Falling in Love with My Vampire Cat: A Sweet Romantic Comedy by Camilla Evergreen
So adopting a stray cat is a good thing, right? And saving said cat from abuse from children is a really good thing, right? To both questions, the obvious answer is yes, but for Willow the answer is undeniably yes, especially when she gets to call a cute being with toe beans baby names...Until she wakes up from a nightmare, that isn't really a nightmare, soaked in blood, being resuscitated by a man who strongly resembles that cat in question.
Artistry and Craft
I was surprised by myself when I chose to pick up this book. I am still surprised that I found the courage to write a review on it, being that it has the word vampire in the title and I know alot of more conservative Christians run across the room whenever they hear that word.
(For those knowing they want to read this book, stopping here in my review would be a good idea. The paragraph below contained spoilers.)
I was expecting to pick up this book, maybe hate read it and not post about it. Yet this book completely upended my expectations. I feel like I can recommend this book to a more broad audience of Christians just based off of the fact that vampires aren't really vampires and the only dark part of this book in terms of any allusions to magic is how one of the main characters happens to be a black cat. In this case, that black cat is a fairy and a knight of a local fairy kingdom whose only vampiristic trait is periodically scratching his owner.
I read this book in under three days, which says a lot since I tend to take my time with books. Although that being said, this was a very short book, just under two hundred and fifty pages making it a very easy read for me. I found the novel was captivating even though I'm a fan of secondary subplots of romance, not necessarily romantic literature. The way the author explored romance in this book was very unproblematic and at most times insightful. The actual romantic plotline put people and who they are front and center, not lust, which I really appreciated as a Christian reader.
One thing I disliked about it was that it was a book that frequently brought the reader outside of itself. Instead of focusing on getting the reader into the world, it focused on getting the reader out of it, sometimes secretly making fun of itself and "winking" at the reader, which this I didn't like. A positive element to the self-referential nature of this book though is that it brings the reader outside of the book to reflect on themselves.
This novel heavily focuses on neurodivergence, mental illness, and as well as exploring what a healthy relationship looks like, even when it's imperfect. I found that because it was a book that you didn't have to use a whole lot of energy to read, that it made it a friendly environment to me as someone with TBI, I found it a very relaxing read and fun.
I really loved the male lead in terms of how unproblematic he was as well as how different kinds of love was explored through his character, for instance love between friends, Philia, and how important and natural it is to express your appreciation, support and affection for your friends
The romance was a bit much for me even though it was closed door, so nothing was spicy in that sense.
The writing style of the author during the first half of the book was not my favorite. I didn't like the way that she used terminology and current slang like “girlies” or “#relatable” or “ily,”but over time I warmed up to it. I wouldn't say I like it, but I understand its part of the book
Moments. I appreciated the way that she made the character relatable in the way that she described energy levels or fear and weakness. I thought the story was very unique and could have gone in a lot of different directions; instead, it went in a very sweet and healing one. It uses fantasy concepts in unique ways to explore internal and external realities. I thought many of the comedic moments were funny, and I loved the world-building of the book.
I might need to read a classic or two before going back to the other books in this series. As I mentioned before, I'm not super big on books that primarily focus on romance, but nevertheless, I'm excited to read more of what this author has to offer.★★★.75
Themes and Messages
This book, I feel, is Christian in many ways I wasn't expecting. There are some of the concepts I mentioned earlier in this review, such as the closed door romance aspect, as well as exploring love between friends and as well as selflessness, but there's also mentions of concepts of the Bible. This shows itself in how some of the characters are aware of the biblical narrative and believe that they are living in a cosmos ordered by God.
I admire many points of this book philosophically, but the one point that I have trouble with is how love is like fear in the book, or at least that's what the book explicitly says at one point. This message that I understood from the book at face value. It is completely opposite to scripture as, "Perfect love drives out fear" (1 John 4:18). It could be that the author was trying to convey that love often feels like fear, but even that statement is problematic. One can be fearful of a relationship for many reasons, and to state something like "love is fear" is at best not thorough enough, and at worst dangerous to portray the feeling of unsafety or unease with love... It is possible though that I misunderstood what the author was trying to.★★★
Final Thoughts
Overall, I highly recommend this book to those who want to read something romantic and extremely unproblematic. It's comedic aspects are similar to Welcome to the Fae Cafe by Jennifer Kropf, so if you like her books you might want to check out Camilla Evergreen's. I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars.
Content Discretion:
Blood, fairies, mental health, chronic illness, neglect, abuse, breakdowns.
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