This was so fun! At times a little wacky, but it just added to the story's charm.

Pandora's family and their quirks were the highlight of the book. Because of this, I think Pandora and Victor's love story suffered just a smidge. They had a wonderful slow burn, but I still wanted to SEE a little bit more of our two MCs falling in love, rather than just be told it as the story progressed.

If you enjoy a ridiculous plot, family shenanigans, and a sweet romance, this book if for you! A highly entertaining story, that I'm sure I'll read again and again.

Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for the eARC!

If you’re looking for a comforting rom-com with supernatural elements this is it.

There’s marriage of convenience, talking pets, spice, a vampire family which continues to grow and grow, secret keeping and a wedding which starts getting out of hand thanks to said vampire family.

I would have a liked a little more depth to Victor and to see certain family members get their comeuppances but I did like the chemistry between the characters and their shared interests, the quirky family members and the storyline as a whole.

This was so fun!

If you liked Jenna Levine's My Roommate is a Vampire series, definitely give this a go!

I don't know what else to say besides this was such a fun little story. We have a fake wedding with vampires and family drama! Our FMC needs to get married by the end of the year if she wants to inherit her family's fortune, so she decides to marry a regular patron at the coffee shop she works at (and she just so happens to have a crush on him). He has debt, so she could pay it off and divorce and there'd be nothing to worry about. Except this is a romance novel, so we all know how that's gonna go.

Highly recommend if you need an easy, cozy and light-hearted little rom-com!

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review! My Goodreads review is up and my TikTok (Zoe_Lipman) review will be up at the end of the month with my monthly reading wrap-up.

Pandora has a lot of problems. She works the night shift as a barista at a 24/7 coffee shop, lives with her parents, and oh, by the way, she's a vampire. To top it off, she’s in danger of losing her family’s ancient fortune unless she gets married by the end of the year. The only issue? She’s single.

Enter Victor—a PhD student and a regular at the coffee shop. When he mentions his crippling debt, Pandora sees an opportunity. She proposes a solution: marry Victor, inherit her fortune, pay off his debt, and then divorce him as quickly as they marry. Simple, right?

But nothing in Pandora’s life is ever that easy. Victor has no idea she’s a vampire, and she’s determined to keep it that way. And when her entire family gets involved in wedding planning, Pandora’s plans to elope are thrown into chaos. Meanwhile, the attraction between her and Victor grows, leaving Pandora questioning whether this marriage should really be fake after all. Can she pull off this big fat vampire wedding without revealing her true nature?

My Big Fat Vampire Wedding is a fun, fast-paced, and hilarious read. The mix of vampire lore, fake marriage tropes, and the chaos of over-the-top wedding planning make for a delightful, often hilarious storyline. Pandora is an endearing, relatable character, and her awkward yet growing attraction to Victor adds a nice emotional layer to the book. It’s light-hearted, quirky, and has the perfect balance of romance and humour. If you're looking for a light, fun read with a paranormal twist, this one is a perfect choice! The mix of vampire drama and wedding antics kept me entertained, and I found myself genuinely rooting for Pandora and Victor’s unconventional love story.

3.5/5.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

While I didn’t fully connect with this one, I can see how it will appeal to readers who enjoy paranormal rom-coms with quirky characters and over-the-top wedding chaos. The premise is fun and has a lot of potential: vampires, romance, and mayhem—what more could you ask for? The tone leans humorous and campy, which some readers will absolutely love.

The writing style is light and accessible, and the setup promises a blend of romance and absurdity that will work for fans of offbeat supernatural stories. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for more from this author.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC!

So, this was a weird one for me. Overall, there was nothing wrong with this. It was well written, with an interesting cast of characters and a classic rom-com storyline. Pandora needs to be married to access her inheritance - cue the arranged marriage trope. Only she's a vampire, and her beau, Victor, is not. Cue the comedy as she tries to introduce him to her family without outing them all as vampires - particularly hard when you've got folk who've been around for centuries and like to dress (and talk) erratically!

In addition, she has parents who aren't happy that her new fiancé is a human.

Pandora felt like a very down-to-earth character who just wanted to own her dream bookstore and feel comfortable and happy. She avoids drinking human blood and feels frustrated at the rigid rules vampiric society places on her. Her best friend is Lucy, her co-worker and a werewolf (who society says she should hate, but she doesn't). I liked Pandora as a character, and she felt very real and honest, or at least as honest as she could be.

Lucy was equally great, and I appreciated her ride-or-die attitude for Pandora.

