Book safety, tropes and tags down below.

I enjoyed Eric's character more than I thought I would after his introduction in previous books, but Wolfgang was a bit of a disappointment to me. I know he's a psychopath, but I felt like that was his entire personality. It would have been nice to see another side to him other than his possessiveness over Eric. They didn't have enough chemistry for that to work without any other sides to the dynamic, in my opinion. I wasn't very invested in their relationship at all, sadly.

Eric was definitely the highlight of this book for me. I do love a self-deprecating character with a lack of social skills. I'd almost say he seems emotionally immature, but he's really not. He acts slutty and he knows people don't like him much, but he knows about it, and why he is the way he is and acts the way he does. His parents are emotionally absent and verbally abusive, so he went looking for comfort and physical intimacy from as many strangers as possible, even if it only lasted a couple of hours at most.

"Because what did it matter if he was desperate, or cheesy, or smarmy? Getting rejected 80% of the time was better than never getting accepted at all, right? It wasn't like anyone was going to want to keep him [...]"

"Because he could pretend, just this once. Pretend there was someone out there, wanting to make him feel special. He could pretend he had a person out there, just for him. What could be the harm in that?"

I live for characters like this, so I was a little sad about the lack of connection between Eric and Wolfe. We were told how perfect they were for each other of course, they're fated mates after all, but I wasn't feeling it. That might be my mood, and entirely subjective, but that's my impression right now, anyway. I feel like the other books had such strong character connections, and you could feel the instalove. Grae Bryan has created a really fantastic series, and considering how strong the other books were (especially the one before this, Johann, which is my personal favorite out of them all), this one had a lot to live up to. It probably didn't help that Wolfgang's book was highly anticipated after his appearance in Johann.

It is by no means anywhere close to a bad book, I still enjoyed it a lot, but following such a strong book and with all the expectations, this didn't quite measure up for me.

"If he walked into a room wearing his white coat, everybody acted like he was a God. But that was... worse, somehow. It always made him feel like a fraud. Like one day he was going to slip up and say what was always lurking underneath: I don't care. I don't fucking care. I don't want to talk to you; I don't want to reassure you. I just want to do my job well, and fingers crossed your family member doesn't die. I know I should care more, but I don't."

Eric was a delightfully multifaceted character, and one I bet many can relate to.

Book safety

Spoiler

Cheating: No
OM drama: No
Third-act breakup: No
POV: 3rd person, dual
Strict top/bottom or vers: Strict top/bottom roles

TW/CW

Spoiler

Blood, violence, death, explicit sexual content, emotionally and verbally abusive parent, psycopathy, mild shame kink

Tropes & tags

Spoiler

Age gap, possessiveness, doctor, vampires, fated mates, mild shame kink, found family, vampire child, kidnapping, bossy top, psychopath