Most stories don't marry both action and romance this well, as vampires and hunters clash again in a strong book two.

The vampire who refuses to kill and the hunter who refuses to blindly hate are back at it in the second novel of Danielle Bird’s LGBTQ+ series. Though one of the main characters hasn’t been human since the start, much of the conflict is, grounding the supernatural elements extremely well. There is still plenty of action and expected gore for the genre, but just like the first novel, it never feels overdone.

The lore built up in the world now spanning two books blossomed in the latest without ever crossing the line toward too much information at once. I also appreciated how it managed to answer a few of my lingering questions from the last novel. There are many familiar faces returning from the first of the series. Yet, the expanding cast, many of whom are vampires, steal the show in many ways. Without some of those new faces, I may not have held on to see what happened to the older ones.

This is one of the few times I feel reading both books of the series was a negative instead of a plus, especially done back to back. I felt the first novel, Drop Dead, warranted a 4 star rating, nearing a 5. With Heart Throb, however, it felt much closer to the other boundary of a 4 star. In any series, especially one with a strong start, an author is not just being compared to other books a reader has consumed. More importantly, they’re competing with the books and characters they’ve already established. I almost DNFed around the 20% mark because the characters I’d fallen in love with during the first novel just didn’t feel like themselves through a large portion of the start for this one. They do eventually start being their exceptional selves, flaws and all, again later on, but that first part was a genuine struggle for me.

Despite a few errors and the issue described above, I did still thoroughly enjoy reading both the first installment and this newest one. I hope to read the third novel when it releases too! I highly recommend Heart Throb to readers who enjoy a deeper and more psychological take on vampirism. There are some darker elements layered into this one compared to Drop Dead, but the author thankfully includes trigger warnings at the start.

Heart Throb is available to buy on Amazon.

Verdict:

READABLE