Release Day Review: Sunshine Is Overrated by Bailey Bradford

Title: Sunshine is Overrated (The Vamp for Me Series #3)

Author: Bailey Bradford

Pages/Word Count: 112 Pages

At a Glance: An excellent addition to a fun and sweet series.

Reviewed By: Angel

Blurb: Life with vamps is never easy.

Abernathy Meyers is already mated to a vamp, Zebulon. It’s just too bad that Zebulon doesn’t give a darn about him. Abbie’s stuck with the man for eternity—or until they die. Some days, Abbie thinks that can’t happen soon enough. He’s tired of being treated badly, yet he doesn’t really want to make his earthly exit yet.

Because he’s longed for another man—another vampire—for years. Forbidden love—is anything more compelling, or more heart-breaking?

There’s a twisted past, a hidden story linking Abbie, Zebulon and the coven leader, Claude.

Claude lives with a fear of turning to dust at any moment. It isn’t reasonable, but he can’t shake it. He’s let his own fears impede his potential happiness, and instead he puts the needs of his coven first, ignoring his own. But if he’s deliberately blind to one particular human’s needs because that human is a mate to another vampire, then is Claude truly leading to the best of his ability?

It’s a tough question for him to answer and soon, he’ll have to make a choice that will affect him and Abbie, forever.

Review: Bailey Bradford is a comfort author for me. I love reading her always happy, everyone is gay, and sometimes silly stories. The Vamp for Me series is classic Bradford, and I have loved seeing it evolve. I feel a bit guilty jumping on one particular author’s books when they come up for review on the site, and I try to give others a chance to try them first, but it’s like a guilty pleasure compulsion I can’t resist.

Sunshine Is Overrated is Abernathy Meyer’s and Claude’s story, and the blurb tells you everything you need to know without spoiling it for the reader. I was thoroughly intrigued by Abernathy from the beginning book, My Life Without Garlic, when he warned the protagonist about being mated to a vampire. I read and enjoyed the sequel, despite there being very little to do with Abernathy. Still, I waited, albeit a bit impatiently, for Abernathy’s tale, and finally it arrived. Can I just say I love being able to review books like this before they are out to the public and opinions and spoilers hit the internet?

Needless to say, I wasn’t disappointed. I loved Abernathy and Claude’s story when I finally was able to get my greedy little hands on it. Oh, the pining and the drama! I live for Bradford’s version of it because it’s fun, and sometimes you just need that in a story. Not real fond of the nicknames used, but meh, it’s a minor thing for me, and it adds realism, I think, because almost everyone has a nickname they use with a loved one, whether they want to admit to it or not. And, Bradford’s vampires are real, to an extent, in this verse—not undead nightmare savages, but also they aren’t overly brooding, sparkling antiheroes either. Just regular ‘people’ who happen to need to drink blood to survive.

The backstory of these two men is riddled with longing, desire and miscommunication, and like typical men, these vampires know how to mess up a relationship good. Bradford is known for her happy endings, and I love how she winds up a tale. In Sunshine Is Overrated, she takes the typical tropes of men in romance and adds her own supernatural flair to them. I have mentioned before that Bradford twists the normal genre staples for her verses, and I really enjoyed that. She also has real consequences for her characters that normally aren’t hand-waved or brushed off to get their happily-ever-after, and I adore her all the more for this particular brand of writing.

Sunshine Is Overrated also expands the world Bradford has created by introducing other supernatural creatures to this verse. Vampires and their mates are a given in Bradford’s world, but demons, and zombies are added in this tale, both with Bradford’s individual spin on each. This book is a complete tale, with an explosive conclusion, and I highly recommend you read the other two books before starting this one just to get the full-on experience of the series. Bradford also leaves an opening for herself to continue this series, and I hope there will be more to come.

Thank you for sharing another sweet and fun tale!