A WEREWOLF'S GUIDE TO SEDUCING A VAMPIRE

An anxious werewolf finds himself bound to a vampire succubus who’s determined to earn her freedom by any means necessary.

Ben Rosewood is Glimmer Falls’ resident plant dad, owning a successful garden emporium that serves the bustling community. He’s also a single werewolf approaching 40. His biggest form of excitement is drinking a little too much and doing some online shopping, which is how he winds up with a magic crystal with a cranky vampire succubus trapped inside. He didn’t think his winning bid of 99 cents for a possessed crystal would actually deliver the real thing. Eleonore Bettencourt-Devereux is a woman with quite a pedigree, a rare vampire succubus hybrid sired by two prominent European bloodlines. Having been trapped in a crystal by an evil witch since the Middle Ages would make anyone cranky, but it stings much worse knowing that she was put on eBay and sold for less than a buck. She’d like nothing more than to enact vengeance on Ben, but the spell that keeps her bound to the crystal also prevents her from harming its owner—however, the woman who cursed her in the first place might be fair game in her quest for revenge. Unfortunately, Ben doesn’t seem like the bloodthirsty type; he’s a sensitive soul whose anxiety disorder is exacerbated by the presence of incoming full moons. Eleonore is his opposite, almost feral, a caged woman who hasn’t known freedom in centuries. This spicy, slow-burn romance feels one-sided, though, since Eleonore is literally trapped with Ben as the new owner of her cursed crystal. Ben’s needs don’t feel as dire and are often overshadowed by Eleonore’s sometimes explosive personality. Hawley does maintain the quirkiness of small-town Glimmer Falls, with its host of paranormal citizens as established in earlier books such as A Demon’s Guide to Wooing a Witch (2023), but the twee magical elements of the environment don’t work as well with these characters.

A lopsided romance whose enchanting plot is stretched a bit thin.