Amateur Amalgam

Feb 18, 2026

I love when the setting is historical, and when you add some sort of supernatural element it becomes chef’s kiss. This was such a good read – evidenced by the fact that I finished it one day.

Now objectively, it’s not perfect, I was able to guess most of what was gonna happen, but the fun of this comes from the journey not the destination, so I’m not mad about it. This is also the concept behind the rating. If you’ve ever seen a Hallmark movie (or a teen romance tbh, that’s closer to their ages) and been like “this is so dumb” then this is probably gonna feel kinda like that, cause it is predictable, despite the very cool premise and setting, but if you like movies like that, or are in it for a quick good time, then welcome to the club friend.

The characters were really entertaining, if a little flat, and the dialog is kind of cheesy, and it was definitely rushed in some spots, but overall it was a good time. I would put this on the younger side of YA, so it would be a good book to ease yourself into the habit of reading, or get out of a slump, cause it’s not so dense, but still has some cool tropes in it.

Speaking of – our story follows two people, Lalo and Carolina, a new vampire and vampire huntress as they try and figure it out.

Spoilers Ahead!

We begin with the first of our main characters (Lalo) having witnessed the murder of his parents by a vampire on the way to get revenge for said killing. He’s (mistakenly) under the impression that he can totally handle this, despite only just being 19 (classic). They – by which I mean Lalo & his sister Fernanda) are from an affluent family in one of the major cities in Mexico of the 1700’s, so when he went around saying ‘A vampire killed my parents’ he was dismissed as being aggrieved. Crazy is tolerated for rich people, but only just, which brings us to him going to face off a vampire while being only barely prepared.

He does meet her – the one who killed them – but she decides to torture him for attempting to kill her. He escapes while she’s away and goes back to his sister, only to find out he’s been gone for 3 days now. Over the course of the year he spent looking into vampires to find the killer, he has become a sort of expert and he knows his only chance to make it out of this with his humanity intact is to go to a small town where the first sighting of Vampires was recorded.

Enter Carolina, our second main character. She is from this little town and is in-fact a direct descendent of the first victim-turned-vampire. Her family, as the founders of said town, are also the leaders of the town and her dad is the mayor. She wants to become a hunter like the rest of her family but her dad says that’s a man only position, so she sneaks out with her grandfather and he teaches her. Just after her 18th birthday, they go out for a lesson and grandpa gives her a lasso (they’re cattle ranchers btw) and she’s like “wth?” and he says it’s not about the weapon, but the fighter. This of course, goes right over her head as her main priority is simply to prove to her dad she can keep up with the boys, without regard for the actual goal she’s tying to keep up to.

Unfortunately, a vampire gets into the ranch during this session and in a horrible turn of events, it’s a cousin of hers that went missing a month ago. He’s turned feral and attacks her, and grandfather saves her but there is another and he is grievously injured. She manages to kill one but by the time everyone comes out, grandpa is dying. Her father blames her insistence on being out here and disobeying him (devastating).

A month later, Lalo and Fernanda (who knows whats up) pull into town. The town proper is surrounded by a large wall to protect from vampires, but since this was a last minute trip and they want to keep on the down low, they opt to rent a house that’s outside the walls. As this is not a slow-burn, they meet that night when Lalo is out hunting and Carolina has snuck out with her cousin. A fight ensues, he gets hit in the head with a frying pan – its great.

They obviously suspect them as being the same people who live in the house outside the walls so they get them an invite to the siesta happening to honour her grandfather the next night. It is also here that we learn that her dad has arranged for her to marry a childhood enemy (and also his Godson) and take her away from town “for her own good”. That man is insufferable, let me tell you. Anyways, Lalo and Carolina end up in the Library alone together when dad and Rafa (arranged fiancé) pull up and see them.

Carolina has the brilliant idea to declare them in love and engaged – much to the confusion (and outrage, but for different reasons) of everyone involved. So they call a duel and Rafa cheats (of course) and shoots early, but Lalo is a vamp and doesn’t go down. Lucky for him, at the same time, vampires are attacking so everyone runs off leaving him last man standing and winner of the duel on technicality.

Newly affianced – They come up with a plan to do what Lalo came here to do and what Carolina swore to on her grandfathers death – bring an end to all Vampires.

Here is where we talk about the lore (my favourite bit of any story tbh). I love when people put their own spin on classic monsters, especially vampires, cause there are sooo many different types of creatures that can fall under that category from around the world. In our story, it begins with the old gods. The god that guards the entrance to the afterlife is described as being Jaguar-like and so to are the creatures that come from him – Vampires. He cannot be out in the sun, and cannot enter the world of the living without invitation. So too for them. The main story is interspersed with cuttings from the bits of history that Lalo has been researching, so we get to see the story come about on two fronts – the beginning and the end.

The first was created by a man who begged for his daughter to be brought back to life – this of course backfired terribly. She was more like the god of the dead than her old self, and soon she began to hunger for souls – thats how Vampires live forever in this world, when they drink from someone (or animals as Lalo does to avoid killing) they take both their memories and time from their lives. The Originals are also bound to the place they are made – the dad tried to take her to a bruja (witch) but they couldn’t leave the valley they lived in without her being in extreme pain.

Lalo comes to the conclusion that since there are so many around this town, the original must have been made here, and since her ancestor (Alma) was the first death she must have been the one to make the bargain with the God to create the first Vampire. Her husband had died young so she wanted to revive him. They confirm this with a visit to his grave – which is empty, save a fancy dagger. Her grandfather has the other pair (which was Alma’s) in his closet. This is also where she finds a painting of her and they look nearly identical (dun-dun-dun!). She also comes to the conclusion that her family knew that it was them that caused the curse, but due to pride and shame, no-one bothered to learn more and try to undo what was done.

They make their way to where the stories say he dies/is. Unfortunately, the vampire (Maricela) who killed his parents has been tracking him this whole time and finds them. She exposes him as a vampire to Rafa, but he gets knocked unconscious. It’s now a mad dash to undo the curse before Maricela and Carolina’s family stop them.

They make it there at the same time as everyone else, and they manage to kill Maricela. Lalo falls into a pit where the first (Vital) is and he is not happy about her death so he calls a bunch of others to fight them. With Lalo and Carolina each holding a dagger they kill him and all the vampires start to die. This sadly includes Lalo. Carolina had been bitten by Maricela and had started to turn, but she hadn’t died yet so this just undid the curse on her and left her ok.

In the afterlife – we learn that the bargain was for the souls of all her descendants, and in undoing the curse they have been freed (yay!) and since Lalo and Carolina made a blood oath to be together, he gets to chose if he wants to go back – he does.

I think you can probably guess by now that the books main theme is grief and the different ways it gets processed by people. In the beginning, particularly with Lalo and Carolina, everyone is pretty stubborn about doing things their way and living very black and white. But by the end, everyone is more calm and sees, not shades of grey, but many colours in their lives.