Rebecca Zanetti you officially have a new fan! I absolutely LOVED this book! Yet another fantastic read and new to me author found thanks to 1001 Dark Nights novellas from Blue Box Press! I think this is my favorite yet which is saying something because I’ve loved every 1001 novella I’ve read. I’ll be giving a spoiler free review of both the book itself and the audiobook too (which was AWESOME!) so let’s get to it! First and foremost I started rooting for Ivy and Athan in chapter one when it became clear Athan was our dark night hero who saw her even when others didn’t. Saved from typhus after her father calls upon Athan to rescue her by changing her from mere dying human to…something else entirely. We swiftly but not without proper pacing shift to the future where Ivy is a self made woman busting predators online. She needs no rescuing, even though Athan still keeps her safe from the shadows he lets her chart her own path. Y’all know I love consent being an important plot point so I loved how Zanetti walked the line of having an ancient alpha protector while letting her chart her own course ,and choose her own destiny. This includes how much they are entangled by both a magic matehood, and real life living. While Athan fights a secret war, he does everything in his power to keep her safe from it, which felt very realistic and true to his protector character. The world building behind Athan and his kind was very rich even for a novella, and has me really excited to dive into this series as a whole to learn more. I really loved the pacing of information and that Zanetti kept me guessing right up to the incredible finish, and to my happy surprise my guesses were always wrong which I LOVE!! I’m seriously addicted to plot twists and that gasp moment and Zanetti delivered! I also loved the peek at his family, (especially Granny) we were given and hope there’s more of her awaiting in the Dark Protector series! Vampires Kiss was a fantastic afternoon read and first leap into this authors works! This novella has me headed to go order more books in the Dark Protector world (woo hoo there’s 18?!) from Zanetti immediately because I can’t wait to learn more, especially with this taste of her rich world building skills! I absolutely recommend this book if you love fated mates, dark protector, vampires, bad a$$ FMC, I love you but I won’t make you love me, and who did this to you tropes you’ll devour this novella and be racing to order more from Zanetti! Now for the audiobook, I LOVED the narrator Stella Bloom! She has a fantastic range of voices and accents, and each character has very unique and distinguishable voices as well. She seriously nails the Scottish/Irish type accent and I will definitely be looking for more titles with her reading, especially if they come with characters with accents! Her male voices were especially fantastic and never felt forced in any way, she had subtle shifts in tone with Athan that really brought a lot of depth to his character and his past. I can’t recommend the audiobook enough and I’m so grateful to Brilliance Audio for sending it my way because it pulled me out of a big reading slump!