Vampires Don't Give Hickeys by Holly Ryan is an adult paranormal romance centered around Belle Harrison, a vampire slayer, the only vampire slayer in the world. Pretty dramatic, am I right? While Belle is on patrol in the local cemetery one night, she is approached by a demon stating that she must decide to marry the King of Hell or die by the hands of the unknown darkness out to kill her. And she must make her decision by Halloween, her birthday, in four days.
This novel is pretty straightforward in its story telling, so I'm just going to jump right into things!
(SPOILER WARNING! START)
After the demon leaves, Belle is then approached by three very sexy vampires who offer to help her and open their home to her. Pretty sus I say. Their names are Eddie, the blonde bookworm, Jacek, the athletic judo master, and Sawyer, the mysterious one who doesn't show his face until later in the chapters.
Belle follows them to their house, which is literally right next door to the cemetery, to check out their library for any information regarding her situation. Eddie accompanies her, the library being his domain, and helps her look up information. Tensions run high between these two and they finally end up in Eddie's bedroom after an incident in the graveyard ending with Belle staking herself.
It's finally after this incident that Sawyer reveals himself to Belle, trying to coax her into telling the three of them what had transpired. She explains everything and it is after this that Belle starts training how to fight with Jacek. Tensions rise between them and they end up in the living room. Belle goes on patrol again and another incident happens, but she doesn't end up staking herself this time. No, but the graveyard's caretaker, Tim, does end up dead, his entrails spilling out of him.
After this, Belle ends up at the house again, taken care of by Sawyer this time, who helps her hone her slayer instincts. They end up in his room this time. Every time Belle was with one of the vampires, they bit her, which heightened their feel of each other and the boys could sense her and come to help should she call for them. Anyways, after her time with Sawyer, she is presented with birthday presents from each of them on the kitchen table, along with a key to the house, indicating that she is welcome there any time.
Belle heads to the cemetery for her final showdown with the demon who will be back to drag her to Hell. She fights with him for a bit until he sees the bite marks from the boys and exclaims that she is has been tainted! He cannot bring a tainted one to Hell and propose her to be the Queen of Hell! So, he leaves and the boys come into the cemetery to pick her up. The aura of a demon repels them so they weren't able to enter the graveyard but were able to watch her fight the entire time. They were really proud and they all head home, to bask in their accomplishment of deterring the King of Hell, but they still have to deal with the unknown darkness that is eventually going to kill Belle.
(SPOILER WARNING! END)
So, I have slightly mixed feelings about this book. I like the story, I do, but some things that Belle did very early on in the novel had me very annoyed. In chapter one, she willingly goes to a vampire's house just because they seemed willing to help her with her situation. But she is a vampire slayer! Like, what? Girl, you need to sort out your priorities. And by chapter three she has already slept with one of them!
I didn't like the fast pace of the romance that occurred. Maybe it's because I am more used to a bit of a slow burn, but as a vampire slayer who is loyal to her duties, sleeping with a vampire and trusting him just because he's hot, is not how I would go about things. Also, this first book only happens over a time span of four days. Four days. She slept with and trusted each guy within four days. To the point where I never saw her in her own apartment that she has, she was always at the boys' house. I understand that if the second book was spent developing their relationships with Belle, but for them to have already jumped bones in the first book is quite ridiculous.
So, while I like the story itself, I don't think the main protagonist really should be a slayer at all. She isn't cut out for it, despite doing it for ten years. She got all hot and bothered by the first hot vampires she had seen and automatically started to trust them despite not having spent any significant quality time with them.
I might read the rest of the series. There are five books, but the Kindle store has the complete collection edition that I might pick up. I don't know yet, it's a bit of a stretch to say even that. I like the story, but the pacing of the romance was literally instantaneous. I personally believe it wasn't all that well written. The only things that this book has going for it is that it was free, the intimate scenes were written well, and the story concept was good. Other than that though, there wasn't much meat to the story. Belle has a job that we rarely see her work in, an apartment we never see her even step foot in, and online school that she rarely actually does, despite her desire to graduate and receive a college degree. If I do read the rest of the series, I do really hope that it gets better. I really do.
If any of you want to recommend me some books to read and review, drop it in the comments below and I will most likely end up doing it! Thanks for reading!
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