I dnfed at 31%. I like Charley as a character and feel like there's potential here, but the plot is all over the place and for a book that's less than 325 pages long, I felt like I had read 200 pages in the first 30%. 🤣

I liked some of the vibes with the urban fantasy + paranormal things, but just could not get invested in what was going on.

Bloodlust Blues has the follows the usual urban fantasy framework; a snarky young women with new, emerging magical powers that is reluctantly trying to solves a mystery in their small rural town. The thing about formula's is that they work, and Bloodlust Blues works. I think this book as the potential to be a new favourite urban fantasy series in the similar vein of Kat Daniels, Mercy Thompson, Charley Davidson and my personal favourite, Aileen Travers.

As small towns go, this one is relatively tame. Its the type of town with one local grocery shop, one bar, and one diner. What is interesting is the awareness of all things spooky, supernatural and paranormal. It seems the world knows and co-exists with the things that go bump in the night like vampires, werewolves and witches. This world is immediately captivating simply by this co-existing concept, but it's the characters that make the town loveable and engaging.

The owner of the bar is our main protagonist, Charley Underwood, who inherited The Stag after her mothers (potentially mysterious) passing. The bar serves not just alcohol and burgers to the locals, but operates a dangerous and very illegal side business out of the back alley, supplying vampire blood to those suffering illness or addiction. Small amounts of vampire blood eases pain, rejuvenates and helps ease addiction urges. The side business is like Fight Club; you don't talk about the co-op. Unfortunately, some unsavoury characters have gotten wind of this lucrative business and want in on the action, or else.

Charley has fallen into a bit of pickle. Her best-friend and side-business partner suddenly comes down with a case of slight demonic possession, the towns people are all acting weird, in a disruptive, sexual and aggressive type of way and the new business owner across the street being super suspicious.

The flow and pacing issues within the story would have benefited from the reduction of plot complications that Charley has to wade through and deal with. There was simply too many threads to deal with and has the potential to confuse or annoy some readers. At the end of the threads was the main antagonist who was quite underwhelming. The initial set up of their villainy was interesting but their development and conclusion was lacklustre and dissatisfying. They were too passive and not involved in any of the events effecting the town. It is always hilarious and sad when the villain is just a guy. Sure he's evil or whatever, but ultimately, he's just a guy who wanted to cause chaos. There is no emotional connection or turmoil for any character or the reader. An outsider who blew in and was swept away.

All pacing and villain issues aside, my biggest dislike was the handling of Walter "Mutt" Kramer, who worked as the dishwasher / sous chef at the bar. He was characterised big softie with a (likely) mental disability. He was a loveable character that was given a depressing story arc, that could be considered problematic. He became a victim of a crime and was blamed for another. I was deeply troubled with his storyline. It was certainly a questionable decision that I didn't think added anything to the story and was unresolved by the end, culminating in my increasing disappointment and dislike of the entire thing.

Not to mention the police presence in the book was felt eerily realistic, in their uselessness, dangerous vindictiveness, and disinclination against the vulnerable, like Mutt. I don't know the author's intention for how the police are depicted other than making them seem like bumbling southern fools, but there is a dark undertone that I believe was unintentional.

As this is the first book in a series, the world-building also slowed and disrupt the pacing. However, I still rate the book highly, despite my reservations on the plot and character issues. Highlights include the pet crow, and Candy, the ex-stripper turned small business owner.

One thing to note, I have seen other reviews feel Bloodlust Blues has drawn influence from True Blood (aka Sookie Stackhouse series) by Charlaine Harris. . Personally, I was too young to watch the show, or even go into the Adult section at my local library so I cannot speak on any connections or influences but I think this is worth noting for those familiar.

I am excited for the next few books in this series. The romance was merely a spark, in what I can only imagine a very going to be a quite lethargic slow-burn. I hope future books have tighter editing, streamlined plot and a more engaging villain.

Would I recommend this book??
If you like big urban fantasy series like Kat Daniels, Mercy Thompson, Charley Davidson . I also recommend reading my fav authors urban fantasy series Aileen Travers.Aileen Travers.

Will I re-read this book?
Yes! I am excited to try and find a physical copy, and collect the rest of the series in the future.

I'm not sure what I thought of this book tbh.

I was enjoying it to start with and then I felt like it was all over the place. I became confused about plots and I had to go back a few pages to make sure I didn't miss anything. I didn't miss anything, it was just another plot within a plot that made no sense.

