A review by kevinscorner
Odd Blood by Azalea Crowley

4.0

Odd Blood is the first installment in an oddball vampire romantic comedy series. Josephine is stuck in a deadend job and about to lose her housing because her roommate and best friend is getting married when she meets Eadwulf at a Halloween party. Eadwulf is a silly but charming man who isn’t just dressed up as a vampire, he actually is one. But when he offers her a stay-in position as caretaker to his grandmotherly vampire ward, it’s an offer she cannot refuse.

This was just a very cute and charming read. It’s very quirky and odd and a bit tonally confusing. It’s kinda gory but we just sort of accept to ignore all the blood and the murders because of how lighthearted it otherwise is. I loved Eadwulf who is a silly himbo of a vampire, recently woken up from years of slumber so he is late to pop culture and technologically ignorant. I loved all his strangeness and character traits and he has genuine laugh out loud moments like that “Parkour!” reference. Josephine has a demisexual awakening so she starts out very oblivious and unaware of Eadwulf’s advancements and her own budding attraction. And of course, that makes excellent fodder for this romantic comedy.

A note on the Asian rep of this book: Josephine is part Asian, Filipino more specifically, but it just is never that apparent. The “Asianness” felt very generic like removing shoes when indoors (not at all practical in the context of living in an old castle IMO) and her liking K-dramas. If the book hadn’t mentioned she was part Filipino, I never would have guessed (and I am Filipino myself). I wouldn’t say it was tokenness because her being racially ambiguous played a role in her character, but it brushed along those lines in terms of specificity.

Odd Blood is a cute campy romantic comedy.