Blood from a Stoner

By: L. A. Witt

Narrated by: Nick J. Russo

Length: 2 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Greg Dawson’s not sure which he regrets more - becoming a vampire or becoming a software engineer. Immortality? Not all it’s cracked up to be. The job? Way more headache than it’s worth, especially on those increasingly frequent nights when he’s overworked and hangry.

With a deadline looming and his hunger growing, he’s nearing the end of his tether. Then relief comes from an unexpected source - Zane Webber, the hot programmer Greg’s been fantasizing about for two years.

Disregarding company policy, Zane lets him feed, but kind of forgets to mention he’s got some weed in his system. The next thing Greg knows, he’s high as a kite...and he likes it. He wants more.

Except how much of that high is secondhand weed, and how much is the electric and undeniable chemistry between him and Zane?

That chemistry draws them back to each other again and again, and suddenly their downtime is full of sex, smoke, feeding...and emotions.

The only problem is Zane’s a mortal. If they’re in this for the long haul, then Greg has to either turn Zane or accept a future of watching him wither and die. Greg doesn’t want to lose Zane, but he also can’t stomach condemning him to this “life.” And if they can’t find some middle ground, they’ll have no choice but to let their love go up in smoke.

©2017 L.A. Witt (P)2018 L.A. Witt

Funny & Sexy

Loved the story, was lots of humor and not to much drama and the book was perfect length. Funniest was the first time Greg got high of Zane's blood at the office. Liked how there relationship started to grow and the sex was really hot.
Nick J. Russo did a great job narrating this and made it perfect, especially when Greg were high. If you like vampires, this is for you!

Great short story

A great story with a bit of a twist! The narration takes the story over the top! Highly recommend!

Funny, sweet & sexy - and Russo's perfect

Grade A, 100% Prime L.A. Witt smut at her finest.

You know when you can count on her for just the best damn smexing and nobody does it better.

Narrated in spectacular fashion by the always excellent Nick J. Russo... a perfect combination which never fails. It's funny, it's sexy, and it's sweet - a great romance (in under 3 hours).

Unique and fun short

Good writing, believable romance, great narration, nice HFN short story.

And the 'human edible' concept is really funny!

Too much fun!

This book cracked me up. Fun characters, solid story line and great narration! Witt always comes up with quirky characters and Russo is such an amazing narrator. Can't go wrong with this one.

Fun and unique

Somehow I didn't put together that this was a vampire story until I started listening, but I loved it! The practical workaday take on vampires walking among us was fun. The workplace romance angle and incorporating how vampires work in this world was well realized. Overall, a charming and delightful read.

Fun listen

Great narration coupled with a fun, super sexy story. This is rather short, and I would have loved a dual POV, but in all I had a great time listening.

Extremely entertaining story & fantastic narration

This was extremely entertaining for me.
It's funny & witty & super sexy. Nick J. Russo's narration for the audio is fantastic & made it all the sexier. He also made Greg's hangry-hate-my-job moments more amusing, and made me sympathize with his regrets and fears.
The only negative, which knocks off a star, is that I really would've liked to have known more about the characters' pasts. It's as if Greg had no childhood or adolescence, as if his life hadn't begun until shortly before he became a vampire. He'd only been a vampire for about a decade at the start of the story, so knowing more about his past would've been a good addition. The same goes for Zane - we know next to nothing about his past. You get a feel for their present life & their general personalities, but again, it would've been good to know more.
BUT it is a short. If we're to read this story as a singular period of their lives and as Greg having an epiphany about his life, then it works well all to itself. It is both an HEA & HFN. I believe that they will be together for some version of forever, though we might not get to see the entire rest of their lives.

Russo may not be a stoned vampire in real life...

Although I bought the ebook when it was released, I hadn’t taken the time to read it yet, so I was quite pleased to see that Blood from a Stoner had been released on audio. As someone who follows L.A. Witt on Facebook, I recalled that a typo in another manuscript led to the title and the subsequent plot bunny that could not be silenced until the author wrote the story – or at least drafted it out. Having giggled at the post and subsequent comments, I was expecting Blood from a Stoner to have more a comedic bent to it. While it certainly had its moments that made me laugh out loud, true to Witt’s writing, the story hit me in the feels.

In Blood from a Stoner, vampires live, work, pay taxes, and get shafted by their insurance providers just like humans do. Unfortunately for Greg, he works for an employer that hasn’t figured out how to provide the creature comforts that would help improve their vampire employees’ productivity on the night shift. Because of this and the fact that Greg is working overtime on a project with a rapidly approaching deadline, he’s a bit hangry and Hangry Greg is like an overtired child – stuff just pops out of his mouth before his brain has a chance to filter it first. When Zane, the programmer he’s been crushing on for two years, offers to let Greg feed from him so he’ll be able to concentrate, Greg discovers that his attraction and hunger easily override his common sense because it’s an offer he cannot turn down, even though he knows he should as they could both lose their jobs. When Greg returns to his desk, he soon learns that not only is Zane a stoner, but he’s got a contact high from Zane’s blood and he really missed that feeling – except for the paranoia, he could’ve done without that. Despite his initial outrage over the contact high, Greg is more than happy to repeat the experience when he runs into Zane at a gay club that caters to vampires. But a one-off isn’t enough for either man and Greg soon finds himself addicted to the man – not his spiked blood – and it’s pretty obvious that the feeling is mutual. Yet when reality sets in and Greg has to think about Zane’s mortality, Greg believes he’s better off breaking up with Zane now in order to insulate himself from that future pain. He soon learns that a heart that no longer beats, can still break and forever is a very long time.

Nick J. Russo may not be a stoned vampire in real life, but he sure can play one on audio. But seriously, he did a great job of making Greg and Zane seem so real. As the story is told from Greg’s point of view, we actually spend a good amount of time in his head as he’s a thinker. Between Russo’s performance and Witt’s writing, I had no issues with knowing when Greg was thinking versus talking – something that I can have a hard time determining when listening to an audiobook. I have to say that one of the things I found interesting about Blood from a Stoner was that Witt avoided the usual “vampire biting during sex to heighten the orgasm” scenes. I mean, it’s pretty obvious through the story and Russo’s narration that Zane enjoys it when Greg bites and feeds from him after sex, but Zane’s the one who does any biting during sex. This made for an interesting switch and subtly pointed to the fact that their sexual attraction was irrespective of any sexual pleasure that paranormal romances often attribute to a vampire bite. And while I’m all for the “pleasure in the bite” theme, I found it to be a refreshing change of pace that made me enjoy the audiobook even more – which is probably why I listened to it twice today. Oh well, there are far worse (and only a few better) ways to spend my Sunday than with a vampire, his soon-to-be boyfriend, and some weed… no, not for me, for the characters, you goofball. Blood from a Stoner is definitely an audiobook I’ll be listening to again.

Cute short story!

I enjoyed this very much. I laughed hard after the first bite! 😁. I would recommend this humourous short read! The narrator is engaging and awesome!