What’s worse than editing the stupidest romance novel ever written? Getting stuck inside of it. Karalynn Donnelly has somehow been transported into Eternal Passion at Sunset, a vampire love story filled with enough clichés, anachronisms, and run-on sentences to drive any hardworking book editor insane.
To make matters worse, Kara accidentally prevents the story’s hero and heroine from meeting. Now Slade, the idiot Vampire King, thinks Kara’s his destined mate. If she’s going to find her way home, Kara needs to get this story back on track. But, teaming up with Damien, the novel’s handsome, super-powered bad guy might not be the best place to start…
M/FHappily Ever AfterFated Mates, Isekai trope, time travel romance120,000 + wordsStandalone book, but Vampire Charming is a sequel starring Slade
Hilarious premise and sweeping execution. I love the transmigration trope (or “isekai”, a term I’ve recently learned) but before this series I only ever saw it used in asian dramas. Turns out it works beautifully in written form too!
Kara is an editor in a small family-run publishing house. Her dad asks her to edit Eternal Passion at Sunset, a cheesy, campy, cliche, awful fantasy romance about Vampires, “Eternal One” fated mates, and…Wizard Warlocks. Then an elevator-related accident ends with her tumbling into the fantasy world of the manuscript she’s supposed to edit.
Once inside the book, Kara accidentally disrupts the canon events and has to work to get the story back on track so that the handsome, flawless Vampire King Slade can be united with his Eternal One, the beautiful and virginal human Melessa. Along the way Kara falls for Damien, last of the Wizard Warlocks and the bitter, dark villain of the story.
Kara and Damien have tons of chemistry, and both are funny characters with great banter.
There’s a certain irony to the romance in this book, since at times Kara and Damien are just as cheesy and campy as the leads of the fake manuscript they’re making fun of. I loved that, because it kept the humor down to earth and made this parody more of a gentle satire of a beloved (but silly) genre and not a scathing jaded takedown of fantasy romance, which would have just made me sad.
This comedy romance was a ton of fun. It managed to be a parody of PNR books while still managing to be a pretty good one in its own right!
Karalynn Donnelly, an editor at her families book publishing company, has the unenviable job of editing Eternal Passion at Sunset, which is one of the worst book manuscripts she has ever encountered, as a favour for her father. Things take a turn for the worse when she finds herself sucked into the awful story for real! After the shock wears off Kara realizes that the only way to get out of the book and back to the real world is to see the story through to the end. Which is a problem as her arrival disrupted the meeting of the books lead romance couple Slade, a vampire king, and Melessa, his destined Eternal One. Now Slade seems to think Kara is his Eternal One and to make matters worse she has also caught the eye of his rival Damien, the books evil villain. Kara needs to get plot back on track quickly but why is the villainous Damien the only one who seems to be willing to help her?
The story was a whole ton of fun. It felt like a parody of a lot of YA paranormal romance stories as the oblivious and arrogant Slade and his witless Eternal One Melessa were like a lot of the worst typical entitled and idiotic YA characters. The other hilarious part of the story was the fact that Kara's own romance with Damien played out exactly like the typical trope filled PNR story. I'm not sure that second parody was intended by the author but it was still super amusing!
I did enjoy Kara's story. She was a likeable lead and her romance with the books evil villain, the Wizard-Warlock Damien, was a fun one. It was great to see how she helped him develop into more than a one dimensional villain over the course of the story and they shared some hilarious scenes. There was also a lot of humor to be had with the awful dialogue of the books characters and the blatant plot holes in the (fake) story.
This was a hilarious read at times and despite being full of genre tropes the story still managed to have plenty of heart so I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Some of my favourite hilarious moments:
“Oh yeah. I’m sure he’s waited for me.” Kara rolled her eyes, meaningfully. “He hasn’t.” Damien had no qualms about reporting that. Perversely, he hoped that the news broke her heart and she never forgave Sir Galahad. “He sleeps with many Vampiresses in his castle. Sometimes at the same time. I can supply you with names, if you’d like.” He had spies in the Vampire ranks who kept him up to date on everything that happened there. “He has a castle?” Damn. Perhaps he shouldn’t have mentioned that part.