Then some plots got forced into the story to make sure its all tied up. It felt rushed.

I really wanted to love it but I'm very Meh I guess.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

I really wanted to love this book but I just couldn't. I liked it but there were a few issues. Mainly, the author was weaving sooo many subplots together that it appeared like they sometimes forgot about one and then it was very clumsily woven back in, e.g. The Patrick subplot. I get that author was trying to convey a chaotic "everything going wrong all atnonce" pace but the weird filler bits that did not need to be in the story at all (Lucys brothers in the bar or the side trip to the deli) and thin plot in some places somehow made this book with a lot of very exciting things happening feel very slow.
I did however, really enjoy the premise and the overall story and would come back for the next. Hopefully book 2 has a stronger edit as I suspect that would help book 1 by a mile.

When I started this book I was excited and hopeful, because I thought that I just found a new urban fantasy series to love! And I also discovered that this is not the first book by this author, not by far, so I was hoping to go back and read her other works too, while waiting for the next book in this series, but... but sadly I changed my mind, drastically.
In part this book is not the right fit for me, meaning that, to put it simply, I search for different things in my urban fantasy and this is not it. Banter, irony, great characters, and kick-ass heroine are my to-go, and I didn't find them here. But that would be acceptable. I mean, obviously, I won't continue the series, but I should have still tried something else by the author, why not?
But, in part, this book is also bad. There is no other way to say it. And that is what made me give this one a low star rating, and this is why I won't go near anything else this author wrote.
Not every book is for everyone, and even if a book is not the right fit for me, it could always be a great fit for someone else, this stands even for books that I think are badly done, I know this. But the main difference is that if a book is not for me (but I don't think of it as "badly done") I may try something else by the author or recommend it to people that I know have some slightly, or not so slightly, different tastes. When I think a book is badly done, I won't recommend it and I won't give the author other chances, mostly.
And, for me, this book is bad: the MC seems to suffer, from time to time, from some kind of personality transplant. And the characters, as a whole, suffer from some severe cases of blindness and stupidity. And I can't find a reason for it all. It was just annoying. I will explain a tad more under the spoiler tag, but these two things made what could have been a mediocre (for me) book into a really bad one.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and I am voluntarily leaving a review.
I enjoyed starting this new series, it has everything you want from an Urban Fantasy book, witches, werewolves, vampires etc... we meet Charley who lives in Crimson a small town where you know everyone. When people start doing strange things and others just disappearing, Charles turns to her friends to help figure out what's going on. New vampires come to town and start making demands it's up to Charley to stop them and make sure her friends are safe.
Luanne Bennett never fails when it comes to Urban Fantasy. I look forward to Charley's journey in the rest of this series.

I really enjoyed this audio. Interesting start to a series. Charlie is a great character along with Candy, Dog, Patrick and the rest. I’m really curious about Tucker. And Samuel seems to be…well I need more. I’m definitely invested!

4.5 Stars!

This was a great start to a hopefully long and action-packed series with our badass fmc Charley! I loved the slow burn, magic, worldbuilding and all the characters.

It was a heartwarming read and I will definitely read the next book whenever its released!

Thanks to Netgalley for the arc. This is my honest opinion and review!

Three and a half
A good introduction to this new set of characters living in a small town inhabited by both humans and supernaturals. Charley inherited her late mum's bar two years ago and indeed her best friend is a Vampire but she's pretty ordinary isn't she ? Well not exactly as she's the offspring of a powerful Witch although it seems to have skipped a generation although maybe only Charley believes that. Hmm something strange is happening and it could be a dangerous drug being used but whatever the cause people are going missing and even winding up mysteriously dead !
I found this quite slow which perhaps the author intended as it meant we got to know quite a lot of Charleys neighbours. The big bad was terribly obvious sadly although there was a surprise as to exactly why things are happening. If you enjoy a smidge of romance in your urban fantasy then I think there is a strong possibility of that happening as this series progresses. For now though Charley is happily foot loose and fancy free but with an Alpha Werewolf and an ex Stripper ( my favourite character) on her case who knows what will happen next ? This was an easy, enjoyable read although it does slightly explore prejudice so not a throwaway story. I very much look forward to catching up with these characters again and that Charley will get to embrace and explore her powers.
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair

Amazing book! All the characters are beautifully written. The world building is spot on and it really keeps you gripped to the end.
Perfect for urban fantasy fans. Plenty of murder, mystery and very bad people. Loved it

