Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Never Trust a Guy with Fangs
SERIES: Covens of Eaton Falls, Book 1
AUTHOR: Mia Monroe
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 325 pages
RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2022
BLURB:
Waking up in my enemy’s bed is just the start of my problems.
The first rule of being a witch: don’t trust the vampires. My entire life has been filled with stories of our warring covens. We tenuously coexist in the New England city of Eaton Falls, where the locals think we’re merely the stuff of fairy tales and horror movies.
We live life as the mortals do, keeping our magic behind the scenes. Everything is fine until the day I wake up inside notorious Eaton Manor, in the bed of none other than the sexy and terrifying head vampire, Augustus Rainier, with no memory of how I got there.
His presence makes my skin tingle and my heart beat just a little faster. I know the inherent danger of associating with violent, often unpredictable vampires. I’ve got bigger problems, though, when I discover my coven is in hiding, leaving me on my own.
When danger shows up at Eaton Manor, it becomes clear it’s not only the witches in trouble. Both covens need to decide: do we fight separate battles against the same enemy or break every rule in our history and join forces to defeat a common foe? The other major question—will possessive and domineering Augustus let me go when this is over?
Never Trust A Guy With Fangs is an MM paranormal romance. It is book one in the Covens of Eaton Falls series featuring a rebellious twink of a witch with eternal optimism, an edgy vampire with a strong mistrust of witches, two stubborn and quirky covens, a threat from an unknown enemy, and a dangerous desire that could tear apart tradition, all in a beautiful New England backdrop. It is not a standalone.
REVIEW:
Mia Monroe dips her toes into the paranormal romance waters with a brand new series, The Covens of Eaton Falls. Unlike her previous series, this one will feature an overarching, continuing storyline. So get on board now with book one, Never Trust a Guy with Fangs, because you will need to read them in order. BTW: Fangs ends on a soft cliffhanger as well.
Despite the genre shift, the unique characteristics of Ms. Monroe’s writing come through. We see it with her sassy twink witch Leo and his witty banter with his best friend, Presley. We hear it in the short phrasing, back and forth dialogue cadence that is prototypical of Mia Monroe. We also see the recurrence of Ms. Monroe’s deft weaving of an overarching theme throughout the story that provides a deeper implicit meaning with contemporary, real-world applicability.
Fangs sets up a conflict between groups with hatred for each other – the witches and vampires – for reasons that aren’t entirely clear or even remembered, and most likely based on a fallacy, yet have sowed deep division. As always, Ms. Monroe conveys this with a light touch so you can choose to use that as a metaphor for the state of our modern day, deeply divided society … or not. But the message of growing trust, unity, banding together towards a common goal – like saving the world from a demonic takeover – comes across loud and clear.
Ms. Monroe has created an intriguing plot that she begins unfolding in Fangs, although there’s an odd dichotomy in the story’s pacing. Ironically, the story starts right in the thick of Leo’s predicament – waking up in the bed of his sworn enemy, Augustus, the head of the vampires. Yet, the momentum doesn’t pick up until much later in the story. Partially, it results from necessary world-building and introduction to the characters. Yet, at the same time, I felt we needed more background on Leo upfront. It took me a while to engage with him because his back story isn’t filled in until later.
Augustus, however, gets more thorough treatment from the outset, and I grew to like him quickly. He is a fascinating character, and I particularly enjoyed his internal monologues interspersed with hysterical quips and self-deprecating observations. He has tragedy in his past, but it’s not dwelled on and doesn’t raise the generally low-angst tenor of the story, which is also typical of Ms. Monroe’s writing.
Fangs contains an instalove element, so you may struggle with that unless you understand that it is fairly common in paranormal romance. It’s also fairly typical for the instalove/instabonding to happen between two very different people, and that is certainly the case here.
Leo and Augustus are opposites in many ways, not just because they are witch and vampire, but also due to a considerable age gap and dispositions that tie to their respective time periods. Ms. Monroe highlights those differences by juxtaposing Augustus’ flowery phrasing and formal speech and actions – which completely fit his centuries-old vampire persona – with Leo’s more modern speech and phrases reflecting his comparative youth and familiarity with only contemporary society. It creates some discordance in the dialogue, although the context for it is understandable.
Overall, Never Trust a Guy with Fangs is an auspicious start for Ms. Monroe in this new genre. I’m curious to see what happens next in this new world of new conflicts with intriguing new characters.
RATING: 
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