Review Tuesday: After Midnight by Trevann Rogers -- #LGBTQ #ParanormalRomance #ReviewTuesday

After Midnight by Trevann Rogers

Lam Publishing, 2023

Everyone knows about vampires, right? They’re ancient, fabulously powerful, wealthy and sophisticated, dark and brooding, irresistibly seductive. Not to mention almost always straight.

Trevann Rogers crushes those tired clichés in her urban fantasy After Midnight. Though both Ria and Jewell are vampires, they’re just getting by, living in a cramped apartment furnished with cast-offs and thrift store finds. Jewell has just finished university; Ria’s working, but she’s not much older. Both have parent problems, seriously exacerbated by the fact that they’re lesbian partners. Their committed relationship is complicated by their mutual love for Cheyenne, a charismatic, free-spirited rock musician who happens to be an incubus.

Vampires and incubi are traditional rivals. They’re definitely not supposed to fraternize. But love—and desire—transcend the conventional boundaries. Jewell, Ria and Chey aren’t bothering anyone. They just want to be free to love on their own terms.

Other members of the supernatural community aren’t going to let that happen.

I loved the characters and the premise of After Midnight. Anyone who reads my own books will know that I’m a huge fan of polyamory. Trevann Rogers does a spectacular job portraying the intense yet playful erotic interactions among her protagonists. They’re very different from one another. Jewell is the hippie earth-mother type, casual and sensual. Ria’s a dominant, high-energy, high-fashion beauty with a streak of snark a mile wide. Cheyenne’s laid back, self-confident, more powerful than either of the women but delightfully unassuming. I’d love to know more about their back story, how they came together to form their deliciously transgressive triangle.

In addition to the main arc of the story (which I’ll not describe in order to avoid spoilers), the author provides lots of entertaining detail on what it means to be a vampire in her fictional world. Ria and Jewell need blood to survive, but they also eat normal human food. There’s one scene involving a BLT that made my mouth water! Like traditional undead, they are inert and unconscious during the day, alive and active at night. These gals, at least, love to party into the wee hours. There are no graveyards or coffins in evidence; they seem to experience their daytime stupor in their own beds. There’s also no suggestion that Ria or Jewell came into existence through being turned, as they both refer to their parents.

My main complaint about After Midnight was its length. The novella whet my appetite but didn’t completely satisfy it. I wanted more: more drama, more danger, more magic, and yes, more sex. I probably should get a copy of The House of the Rising Son, a novel-length story in the same universe that centers around Cheyenne. I’m a bit confused because it’s listed as Book 1 in the series, with After Midnight as Book 2 but billed as a prequel.

Oh well. Muses can be messy and things don’t always make sense.

Original and arousing, After Midnight breaks the tired rules of vampire romance with gleeful aplomb. Exactly the kind of book I love.