My main issue with this book is that, whilst nothing was terrible, nothing felt great either. I seemed to struggle to read this, even though it wasn't that long, as nothing was really stopping me from reading it. I felt Victor was bland as a romantic interest - we barely got to know him, and I didn't really feel anything for him.

Despite this, it was fine as an easy book to read in between other books, and I know that rom-com lovers will enjoy this a lot!

This was such a fun light Vampire read. I laughed lots and was such a page turner.
Highly recommend for a romance with vampires added in for fun.

My Big Fat Vampire Wedding was such a fun and unique romance. I really loved Pandora's character. I thought she was pleasantly quirky without coming as so completely different. But even more than liking the two leads, I loved the ensemble cast of characters. I think that honestly that is what made this an almost 5 star read for me. Lucy, Dante, Elias, and Pandora's family (minus Bellatrix because iykyk) made the book so much more fun. I liked how Viktor and Pandora grew into their relationship but I do wish there was a little bit more relationship building. I found it just a little unbelievable that Pandora could think he felt absolutely nothing for her after their first sexual encounter in the book. Besides this the only thing that kept this from being a 5 star book was the 3rd act break up and then reconciliation. Did I see it coming yes, did it make it great no. I feel like Viktor came off as very quickly rushing into not trusting Pandora instead of hearing WHY she would keep it from him, but at least she opened her store and got back together.

4.5 stars out for 5

I loved this!!
Was laughing out loud at how funny Pandora’s family are
This is such a fun sweet easy read with the most loveable characters
I adored the side characters they were all such unique fun characters who I instantly fell in love with
It was so beautifully written I couldn’t put it down
Sweet romance, amazing characters, banter, slow burn, vampires. A perfect read

Whilst I think that this book is likely to be a hit with a lot of readers (and early buzz around this book definitely supports this!), this was unfortunately not a book that I enjoyed.

My biggest issue with this book is that the romance takes a back seat to the sort of oddball comedy of Pandora's vampiric family descending on her family home. Fake dating is generally one of those tropes that I really enjoy but there is very little time spent with Pandora and Victor as they develop their relationship with the majority of their development happening off-page at the end of the story. I think the choice to have this book in 3rd person closely following Pandora rather than giving the reader insight into what Victor is thinking and feeling contributes to this as the reader is solely hearing how Pandora is falling of him but doesn't think he feels the same.

Overall, this is a story that was very scattered in its approach as there were a lot of story elements happening at once: planning a wedding, trying to keep it a secret that they are vampires from someone who is pretty much a vampire expert (small quibble here as it didn't feel particularly believable that a thesis on vampire literature would be acceptable as a PHD), whatever was going on with Bellatrix, Pandora's brother acting strangely, the enemies to lovers romance between Elias and Lucy. With so many balls in the air with this narrative, it is hardly surprising that this book was unable to really execute them with any kind of finesse. I think the scope of this story was likely over-ambitious as the payoff was missing from many of these threads and times when you wished you could linger and appreciate a moment were skipping over with clumsy time jumps that leaves the reader scrambling to catch up; in particular, I would have liked to have spent more time with Pandora and Victor when they were in Morocco as it seemed like it developed their relationship and their bond.

This is not a book that seeks to do anything new with vampire lore and I don't really have an issue with that on the whole as not every vampire tale needs to completely write the mythos. I think because the vampires weren't wholly unique (blood drinking, "allergic" to garlic, reflections only a issue where silver was involved, nocturnal, etc.) there wasn't really any time taking to establish the in-world rules; it might seem contradictory to say I felt that was needed but I think I am so accustomed to writers putting their own spin on vampires that I kinda felt like I didn't get a full grasp on how vampires worked here. At times it did seem as though tired puns and allusions to other popular vampire stories were being used that I have seen time and time again.

On a final note, I was a little let down by the way that a big deal was made throughout this book that Victor must not find out that Pandora and her family were vampires but when it happened it didn't really have any wider consequences beyond a breakdown of their relationship. It seemed as though it had been set up as this big catastrophic thing and yet nothing really became of it?

As I said at the start of my review, I think this book is definitely going to have an audience that absolutely eats it up it is just unfortunate that that audience does not include me,

What a delightful & fun vampire romance. This was lighthearted and funny, but also romantic.

Pandora and Victor were so adorable. Their romance is a well written slow burn that has sizzling chemistry. Their banter was a lot of fun and I liked their dynamic a lot.

The plot is wacky and entertaining, especially with Pandora's lovably chaotic and meddlesome family. There are plenty of shenanigans that happen that will make readers laugh out loud.