Kara musing that Slade may not have been chaste while waiting for his Eternal One.
He had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. She could read the confusion on his face as he frowned down at her. “Do what?” “The tickets. You stole them. Give them back and buy your own.” He squinted a bit, like he wasn’t sure she was really serious. “Give them… back?”
Damien falling back on his villainous nature.
“Do not seek to confuse me, Witch! I shall comply with your demands for her release. Anything for my Eternal-One. No price is too high to have her back in my mighty arms.” “I don’t have any demands for her release. If you would just...” “Tomorrow you will produce her or suffer my wrath!” “Tomorrow? You can have her now.”
Slade being Slade.
To’kel smirked. “You’re the biggest asshole I’ve ever met in my life. I can’t believe I ever listened to you. My men and I have outsmarted you and now we’ll take the Vampire Isle. Come tomorrow, your kingdom will be ours!” “But, tomorrow’s my birthday celebration!” Slade gasped, indignantly.
Slade being Slade again. The guy really was hilariously awful!
I'll definitely be reading the sequel, Vampire Charming, as Slade was a standout secondary character in this instalment albeit mostly due to his pure arrogance and idiocy!
So this was another reread for me and this was just as bloody hilarious the second time around. Not Another Vampire Book is a rip-roaring parody of every bad supernatural romance out there: full of every cliche imaginable, ridiculous plot directions and fabulous one-liners. So the basic premise here is Karalynn Donnelly book editor has been transported care of a plunging elevator smack bang into the pages of just the worst book ever Eternal Passion at Sunset. Where the supposed hero Slade king of the vampire's mistakes Kara for his eternal one and Damien last of the wizard warlocks the supposed villain of the piece is the one she is actually drawn to. When Kara unintentionally throws a spanner in the works knocking off course the whole plotline she joins forces with Damien (much to the chagrin of Slade.) to try and get the story back on track. This was such an ingenious and unique concept and I had so much fun reading this. Not Another Vampire Book is ever so entertaining and I laughed so much throughout this. If you're looking for a fun lighthearted giggle this really is the book for you. It will make you smile from ear to ear and is one I really recommend.
It started off great! I enjoyed the concept of it being a romance parody, and the story and the characters were really fun. The writing was so repetitive though that it made the whole thing very tedious by the second half and the plot became just way too silly for my taste. Too many grammatical errors and typos, which was really distracting. Also the heroine made way too many pop culture references at everyone, which started to annoy me since they were completely wasted on the other characters! I just wanted to shout "They don't know what you're on about, enough already!" Still an entertaining read!
“I’m not human.” He rumbled. “I know.” He was a sorcerer. For once it didn’t seem ridiculous. “My ancestors were both man and Vampire.” “Uh-huh. Mine were Irish.”
Damien and kara truly are the best thing that has ever happened to me. This book was the most ridiculous entertaining fun and silly book I've ever read i just love isekai media!!!
Okay, so I really enjoyed this book. Like, way more than I thought I would! The banter between the characters is gold. Like, actual laugh-out-loud moments, not just a polite chuckle. And the way the story pokes fun at vampire clichés while still giving us all the swoony romance we came for. Genius!
BUT… the writing style? Eh. Not my favorite. There were moments where I had to reread sentences just to figure out what was going on. I kept thinking, “This would’ve been perfect if it had a smoother flow”. Still, the story itself carried me through.
So overall it’s not flawless, but dang, did I have a good time! :D
(If you’re tired of vampires taking themselves way too seriously, give this one a shot. It’s clever, funny, and just the right amount of self-aware.)
Hilarious! If you get and like satires, this is a great change from the more mainstream romantic comedies. Think 90% romance/romantic novel satire with very little seriousness. Reminded me a bit of Walt Disney's Enchanted without the singing and w/a few not G rated scenes. The book makes a parody of every romance plot device, hero/villain characterization, overused cliches and even of author's mistakes/inconsistencies in writting a book. Very entertaining, a lot stupid, unique and still had a cute romance found inbetween all the silliness. It was actually kind of brilliant in a ridiculous way. I loved it! Will definitely read more by this author!
