This book really surprised me, in that I loved it a lot more than I was expecting to. Firstly, I think this is much more of a romance story than it is a horror/vampire novel. As someone who has very little exposure to the horror genre, I didn't have any trouble reading this and I think it could be used as a good starter novel for the genre itself.

The writing was absolutely gorgeous, it took me a couple of chapters to get into it, but the way Cañas painted the landscape and portrayed the character's emotions just gave such a nice vibe while reading and created the perfect atmosphere. The characters felt like real people, Nena and Néstor as main characters both had their own challenges and were flawed and traumatized but they also had great character development throughout the book. The side characters were so good, Don Feleciano was scary, and the Néstor's family was so cute, I wish we had gotten to see more of them. The plot itself was interesting, but there were much fewer scenes with the vampires than I was expecting to see, but I still thought those scenes did a good job at propelling the story forward. My favorite aspect of the book was the history and culture that was explored. I knew very little about Mexico's history of colonization and I felt like I gained a new perspective from reading this. The cultural tales that the vaqueros and Abuela told were so fascinating, and it was clear that there is a unique history of supernatural beliefs in Mexico. Nena's experiences as the daughter of a ranchero and Néstor's life as a vaquero and the expectations placed upon both of them were very realistic and I appreciated how the author held true to that throughout the story and didn't try to create an unrealistic world.

If you're on the fence about reading this book, I'd say go for it. It's made me look forward to reading Cañas' other books and increased my interest in the horror genre.