REVIEW: My Roommate is a Vampire (book) by Jenna Levine

My Roommate is a Vampire is a paranormal romantic comedy. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Cassie is a struggling artist who's facing eviction and is in desperate need of a new, cheap place to live. But is she desperate enough to risk responding to fishy ad asking only $200 for a room in an apartment in a lovely Chicago neighborhood? Well, it's not like she has a lot of other options...

Her new roommate, Frederick J. Fitzwilliam, is gorgeous and kind of weird, but Cassie is reasonably certain he isn't a serial killer. He's got odd taste in home decor, but he makes it clear that he's fine with her redecorating. In general, he's practically falling over himself to make her feel welcome in the apartment, and his few rules (he sleeps during the day and is not to be disturbed, and his room and one closet are off-limits) aren't particularly difficult to follow. The only drawback to her new living situation: she's really attracted to her new roommate, and that's just a recipe for disaster.

Then she learns his biggest secret, that he's actually a vampire, and has to decide whether the cheap rent and blossoming relationship between them is worth the possibility that he might view her as a potential future meal. Luckily for her, he really doesn't intend to harm her, and he needs her help, if she's willing to provide it.

I passed this one by several times - something about the cover art didn't work for me. I like romantic comedies, and I like paranormal romances, but the cover looked so...cheesy. A couple reviews convinced me to take the plunge, though, and I'm glad I did, because this turned out to be delightful.

Although readers know that Frederick is a vampire right from the start, it takes a while for Cassie to finally learn the truth - but, at the same time, not as long as I expected. I had thought the author might manage to draw it out until nearly the end of the book and make Cassie's decision to trust Frederick part of the conclusion of their romance. Instead, there's an entirely different wrinkle. Levine includes some of Frederick's private texts and letters in between chapters from Cassie's perspective, so it's fairly easy to guess what sort of complication might come up. I admit, I thought the author might handle it a bit differently, though. While Frederick was a nonviolent vampire, there were indications that at least one of the other vampires he knew had gruesome hobbies (crafting with intestines? quite possibly human intestines?).

I was expecting more danger and drama near the end. Instead, cartoonish plans were made, and somehow everything went smoothly and easily. Dangerous predators these vampires were not. Which was good for Cassie, because there wasn't much she could have done if one of the vampires had just, you know, decided to kill her.

Anyway, the romance was enjoyable and I laughed at a bunch of the humorous moments (Frederick's special vampiric power was unexpected and hilarious). It was nice to read a romantic comedy that was genuinely funny rather than just a regular contemporary romance with a mildly amusing meet-cute that for some reason was marketed as a romantic comedy. I enjoyed the bulk of it enough that it mostly made up for the weak resolution to Frederick's family troubles.