Thanks to Netgalley for this arc. This is a really easy read and really spicy of course. This was a short book and the romance wasn’t too deep for me but I really liked this book from beginning to end. Suzie was a pretty normal character but Arkan was pretty swoony and straight forward. Lots of diverse characters but we don’t really get to learn about them at all which is a bummer but dang, the spice is hot in this and I enjoyed it.

I wanted to like this book but ultimately the character and world development didn't provide the backbone this book needed to execute some of the darker themes.

I never got a good feel for the main characters, particularly the MMC. This made the relationship between the two main characters fall flat and feel unearned. It also made the darker content feel even more dark in a way that didn't really add anything other than shock value. The world building also contributed to this. We know there are vampires and werewolves but we really don't know a lot about either of them. The only thing we learn about the MMC being a vampire is that he feeds off of werewolves and witches feed off him. Other than that, he's just a dude. Because I didn't get a good sense of this world things like the basically how to rape a werewolf class also felt unnecessary and grotesque for no reason.

I do really appreciate how the author addresses the dark material in the novel. I think it is a class act on how to prepare and take care of your readers and Darcy Fayton should take a lot of pride in that. The pre content warnings and in text content warnings with post chapter summary is fantastic.

Thank you NetGalley and author Darcy Fayton for the copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

"As night falls, Volmasque Academy transforms into a dark realm of forbidden desires, where wolf shifters like Susie are forced to succumb to the dark will of vampires. When the headmaster unexpectedly arrives to feed on a vulnerable female student, Susie has an overwhelming urge to shield her and finds herself standing at the crossroads of morality and survival. To protect another, can Susie muster the courage to invite the monster into her room—and into her bed?

Haunted by his dark past, Headmaster Arken seeks solace in drink to numb his pain, and trudges through the daily grind at the academy. Until a student captures his eye, breaking his monotony and offering a glimmer of hope for the future. Inspired by Susie's ambition to transform the academy for the better, Arken finds himself craving not only her blood, but her companionship as well. But to win her heart, he must contemplate the toughest challenge of transforming himself."

This is a fun and enjoyable read. I like the first one, and I like this one too. This is a very spicy book so please read at your own risk.

Thank you to Net Galley for this ARC!

Plug and Drain is a erotic fantasy-romance set in a world where vampires reign over werewolves, who serve as food supply and sexual pets. Susie is a werewolf who exists on the bottom-tier of the already denigrated werewolves as someone who can't fully shift. Strong trigger warnings are necessary for this book, as we start off learning about forced sexual encounters and assaults in multiple character backgrounds.

Darcy has done a fantastic job of setting up an intriguing world. Our vampire king is introduced as a sadistic villain, and the school setting really serves to further the world-building, with classes about submission. Our character POV's also further serve the world-building -- at the start, I was really annoyed with Professor Arken for being so blase about the assaults in his school; for sleeping with a student despite knowing it was inappropriate; and most strikingly to me, for being so shocked that our main character had never had an orgasm during sex. Like, whoopdeedoo, she's making all these passive comments about non-consensual sex and all he cares about is the orgasm??
But, taking a step back from that immediate alarm in my brain, all of this fits in with the world. Our MMC finds abhorrent actions to be the norm because they ARE the norm. And I have to say, I respect that Darcy was able to reflect that with internal monologuing, when most of the time, authors just write a morally-upright character that disagrees with the rules to make their own characters more palatable.

From a writing perspective, this book could use a heavy dose of more "show, not tell." Especially at the start of the book, it felt like our characters were just info-dumping, whether about the school set-up or how they looked. "I'm a strawberry blonde, curvy, blah blah." It felt reminiscent of poor erotica writing -- and now that I've read more erotica books, I'm setting higher standards! We can have good writing and a book about sex!

Giving this book 2 stars for the well-developed world, but poor writing and 5/5 for spice level!

First off the first page… 🥵 “Are you ready pet? On your knees, there’s a good girl…” yes that was written to YOU, not the character…

I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about the teacher/student vibe originally but it was written well where it wasn’t your typical teacher/student story so it kept you interested.

The wolf/vampire dynamic is interesting. I’ve not seen a dynamic like it where the wolves are basically sex slaves to them. Definitely some trigger for rape but it’s warned. But it wasn’t very descriptive in those scenes if it is difficult.

I am ready for the next story. It was left on a cliffhanger!!! But it was such a good one! There are so many ways it could go.

Welcome to a world of vampires and wolf shifters. They are ruled by a viscous vampire king who has made it so that vampires are the elite species while wolf shifters are turned into pets and witches are illegal. Interspecies relationships are also illegal.

