When Edie Brandstrup attempts to save her sweet, seemingly harmless human neighbor from the first major zombie breach in two decades, she’s stunned to be saved by him—and his ridiculously large sword—instead. As it turns out, he’s actually a super-old, super-surly vampire. But for all her neighbor’s newly revealed cynicism and lethality, Gaston “Max” Boucher (yes, Gaston) is unexpectedly protective. He wants her to stay in his safety bunker until the breach is resolved. Edie can’t risk more innocent people getting killed, though—and Max won’t let her save them alone.
As they unravel a sinister conspiracy to set zombies loose on the world (again), the duo meet a host of lovable allies and discover they’re not the only ones willing to fight for the future of humanity. Despite the awful timing, Edie finds herself falling for the vampire who’s helping her save the world . . . but all their dangerous plans could end their future before it even begins. As she and Max battle side by side, Edie must decide whether having a love worth living for also means having a love you’d die for—and, in a world that grows deadlier by the minute, whether that’s a risk she’s willing to take.
Release Date: Aug 5, 2025
Heat Level: Sensual/Hot
Publisher: Penguin Group
Imprint: Berkley
Price: $10.99
“Well. Maybe he wasn’t in his earlyish twenties after all. And maybe he wasn’t an elf or a fae either, as she had been theorizing all evening. His refrigerator contained nothing but blood bags. Discreetly packaged, of course, but definitely unmistakably blood bags. Not-Chad- her closest neighbor, the guy with whom she was currently locked in an underground lair- was a freaking vampire.”
I always appreciate Olivia Dade’s attempts at trying something different, and the way she represents plus-size women in the romance genre. Still, the execution on this book was extremely poor. In a paranormal romance, I expect some semblance of world-building or at least providing me with enough information that I can understand what is going on. Zomromcom throws you into a zombie attack immediately, with no context on how we arrived at this post-apocalyptic world. Plus, for being a world with zombies, things seem pretty normal except for the zombies. Maybe I’ve watched too much Resident Evil, but I was expecting the world to be a little worse off.
That aside, the dialogue was cringeworthy. I found the banter between Max and Edie to be strange and juniorish, which rubbed me the wrong way, as Edie is supposed to be in her late thirties. Some parts made me laugh, but they were few and far between. After suspending reality enough to be okay with the lack of world-building and the hodgepodge of mystical beings, she throws insta-love into the mix with these two characters. It just didn’t work. I want some meat and potatoes to the couple’s romance. I adore it when we get to see how they fell in love in the moments they are together, and I really missed that here. It’s in those little moments when I can connect with their relationship and really root for them. I also think Max should have had some more reservations because Edie is human, and he should feel more conflicted regarding their relationship, but apparently it’s easy peasy lemon squeezy in his world. Overall, this was a big miss for me.
If you enjoyed paranormal romances by authors like Ali Hazelwood and Kimberly Lemming then maybe give this one a try. It may work better for you than it did for me.
~ Michelle
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