Multiple factors led me to Lore and Lust. First, the gorgeous cover stood out on the library shelves. After reading so many vampire/human romances, the vampire/vampire romance premise intrigued too. The final temptation was from Rainbow Crate. My partner and I signed up for this queer book box subscription service, and one box included a fridge magnet of Nino carrying Haruka. We needed to understand our newest, cutest fridge magnet, and one library trip and reading session later, I did!

The Masquerade is no more, and vampires live openly within human society, like any other minority group. That minority status is quite literal, as vampire populations dwindle due to lack of “pureblood” elders to fill essential cultural roles and continue precious vitae bloodlines. Haruka Hirano is one of these rare purebloods–one of two in the United Kingdom. When a British vampire couple asks Haruka to officiate their wedding, he feels too guilty to refuse, despite his preference for reclusive brooding in his crumbling manor with his mother hen butler (yes, really and I love it). Before the party, Haruka drops in on the island’s other pureblood, Nino, and ya know what they say about seeing the sun for the first time in a long time? Ja, that happens.

So much of Lore and Lust was my catnip. The characters and romance are A+++. For the first time in a long time, a character’s mysteriousness isn’t out of malice or emotional ineptitude. The gentle, polite Haruka is “mysterious” because his social skills are rusty, haha. Nino is an interesting mix of naive and cautious that I haven’t seen before. He’s not immature, whiny, or annoying, but he does know less about the world, is aware he does, and works to change that. I really appreciated how both Nino and Haruka are introverts, but the narrative doesn’t treat low social batteries as an undesirable trait. I can not like parties and still have a fulfilling social life and support my community. Plus! Queerness is indeed totally normalized, and that’s such an inviting narrative space for me.

The more iffy parts of Lore and Lust concern the supernatural world-building. A bit of a spoiler, but Haruka and his family have a book on vampire mating rituals. A chunk of the plot is Nino helping Haruka make the book ready for publication. This premise felt very interesting and compelling to me, because I love big research projects and lusty lore is prime romance novel material. It wove so nicely into the themes of cultural difference and exchange. That part is all well and good. The problematic bits are how Nikole’s world-building lends itself to constant talk and preoccupation with blood quantum. How vampiric someone is VS how human they are determines their place in vampire society, which accords them certain benefits and reverence. That made my skin prickle with reminders of indigenous blood quantum politics in the USA. Haruka’s Japanese ethnicity was also contentious. While Nikole takes pains to say everyone’s overwhelming attraction to Haruka is due to his blood purity (a whole other yikes), their eroticism still felt racialized. There’s something uncomfortable about a room full of white British people cooing and sexualizing the lone men of color. Other reviewers have noted that certain Japanese cultural details are incorrect. My last quibble is about how characters speak in other languages. Overall, I really liked this motif, but some of the translations were a lot looser than I prefer.

Despite the causes for concern, I’m very invested in the story and characters. I want to follow their journey and see how Nikole matures in her craft. Onto The Vanishing!

My review of Book 2: The Vanishing: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/c43e3737-e92a-4233-89e8-9865cb3f7a51

My review of Book 3: The Awakening: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/de544367-cc2e-4ec5-a3f6-ca70b1b6b989