Book Review: A Werewolf's Guide to Seducing a Vampire
I am starting to realize, slowly but surely, that one of my favourite romance subgenres is “snarly lady, and the sweet man who loves her. ” And A Werewolf’s Guide to Seducing a Vampire, the third in Sarah Hawley’s Glimmer Falls series, has that in spades. By far the most laugh-out-loud funny in a series that was already loaded with comedy, the book follows Ben, a werewolf, a friend of Mariel Sparks and Calladia Cunnington, and the owner of the town’s plant emporium. At 38, Ben is eager for love, but anxiety makes things tricky when it comes to actually finding it. That is, until he buys a “possessed” crystal in a drunken impulse buy, and ends up in possession of a crystal containing a vampire succubus named Eleonore.
The parameters of the curse placed on Eleonore mean that she has to obey the orders of whoever owns the crystal, though Ben would never dream of violating her trust in that way. But centuries at the whims of an old witch means Eleonore has a hard time taking him at his word to respect her personhood.
Like Hawley’s earlier works, the book doesn’t shy away from darker themes, specifically those of emotional abuse, and the messed up things people will do to those who trust them, supposedly in the name of love. And as with the other books, these themes are handled thoughtfully.
The scenes between Ben and Eleonore alternate between tender and hilarious, as the not-technically-immortal Eleonore tries to adjust to the modern world with nothing but a handful of very specific pop culture references to guide her. In Ben, we see the sort of burnout-inducing people-pleasing anxiety that can feel all too real for so many of us, and as he fights to help Eleonore break the curse on her head, she does her best to help him in turn.
I’m not sure if Hawley is done playing in the world of Glimmer Falls just yet, and I selfishly hope she isn’t, but if this is the last we get, then the series is ending on the highest-possible note, and I cannot wait to see where she goes next.
A Werewolf’s Guide to Seducing a Vampire hits shelves on August 13. Special thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the advance copy for review purposes.