This story follows a steamy love story between the vampire head master Arken and a student wolf shifter Susie. We find that Arken is surprisingly sweet for a vampire. He treats Susie like an equal instead of a pet.

There are plot twists at every corner. It really keeps you on your toes. The spice is off the charts and is not for the shy. Speaking of which, please check your trigger warnings. There’s two pages you should definitely read through before you dive in.

I was mostly hooked from the beginning. Although, I did find myself setting the book aside to take a break here and there. I still flew through it. It did end on a cliffhanger.

This is a prequel to the Plug and Claim Duology.

3.5/5

Teacher/student
Age gap
Paranormal

Plug and Drain is a steamy Paranormal dark romance. The spice was good with an amazing plot line. Susie is a part human part wolf that can't fully shift. Arken is a vampire who is the headmaster of the school. Susie sticks up for those that can't stick up for themselves. She is one to think of others before herself and save people. Can she save Arken from the things he has done? Does he feel worthy? This book is worth the read I can't wait for the next book.

Another well written escapist fantasy from Darcy Fayton!
This story focuses on the forbidden romance between Arken- the vampire headmaster at Volmasque academy and Susie, a student. Susie is an anomaly- she should be a wolf shifter but instead she’s caught forever half way between a wolf and a human so she’s got a permanent tail and ears and short claws. She’s an outsider indeed. Having always been on the outside she’s quite sensitive and perceptive of other outsiders. She’s giving and kind and willing to put others needs before her own.
Arken- to start with is really just a burned out drunk who was awarded the headmaster position by the king as a pawn that can be controlled and reliable.
In a desperate need to feed, Arken finds Susie after she begs him not to take another student. She knows she shouldn’t enjoy this, but to her consternation, she finds herself attracted to this enigma of a vampire. And thus the story begins.
Fayton skillfully navigates the reader through the development of their unique dynamic while telling the tale of the situation at the Academy, and setting the stage for Kira’s arrival. There is a good balance of spice and plot, and I very much enjoyed the short references to Kira and her impending arrival.
This gets 4 stars because I so much dislike any story where Heinrick shows up for longer than a mention or two. While he’s necessary for the plot, I wish he was somehow less.

This book wasn't my cup of tea, but I still finished it and thought the plot was interesting and the writing was well-done.

If you love dark romance with constant noncon that's claimed to be dub con when it really leaves no choice then this is for you. I didn't enjoy this, the abusers got away with so much and the power imbalance was overwhelming, the scenes with the abuse were so long and it just didn't sit well with me. I understand that the vamps are the highest of the food chain but at no point do you want to root for them or want the relationship to work because of how it plays out. Just a no for me unfortunately

I am NOT a fan of vampires and werewolves and I'm not sure if I knew initially that this was a vampire warewolf thing but I almost quit after the first chapter. Let me tell you... I got this book YESTERDAY. I am done with it. I did not expect to read that so fast it's crazy. It was good, it made me cry, it made my inner trauma sing. I don't even know. I hated it but I also loved it.

I know this book contains trigger warnings but there’s a difference between sensitive content and the relentless abuse of the female characters. I skipped large sections of this book hoping for a satisfying resolution but ultimately it ended on a cliffhanger where the main female character was likely getting attacked again. I only gave this book one star because it wouldn’t let me save the review without one.

Talk about spice. The kind that you don’t put down, and read in one night. I love a good paranormal romance. The lovers, that shouldn’t be. But… in this realm it’s less taboo for me. There are some for sure triggers. That made me want to jump in and rip throats out. Susie and Arkin, the love is sweet and genuine… the passion is hot. I love Susie, and she’s not your typical main character….. she honest, dark, and brave. Arkin, is gentle in all the right places. I can’t wait to see what happens next .

This is a limited review of the first four chapters I read of this book Plug and Drain, the first book in a duology. I did DNF (did not finish) the whole book, so I am not aware if some of these critiques change later in the book. There are many trigger warnings at the beginning of this book that I am not going to list in this review, but I will be talking about some of them. I don't think they are spoilers, but proceed at your own caution.

I did not enjoy reading the first four chapters of this book. I appreciate that the author is trying to open with some action, but the rest is just a lot of telling and very little showing. The book jumps right into the non-consent and dubious consent content immediately. The world building is haphazard. It is a very cruel and uneven world, where vampires are on top and shape shifting wolves are below them. It doesn't explain why though. What caused this dichotomy? Was there a war between the two that the shifters lost? Are the vampires just that much stronger? I don't mind a cruel world if we have the context for why this system exists, but the author doesn't give us any. The writing itself is very sophomoric and doesn't feel written for an adult audience. The content is very adult though. I did not enjoy this juxtaposition at all.

On the positive side, it reads very quickly due to the young adult level of writing. I did like the dialogue between the main characters when there was some.

