Book Review: “The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding” by Alexandra Bracken

Some towns get caramel apples. Others get a special chocolate treat as their claim to fame. We get fried pumpkin leaves.

About This Book

Series: Prosper Redding [Book #1]

Length: 367 pages

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Supernatural

Release Date: September 5, 2017

Book Description

Prosper Redding is the only unexceptional member of his very successful family, that is, until he discovers a demon living inside him. Turns out, Prosper’s great-great-great-great-great-something grandfather made, and then broke – a contract with a malefactor, a demon who exchanges fortune for eternal servitude. Now Alastor, the malefactor, has reawakened and is intent on destroying the Redding fortune, unless they can kill him in the body he inhabits, which, oh, wait, that’s Prosper, and why is his grandmother coming at him with a silver blade.

In danger from both the demon trying to take over his soul and the family that would rather protect their fortune than their own kin, Prosper narrowly escapes with the help of his long lost Uncle Barnabas and Barnabas’s daughter, Nell, a witch in training. According to Barnabas and Nell, they have only days to break the family curse and find a way to banish Alastor back to the demon realm. Until then, Prosper has to deal with Alastor’s vengeful mutterings inside his head (not to mention his nasty habit of snacking on spiders). And, every night, Alastor’s control over his body grows stronger...

As the deadline to the curse draws nearer, Prosper and Nell realize there’s more at stake than just the Redding family fortune… that there might be something else out there, something worse than Alastor, that could destroy the balance between the human and demon realms and change the world as they know it forever.

My Review

Star Rating: ★★★★★ • 5 / 5 stars

Uncle Barnabas glanced up at the ceiling, scratching his head. “We are, uh, entertaining a few options for solving your predicament at the moment.”

“You don’t have a clue, do you?” I asked flatly.

This book was a ton of fun. I really enjoyed it. Which is why I gave it the semi-rare, five star rating.

I honestly liked just about everything about it. The characters were great, the setting was somewhat richly described, the plot was awesome, and the protagonist’s narrative voice was the bomb. It would be most appropriate as a pre-Halloween, October read, but it honestly kinda works anytime. Though, I did still read it during the fall, so that may be part of the reason I was still in the mood.

I had no idea who Louis XIV was, but someone seriously needed to have a talk with him about his sick obsession with gold naked-baby-angel statues.

To start off this review proper, let’s talk about the characters first. I loved Prosper Redding, and just how much sarcasm he had inside of him. Because it’s not just a demon in the trying to get out (more on that in a bit), oh no. Prosper is one of those characters that is unable to keep the sass on the down-low, and he speaks his mind, regardless of the consequences. Kind of like a diet-Harry Dresden, or Percy Jackson (though he’s actually a little more sassy than the latter, in my opinion). And don’t worry, Prosper has character growth as well.

Alastor, Fiend Prince With a Really Long Title, was a lot of fun too. I thoroughly enjoyed his arrogance and unbearable-ness, and I loved his interactions with Prosper. These two have the best dialogue together in the entire book. I also liked how active both Al and Prosper were with their differing agendas, and how neither one was just a static, reactive character. Because Alastor also has some character development going on.

“Chill,” she said. “Of all base passions, fear is the most accursed.”

I rolled my eyes. “Sorry I don’t speak Fortune Cookie.”

I also really enjoyed Nell Bishop, and her dynamic with Prosper. The two played off one another really well, with Nell being a somewhat more serious “straight-man” type of character, but she always brought her own sass to the table when she needed to.

Uncle Barnabas was… interesting. I can’t really say too much without giving away a little of the plot, but he played his role well. And, last but not least, I also liked Prosper’s twin sister Prue, though she didn’t appear in the novel as many times as I would have liked. I also would have liked her and Prosper to have had more interactions as well, to show more of their bond, but it wasn’t too much of a gripe for me or anything.

And yeah, this is kind of slightly mean, but I loved how much Prosper dunked on his grandmother. Nevermind, she was a total a-hole, so she completely deserved it, actually. Just… the descriptions and general stuff he said about her was hilarious.

It wasn’t that Prue and I hated our grandmother. It was just that we thought she might be the Devil in a dress suit.

and

That was it. I whirled around with only one goal: to run back up that hill, through the creepy forest, and straight out of Redhood. If she was giving us sweets and talking in that strange, drippy voice, it could only be for one reason. She was going to poison me.

Prosper’s thoughts on the rest of his horrible family are also very amusing.

Charlotte, the oldest of us, the one responsible for throwing me off a second-floor balcony to see if I could fly, only smiled and wrapped an arm around my shoulder.

as well as

Oh crap, I thought, trying to take a step back. My family really is a cult. That guy with the website had been right.

The pacing in the story was perfect too. For me at least. Fast-paced is the best! I like it when the plot and stuff don’t really slow down. And it wasn’t too fast; the characters still had time to “breathe” and react properly to stuff, so that was also great.

I also really liked the atmosphere of the novel. The vivid, beautiful descriptions of October environments was perfect. I almost wanted to try some Silence Cakes (the fried leaves, covered in syrup and sugar) myself. Almost.

