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Review: fangjunkie27 (FangFinder #1) by Lyssa Dering

Shameless vampire addict Eli lives from vampire den to vampire den, securing invites via the vampire/human social network FangFinder. This weekend, he’s signed up for his most extreme adventure yet, a seventy-two-hour party where a contract serves as his voluntary consent to anything the den members decide to do to him.

Strong and silent type Orion is the only member of his den without fangs, a dhampir who wears metal points on two fingers so he can give the human guests what they crave. He uses parties like this one to keep the savage side of his nature in check. When his fellow den members suggest he claim Eli for the weekend, Orion agrees, since the little human is just Orion’s type.

Orion isn’t Eli’s type, though—or so Eli believes. But the pleasure he experiences in the dhampir’s hands is more intense than anything he’s felt with a vampire. Beneath Eli’s bratty nature are secret pains that fuel his addiction. Might Orion be a match for him sexually and emotionally?

fangjunkie27 is an erotic M/M novella with lots of angst, a bit of dubcon, and an HFN ending
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This was more than I thought it would be. I honestly thought this would be a PWP vampire-esque grindr style story with guys getting off with hot vampires and lots of biting page after page and yet, this was much more.

Let’s set the scene… Eli wants to get a fix of his fetish and that’s been bitten by a vampire. When he signs up for a “blanket consent” weekend at a vampire den he finds through his fang finder app, he thinks he will finally get what he needs.

Orion is a dhamphir, a half vampire/half human half breed who attends lives at the vampire den and participates in the parties to get what he needs, the chance to hunt a human and feel the warm rush of drinking blood. Orion lacks the super strength of a full vampire as well as the fangs, but doesn’t let the shortcomings stop him. Orion has fang rings he wears to bite and well, he likes being dominant with his humans, and it’s a good thing that Eli is one hell of a brat who needs his submission forced on him.

If you are a reader who is uncomfortable with dub-con, I will warn you it’s here. For me, I am cool with dub-con and liked how it was carried out so I had no problem with it.

So, like I said. Eli is a brat and acknowledges this trait about him to the point of not getting what he needed from BDSM clubs because no one wants to put up with a brat. Orion, he finds Eli a bit endearing and also hot AF because he gets off on making Eli do what he pretends he doesn’t want. Le Sigh.

The first encounter between the men was interesting and somewhat playful as we get both their POV’s throughout. We get Eli getting off on what Orion is doing even though he isn’t a full vampire and we get Orion who does give Eli an out even though he signed the contract… what are these two gonna do?

“You’re such a little shit.”
“Fuck you.”
“I prefer to top.”
Both men have more to them than the simple case of vampirism that is between them. Orion has hang-ups on not being good enough since he’s a half breed and it doesn’t help that while Eli obviously likes what Orion does to him, he repeatedly throws it in Orion’s’ face that he wants a real Vamp. And then we have Eli whose need for pain goes beyond the biting and to a darker place I wasn’t prepared for. When their first night together doesn’t go as planned, Orion gives Eli the option to leave but leaving is the last thing Eli wants to do… he just wants to be understood and get his fix.

Eil’s need to be bitten, the itch that he can’t scratch it’s his drug and his handle is truth, Eli is a junkie. It’s amazing how the story transforms from what you think is just a story about a human boy who has a vampire fetish when underneath, it’s a classic story of addition and Eli’s addiction to being bit by a vampire is his qualifier. The story progresses to give us a glimpse into the stress that has caused Eli’s addiction and it’s a tale of many who find release and peace in substance abuse. It became heartbreaking for me to read within Eli’s POV as he struggled with acceptance of his addiction and how he blamed Orion for not being able to take care of it. It’s always the blame of everyone else but the addict for their problem and this remained true even with vampires as the drug.

The other Vampires within the den were a nice addition to the story. With Ava and how she handles the humans to Ross and his knowledge of fang junkies and the ways to deal with them. I liked where the author took Eli and Orion throughout their weekend and am curious if the next installment will continue with them or a new couple. I would like to know how they are handling their choice and if it’s truly working for them.



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