Frostbite by J. Emery. 2019.
I really enjoyed this vampire/monster hunter snowed in New Years m/m romance! It’s full of tropetastic goodness, lovely chemistry, and hits the enemies to lovers aspect just right.
I fell really hard for queer fem vampire Ezra in his heels and poutiness, and I also adored the monster hunter Morgan quite a lot. This feels very much like a new adult romance, in that both characters are grappling with asserting their adulthood and choosing whether to take part in the family business. Emery is really good at telling NA stories that feel very NA, where you ride along with the particular kind of angst that comes with this life stage.
This is tropetastic and really delivers on the snowed in aspect, from the trapped and someone’s coming after you part that is a staple when snowed in meets romantic suspense, to the nearly frozen MC gets cared for by other MC until he regains his health, to the sense of being the only two people in the universe, and secluded, so the idea of maintaining all your armor seems impossible and both characters end up allowing themselves to be vulnerable. There’s hot cocoa and the need for blood, irresistable attraction, and even making a snowman.
It also delivers on the New Years romance aspect, particularly playing with the time countdown and the way life looks completely different in the new year. Plus, there’s New Year’s kink, which I always appreciate. Morgan is fat, and the rep is incidental but clear. I really appreciate fat rep in m/m, as it’s rather difficult to find. I similarly appreciated how fem Ezra was and how much Morgan liked him in heels.
The monster/monster hunter enemies to lovers aspect of the story was central, and this is one of my favorite romances that I’ve read that plays with that trope. I really enjoyed the way it intertwined with the new adult aspects of the story, that’s a key part to how it worked. I also liked that it didn’t overemphasize sexual attraction as the way to resolve the conflict, it felt like it engaged with both sexual and romantic attraction with some complexity, and I appreciated that.
There’s considerable heat, and some light kink that I really enjoyed, and there’s also a good portion of tenderness and swoon, all these adorable domestic moments that made me melt. I found this a really satisfying holiday romance novella, and I’m excited to see where this series takes us next.
Representation
- Fat queer white man MC.
- Fem queer white man MC.
- Queer white non-binary author.
Content Warnings (in white, highlight to read)
Abduction, including non-consensual drugging. Multiple physical fights resulting in injury, one resulting in death of a minor character. Non-consensual biting. Blood drinking. Sex on the page. Light consensual kink including D/s, collaring, bondage, teasing and denial.
Disclosures
- Source of the book: ARC from the author
- I am friends with the author, who has been an early reader for my own fiction.
- All links to Amazon will be affiliate ones. If you buy through those links, I will make a small amount of money on that sale (which I plan to use to buy more books to review), but it will not add any to the cost of your product. It comes out of the company’s profits.
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