Love Bites: Thicker Than Water

This story reminded me of another one I read earlier this year, The Alpha and Omega, and I liked the twists and somewhat turns that the author made. The liberties the author took with some of the scenes was fitting. I'm not sure I'll continue this series but I'm glad I was introduced to it.

This book started out alright. I had hopes it would be one of those quick, juicy stories that might not be particularly well written but would make up for it with copious steam and a clichéd but highly entertaining storyline. That’s not what I got though. Well, apart from the poor writing that is.*** Warning, spoilers ahead! ***So, there's Collin. He's been trained by his adopted father to kill vampires, but he doesn't actually believe in them. But he decides to revolt and goes drinking at a bar he’s been warned not to visit. And he runs into a vampire.Collin is mighty fascinated by Talon the vampire and, after a bunch of stupid stuff, they shag. But then, memory loss, nausea and morning sickness (!).Collin dreams of a hot guy he can’t remember meeting but then, hey presto, dream-man turns up irl. Insta-love.Bad vampires.Good vampires.Some commotion and cross-dressing.The end.There were so many things about this story I just couldn’t stomach.Collin is literally planning a future with a vampire he's just met while Talon himself has barely said two words. I can’t even call it one-sided insta-love, because there’s no indication for a good long while that Collin even has any actual feelings towards Talon.There's just this complete lack of emotion about the story, despite this being a romance. It was like I was supposed to just assume the MCs were falling for each other without being told the hows and whys of it.There were also way too many life-altering events happening way too fast that Collin accepted and handled too well. The revelation that vampires, werewolfs and other beings exist. That Collin has [some kind of superpower that he can apparently wield right away. That Collin gets pregnant.And… I don’t want to spend more energy on this book than I already have. I just need to warn you off it. It’s the classic mistake of a book where too much happens, too fast, and that is in serious need of editing.So, Love Bites has more suction to it than bite, so to speak. And Ann-Katrin Byrde (which is a pen name for a writer duo) goes on my heck-no list.Also, there should have been some warnings. Mpreg and cross-dressing aren’t everybody’s cup of tea.

This was an interesting take on vampire lore. I liked Talon and Collin. There’s action and danger, love and loss, mystery and secrets. While their relationship ends on a hea (I believe in the strength of their love), their world isn’t safe yet.I’m looking forward to Luke’s story!

I am not usually a big fan of vampires, and for some reason, even though I happily accept mpreg among the werewolves, I tend to find it silly when applied to the vampiric among us. That said, I am a giant fan of Ann-Katrin Byrde, and I’ve learned to give any new series by her a fair shake.I’m very glad I did with this series opener. I found the author’s take on vampirism and its lore interesting and original enough to keep me intrigued, and the romance was handled with Byrde’s usual sweetness and aplomb. Talon was hot, too! I’m very much looking forward to the rest of Collin’s “found family” meeting their matches in future books!

Decent read, annoyed the story though I feel it should have lasted a bit longer. Wished it had fleshed out some of the abilities of the main characters more.

I quite enjoyed this one. I’m not a huge vampire fan in general, but AKB never steers me wrong and I’m glad I gave this one a shot. It was extremely original, both in the way vampires and the magical world is portrayed, and in the way Mpreg happens. It’s hard to review without spoiling all the many surprises, but suffice it to say I’m hooked and can’t wait for the rest of the brothers stories.

It started off really good but after half way through it lost a bit of its momentum and there were more than a few inconsistencies. The POV jumping and tenses were choppy and there were more than a handful of editing errors. Near the end the story just felt very loosely structured and like it was patchworked together instead of fully thought out. It was a bit of a let down after such a strong start to the book.

I thought it was going to be another same old vampire book where human falls in love with vampire and vampire shows him a fascinating world that beats the norm. Instead I got to read a book of shapeshifters and vampires as well as hybrids. There is also mpreg in the book which I love reading but wasn’t expecting it. I need book 2 now and I just wish I found out of talon went back to look for his past or not.

This book is tough to review. So, I’ll go about reviewing this book like I would writing a story: starting from the beginning of my reading journey, and finishing with this review.Let’s talk about that cover: it’s pretty awesome. It conveys darkness, romance, and plenty of vampires. The typography is excellent as well. The blurb, likewise, is rich with promise. The first few chapters of this book tell me the book could have done with a bit more copyediting—but there’s so much potential.Speaking of editing, it’s very annoying when one-line paragraphs are abused.Very.Bloody.Irritating.Even so, that’s not the biggest problem this book has—but I’ll get into that in a moment. I’ll start with what I did like about the book. The worldbuilding has a lot of promise: this is a fascinating urban fantasy world populated by vampires, witches, werewolves, and stranger creatures besides. Fans of Patricia Briggs and Jeaniene Frost (or Charlaine Harris for that matter) will be right at home. Without spoiling too much, I’ll give you a hint that sires are part of the vampire lore.I also enjoyed some of the character interactions, particularly between Luke and Collin, though all of the main characters’ brothers had a nice camaraderie.Things started to go wrong in the middle and at the end. Let me get a bombshell out of the way: this is one of those male pregnancy books. This is also an erotica novel, and *not* a romance. I did not know about either of these things—neither the cover, blurb, nor Amazon keywords gave it away—and I did not appreciate them.This book suffers from the one big erotica problem: the sex takes over the narrative and the plot suffers. There *is* definitely a plot here, make no mistake, but the two main characters pick the most inopportune moments to have sex. This book needs to take itself more seriously.The ending had enough setup to be really interesting, but it failed in the execution. Put simply: it was too easy. The themes that were there—humanity, the power of love, the control of magic—are what great fantasy is made of, but no fantasy hero becomes great without a struggle.Finally, I would like to talk about the whole concept of male pregnancy and why it makes for bad stories. To begin with, it’s emasculating and removes agency. Collin gradually becomes more and more dependent on his vampire boyfriend, Talon, to protect him. The whole point of a relationship between two men is that you *don’t* get this kind of dynamic. This is like a character arc in reverse.Secondly, I do wonder what effect this has for women. Thirdly, and perhaps most crucially, these kinds of stories fail to represent real men (gay or straight!) It’s pure wish-fulfilment. And it doesn’t do justice to what gay men *can* do to raise a family.In short, this story was a dark, even compelling read, following some of the best urban fantasy traditions. But the ending could have been better; the editing could have been stronger. As for male pregnancy? This is one of the most bizarre inventions of the genre, and I really think it should be given a rest.

Good book a little slow In places for me but still a really good read. The story kept me interested from page one and a baby vampire can’t beat that :) now on to book 2 x

I loved everything about this book from the main characters to the story line it’s brilliant. The love scenes are also very good. Can’t wait for the other books in the series. Would of loved it to be longer though.Would definitely recommend.

I thoroughly enjoyed this romp it vampires & dhampires. I’m not usually into mpreg but this book was just so good it bypassed my usual uncertainty over the subject Xx

Very, Very good story. Really had some LOL moment. A book I would definitely read over and over again. A+