This book had some funny parts. There were quite a few typos, even in the non-parody parts that were a bit distracting. There were inconsistencies with the spellings of the MC’s names. The back and forth dialogue became a bit redundant. Characters argued over the same thing for pages and pages. Reading it got a bit laborious. Karalynn got on my nerves big time. Loved Damien though! He saved the book. I was hoping for a different type of ending, but at least it was a HEA. Overall it was an entertaining, light read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
this was funny, campy, overall ridiculous (but on purpose) and very fun!! it didn’t take itself too seriously, and it was such an amusing palate cleanser. just a good time, nothing too serious!!
I'm sorry, what?? Maybe this was a good book. Maybe. Probably not but maybe.
But besties.
The audacity !!!!!! to write the main character of your novel as a book editor and then have this many mistakes! I could not handle it! I think if the FMC wasn't always talking about her job and what a great editor she was, I would have been fine. I'm not usually very upset about mistakes, like you just wrote an entire book, I'll cut you some slack. But I just could not read this book due to the irony. Also I just didn't enjoy the actual story (the idea was fun and I was so on board, but I'm talking the words on the page, I guess), I think the MMC bugged me enough that the grammar was the last straw for me.
One word to describe this book? Annoying. Repetitive. Overdramatic. Soap opera-y...okay that's 2 words, but you get the point.
I loved Wicked, Ugly, Bad, so I assumed I would like her other works. Really bad assumption. Sure, the title of this book is correct. It's unlike any other vampire book I've ever read. But that's not saying a lot.
I'm being SUPER generous giving this 1.25 stars. It was good in the beginning. I liked Kara and Damien's dynamic. The storyline was unique. I wanted to see how it all would end. Plus, Gannon is really good at smut scenes. They're naughty and foreplay centric. However, everything else was god awful and ANNOYING. God, it was so annoying. All the characters were annoying, the repetitive conversations and inner monologues and circumstances were irritating, and I was begging to finish this story by the 40% mark. It was entirely too long. I forced myself to finish it because I hate leaving a story without knowing the ending. So I skimmed the last 200 pages and I don't regret that decision.
Would I re-read this? God no. Would I recommend this book? I can't in good conscience tell anyone to waste valuable time for this book. Was I entertained? A little? But not enough to be intrigued.
Happy reading, Goodreads fiends. If you want to read something from this author, stick with her A Kinda Fairytale series. You'll thank me for it.
Highly entertaining, outrageously unbelievable, so cheesy it makes you laugh even harder, and I loved every word because that's how I roll!! Plus it had some yummy steaminess!
I mean, who wouldn't want to read it after this line? “Okay, look, I can’t just sleep with every handsome villain who tries to kidnap me.” He arched a brow and leaned closer to her ear. “How about just one?”
This started cute and I really wanted to like it, but it just did not work for me.
The basic premise is very much my thing, but I quickly grew frustrated with the execution. You can't critique a certain of genre of book and make fun of the writing flaws you often see in that genre only to then use that as an excuse to do the same thing in your book. It's just as ineffectual to say, introduce a whole new villain halfway through, even if you then lampshade how that's not a good move on a storytelling level. It still means I as the reader have no connection to this villain that came out of nowhere nor investment with what happens with that storyline. The character of KaraLynn (and why the cutesie name for a Chicago girl in her 30s?) also wears a bit thin. Being snarky (and in a way that's not really that funny) can only go so far as like THE defining character trait of your female lead, especially when again, you self admittedly keep using the trope of having her be "smart" yet incredibly stupid in her plans and ability to execute them.
Beyond the setup, I think I've learned that fated mates stuff is simply not for me. It's basically same as my dislike for insta-love - it's a shortcut around the much more difficult emotional and character-based work the writer would have to do to sell us on the romance, but which when done well is so much more satisfying. Instead, it's just an instant, ineffable connection and that's that. And I can only handle so much of one person calling another their "mate," something I do not find sexy in the slightest. Additionally, there were similar issues I see in a lot of self-publishing, namely no one cutting ideas/phrases/lines of thought that get super repetitive. By the 3rd or 4th time Damien says something like "this girl is dangerous, she'll be my doom" we're like WE GET IT but he says it about ten more times after that, and then we make it a prophecy basically at the end just to really drive the point home.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
"Do you ever sit around and devise plans to take over the world?" Damien shrugged. "Doesn't everyone?"
