Thirsty

Lehane (Love, Hate, & Clickbait, written as Liz Bowery) sets this shrewd and inventive paranormal romance a couple years after supernatural creatures revealed their existence to the human world. Human advice columnist Charlie Wever struggles to make ends meet when the online magazine he works for shifts him to a pay-by-click model. Giving advice on buzzy supernatural problems would make his pieces more successful, but he feels unqualified to counsel the letter writer who recently learned that her eternally 20-something vampire girlfriend voted for Ronald Reagan. Back in his rural Virginia hometown to save money, Charlie bumps into Lorenzo, a centuries-old vampire who dated one of Charlie’s friends in college and who holds a grudge against Charlie for advising said friend to dump him. Seeing an opportunity to increase his paranormal knowledge, Charlie lies that he’s writing a graduate thesis on supernatural relationships. After Charlie’s cheerful eagerness wears down the hilariously formal Lorenzo’s resistance, he convinces Lorenzo to bring him along on the odd jobs he does for Virginia’s supernatural community. Along the way, lust ignites, leading to some delicious sex scenes. Meanwhile, Charlie’s online popularity skyrockets—but what will happen when Lorenzo learns the truth? Lehane’s sprawling mythology, which also incorporates trolls and unicorns, neatly unfurls without ever distracting from the genuine and rewarding enemies-to-lovers romance. This is a delight. (Oct.)