Overall: 4.5 rounded to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Humor: A bit
Perspective: First person from alternating hero and heroine focused chapters
Cliffhanger: Yes

The hero and heroine have a fight and the heroine is kidnapped 

Epilogue: No
Format: voluntarily read an advanced review copy in e-book form

Should I read in order?
The series should be read in order as this does end on a cliffhanger, but this is the first book in Harlow’s Shadowing Jane series.

Basic plot:
Samuel is back in the city and has the most tempting neighbor. She has no idea he’s a vampire, of course, and that’s how it needs to stay...until she needs help and his unnatural powers are seen.

Give this a try if you want:
- Paranormal romance in contemporary time period (vampires and humans)
- New York city setting until they are in hiding
- vampire hero/human heroine
- full figured heroine
- on the run
- protective, dirty talking hero
- 

celibate hero 

  It’s been 30 years! It’s also been 6 months for the heroine 

 
- higher steam – 5 full scenes with some good tension building in the beginning

Ages:
- Hero is 194 years, heroine 22

First lines:
”You’re obligated to be here, Samuel.”
Rune watches me from his seat across the room, a brandy in one hand a girl’s wrist in the other. He smiles, teeth gleaming red beneath the blue light.

My thoughts:
I haven’t read a vampire hero in forever and I found this one really fun!

This is on me because I don’t really look at a book synopsis before diving in but I didn’t realize this was going to be a multi-book story. So parts of the story did feel a bit slow to me and I wasn’t sure how things would be resolved in the amount of pages. But once I saw it was continuing (not sure how many books the series will be) then I was able to settle into it more.

I love protective heroes that are all in from pretty much the get-go and I found that here with Samuel. Being neighbors gave them lots of opportunities to be near each other, and once he decides to take her on the run to keep her save, there was tons of delicious forced proximity that I adored.

We don’t get a ton of background yet for Samuel (I’m sure more is coming in later books) but just enough to have you fall in love with him and be curious about more of his past. I loved how romantic he was, from requesting wine and two glasses before he even knew Jane to all the things he does throughout the story.

Jane works the overnight shift at a coffee place and is trying to recover from a stalker/harassing customer. I really loved Jane’s character, adored the plus sized rep! I do think she’s being a bit naive about some of the vampire related things going on, but I’m hopeful for more from her character in the next book.

The steam to me was great. I loved the build up of tension in the beginning of the book and some really sweet and steamy scenes happened. Samuel is a romantic at heart and he’s so in love with Jane I couldn’t help but swoon!

Brenna Harlow is officially on my watch list for PNR authors 😉

Cock/Hero Stats:

- Samual is a vampire
- He has strong hearing and can hear the heroine masturbating repeatedly in the apartment next door and hear heartbeats inside buildings
- Their bites have venom and seem to give victims a sense of euphoria and confusion
- Fangs can retract
- They don’t burn in the sun but extremely sleepy and lethargic
- Super strength like being able to jump off buildings without injury and crash through walls easily
- Eyes flash/change to red
- Alcohol doesn’t affect them
- Cock is girthy! :)

Quotes/thoughts:

“If I leave you here, alive and aware of who I am, you’ll be hunted and killed. They’ll show neither of us mercy.” His voice doesn’t rise above normal, but even so, I flinch.
He stands, not hesitating to close the space between us. His lean, muscular body hovers over the bed, face dropping until it’s inches away from mine.
“So, you’re leaving with me, Jane. Understand?”
---
His hand moves up my inner thigh, leaving goosebumps in its wake. He rubs his finger through my slickness, wetting them. “Is this better than the vibrator? You think I can make you come just as hard?”
---
“All I ask is that you keep being this tender with me, and I’ll be yours.” I close my eyes, breathing in his scent.
“Oh, my sweetness.” Sam presses his lips against mine, kissing me softly.
“You already are.”
 

Nicknames/Terms of Endearment:
 

Heroine: Sweet Jane, sweet girl, baby girl, princess 

Content warnings:

Sexual harassment of heroine by a side character and stalker behavior
Remembered death/death scenes and gore on page
Threatening with a gun

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:

 
Safe sex?

  No – but he’s a vampire??

 
10% - implied heroine masturbation (fades) Jane’s POV
11% - implied hero masturbation (fades) Samual’s POV
20% - heroine masturbation (fades) Janes POV
49% - kiss
65% - 🔥 oral for her, blow job that he stops before completion so he doesn’t lose control and bite her - Janes POV
73% - 🔥 fingering/oral for her, missionary with a bite – Sam’s POV
78% - 🔥 missionary – Janes POV
83% - 🔥 kisses, her on top on the couch, Sam drinks from her, and brings her to the porch where he fucks her against the railing – Janes POV
91% - 🔥 oral/fingering for her in front of the fire, then pillow under her hips – Jane’s POV