HOBBIES OVER COFFEE

A vampire that has given up drinking human blood. His familiar, a cat, trying to do magic on her own. A well deserved getway to an Italian seaside town. But whats that? A body on the beach and all signs point to a vampire killing them, and as a town that does not have any vampire residents, all fingers point to the vacationing one. Hijinks ensue as he and his familiar try to clear his name.

Title : Be Still My Unbeating Heart
Author : Josh Winning
Genre: Fiction | Fantasy | LGBTQ+
Pages: 336
Own/Borrowed/ARC:  eARC
Publication Date: Aug 04 2026

A cozy vampire vacation mystery set in a seaside Italian village, featuring a reformed vampire, his magical talking cat, and a handsome, brooding detective

Bastian may be a vampire, but he doesn’t bite.

Not anymore, at least.

These days, Bastian just wants to live his best undead life: visit charming Italian villages, maybe dance in the square with a cute boy, all with Whitby, his best friend (and magical talking cat) by his side. What he doesn’t want? To stumble across a dead body on the beach, a girl who appears to have been killed by a vampire.

It wasn’t Bastian. He swears—on his own grave.

But the local police chief doesn’t trust Bastian, or any vampire, for that matter, so he assigns detective Nico De Luca to keep an eye on him until his trial. And while Bastian normally wouldn’t complain about having a gorgeous, mysterious man by his side, he has more important things to worry about, because the police chief has called the Vampire Council, and if the real killer is still at large when they arrive, the whole town could be in danger. As more bodies begin to pile up, Bastian, Whitby, and De Luca must get to the bottom of who in Vernazza is framing vampires, before it’s too late.

Trigger warning (this is in no way a full list of triggers just the ones I can remember) : death, blood consumption, homophobia, bigotry

This story starts quickly as we follow Bastian and Whitby on a well deserved getaway to the Italian village of Vernazza. He then stumbles across this body that will be blamed on him. We follow Bastian, who convinces the handsome police officer assigned to keep an eye on him, Nico, to assist him in clearing his name and finding the real culprit. 

You are quickly plunged into a mystery that includes a group of humans known as vampire ally’s, who believe that vampires deserve equal rights as humans and even have romantic feelings towards them. There are also humans that willingly want to be bitten. Some just want to be fed off vampires and others that want to be turned. To a vampire council that comes to humans’ aid when they come across vampires that kill without remorse to dispense “justice.” 

As Bastian and Whitby make their way around Vernazza, with Nico in tow, they meet a colorful cast of characters that make up this town. As they do, more deaths pile up and with no other known vampire in this town, people continue to blame it on Bastian. Time mounts up against him as the police force calls in the vampire council to deal with him, without realizing that the vampire council likes to raze the town to the ground to make sure nothing is left when they’re done. 

There are a lot of characters thrown in there as red herrings, the ex boyfriend of the first victim that hates vampires. The olive farm woman who believes that her olive oil is a miracle fix and keeps vampires from having a hunger for human blood. The mayor who is also a vampire ally and wants to welcome vampires to Vernazza for her own hidden agenda. The head of the police force who may or may not be covering up the crimes of his son, the ex-boyfriend of the first victim. The woman in the ice cream parlor who shares a history with Nico that he refuses to talk about. 

And of course the attraction between Nico and Bastian. I could see their attraction but the chemistry was not there for me and I was more invested in the friendship and backstory between Bastian and his familiar Whitby. I feel like the story was much more invested in the twists and turns that it was trying to present that the romance felt very secondary and not there for me. 

While it was a fun time, it felt like a lot of questions were left and too many turns/twists that kept me from fully loving this book. 

Spoilers ahead so scroll away if you plan on reading this for yourself. 

The vampire council, had they always been what it was, a shady operation for cannibalistic vampires or did it devolve into that over time? With them gone, who would take their place, as a council there surely had to be more people in it and plans of who would take over next, right? 

There was this formula of a body appearing, Bastian has to prove his innocence, no one believes him. A body appears, Bastian has to prove he’s innocent, no one believes him. Another body appears…you get it. That kept me from really enjoying this. Along with the multiple ‘twisits’ as he discovers, practically, everyone’s secret on this island. 

Another thing is that Bronski Beat got brought up so much that I can’t listen to them anymore without thinking about this book. 

One thing that I thoroughly enjoyed was when Bastian opens up to Nico about his experiences as a gay man in the 80’s. He tells him about his hardships as coming out as gay and having to find his own community/family as a gay man. Only for that community to be torn away from him when he gets turned, against his will, and has to face a new bigotry. It was heartfelt and added a depth to Bastian that endeared me to him.

All in all I would like to know what’s next in store for our main three as they move forward. Just in a more focused story with less twists and more focus on the budding romance between our protagonists and how they deal with a mystery together. And more Whitby being amazing! 

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Thank you again to GP Putnam’s Sons, Josh Winning and Netgalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Let’s keep the conversation going below! Do you think you’ll be picking this book up? Have another novel that sounds like this and you recommend I pick up?