Reviewed by Valerie
TITLE: Overexposed
AUTHOR: K. Evan Coles
PUBLISHER: Wicked Fingers Press
LENGTH: 335 pages
RELEASE DATE: January 25, 2022
BLURB:
An unexpected chapter in a vampire’s guide to staying alive.
As the only vampire employed by the NYPD, forensic photographer Noah Green isn’t exactly popular. He’s worked alongside humans for decades and avoids attachments with the bleeders around him … but hasn’t done much to avoid a certain West Village baker, who has no idea what Noah really is.
Danny Kaes is done hooking up, at least when it comes to fangers. He’s too busy running his Filipino bakery, Nice Buns, to dwell on the dramas of dating, and if he misses the thrill of sharp teeth on his throat, he knows he’s better off with his own kind … like the CSU hottie who stops by before sunrise.
While working a string of suspicious deaths, Noah finds Danny at a crime scene, traumatized after discovering a body, and now in in the killer’s crosshairs. Surprising even himself, Noah offers Danny his couch, knowing he’ll have to come clean about his blood eater identity.
Days bleed into nights as the killer closes in, leading Noah and the cops in a mad scramble to protect Danny from dangers he never imagined. What Noah can’t protect himself from are his feelings for Danny and how they’ve made him question everything he thought he knew about his own vampire life.
Overexposed is a 92+K paranormal mystery MM romance. It features a crime scene photographer who thinks he’s got the whole vampire thing figured out, a bakery owner who’s sworn off inter-species dating, an unfortunate number of murders, more mayhem than anyone asked for, and a hard-won, deeply satisfying HEA.
REVIEW:
Overexposed is a tale about an interracial romance between a human and a vampire working to see if they can overcome their differences. This book is part murder mystery in which the vampire protects the human from mortal danger.
Noah had been a vampire for over 100 years, having been changed when he was just twenty-two years old. He lived in a time when humans were much less tolerant of vampires and his parents disowned him. In the present day, Noah’s a crime scene photographer in New York City. There’s still racism against and fear of vampires but they integrate into society much better.
Sometimes during or after their work nights, Noah and his partner stop at Nice Buns, a bakery owned by Danny. There’s a connection between him and Noah that he’d like to pursue. He doesn’t, however, know that Noah is a vampire; after being in a bad relationship with one, he steers clear of vamps. Noah is drawn to Danny but won’t allow himself to become involved with a human because of the potential incompatibility. But he continues to visit the bakery, even though he can’t eat, because he longs to connect with people, with Danny. He’s tired of being on the outside of society and being excluded because he’s a vampire
When Danny stumbles upon a dead body – drained of blood – in the park on the way home from work in the middle of the night, it brings Danny and Noah together. Noah is the photographer on the scene and it’s possible Danny saw the murderer. While the police search for a serial killer, Danny goes home with Noah where he can remain safe until the perpetrator is identified and arrested.
The serial murder plot is interesting and engaging. Danny’s life was seriously imperiled and there were a few frightening, close calls.
On an emotional level, events in his teenage years left Danny longing to feel wanted for who he is as a person, not just for his blood or sex. Noah is alone in the world, having watched everyone he ever cared for grow old and die. He doesn’t get involved with humans in part because he can’t bear to fall in love and watch his lover grow old and die. But also, a relationship would put his human partner in grave danger of being killed if Noah succumbs to uncontrollable blood lust. He’s conflicted, though, because in well over 100 years, he’s never felt connected to someone like he does with Danny. His human lover has awoken Noah from feeling dead inside (pun intended), closed off, and without deep feelings since he was changed. He feels the only way to save them both – Danny from danger and himself from having to watch Danny die someday – is to walk away now.
This was an okay read for me. I liked both main characters individually, but together they didn’t have enough chemistry to knock my socks off and give me all the feels I’m looking for in a romance. I did enjoy the human/vampire dynamic, however. I give it an average rating; if you’re particularly fond of vampires you might like it more.
RATING: 
BUY LINK: