The Friendly Werewolf and the (Almost) Virgin Vampire

Title: The Friendly Werewolf and the (Almost) Virgin Vampire
Author: Helen Louise Caroll
Cover Artist: Trace Edward Zaber
Publisher: Amber Allure
Amazon: Buy Link The Friendly Werewolf And The (Almost) Virgin Vampire
Genre: paranormal romance
Length: 10000 words/Amber kiss
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

A guest review by Sirius

Summary:

Well written and funny story which disappointed with extremely Insta!Love

Blurb:

Have you heard this one before? A well-adjusted werewolf meets a slightly neurotic vampire walking a cat…

His father thinks he should shave more often. His mother thinks he should meet someone. But all Alan wants to do is find a nice, quiet place and howl at the moon. It’s tough being a forty-something chef and werewolf. You never have time to meet that special someone who doesn’t mind your wearing a fur coat in all kinds of weather. But Alan’s on the trail of someone who might be The One—Eric, a goth moppet who smells like death and walks a bruiser of a cat named Princess.

Eric’s used to being alone. A fifty-plus vampire in a small town doesn’t meet a lot of compatible people. So he spends his time watching his favorite movies and strolling with his tomcat. But things start looking up when he runs across an intriguing werewolf in a flea collar and backpack. Could Alan be the one to help Eric with his little problem?

Review:

Now, talk about strange and at times very funny short story. I look for  mm stories with the unusual takes on werewolf lore and if it has unusual vampires too, all the better. This one definitely fits the bill.  Alan is a werewolf you will not meet too often in mm stories – everything about him starting from the way he was turned, his appearance, how the change works is not your usual fare. Well, he is “sex on legs” so I guess that is more of the usual one, but believe me, I did not get the “larger than life romantic hero” vibe from Alan and the full blown sex is not shown anyway.

Eric, the vampire is even less of a romantic hero than Alan is. You will understand why when you read the story and still I liked them both and thought their interactions were lovely.

I giggled several times throughout the story. Humor is however very subjective, so let me quote a good example for you and hopefully it may be easier for you to decide whether the humor will work for you in this story:

“Do you walk here often? No! I mean, I haven’t seen you – I mean…”  The werewolf’s ears sagged. His head dropped. “Is there anything I can say that doesn’t sound like a bad pick-up line?” His words trailed off into a whine.

I laughed. He was so… Adorable was the word that came to mind. If adorable can be used to describe a large, sharp-toothed wolf with paws roughly the size of my face”.

I liked the ending in the story very much,  and to me it was suitably open for the short story and still very hopeful.  I wished however that I could forget the fact that one of the guys fell in love in a second after he saw another guy, literally. It would have been so much more believable to me if everything happened the same way except they were just attracted to each other. And there is no “you are my mate” werewolf stuff, but still the author had to go and ruin it for me with very instant love.