Review by Kayleigh

Series Name: Glimmer Falls #3 

“I’m thirty-eight and single and haven’t dated in nearly a decade. My business takes up all my time, and I like to knit, and I’m not even a properly rowdy werewolf, and who could ever love someone who feels this anxious most of the time? I should like all the howling and biting things, but I just feel out of control, and no one else likes sweater vests even though they’re wrong about that, and what if nothing about me is attractive and I die alone in a ditch?”

If you’re craving a cozy and laugh out loud fantasy read then you need to meet Ben and Eleanora. 

Werewolf Ben Rosewood is happy with his life. One hundred percent. Everything is fine. His business, Ben’s Plant Emporium, is thriving, and he’s even expanding the shop. His anxiety disorder is…well, it’s been better, but that comes with the territory of running a business and having beastly urges every full moon, right? As for romance—who has the time? Though his family is desperate to see him settled, Ben is fine approaching forty as a single werewolf. But after drunkenly bidding on and winning a supposedly-possessed crystal on eBay one night, he finds himself face-to-face with a beautiful but angry vampire.

Eleanora Bettencourt-Devereux is a rare breed—a vampire succubus born from two elite European bloodlines during medieval times. But thanks to an evil witch, she’s been stuck in a crystal since she was thirty, forced to obey orders from the possessor of the rock. Eleanora’s been dreaming of breaking the spell and severing the witch’s head for centuries. But did this witch really sell her to someone new, and for only ninety-nine cents?

Eleanora would claw this werewolf’s heart out and eat it, if only the binding spell would allow her to. But Eleanora and Ben soon realize they can help each other with both vengeful and less hostile needs. And why not have a little fun along the way?

This was my first book I read in the Glimmer Falls series, and perhaps the reason I didn’t love it was because I didn’t know all the backstories. There’s a lot of characters and a lot of plot happening that I think I would have enjoyed more if I’d read book one and two. 

I liked meeting our main character, Ben who’s a nerdy and anxious werewolf who puts everyone else’s needs above his own. When he accidentally buys the vampire Eleanora online after a night of drinking, his whole world changes as he falls for the gorgeous and cursed vampire who’s missed out on a lot of the world thanks to being stuck in a cursed plastic crystal. The two of them are very chaotic, and watching them fall for each other while Eleanora learns about the way of modern times is really quite funny. Eleanora is fierce and hilarious. She was a standout character for me in the story, and watching her learn to modernize herself was a great part of the book. 

There’s a lot of other plot points going on in between Ben and Eleanora falling in love and trying to break the curse she’s under that means Ben can command her to do anything. I wanted to see more of their arc and less of the rest of Glimmer Falls. I really liked watching Ben and Eleanora together but I feel like some of their growth was missed due to the rest of the storylines. I really liked Ben’s anxiety representation on the pages, as well as him and his group of friends helping Eleanora through her trauma that she had gone through from the hands of the witch who cursed her. 

There’s a lot to enjoy in this book, but I think it’s one best read as part of a whole series. 

Thank you to Berkley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.