Don’t Feed the Vampire by Grae Bryan | Book Review
An unexpectedly cozy paranormal romance.
Book Blurb:
Don’t Feed the Vampire by Grae Bryan is the first book in her Coastal Creatures series, and it arrives carrying a lot of universe baggage. Riley has been alone in the woods for a very long time. Turned as a child, hungrier and more fractured than your average vampire, he’s been keeping his distance from humans as a general survival strategy. Then a baker moves to town smelling exactly like everything Riley has been trying to avoid, and suddenly the question isn’t whether Riley has a fated mate, it’s whether he can pass as a functional person long enough to actually woo him. Seth, for his part, is just trying to feed people baked goods and mind his business. He is not succeeding at minding his business. If you’ve spent time in Grae Bryan’s other series, the callbacks here will make you very happy. If you haven’t, this is a perfectly warm place to start.
Book Review
Don’t Feed the Vampire is the first book in Grae Bryan’s new Coastal Creatures series. Riley and Seth have instant chemistry, but not in the insta-love way. The feeling is more cozy but with the touch of possession that makes Grae Bryan’s characters unforgettable. Riley is very possessive of Seth, but in a respectable way. If you’ve read any of Bryan’s other vampire books, you understand the mechanics of the inner voice, and why Riley is different.
There’s a subplot involving a wildlife research group that has some genuinely unsettling energy — they’re creepy in a way that felt like a real threat — but it wraps up more quickly than you might expect. I’ll admit I braced for something bigger. Then I got to the teaser at the end and realized: one of them got out. So less of a loose thread, more of a very intentional crumb for book two! Consider me hooked.
What really elevates this book, though, is how deeply embedded it is in Grae’s wider universe. If you’ve read the Vampire’s Mate series, Riley’s lineage will feel immediately familiar. Seth, meanwhile, crossed over from the Demon Bound series, and there are threads here that connect back to the faery novella, too. This isn’t fan service for its own sake — it genuinely makes the world feel lived-in and whole, like Bryan has been quietly building toward this all along.
Pick this up if you’re a fan of Grae Bryan’s other series and want to see the universe expand and the callbacks will delight you. It’s also a great entry point if you’re new to her work and enjoy paranormal MM romance with cozy, small-town energy, fated mates, and a found-family heart. Overall, I give this one 5 stars – easy recommendation. It’s the kind of book that leaves you immediately wanting the next one.
Find Don’t Feed the Vampire by Grae Bryan on Kindle Unlimited.
Discover more from The BookHarpy
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