When someone asks you about the worst book you ever read, you probably have a certain type of book in mind. Filled with cliches, way too perfect characters and lots of plot holes. Now imagine being isekaid aka transported into this novel. You accidentally break the storyline and instead of the heroine the stupid macho hero now thinks you’re his mate. Good thing you met the villain just moments ago and decide he’s a better option.
This one was way too funny. I had so so much fun reading it. The only thing I didn’t like was the whole mate thing. That’s was cliched in its own way.
"What in Gods' name are you doing, woman?" He blurted out. "I'm joining Team Evil. Deal with it."
not gonna lie, I always wanted to get trapped inside of a book and time travel, so this hit the right spot
but I have to say that the more I read, the more it started giving me a headache. They go back to circle the same conversations over and over and over again, and just when you think the guy has finally understood the concept, three pages later it is brought up again in the exact same way. Ugh.
also, something that irked me was the fact that this was about a book editor judging someone else's book and then I happen upon sentences like: “Well, if it is, than that’s the least of my problems.” Not once, but twice I've seen the word "than" instead of "then". Who edited this?
This is one of the most absurd books I’ve ever read, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and immediately downloaded 4 more by this author. I may be a fan of hers for life now.
It’s about this girl who’s a book editor and somehow gets trapped inside of the book that she’s editing. And to make matters worse, it’s the world’s worst romance novel. She’s now transported years into the past with Vampires, magic, and plot holes galore.
It’s similar to the movie Enchanted (only in reverse).
Her only hope of escaping is undoing the damage she caused to the plot and creating a happy ending for the characters - that way the book can wrap up and she can go home. By wouldn’t it be a bummer if she fell in love with the book’s villain in the process?
This is NOT a book you read when you want to take yourself seriously. It’s super goofy and absurd (in a very intentional and self-aware way) and will definitely make you laugh. The tone of the story is very sarcastic.
The funniest part is that she knows this is fiction, but she’s surrounded by extremely stupid and over-the-top characters that truly cannot grasp reason or logic.
My only complaint is that it was a bit too long, and I kind of wish it didn’t get so random towards the end. But it was definitely still worth the read.
It was super fun and unique. I’m so happy I found it through goodreads! I can’t wait to read more from her.
A very very funny and campy paranormal romance type-parody with some surprisingly good writing, likeable leads, and a nonsensical plot (in the best way possible.) Not Another Vampire Book really captures that feeling of reading a trashy paranormal romance, and this one actually has decent writing to go along with it; you love to laugh at how cheesy the story is, but you’re also usually really rooting for the romance and the characters.
The story follow our heroine, Karalynn, an editor for her small family publishing company. When she’s forced to edit a terribly written historical paranormal romance book, Kara accidentally gets transported inside the book. Except, Kara accidentally changes the entire plot of the book, and is forced to find a way back home and get the book back on track. It doesn’t help she’s majorly attracted to the supposed villain of the story, Damien, who’s a Wizard Warlock who’s vowed to do whatever it takes to get his revenge on the Vampires for killing his entire race.
Now, I know that sounds ridiculous, and it absolutely 100% was. But it really was ridiculous in the best way possible. I was honestly, and unironically, considering giving this book 5 stars up until about the 60% mark. Unfortunately after that, I felt this dragged a little too much (despite the length being quite short anyways). The final climax scene was unnecessarily long, which was definitely the authors intent, but a little bit of a slog to get through, and involved me skimming quite a bit. Still, this is a really solid and fun book, and despite how corny it was, I still actively was rooting for the main couple couple, and cheered when they got together. Also, this book had an absolute top tier spice scene between the main couple, I was gagged.
Anyways, this is my second Cassandra Gannon book, and I think while definitely similar to the first I read from her, it was still really well done. I will definitely be reading more from her in the future.
The opening chapter is a bit clunky, but once the heroine (Karalynn Donnelly, a cynical New York editor) gets horrifyingly transported into the world of a really badly-written historical paranormal romance novel, ETERNAL PASSION AT SUNSET, this book becomes hilarious. Cassandra Gannon pastiches the established tropes of paranormal romance in a really loving way at the same time that she writes a fabulous romantic comedy set in the midst of them.
