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Butcher, Baker, Vampire Slayer #1
Butcher, Baker, Vampire Slayer
Forbidden Love in a Slayer Academy
Violetta has to save her brother by taking Sebastian's place. His biggest bully, Orion is determined to save her.
In Calder, Boy's Academy for Slayers, Violetta's brother is the runt of the pack. When she takes his place, she has to deal with bullies and enemies who are unbelievably hot.
Orion's brother, Armand is the pack leader. They'll fight for pieces of the fresh Baker and the right to protect her from the monsters.
All After a freak accident with escaped tigers, newly orphaned Violetta Tancetta is left in a city which teems with werewolves, vampires, and zombies. Unaware of the danger, all she knows is that her twin brother is throwing away his future when he decides to drop out of the elite all boy school he’s been attending, and she isn’t going to let him do it, even if it means taking his place.
When eighteen-year-old, Violetta Tancetta goes undercover as her brother, she has no idea that Calder, School for Boys isn’t only for rich, prissy boys, but also the premier training ground for the next generation of Butchers, or those trained to slaughter vampires, werewolves, and anything else that goes bump in the night.
Her plans get complicated when she gains the friendship and respect of the greatest Butcher of them all, wickedly handsome Orion who constantly threatens the security of her male identity.
Violetta has to save her brother by taking Sebastian's place. His biggest bully, Orion is determined to save her.
In Calder, Boy's Academy for Slayers, Violetta's brother is the runt of the pack. When she takes his place, she has to deal with bullies and enemies who are unbelievably hot.
Orion's brother, Armand is the pack leader. They'll fight for pieces of the fresh Baker and the right to protect her from the monsters.
All After a freak accident with escaped tigers, newly orphaned Violetta Tancetta is left in a city which teems with werewolves, vampires, and zombies. Unaware of the danger, all she knows is that her twin brother is throwing away his future when he decides to drop out of the elite all boy school he’s been attending, and she isn’t going to let him do it, even if it means taking his place.
When eighteen-year-old, Violetta Tancetta goes undercover as her brother, she has no idea that Calder, School for Boys isn’t only for rich, prissy boys, but also the premier training ground for the next generation of Butchers, or those trained to slaughter vampires, werewolves, and anything else that goes bump in the night.
Her plans get complicated when she gains the friendship and respect of the greatest Butcher of them all, wickedly handsome Orion who constantly threatens the security of her male identity.
327 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 6, 2016
56 people are currently reading
597 people want to read
About the author
Juliann Whicker
73 books219 followersShe loves gardening, crafts, collecting craft books, and all things fantasy, particularly the urban kind.
When she isn't feeding her bernadoodle snacks, she can be found hiding in her garden writing tales of enchantment and romance. Also weirdness.
When she isn't feeding her bernadoodle snacks, she can be found hiding in her garden writing tales of enchantment and romance. Also weirdness.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
January 20, 2017
Juliann Whicker was a freakin' genius - again. It's like she reaches into my skull and pulls out exactly what I want to read... World-building impeccable as usual, characters riveting, plot absorbing, etc etc etc XD
December 5, 2016
I really enjoyed this book. The author did a great job with the characters. I really enjoyed the banter between Violeta, Orion, The Greek and Armand. The plot was fast moving. This was a fast and entertaining read. There were a lot of unresolved plot points, so I hope there is a second book coming out. I will be seeking out more from this author.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
November 6, 2016
Not your average monster story
Butchers & Bakers energy and werewolves. Not to mention school work and an interesting Boogie man. So much going on and the different points of view were great! Hope Juliann writes quickly can't wait for the next one!!
Butchers & Bakers energy and werewolves. Not to mention school work and an interesting Boogie man. So much going on and the different points of view were great! Hope Juliann writes quickly can't wait for the next one!!
