I have some mixed feelings about this book. While it's a well-written novel and I enjoyed myself for the most part, some aspects didn't quite work for me, which is why I ended up giving it 3 out of 5 stars.

Let's start with the positives.

The main characters are a definite highlight. They have complex personalities and a lot of depth, each dealing with their struggles. I appreciated how the author crafted them, making them feel like real people with genuine challenges to overcome. However, their connection developed very quickly, with little buildup. I would have loved to see their relationship evolve more naturally over time.

On the downside, I found the plot quite slow and dragged out, with a lot of info dumping that didn't add much substance. Despite a lot going on in the book, it somehow felt like nothing significant happened. The pacing made it hard to stay engaged at times, and I often found myself wanting the story to move along more briskly.

Overall, this book isn't a bad book by any means. It has its strengths, especially with its well-crafted characters, but the slow pace and lack of substantial plot development held it back for me. If you're a fan of character-driven stories and don't mind a slower pace, you might still find this book worth a read.

It was a cute and short story but I think it should had been a lot better if I'm been honest.. Did I liked Freddie and Phoebe?? Yeah and that's why I think things could had follow other direction.. I'm sorry about my short opinion but I don't have much more to say

Snake Charming is a queer paranormal Romance novel following Freddi a vampire down on her luck, who heads to Toronto to hide from the Berlin mob and Phoebe a trans Lamia trying to recover from a nasty break-up. A chance meeting between the two makes for a memorable night - but that’s all it can be. Or is it? Follow the two as they work through feelings they weren’t ready for while tackling the demons of their past.

This book is short and sweet, there is very little world building and a strong focus on the romance. Both Freddi and Phoebe gave me giddy, feet kicking moments & I was rooting for them to figure it out from night one. I overall had an enjoyable time and it was a good palette cleanser from my usual fantasy tomes. There is loads of suggestive language in here but the ‘spicy’ scenes are all fade to black. I do think there could have been a bit more depth to the characters I think I would have been more stressed when the stakes came into play.

I think this is a good read for anyone looking for a quick & cute queer rep romance and are happy to just roll with where the story goes.

3⭐️ for me.

Thanks to Netgalley & the Publisher for providing me with an E-Arc in exchange for an honest review.

CW: Sexual Content, Mentions of Nazi Germany, Cancer, Emotional Abuse, Blood, Death


3.5 / 5 Stars

Let's get right to it, shall we? I enjoyed myself for the most part, and this isn't a bad book per se, but some parts of it just didn't quite work for me. The biggest one being the word-building. This book is quite daring and it's certainly amazing to see and read about monsters that usually don't get the time of day and the love they deserve, but that's also were we run into issues. There's no way some of the creatures running around a human city would be able to do so without some way to hide their true form. If you want a book that does a great job in making me believe that monsters can hide in plain side, look no further than "Wolf Town". Funny enough, I read that one shortly before this one so "Snake Charmings" flaws and all the ways it could have handled the worldbuilding better were oh so more glaring. The book kind of begs you to just roll with it and throw your disbelieve out the window without ever really giving you enough reason to do so. Some other reviewers hinted at the fact that this book shares a universe with some of the authors other books but that isn't really solving this books world-building issues. Which is sad cause I do enjoy the parts of it were it DOES acknowledge some issues a X meter long snake lady would have.

My other issues lies in the romance. Those two do have chemistry and when we do see them on page together, I can see all the components of them working out just fine, just the way how we got to that point didn't always work for me. Especially since the book takes place during the course of about a week, which makes this even more insta-love-y.

The emotional abuse and ex-partner plotline was my personal favourite, cause the author decided to put a lot of devotion into that story arc, making it really stand out. Phoebe as a whole is just a really great character and I loved her a lot. Freddie on the other hand, had a lot of issues and went through a theraphy speed trial that didn't feel quite as earned. She certainly got the smaller end of the stick.

I would love to comment on the "plot twist" villain because I just KNOW that one could have made him better. He's got so much potential. I love masterminds, IF they are written well. Sadly, he wasn't really. But I don't wanna say much else about him.

Final thoughts:
That being said, I did enjoy this book. Cause when it did good, it did good. This could have been a solid 4, if only we had made some changes. Still, if you like queer Lamias & Vampires and characters with a bit more baggage on their shoulders, you might end up enjoying this one.

This gritty, vampire/mob/LGBTQIA+ novel is must read! Readers are kept on the edge of their seats as they follow characters through twists and turns that take them deeper into this world.

I had really high hopes for this book. A vampire and a lamia with a forbidden love aspect and mafia drama? That’s an extremely intriguing description. However, the overall story fell a little flat for me.

