Nope. The conflicts in this book seem to have no effect. They never find out or even try to find out who sabotaged the batteries and the issue with the ghost gets resolved in the background.
My favourite character was 100% Penelope. Who doesn’t want a sassy little skunk as a familiar? She was hilarious and I loved how everyone would set a place for her at the table whenever they had dinner together.
Honestly, I really liked this book to begin with and it is an entertaining read but the further in I got, the more I realised how flimsy the plot was. The book was obviously written purely to use the fake dating trope, which is my favourite, but it means that an actual plotline didn’t come to fruition. So much of the ball planning happens off-page.
How to Fake-Date a Vampire was a decent read, but only if you’re going into it to expect a good time, not a good read. The actual writing wasn’t bad, it has a lot of potential, but the plot needed fine-tuning and just more content.
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