Karalynn, being a smart woman, immediately bands together with the evil villain, Damien (who's SO much smarter and more interesting than the smug romantic hero of the novel, Slade), and does her best to persuade him to see through the fog of the established plot to a much more sensible happy ending for both of them. Along the way, she copes with terrible anachronisms (because the book was SO badly researched) and constantly shifting details (because the author of ETERNAL PASSION kept forgetting which hair colors, scars, and fatal weaknesses her different characters had, so they all keep changing throughout the book).
If you've ever read any adult paranormal romances, whether you love them or hate them (personally, I love them when they're well done), you'll get all the insider jokes. I laughed out loud again and again, especially in the fantastically funny climax of the book. It was enormously fun, and I'm also seriously impressed that Cassandra Gannon managed to pull it off. (It's the sort of concept that could have been a one-note gimmick that could grow old very quickly, but instead, she managed to make me genuinely care about all of the characters by the end. I've already bought the sequel!)
One of my favorite bits, when one of Slade the hero's minions decides to take advantage of all the changes to the story to make his own bid for star-dom:
"You *can't* be at the center of this, To'kel," Slade whined. "It just isn't done. Have you a tragic backstory? Have you a noble, misunderstood heart? Have you a love of animals and small children? No, you don't. So, how do you presume to be a true hero without these things? You are not even possessing an uncontrollable sexual magnetism that women are helpless to resist, but which you are too manly a man to feel vain about."
"Can't *someone* just kill him, now?" Damien asked the world at large.
"What was she thinking? It was hopeless to love a supernatural villain from a romance novel." (Pos. 4911) (My life has been a lie...)
2.5 to 3 stars!
Let me start by saying that this books gives you exactly what it promises: I expected a funny, entertaining story making fun of the typical clichés in vampire books and this is what I got. Still, I'd say that I found the idea very good, but the execution just okay.
In this book we follow Karalynn Donnelly who works as a book editor and has to deal with the worst paranormal romance book ever written: Eternal Passion at Sunset. Even worse, she happens to get transported into the story and alters its storyline by accident. As a bookworm, I love books about books and thought the idea sounded very promising. The beginning of the story was quick and captivating, but got a bit messy towards the middle part. I somehow found it a bit stilted. As for the characters, they were walking clichés and really shallow, but since this fit the story and the general topic of the book, it did not disturb me. Karalynn stood out as the most vibrant, detailed and vivid character, just the way it should be. Still, I had a huge problem with this: As for the writing, I didn't like it a lot. Opening each chapter with an excerpt of Eternal Passion at Sunset was fun, just as were the exaggerations and mistakes made on purpose. But for the rest of the book, the writing felt dragged and whole paragraphs were just repeating the same information over and over again.
The concept of this book is so fun and unique, but sadly the execution was kinda bad. Its dragging and I can’t connect with the MC’s. I am so sad cause I really wanted to enjoy this book!
This book was a TOTAL delight. I don't think it would be everyone's cup of tea because it's oftentimes chaotic and ridiculous as hell but it's so charming at the same time that you cannot help but laugh.
3.5 stars rounded up because the concept was so great, creative ending, and I would probably have liked this more if I hadn't read other books by this author. Karalynn Donnelly is a modern day book editor transported to the world of a truly terrible fictional book, Eternal Passion at Sunset, an unfortunately non-parody of the classic vampire novel. The heroes are idiots but thankfully, we're with the other side. We do get hilarious excerpts from the novel: "He was perfect. Her mate was a true hero. He'd told her so himself."
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This was a lot of fun, blending the ridiculous with identity discovery. But the plotline is very familiar from the other books, and I'm a little tired of female heroes who are really slow to recognize their mate/True Love/Eternal One/whatever.
this was completely dumb and nonsensical but in like... a very self-aware and intentional way?? Absolutely hysterical, I laughed until my stomach hurt. Fantasy romcom for book lovers who enjoy some tongue-in-cheek humor 🫶 very insta-lovey, but I think this was intentional satire of popular book tropes by the author