The characters themselves are pretty dynamic. They have multi-faceted personalities with personal demons to work through. But their connection to each other moved along very quickly with little build up. Kind of a “hookup to relationship” scenario I wasn’t expecting from the description.

The plot also didn’t really progress until the last 50-75 pages. I wasn’t entirely sure what Freddie’s history had to do with anything, despite the description that people were after her, because it isn’t built up at all.

Overall, I think the story had a really good foundation, but it just wasn’t fleshed out enough to captivate me.

Fully shocked myself with how much I enjoyed this!! I’m trying this year to delve into genres I don’t usually read and thrilled I picked this up. Thanks NetGalley and Bold Strokes for the ARC.

Feel very cliché and annoying for how quickly I fell for this horny asshole vampire but sadly, I did. Freddie and Phoebe were both really fun and oddly relatable considering I should have nothing to relate to.

The whole cast of characters around them, and this world that they live in, felt so real and I can joyfully relish in the idea that Etobicoke does in fact have this little sparkle of magical realism.

Wish we had the chance to see more of just about everybody in this, would be more than happy to read full length novels about literally any one of them, which so rarely happens to me.

Overall, I absolutely loved this and will definitely be checking out more of Genevieve McCluer’s stuff.

Good enough book. This isn't a story that I normally read and it took me a bit to get into it. The main characters were written well and the relationship between them was really cute. I would have preferred this to be a more paranormal and not so much fantasy forward, but it was still a very interesting book. One main character is a vampire and the other is a lamia and then we have a stalker and the mob thrown in for some drama. This was kind of a slow burn, aquantances to lovers romance with some drama. I would recommend this book, but I don't think I'll read it again.

A cute story but it wasn't for me. I just couldn't connect to the characters. However, I would recommend as I'm sure this would appeal to someone else.


Thank you NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for this ARC copy.

Snake Charmer is a fun, witty, flirty book about a vampire and lamia who dispite all odds, find each other. I loved the characters' fun energy, the cute romance, and how the high stakes unfold as we learn about the characters. I'd definitely recommend this to any queer person looking for a cute romance wanting to read something a little more out of the box than other romances.

You have Freddie who's a vampire that's on the run from the Berlin mob and head to Toronto to get away, then enters Phoebe who's a streamer with a decent online following but keeps private that she is a trans lamia, she just discovered her soon to be ex=girlfriends has been lying to her for the entire relationship and destroying her image to said online followers by leaking revealing photos are her. All they really wanted was a one-time type of thing but the more time spent together changed that however if feel like it jumped just a little to quickly from one end of the spectrum to the other. Also personally I'm not a fan of the fade to black scenes I'm more of an open door kinda person, if you like or don't mind either one then this book has steam in regards to afterwards when then "deeds" are done just no "spice". This is a good monster romcom type of novel and I would defenitly read more books books from this author.



Thanks to NetGalley, Genevieve McCluer and Bold Stroke Books for the ARC

2 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for providing me with the Snake Charming eARC for my honest review.

*The rating will only show on NetGalley, I do not rate books I dnf on Goodreads.

I think fans of The Ex Hex would like this book. Similar vibes and kind of similar writing style. The LGBTQA+ rep in this book was also great. Even better than what’s described in the blurb, I was pleasantly surprised. Now with that being said, why’d I dnf?

Is there such a thing as a slow, dragged-out info dump with no substance? Well I guess there is, because even after a quarter of the way through this book, none of my questions about the world building or character’s backstory were answered—but the questions kept piling! Too much random things are going on. I was hooked at first. The book started off strong, getting me curious about everything. But there’s just not much focus to the story. Even basic/important plot points remained unaddressed.

I don’t want to give spoilers but the very first big question that the main character, Freddie, faces—the great “culture shock” after arriving in Toronto just kept getting brushed off and even at the 25% point, I’m still left wondering what is up with that. Many info were mentioned offhandedly. Which is a great way to get readers interested. But these offhand comments will only frustrate readers as the author does it for every other plot point. The culture shock thing could’ve been easily and quickly addressed right after Freddie landed in the bar. Then this would have also made it more understandable of why what Phoebe’s ex did was so horrible/dangerous for Phoebe. Because I did not sense any overwhelming malice behind her actions. Hell, we barely know the circumstances surrounding what led up to that point. Despite that, I will say that the depiction of Phoebe’s heartbreak and reaction was very well done. I sympathized a lot with her and her anger at the betrayal. I just wished that I was given more info on the significance of what the ex did and details on how the fallout came about. Like while I sympathized with you girl, I did not feel much hatred for your ex 😭 Which based on the premise of the book, I’m assuming that I should.