Loved the villains of the book, as well. The climax in particular was very exciting, and it made me want to start the sequel immediately. And I did. So, expect a review for The Last Life of Prince Alastor, in the next week.

Have you read The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding? What did you think of it? Thanks for reading, and return next time for more bookish things!

Book Review: When Life Gives You Vampires (Slaying It) • Gloria Duke

Single. Curvy. Vampire.

About This Book

Title & Author: When Life Gives You Vampires by Gloria Duke

Length: 336 pages

Genres: Romance, Supernatural, Comedy

Publication: Sourcebooks Casablanca [October 4, 2022]

Book Description

Twenty-five year old Lily Baines is used to waking up hungover, overweight, and underemployed. Waking up with fangs? Not so much. But when little light necking has more serious consequences than she ever imagined, Lily’s determined to get to the bottom of it, or die (again) trying.

Tristan hadn’t meant to harm Lily – it’s against vampire law – but now that she’s here, they need to team up to save both their hides. They strike an uneasy truce, fending off other vampires, Lily’s work-rival-turned-slayer, and her mother’s tone-deaf romance and fitness advice… all while Lily faces down her insecurities about the fact that she lives in a diet-obsessed world with a body that will never age, never die, and never change.

Falling for her maddeningly gorgeous sire? Easy. Surviving an ancient vampire Master determined to see her twice-dead? Piece of cake. But can Lily ever learn to love the woman she’ll be forever more?

My Review

Star Rating: 🦇🦇🦇 • 3 / 5 vampire bats

I swear, this whole vampire thing is just one giant kick in the tits after another. Every time I turn around, there’s a new layer of s*** getting piled onto the s*** cake.

This book was fun. That’s really the whole long and short of it, honestly. It was a funny, spicy, Halloween-y read, and relatively light-hearted. I don’t usually read contemporary romance, even when there’s magic stuff going on, and this book kind of reminded me why, unfortunately.(They’re just not my thing, is all.) But I didn’t not like it, so there’s that!

The best part of the book by far was the characters. Our protagonist – Lily Baines 🌺🖋️ – was, in particular, a narrating gem. For the most part. (We’ll get to that.) She’s sassy, funny, and she doesn’t take crap from anyone. But she’s also a nervous, self-conscious, and emotionally vulnerable young woman. A relatively well-rounded character overall, which is what I like to see.

Tristan Newberry 🖋️📖, the love interest, as well as the vampire that sired Lily, is also total eye candy. Or is it word candy, since it’s a book? Whatever, regardless, he was pretty hot, and he had a rather kind personality, if a bit old-fashioned. But don’t worry – Lily sets him straight. I also adored how he absolutely loved Lily, inside and out, though it took her a bit to accept that. Oh, and he also writes romance novels. Sexy!

“Well,” I say – and I can’t believe I’m about to ask this, but here goes: “What did the sparkly vampires do for blood?”

Lily’s friend Cat was also great; she and Lily played off of one another very well, and I loved how they attempted to use Twilight to help Lily figure out her new unlife. The side characters were also decent, though I found them to be pretty underdeveloped.

Annnd, now it’s time for some of the cons…

Okay, so… I didn’t really like some aspects of Lily’s narration. She’d say stuff like “Obvi” a lot, which I’ve never heard someone say aloud, only in like chat messages or shorthand. And the worst part is that she didn’t say it either – because she really didn’t. Oh no, this particularly sucked (no pun intended) because it was on her narration, and like, in her thoughts and stuff. All the time. And it wasn’t just this one non-word, no, she used a lot of Internet speech the same way. And it was pretty friggin annoying.

The other thing that I didn’t like, was that Lily would say that something would happen, and then say something (in the narration, not the dialogue) along the lines of: “Yeah we did this/talked about this, but it was kind of boring and you don’t care, so I’ll give you the Cliff Notes “ Seriously? Show-don’t-tell is one of the cardinal rules of writing, and instead of showing how these characters are interacting and developing through dialogue – ya know, naturally? – you’re just gonna give the scene to us in bullet points?!? What the heck?!

Regarding everything else, it was pretty average. The plot was slightly meh, and the villains and minor characters were soggy pieces of toast. And very stereotypical. Oh, and this is actually another con, but I hate it when the two romantic leads don’t friggin communicate. It’s tasteless, easy, and unnecessary drama.

But yeah, even though I thought this book was mostly average, a lot of the lines of dialogue and the descriptions were really funny. And it was great seeing Lily grow as a character and finally learn to accept and love herself. (Spoilers…?) And Tristan was the (mostly) perfect man, which is always yummy to read about. (Also, he wasn’t abusive like 90% of the other vampires in books! Yay, I guess?) Also, there are a few trigger warnings regarding body image, fatphobia, mental health, and other stuff, so check out all of the TW’s to make sure it’s something okay for you to read.

Anyway, here’s my review for When Life Gives You Vampires. Like I said, it was a fun, easy little romp. If you like contemporary rom-coms with a splash of supernatural, this one’s for you.

Thank you to everyone for tuning in, and have a great day/night! Have you read this book? Did you enjoy it? What are your favorite contemporary romances? Vampire books?