About the Book
True love is at stake in this charming, debut romantic comedy.
Cassie
Greenberg loves being an artist, but it’s a tough way to make a living.
On the brink of eviction, she’s desperate when she finds a
too-good-to-be-true apartment in a beautiful Chicago
neighborhood. Cassie knows there has to be a catch—only someone with a
secret to hide would rent out a room for that price.
Of
course, her new roommate Frederick J. Fitzwilliam is far from normal.
He sleeps all day, is out at night on business, and talks like he walked
out of a regency-romance novel. He also
leaves Cassie heart-melting notes around the apartment, cares about her
art, and asks about her day. And he doesn’t look half bad shirtless, on
the rare occasions they’re both home and awake. But when Cassie finds
bags of blood in the fridge that definitely weren’t
there earlier, Frederick has to come clean...
Cassie’s sexy new roommate is a vampire. And he has a proposition for her.
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MY ROOMMATE IS A VAMPIRE Excerpt
One
Roommate Wanted to Share Spacious Third-Floor Brownstone Apartment in
Lincoln Park
Hello. I seek a roommate with whom to share my apartment. It is a spacious unit
by modern standards with two large bedrooms, an open sitting area, and a
semiprofessional eat-in kitchen. Large windows flank the eastern side of the
apartment and provide a striking view of the lake. The unit is fully furnished
in a tasteful, classical style. I am seldom home after sundown, so if you work
a traditional schedule, you will usually have the apartment to yourself.
Rent: $200 per month. No pets, please. Kindly direct all serious inquiries to fjfitzwilliam@gmail.com.
"There has to be something wrong with this place."
"Cassie, listen, this is a really good
deal-"
"Forget it, Sam." That last part came
out more forcefully than I'd intended-though not by much. Even though I needed
his help, my embarrassment over being in this situation in the first place made
accepting that help difficult. Sam meant well, but his insistence on involving
himself in every part of my current situation was getting on my very last
nerve.
To his credit, Sam-my oldest friend, who'd long
ago acclimated to how snippy I sometimes got when I was stressed-said nothing.
He simply folded his arms across his chest, waiting for me to be ready to say
more.
I only needed a few moments to pull myself
together and start feeling badly for snapping at him. "Sorry," I
muttered under my breath. "I know you're only trying to help."
"It's all right," he said,
sympathetic. "You have a lot going on. But it's okay to believe that
things can get better."
I had no reason to believe that things could get
better, but now wasn't the time to get into it. I simply sighed and turned my
attention back to the Craigslist ad on my laptop.
"Anything that sounds too good to be true
usually is."
Sam peered over my shoulder at my screen.
"Not always. And you have to admit this apartment sounds great."
It did sound great. He was right about that. But
. . .
"It's only two hundred a month, Sam."
***
I pulled up the listing on the computer. It hadn't changed in the time since I
last saw it. The oddly formal style was the same. The absurd rent amount was
also the same and set off as many alarm bells now as it did when I first saw
it.
But my financial situation also hadn't changed. Jobs in my field were still as
hard to come by. And asking Sam for help-or my accountant parents, who loved me
too much to admit to my face what a disappointment I was-was just as
unthinkable as ever.
And my landlord was still planning to evict me next week. Which, to be fair, I
couldn't even blame him for. He'd put up with a lot of late rent payments and
art-related welding mishaps these past ten months. If I were him I'd probably
evict me, too.
Before I could talk myself out of doing it, and with Sam's worried voice
ringing in my ears, I opened my email. I scrolled through my inbox-an ad for a
two-for-one sale at Shoe Pavilion; a headline from the Chicago Tribune about a
bizarre string of local blood bank break-ins-and then started typing.
From: Cassie Greenberg [csgreenberg@gmail.com]
To: fjfitzwilliam@gmail.com
Subject: Your apartment listing
I saw your ad on Craigslist looking for a roommate. My lease is up soon and
your place sounds perfect. I'm a 32-year-old art teacher and have lived in
Chicago for ten years. I'm a nonsmoker, no pets. You said in your ad that you
aren't home much at night. As for me, I'm almost never home during the day, so
this arrangement would work out well for both of us, I think.
I'm guessing you've gotten a lot of inquiries about your apartment given the
location, price, and everything else. But just in case the room is still
available, I've included a list of references. I hope to hear from you soon.
Cassie Greenberg
A pang of guilt shot through me over how much I'd fudged some of the important
details.
For one thing, I'd just told this complete stranger that I was an art teacher.
Technically, that was the truth. It's what I'd studied to be in college, and it
isn't that I didn't want to teach. But in my junior year of college I fell in
love with applied arts and design beyond all hope of reason, and then in my
senior year I took a course where we studied Robert Rauschenberg and his method
of combining paintings with sculpture work. And that was it for me. Immediately
after graduation I threw myself into an MFA in applied arts and design.
Excerpted from My Roommate Is a Vampire by Jenna Levine Copyright © 2023 by Jenna Levine. Excerpted by permission of Berkley. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
What I thought about My Roommate is a Vampire
In this debut from Jenna Levine, starting artist Cassie Greenberg needs a place to stay ASAP and she doesn't exactly have the money to rent. When she sees a room for rent for $200 she knows it's too good to be true, but she pursues it anyway.
When she meets the rental owner, Frederick Fitzwilliam isn't exactly like the other adults she knows. He's a bit out of touch with the times, and it's true he isn't around much, but she finds out why when she discovers a bag of blood in the fridge. Ruh Roh. That is a bit of a problem for Cassie in the beginning.
This is a cute little fish out of water story with Frederick really not assimilating this century well. So Cassie is going to help him and in the process of teaching him how to live in the real world, she also develops feelings toward Frederick. There's some very cute stuff in the notes they send to each other and that was a lot of fun.
This is a light-hearted, slow burn paranormal romantic comedy. I liked that it kept things light, since sometimes paranormal romance can get a bit dark. There was a bit of a slow start, then things picked up and seemed to end too quickly.
I need to mention that there is a great supporting character in Reginald and I liked his page time very much. The story is told from Cassie's point of view, and it might have been nice to hear more from some of the other characters so that the reader can better connect with them.
Overall, this was a nice debut. Will be looking for future titles from this author.
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Berkley Romance (TR)
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2280309/jenna-levine
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