I didn't like that the headmaster vampire character was being positioned as a "good" guy even when he is doing bad things, non-consent things. It felt very apologetic towards the abuser not the abused, that really turned me off for this story. I don't read a lot of dark romance, but I do read dubious consent romance. The part I read was non-consent being portrayed as dubious consent. I don't enjoy that type of story.

Interesting ideas, but the execution is not very palatable for me.

*I did receive this as an eARC from NetGalley*

This book is about Susie and Arken. Susie is a werewolf living in a wolf where vampires must feed off of them. They all live in Volmasque Academy, where Arken is the headmaster. One day, Arken is looking for blood and goes to the room across the hall from Susie. Werewolves are submissive to vampires and cannot say no. Even if they do, the vampires do not listen and take what they want anyway. The room across the hall is Molly, someone who Susie wants to protect from vampires and their urges. She begs Arken to take her instead and he obliges. They start to develop feelings for each other but the King and others keep getting in the way of their love.

Ok let's talk about the elephant in the room. When I first saw this book, I was looking at the cover and thinking surely that can't be.....it is. It is exactly what you think it is. I know the whole series is based off of the same title pattern, but as someone who has not read the other books, nor will read the other books, I can think of so many title options that would have been better. Like the idea the title is based off of is like the least influential part of the book. Another thing I did not like about this book was all the mentions of (Trigger Warning) rape. First off, it is an underlying theme throughout the ENTIRE book. It is mentioned in the list of trigger warnings inside the book, but I would also add it in the description somewhere so people who are just reading the description are aware. There was the one scene with the King that literally made me want to throw up because it just kept going. Like, I think the point was to show how helpless everyone is and the uncontrolled power that the King has, but I feel like there are other ways to show that. In the list of warnings at the beginning, it also says that it ends on a cliffhanger. I would not say that the end is a cliffhanger. Like there was no drama, it just felt like the author stopped writing. It was in the middle of a scene - I think if it is going to be a cliffhanger to just end it with Susie walking into the room and boom she sees what is happening and end it there.

Also this has nothing to do with the contents of the book, but reading it was very unpleasant visually. I downloaded it from Netgalley to my Kindle. I read on the Kindle app on my iPhone. In the app the book was formatted so that it was a grey box in the middle of the screen. It did not match any Kindle settings and so the entire time it was just a grey box with the green border (the setting I normally have). The words also seemed to be in italics which irritated my eyes. This could have just been because I was not reading it on a real Kindle, but this has never happened to me with any other book.

There is also a disconnect with this book between NetGalley and Goodreads. I cannot post my review directly to Goodreads because the book is not under the same ISBN.

Drain and Plug promised an enticing blend of romance and vampiric intrigue, yet fell short of expectations. While the author skillfully crafted a brooding atmosphere, the plot lacked depth and originality. The characters, though initially intriguing, failed to develop beyond superficial stereotypes, leaving readers longing for more complexity. Ultimately, while not entirely devoid of entertainment, Drain and Plug fails to leave a lasting impression in the crowded realm of vampire literature.

I really wanted to love this book. I was alright with the long list of trigger warnings but it felt like there was no true story line. I did not like the fact the wolves were in the school training to be pets and feeders for the vampires. However, I did love that Susie was trying to look out for her piers and change how that was. Overall, I liked some of the book but so much of it just felt like it was only based around the sex. I was hoping for some semblance of plot that had a story arc but I could not push myself to finish the book. I had to DNf it, the spice is great but it just did not keep my attention story wise.

ARC Review - 2.5/5

I thought the book had a lot of potential and was building to a big ending but it felt like it ended too early. I believe it was supposed to end on a cliffhanger but it more just felt like it ended mid chapter and didn't really close out the book. Also the trigger warnings were not explicit or strong enough. The warnings mentioned SA/nonconsensual activity but there was a full rape scene that went on for several pages and was really difficult to read. I don't think that I will read the second book or any of the other books in the series.

I have to say that this series is definitely my guilty pleasure. I read the Plug and Claim duology and absolutely loved it. I couldn’t wait to read Susie and Arken’s story. I really enjoyed the forbidden element and the spice was good but surprisingly not as steamy as Plug and Claim. I was disappointed with the ‘cliffhanger’ at the end, but I’m still eager to read more of Susie and Arken’s story.

Plug and Drain is a steamy, and intriguing, paranormal book. We are quickly introduced to Susie, and the main interest, Arken. Darcy Fayton skilfully writes hooking and exciting scenes, but maintains an interesting plot with the academy Susie is a member of. No character is one sided, where there are respectable attributes: Susie is caring and stands up for her peers, Arken is protective etc.