Liquid Silver Books, $5.95, ISBN 978-1-59578-874-0
Fantasy Romance, 2011
For the Bite of It has a vampire hero that opens a cupcake shop. This is going to be a fun or flunk situation, I suspect, but I have to say, it’s nice to see a spook who isn’t for once a warrior, a guardian, or a member of a super secret society. Of course, Vincent Esposito also happens to be gay, quite flamingly so at times, so he’s not exactly bucking the stereotype that much. When this story opens, a car crashes into his bakery, the driver already dead. This brings him in close contact with hot cop John Reeder, but poor Vince’s life is already complicated enough with that dead body and his past catching up with him. Will a love story between a human and a vampire work out?
Well, this story isn’t bad, although it’s not my cup of tea. This story has some elements comparable to yaoi, which is touch and go as far as I’m concerned. You know it, all those feminine guys running around acting like drama queens are not my cup of tea. Here, Vince comes really close to being that guy many times, and I find myself cringing. The authors also resort to stereotypes here – one-dimensional straw homophobes, bitchy and crass gay best friends, “too openly gay” versus a little bit gay, and such. The end result comes off like a bad straight-to-video vampire romance from TLA Releasing, complete with horrible acting.
I’d like to imagine that this story is a playful marriage of yaoi and urban fantasy elements, but something is off with the execution. The liberal application of familiar clichés that never really come together well and the whole thing just feels overwrought and artificial.