This was a fun and fast-paced first book in this new urban fantasy series. This book had a lot going for it, Charley and her friends were great, it was pretty action-packed, and I loved watching Charlie discovering her abilities. I kind of think that they should have figured out that something was going on in their town before they did. All of a sudden all the people in town start acting super weird, aggressive angrily, and sexually and everyone's like oh that's odd.. but keeps acting like this kind of thing happens every day.
Other than that I did enjoy the way things played out, and the relationships Charley has with her friends and her new kitty bestie, and once people began to realize that things were going downhill and actually started to investigate I liked the way it played out and enjoyed that final battle between Charley and the bad guy.
I would defineitly be interested in reading the next book in the series and see how Charlies magic is going to grow, if she gets more kitty time, and if shes going to take Sameul and thier chemistry seriously.

Urban Fantasy and supernatural book fans will enjoy Bloodlust Blues, the first book in a new series by Luanne Bennett! Bloodlust Blues is a fun, entertaining and over the top (in all the right ways) book full of interesting paranormal/supernatural characters. There is a lot of fun and menacing banter between them. I had a good time reading/listening to this book. I had both the kindle and audiobook versions of this book which made for an enjoyable reading experience. This book felt like a mash up of True Blood and Cheers! Humans, wolf, and vampire live together in the town of Crimson, Georgia. Make no mistake, Crimson is not Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, it's darker and more dangerous. This is the world they live in, and I was happy to visit Crimson as a silent observer watching as the you-know-what hit the fan.

The Stag is a bar owned by Charley who happens to be a witch. Charley's bar is welcome to everyone including humans, vampires, wolves. It's popular, welcoming and has a back room where sales are made. Things take a turn when a new restaurant in town and a new vampire group/empire and their intentions are far from good.

As I mentioned, this book was fun, entertaining, and a nice change of pace from what I typically read. It also had just enough danger, tension, twists, and turns to keep me invested and wanting to know how things would end. I was rooting for Charley and her friends and booing and hissing the diabolical characters in this book.

This was my first book by Luanne Bennett, and I look forward to reading more of her books.


Thank you to Second Sky Books, Bookouture Audio and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

As the reader I immediately felt like a towny in Crimson, Georgia. Sitting at the White Stag watching all the action. I picked this up on solely based on the cover and blind read to enjoy with a friend. We follow Charley, bar owner of White Stag as she has taken over the bar. Engrossed with the uniqueness of this town most often people avoid. As the sole bar in town we see an immediate found family between Charley, Dog, Patrick and Lucy. Each with their own strong personalities. The mystery unfolds as some newcomers arrive in town, chaos ensues. It felt like an episode of Supernatural and I was eating up all of it. The character development, relationships (platonic), and the plot curiosity of this world was so amazing. Candy was one of my favorite characters and I loved the lol moments throughout this popcorn read.


I absolutely loved this read and was intrigued from the first page. The world building was fantastic and had a very interesting premise. I loved following Charley as the owner of The White Stag in Crimson, Georgia. There was so much going on in this fun little story. So much world building and I loved the relationships in this book. I could not stop laughing throughout this book. I loved the pace and plot of this story and look forward to continuing this series.

Thank you to Netgalley, Second Sky and Luanne Bennett for a digital copy of Bloodlust Blues expected release date of March 22, 2024.

First off a big thanks to the publisher, as well as to Bookouture, the author Luaanne Bennett and to NetGalley for letting me read and review Bloodlust blues and to my friend for doing this as a buddy read, this book was a hoot to read ,it had me laughing at some of the craziness that was happening, as well as Wondering how in the world did that happen, and saying to myself nope that town is way to crazy for me to visit or even live in. It had everything from humans , to vampires, to Witches as well as werewolves, and with each turn of the page the craziness didn't stop, as for the characters there was some I ending up loving so much more then others.

Arc received from NetGalley.
Spoiler free review.

3.5 🌟
TLDR: Perfect if you want a light, cosy read in an Urban Fantasy setting. Be aware there are times you’ll be scratching your head in confusion and that the plot is very surface level and won't throw you any surprises. I plan to read the next instalment, however my expectations will be a bit lower.

Bloodlust Blues, for its majority, is a really good comfort read. From the get go Luanne Bennet makes sure you feel like a part of the town of Crimson and are already acquainted with the locals. She writes in a way that makes you feel like you’re coming back to a world you were already settled into.

