Learning to Bleed continues the contemporary vampire story of Spencer and Laurel, which started in Coal Gets in Your Veins. At the end of the first book, Laurel was dying, and her only way to survive was for Spencer to make her into a vampire. Learning to Bleed shows her new life as a feral newborn vampire.
Laurel has been forced to flee her beloved Penny Harbour and leave behind all family and friends while experienced vampire, Spencer, tries to teach her how to control her bloodlust. He can’t understand why it’s taking weeks for her to be able to get herself under control, but he isn’t a party to all the information – Laurel has been keeping secrets from him. She didn’t leave behind every bad thing she meant to in Penny Harbour. Learning to Bleed is a story of monstrous possession, vampirism, finding your true nature – Laurel is also bicurious, and overcoming the negative voices in your head. The incontrovertible power of supportive love is also a theme.
Laurel and Spencer’s romantic relationship is severely put to the test as they travel across Canada from Nova Scotia through Quebec and Montreal and on to Toronto, leaving a barely concealed bloody trail of corpses along the way. Life avoiding the sun would be difficult enough, but Laurel constantly waking up ravenous and needing a source of blood leads to more risk-taking than Spencer is comfortable with. He tries so hard to keep his beloved Laurel safe, but with the trail of destruction she leaves in her wake, it can only be a matter of time before mercenaries catch up with them.
The episodes where Laurel was hungry and uncontrollable felt somewhat repetitive, but the story as a whole is highly enjoyable, and Spencer’s protective love for Laurel is adorable. Finding out more about centuries-old Spencer’s previous life in this book was really interesting and helped fill in some gaps in his backstory. Traveling across Canada wth these two characters was fun for me, since I have visited Quebec, Montreal, and Toronto, so I was able to easily visualize the places described.
The encounter with Dis and Abigail upped the stakes (!) for Laurel and Spencer and made for a gripping ending to the novel, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the four of them in book 3. I’m also very intrigued by the person Spencer thought he recognized in Toronto’s underworld archives. Could it have been Violet? I hope so, as this would add a further layer of intrigue to the overall story. I’m looking forward to finding out!
Learning to Bleed continues in the same format as Coal Gets in Your Veins, with extraordinary stories from the ordinary citizens of Penny Harbour interspersed at the end of the chapters about Laurel and Spencer. I believe some or most of these are true stories collected by the author from people she knows or has heard about.
I was given a complimentary advanced review copy of Learning to Bleed by the author. My review is honest, and my opinions are my own. Learning to Bleed is due to be published independently on March 18th, 2026.
