I absolutely loved this audiobook. Mark and Jonathan’s journey is like no vampire story I’ve encountered before, much less as a romance. This is my first book by Jordan Castillo Price and I’m at a loss as to how I’ve not read this author before.
I don’t even know how to adequately explain how much I enjoyed Hemovore, but as someone who lived with HIV+ person for nearly a decade, I could understand on a basic level the concerns that Mark had when it came to contracting the Hemovore virus from Jonathan. Fortunately, HIV is not transmitted through casual contact as the Hemovore virus is in the world Price has created, so I did not have to be as cautious as Mark did. I cannot imagine spending so much time with someone I loved or even cared about and never being able to touch them – then again, that was often how many people treated those who were HIV+ in the early days of the disease and the parallels that Price draws in the novel are a stark and frightening reminder of how badly people were and still are, in some cases, treated. The addition of the threat from Jonathan’s past does an excellent job of propelling the story and the relationship forward as the two men are put through the ringer as they try to survive a psychopath, evade law enforcement, and keep the implosion of their world from destroying them. Price does an excellent job of weaving the romance and the action & suspense together in a believable and easily rooted for manner. And Joel Leslie does a wonderful job of bringing Price’s words and characters to life in such a way that I was hard pressed to press pause when the real world came knocking at my door (you know, work, sleep, feeding the dog, etc).
As I did not read the original version, I cannot comment on the revisions Price made to update the story. However, I can report that the added novelette, Sweet, was an absolute treat that I enjoyed immensely.
I already want to listen to Hemovore again so that I don’t have to leave Mark and Jonathan behind, the world Price created for them, or the impressive narrative performance by Leslie that made the story even more entertaining.
AUDIBLE 20 REVIEW SWEEPSTAKES ENTRY