Lore and Lust is the debut book from this author, and overall I really enjoyed it!

This is a slow-burn vampire romance, and feels a bit like friends to lovers since it's such a slow burn between Haru and Nino. Haruka is a Japanese vampire who has sworn off bonds and romantic relationships after a bad past. Nino is an Italian vampire who has his own past trauma (I adore Nino, okay? Adore him.).

What starts as friendship with Nino helping Haruka turns into a lovely slow burn of a relationship, and I really enjoyed reading about them getting to know each other, becoming familiar and comfortable with each other, before it becoming more. I love that despite their histories they can come together and they just love each other for who they are. There is so much acceptance and consent, it's lovely.

While I really enjoyed the take on vampire lore, their history, the "rules," and world building, I also felt like this was maybe the one thing lacking for me a little bit - maybe there is more world building in the next book? The blurb does state, "exploration of cultures, contemporary society" and I don't know if, with two vampires being the very top of elite society, it really dived into the nitty gritty of these things for me. I would also be super interested to know how throuples/poly relationships work in the vampire world as far as bonded mates go.

Overall, I'm here for the romance, and I really loved Nino and Haru together. Definitely going to pick up the next book in this series - and can we take a second to appreciate the beauty of these covers?! Wow!

I really look forward to seeing how this author grows as her writing develops and continues to strengthen.