Unfortunately, the story really falls short anytime the antagonist enters the scene. It’s very clear from the get go how the story will unfold and you are often left screaming at our protagonist Charley, and wondering how she can’t see who the bad guy is or why she isn’t finding certain situations suspicious. I was actually, in my own head, making excuses as to how certain things were missed just to try and keep myself immersed.

While I didn’t love this book as much as I'd hoped, I plan to read the next instalment as I do think there is a lot of potential for the series and hope future releases have a bit more mystery in them!

I wouldn’t be running out to buy this book but I do plan to look into Bennetts other series’ as she does such a fantastic job at worldbuilding and immersing you straight away into a cosy little town with a good dose of the supernatural.

Bloodlust Blues was okay. Overall it has a feel similar to Patricia Briggs books, but misses the mark. There are some consistency issues and areas that are just overdone. However, I liked the story and the characters are good. I might keep reading the series.

2 stars - It was ok

As someone who loves urban fantasy I was excited to jump into this new series, sadly while this book did have some good things, there were quite a few issues that keep me from loving this book.

Charley is owner and sometimes bartender of the White Stag, a paranormal friendly bar in the town of Crimson. While I liked Charley sometimes, I mostly found her actions frustrating. To start with she is the daughter of a witch and a human but spends almost the whole book denying that she has any magic even though she is constantly using magic. As you can imagine this quickly got old. I don’t mind a main character denying their magic because they are afraid or in hiding, but to just constantly deny it because your mother told you you don’t have magic is very dumb and annoying. My other issue with Charley was that she says she is concerned about her best friend and the missing town people but her actions don’t really show that. I feel like a lot of the time once she walked away from her best friend he was forgotten about until someone reminded her that he was still in trouble. Her actions were just always at odds with her words.

My other issue with this book was the pacing. This started slow and continued to have slow sections throughout the book that featured mundane scenes, like just normal days at the bar. All the action doesn’t really happen until the end, even though it was obvious from the very beginning who the villain was. Charley and everyone else ignore all the signs that are pointing to the villain, even when the people are clearly last seen with that person before they cause problems.

While I think this book has a good concept, I think I would have liked to see more of an investigation from the beginning for the actual villain and more of a separate resolution around the co-op instead of just it being concluded from the ending fight. It felt like the co-op ended up being an afterthought even though it was the main focus for most of the story.

TW: Death, violence, racism (against vampires), vandalism, and hate crimes; death of a parent in car accident mentioned; animal deaths briefly mentioned;

Charley runs a bar called the Stag a town called Crimson. Her town is made up of humans, witches, shifters and vampires. When she opens her bar on Thursday night everything seems to be off. A stranger appears, she ends up with a new business across the street from her and a sudden shortage of blood from her co-op. Things are definitely off in the town of Crimson and Charley has to the bottom of it before her town falls apart and more people disappear.

Bloodlust Blues starts off a little slow but you quickly start moving in the story and it captures your attention. The characters are exciting and terrifying at times but over all the story is great and I very much enjoyed it. Hope their are more stories about Charlie Underwood and the town of Crimson.

This book has everything, and more in the eclectic town of Crimson. A badass witch ( does she know her powers?) willing to help her town people, a blend of supernaturals, and plain old humans. Along with running her bar she also runs a interesting co-op while trying to navigate a civil war breaking out all over town. Totally enjoyable, creative, and interesting read.
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3.25 stars

I found the writing to be done relatively well, but the story wasn't terribly engaging. It was incredibly obvious who the "bad guy" was, and we essentially read a whole bunch of nothing before the big unveiling. At around the 60% mark I started getting really bored. It just felt like a whole lot of filler and not much substance. Are there any romantic relationships? Not really. There is at best a hint of one to come, but I'm being quite generous with that. The mystery was really not much of a mystery. As stated above, it was incredibly obvious who was pulling the strings, and it just became irritating after a while. Like, why is no one paying attention to the creepy guy across the street who opened a french fusion restaurant in the middle of the sticks and keeps giving out free food? This book could have been 1/3 the length, and it would have been infinitely better. I have no interest in reading the next one. There were also a few errors, which I tend to be forgiving of in ARCs. These weren't terribly egregious, but they were quite obvious. I don't really know a lot about the book business. Is it common to send out ARCs that haven't been edited? Or was this just poorly edited? Feh and meh.