Rating: 3.5 stars
Buy Link:
Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel

 

Noah Green has been a vampire for so long that he has almost forgotten what it’s like to be human. He’s the only vampire working for the NYPD and while his forensic photography skills are good, Noah is a great detective, or he could be if the department allowed vampires to hold those positions. Not everyone is pleased having a vampire on staff and Noah has to put up with a lot of smack talk and must constantly keep himself in check around some of his colleagues. Noah has no use for most humans, except as a source of food, but he can’t manage to keep himself away from bakery owner, Danny Kaes.

Danny has a gift in the kitchen and it’s what keeps a constant line outside of his bakery. He thinks he should be done with dating for the moment, at least done with dating vampires, but he does miss the sting of sharp teeth on his skin. Danny has his eyes set on the hot CSU guy that comes into his shop, except Danny has no idea that Noah is a vampire.

Noah gives Danny lots of signs that he’s interested and doesn’t understand why Noah keeps putting him off. When Danny is assaulted while stumbling upon a murder and Noah is called to the crime scene, Danny learns what Noah has been hiding. But now that the killer is after Danny, he has no choice but to stay with Noah and the heat between them grows, even though they both try to resist it. Now Noah is obsessed with keeping Danny safe from a killer, but neither of them are safe from the intense feelings they have for each other.

Overexposed opens in the year 1919 and we see a glimpse of how Noah’s life used to be. That was a long time ago and Noah has had no choice but to adapt to being a vampire. Humans know about vampires and other supernaturals, and while Noah works for the NYPD, not all of his colleagues are accepting. We then meet Danny, who is happy owning a bakery that produces amazing Filipino delights. His last relationship with a vampire wasn’t at all what he wanted it to be and he’s determined not to repeat his mistakes.

The beginning sets this story up well and the chemistry between Noah and Danny sparks even over the bakery counter. We get caught up on both Danny and Noah’s lives, with great descriptions of Danny’s bakery specialties, and the basic world here is set up, although there is not too much world building overall. The story starts to pick up speed when Danny finds a dead body in the park and then stays at Noah’s home for protection. But then the killer storyline didn’t hold the same appeal and the story stalled out for me. I didn’t find the who and why behind the murders all that interesting or that well put together.

I also didn’t feel we got to know Noah well enough, and I would have liked to learn more about what he had done with his life for all these years as a vampire. It was also a little too basic for me that Noah still held a regular job and had to keep himself in check as some of his coworkers hurled insults at him for being a vampire, and there was little that made Noah’s life as a vampire interesting.

The set up opened the story well and there was a connection between Noah and Danny from the start. The larger plot line brought the story down for me and the initial spark the story created didn’t carry all the way through.