Another distracting point was the fade to black sex scenes. Don’t get me wrong, that’s actually how I prefer things but those characters were going aattt itttt goddamn. So there were frequent mini time skips/scene cuts. I understand it’s part of the characterization and situationship but since it happened so often and was always at the forefront of the narration, it felt… weird. It got to a point where I found myself glossing over texts often just so I could stop reading about vague recounts and references to what happened in the bedroom and get back to the actual story itself.

Snake Charming is an adult paranormal romance about the relationship between a vampire and a lamia.

Freddie is a German vampire fleeing the Berlin mob and trying to make a new life for herself in Toronto. She stumbles upong Phoebe, a pro-gamer trans lamia, and they have a one-night-stand and are happy to leave it at that. Yet they cannot stop thinking and stumbling about eachother.

This is the first official romcom novel I am reading so I am very unused to the tropes. It was a refreshing and easy read but it did feel corny at times and repetitive (we get it the sex is the best ever). It is an adult novel but there is no smut/spice, all the scenes are fade to black, even though there is talk about sex.

The pacing felt a bit off because the romance takes a really huge place in the book (as it should because it is a romance novel) but one of the plot element is brought back at the end and the last arc goes by so fast it almost feels like a different novel. I also feel like the character writing was not at its best during the last arc.

I do think it is a very diverse book with a lot of different queer characters. It deals a little with the main characters' past experiences with trauma but I feel like overall it is quite a cosy book.

Freddie and Phoebe had good chemistry but it did feel like instalove. Vivi was a really fun character and I would have liked to see her more. The roster of fiends is very varied even though the book could benefit from describing them more as not everyone would be familiar with what a tengu is.

If you are looking for a cozy paranormal (monsterf*cker?) romance without the spice, this might be the book for you !

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Snake Charming by Genevieve McCluer 2.5⭐️

In this book, we follow Freddie, an 800+ year old vampire and Phoebe, a trans ancient lamia. Freddie is running from the German mob after borrowing and gambling away a large sum of money. Phoebe is struggling through a break up with a crazy stalker.

I was excited by the blurb for this book and read it relatively quickly. The writing was good but I felt the pacing was a bit off. It was hard for me to wrap my head around the entirety of this book happening in about a week. The story mostly focuses on Freddie and Phoebe continuously running into each other and then all the mob stuff is shoved into the last 30% or so. There was a lot going on in this book but also somehow nothing really happened. It was definitely an interesting premise and I enjoyed reading it but I wouldn’t read it again.

A cute and cozy take on on a monster romance. The two lovers are great characters and also the trans aspect of the lamia was nicely integrated. At the end there is a little action but not a lot.

There was a sort a of charm in this book but it suffered from let me cram everything I can think of into one book and see what happened. It is also a part of a series. I had no idea.

This book has a certain charm and I really, really wanted to like it more than I did because I’m a fan of fiends. But sadly it just has way too many ideas, it’s like a kitchen sink answer to an exam question. I was struggling with this aspect before the Nazi’s made an appearance, and by the time Homer was mentioned I was finding it hard to care about anything in the story. The writing has promise, but the editor should have been more active at the drafting stage

This is a really cool take on monster / vampire romance books.
I honestly think thought it was adorable.
I love that it’s modern times and they have to navigate life in normal world as monsters.
It’s super entertaining, the writing is great, it’s got good world building, all in all I would recommend it, it’s a bit hard to follow at first, and a bit hard to get into it but just hold strong.
Lol it gets adorable
If you are looking for a human thing it’s not it, but if you like monsters it’s great 🥰

Was this part of a series or something. Did I miss a series title or number somewhere because why did I get so confused while reading this book? It's not something that happens to me a lot since I'm a huge fantasy reader and not the most stupid (not to brag). I felt like I was supposed to know so much of the stuff that was mentioned and it was never explained in any kind of way nor were we given any kind of clue to figure that out. The characters were nice to follow along, I'll give it that, but I felt completely lost for the first 40% of the novel 2.25 stars

Phoebe is a trans lamia who just had her heart broken, Freddie is a lesbian vampire who owes the German mob a lot of money. Both are running from something, especially their feelings when they meet and share an incredible night together. As Freddie bumps into old friends and begins to contemplate the choices she has made in her life, she realizes that she wants something with Phoebe. Phoebe wants to take things slow but she can't resist the way Freddie really sees her. As their past catch up with them they work together to make a future together.

This book was a fun quick read that has a lot of found family elements with a cache of good nerdy friends and a variety of LGBTQIA+ representation throughout. It was kind of hard to get into the story because this is actually I think the third book in this universe but I didn't really see anything to indicate that. They're was some exposition but honestly not enough unless you'd read the other books in this universe. It always kind of felt like I was missing out on a joke. Also the spice is primarily fade to black though there is a lot of discussion of sex and sex adjacent things throughout the book.

Overall it was a good read and I would recommend it.