If you like marriage of convenience trope and quirky paranormal romances, this is the perfect book for you.

My Big Fat Vampire Wedding is a light-hearted and fun read. A perfect romantic comedy to lift your spirits and make you laugh. I really enjoyed it.

This follows a young vampire who needs to get married before her 125th birthday in order to have a claim on her inheritance and finally open the bookshop she’s always dreamed of owning. The catch is, her birthday is in 3 months and she is painfully single. Fortunately for her, she has a MEGA crush on the coffeeshop-cutie regular at her work and he is in convenient need of big money to continue his life’s work of obtaining a PhD in mythological studies. They work together to conjure up a fake relationship but end up navigating a whole lot more than they are contractually obligated to.

While this was a fun and quick read, I did find the beginning to be very clunky and almost overtly sardonic. Pandora is a “I’m not like other vamps” girlie to the highest degree and I found her hard to bear at times. The “world building” also felt a little redundant, as though the author didn’t trust us to know that werewolves are affected by the moon cycle.

I did really enjoy the side characters and subplots, especially the tension between her werewolf bestie Lucy and the mysterious “friend of the family” vamp Elias. Pandora’s family was a diverse crew and did hold true to the “my big fat wedding” chaos.

The MMC, Victor was dashing and logical, but definitely there for a good time. The romance was very sweet and had good tension/buildup but the two main character’s dialogue lacked consistency. It almost felt like fan-service leading up to a spicy scene and then leaned one-note during their causal interactions, even during the toned down romantic dialogue.

The 3rd act break-up wasn’t drawn out, and a lot of purpose was served during the time away which I can appreciate. The make-up felt a little rushed but the conclusion was satisfying.

Overall, it was very cute and would be a perfectly lovely read for the fall time. If the author does decide to write a side story on Lucy and Elias I would for sure pick that up in a heartbeat.

Victor and Pandora’s story was so cute and fun! Pandora is a vampire who needs to get married before her 126th birthday to receive her inheritance. Victor is a PhD student who needs financial help to complete his studies. They make a deal where they get married for a year so she can get the inheritance and he can get the money to complete his program. I loved watching the dynamic of her friends and family interacting with him. Their relationship was so fun to watch grow and chance. I liked this book!

I loved Pandora and Victors story. A fake engagement, a large vampire family stretching back hundreds of years, bookstores and coffee shops, this novel was right up my street.
My only niggle would be that I would have enjoyed more dialogue from Victor re his own phD thesis - the conversations between Pandora and him would have been so funny!

This was such a cute and easy read. It was goofy and also romantic. I loved the modern vampire feel, with the ‘reality’ of the massive family input for the wedding haha
With a splash of spice, amazing side characters to go with the main characters and humour I really enjoyed reading this book!!

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

I loved this book! This was the first book I have read by Jessica Gadziala, and I want to read more from this world.

This was so much fun, and there was so much pining and spicy moments.

Pandora, a very modern vampire, is about to turn 125, at which point she is set to inherit her family fortune. Unfortunately for Pandora, there is a very old-school clause that says she needs to be married before she can inherit. Since she is painfully single and her birthday is three months away, she is at a loss as to what to do.

In comes Victor, affectionately known as Caramel macchicot cutie, a student and regular at the coffee shop she works at and whom she has had a crush on for months. After sharing, he will no longer be coming in as he can't afford to continue getting his PhD, Pandora thinks he might be the perfect solution to her inheritance problem.

She just can't tell him , she is a vampire and her whole kooky extended family is one either.

This book gave me Addams Family meets Hotel Transylvania vibes with romance and spice. I loved it so much and it was such an easy read. Also the prettiest book cover

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the romance and the vampire aspect of the story as well

It had me hooked from the first chapter, made me laugh at some moments which I enjoyed as well

You need to add this to your Fall TBR. It's so cute and cozy. It's set in London where our cute vampire works at a coffee shop with her best friend who is a werewolf. Our FMC needs to find a husband in order to get her inheritance and who should she ask besides the man she's had a crush on months. I would love for this to have spin offs of other characters within this book. Thank you NetGalley and Avon Publishing for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Vampire fake dating/marriage plot? Count me in.

This was a nice easy read. The plot flowed well (there were a few time jumps which I’m not a huge fan of but not a big deal), the writing was good, and it was funny at times.

The main characters relationship developed well (although there were so many occasions where I was just begging them to use their words and actually talk to each other), and the two best friends had a great relationship too - I could potentially see a second book focusing on those two, which I’d definitely read!

Thanks Netgalley for the ARC