Hey, guys! Today we will be discussing the first book in the Hot Damned series by Robyn Peterman, Fashionably Dead. This is a book that I loved in high school, and it was my favorite paranormal romance book, so I was curious as to what I would think about it now. So I decided to reread it. This is an adult novel, so there are explicitly sexual scenes that may make you uncomfortable, so if you are not down for that, I do not recommend you read this novel. But let’s go ahead and get into the review!
Synopsis:“Vampyres don’t exist. They absolutely do not exist.
At least I didn’t think they did ‘til I tried to quit smoking and ended up Undead. Who in the hell did I screw over in a former life that my getting healthy equates with dead?
Now I’m a Vampyre. Yes, we exist whether we want to or not. However, I have to admit, the perks aren’t bad. My girls no longer jiggle, my ass is higher than a kite and the latest Prada keeps finding its way to my wardrobe. On the downside, I’m stuck with an obscenely profane Guardian Angel who looks like Oprah and a Fairy Fighting Coach who’s teaching me to annihilate like the Terminator.
To complicate matters, my libido has increased to Vampyric proportions and my attraction to a hotter than Satan’s underpants killer rogue Vampyre is not only dangerous . . . it’s possibly deadly. For real dead. Permanent death isn’t on my agenda. Avoiding him is my only option. Of course, since he thinks I’m his, it’s easier said than done. Like THAT’S not enough to deal with, all the other Vampyres think I’m some sort of Chosen One.
Holy Hell, if I’m in charge of saving an entire race of blood suckers, the Undead are in for one hell of a ride. ”
My Thoughts:Something you should know before I get into everything is I have read this book so many times that I could practically recite it in my sleep. This has been my all time favorite paranormal romance novel for many years. And then I decided to reread it, and I discovered she changed things in the book! My excitement was real. I treated this like a new novel, and it almost was. She changed and added a lot of things to the story. Some were really great, but others really rubbed me the wrong way. While I still really enjoyed this, I did find that I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as I used to since I was actually thinking about the situations, the characters, the plot and the book as a whole from a critical point of view.
One thing that I have loved and hated in equal measure is the characters. While I can’t really connect with any of the characters in the story, I still appreciate them as characters. They are really well-developed and very dynamic. They make really stupid decisions just like everyone else. They aren’t perfect, which is really important to me. However, I do think it is a problem that I had trouble connecting with any of the characters. Usually, I can in some way, shape or form connect with one of the characters, but I could not, and that is not a good sign for me.
Astrid was, like I said, a character I could not connect to, but she is a character that I liked. To be honest, I think I mostly just liked her and Ethan being together, but also how headstrong she was. That I admired. But there was one point in the book where it says she was an introvert, and I just laughed because that was absolutely ridiculous and 100% false. There is no way in hell Astrid is an introvert. She is an extrovert through and through. There is absolutely no evidence to support that she might be an introvert. We never see her act anything even close to an introvert. That bothered me because she just is not one. You know how I know? Because I am! But I digress. I really don’t like that the only reason I like her character is because I like her with a guy. But she just was not a character that I really loved.
Something else that I didn’t notice before, but I do now, is that Astrid is supposed to be an adult. She is supposed to be almost thirty. She is twenty-nine in this story, and that surprised me when I read that this time around because Astrid seems to lack the maturity that she should have as an adult. She honestly seems to have the maturity of a teenager, and that is definitely a problem with this story, and I consider it an inconsistency.
And another thing is that for some ungodly reason she is absolutely obsessed with Prada stuff. Which is fine. You do you. But it is mentioned on pretty much every single page of the book, and it was driving me insane. Like we get it. She is obsessed with it. YOU DON’T HAVE TO TELL US FIFTY BILLION TIMES. I was just irritated at that point…
I did really love her friend Gemma. Gemma really cared about Astrid, and she had a big heart. I know she really loved Astrid and she grew to get really close with The Kev. The Kev really cares about her, and I am so glad we learned more about her character. Personally, I would have rather followed Gemma’s character than Astrid’s, but I digress. I do think we should have seen her character more throughout the book, not just with Astrid, but in general. I just think she was a little bit underrated…
We just need to talk about Pam for a second. Jesus, Budah and Allah, I love this woman. Okay, so she looks like Oprah Winfrey, which is funny enough. But the woman cusses like a sailor, and she gets creative with it, so it is absolutely hilarious. She at one point calls Astrid a “shithat”, and I just loved her character so much. She was the comedic relief for the book. There were other funny lines, but a lot of the burst out laughing uncontrollably kind of laughter was because of Pam. I just freaking loved her. She was the best.
I don’t have much to say on The Kev other than 1. He’s hot. 2. He loves Gemma. And 3. I think his sense of style is so funny. He just wears things that don’t match, and its hilarious when you try to picture it because it looks so bizarre. But I did really enjoy his character, even if we don’t see much of him throughout the book.
And now on to my favorite character, Ethan. This man is the sexiest man alive (or unalive, undead, whatever), and I just loved him. He was the most possessive son of a bitch I have ever read about, and it was so sexy, and I loved it. He is literally the most powerful vampire in the world, and he can have any woman he desires. But he ends up with Astrid as his mate. That never really made sense to me. Like I knew she was his mate and whatever, but I never understood why they would ever be an item. Yes, Astrid is The Chosen One (don’t even get me started on that one…), and it was in the prophecies that the Chosen One would be his mate, but seriously. I just don’t get it. He deserves someone else, in my opinion. I just don’t see the appeal to Astrid, but I digress…
But there is something I need to talk about real quick. There was one point in the book where Ethan was avoiding Astrid and not talking to her, and she was really upset (rightfully so). And she leaves, comes back with hell to pay. She tries to discuss things with him (not including that, which irritated the hell out of me)
Now, the plot. I think it was executed much better than it was in the original version of the story. I think it is more developed, and I do think the ending is exactly like the original version. It is still gross and disgusting and vile, but it is a really great “ending”. It ended on a cliffhanger, and it was a damn good one too. I will give this book that.
Now one thing I absolutely loved about this book was the writing. I have always been a huge fan of Robyn Peterman’s writing. Her writing style makes her books super fast reads, and I just love the way she weaves characters into situations. I also just love the way she words things because sometimes when I am reading her books, especially this one, I just burst out laughing because in a situation that just does not warrant laughing, there is something she has a character think, and it just makes me burst out laughing. I am just a really big fan of her writing style, and I am definitely going to be picking up more books of hers in the future.
Overall, I did enjoy this, even if I found that I did have several problems with this story. I loved the romance, the writing style, and the overall plot line. It does kind of make me sad that I don’t love this story as much as I used to, but I was a different reader then, and I have matured a lot as a reader, so I understand why I am not as big of a fan of this story as I was. But I do still hope to read more of Robyn Peterman’s work in the future.
And there you have it! That was my review of Fashionably Dead by Robyn Peterman. What is your favorite paranormal romance novel? Comment down below! I would love to know. And that is going to be it for this post today. Thank you all so much for reading this, I hope you enjoyed it, and I will see you next time!