January 19, 2021
My favorite Shakespeare play is Twelfth Night. So, I jumped at the chance to read this. And it does have that wonderful relationship between Viola and Orsino where she pretends to be male and joins his group and befriends him, while harboring a crush on him, and has to woo the fair Olivia for him. Others from the play like Frances, Toby, Malvolio, and Andrew also make appearances in this. I adored every minute and found myself spending time reading only this book. I adored Orion just as much as I usually adore Orsino in the various performances of the play I’ve seen. He’s so larger than life, heroic, and hilariously full of himself, and caring about his men and his new confidante. And I liked Olivia in this who was a strong female and could even put the boys in their place. And I liked that it was a fantasy book, creating its own world and unique rules. Very inventive with Bakers to support the butchers. Though with creating its own world, there were things that didn’t feel explained, like why were there so many zombies running around and where were they all coming from? The werewolves were at least thoroughly explained. I get that there were things left unexplained for further books (like the deaths of Violetta’s parents and the disappearance of Olivia’s brother -that’s not spoiler. He was missing at the very beginning. And who/what was the Greek exactly?). The baking was hilarious and sometimes naughty suggestive, but often I really wanted her to find another way to describe Orion other than chocolate. I got rather sick of her always referring to him as that over and over and over again. I will say that with her complaining that she was penniless, it didn’t really make much sense for her to catch a taxi and then spend a day at a spa. And with the big scene with the plant in the beginning that got treated as so important, it was like the plant got completely forgotten about until all the way at the end. Also, I should probably mention that this really needed one more edit through because Violetta was called Viola quite a few times in the beginning half of the book. Also, Violetta’s dialogue really could be cleaned up a bit more. There were times toward the end when her sentences sounded rather jumbled, jumping from one topic to the next from sentence to sentence. With liking this book so much, it’s making me want to give Darkly Sweet a second chance.
November 26, 2017
Smoking hot
This is a retelling of Twelfth Night. A girl dresses up as her twin brother and goes to his all-boy school to keep him from flunking. Except it's actually a school for monster slayers called Butchers.
The magic system in this book is interesting. Butchers appear to generate energy by slaying monsters. They also get hungry to the point of insanity. Butchers need Bakers. A Baker must feed off a Butcher's energy, which they put into their baked goods. The Butcher eats this to retain their sanity and replenish energy. I think. My understanding got a little shaky, and I'll get to that in a minute.
This book's strength is the relationship between Violetta, Baker in secret, and Orion, chief Butcher. Their relationship is extremely sensual, even though they technically never do more than kiss and caress each other. It's all mixed up with food metaphors, which is both amusing and arousing. When he still thinks she's a boy, it comes off as gay. Kind of kinky. If you like that kind of thing, you'll adore this book.
The book's weakness is the worldbuilding. It's never explained why monsters have invaded the north side of the city or why nobody knows about them but Butchers. The exchange of energy between Butcher and Baker isn't super clearly delineated. There are mentions of an intriguing Twelfth Night, when werewolves change for the first time, but it's not explained in detail. Butchers are considered not human, but this is not explained beyond a DNA split. I constantly had questions that weren't answered properly.
So, this is a book that certain people will devour like cream puffs. I prefer a little more worldbuilding depth, so it wasn't a super good fit for me.
This is a retelling of Twelfth Night. A girl dresses up as her twin brother and goes to his all-boy school to keep him from flunking. Except it's actually a school for monster slayers called Butchers.
The magic system in this book is interesting. Butchers appear to generate energy by slaying monsters. They also get hungry to the point of insanity. Butchers need Bakers. A Baker must feed off a Butcher's energy, which they put into their baked goods. The Butcher eats this to retain their sanity and replenish energy. I think. My understanding got a little shaky, and I'll get to that in a minute.
This book's strength is the relationship between Violetta, Baker in secret, and Orion, chief Butcher. Their relationship is extremely sensual, even though they technically never do more than kiss and caress each other. It's all mixed up with food metaphors, which is both amusing and arousing. When he still thinks she's a boy, it comes off as gay. Kind of kinky. If you like that kind of thing, you'll adore this book.
The book's weakness is the worldbuilding. It's never explained why monsters have invaded the north side of the city or why nobody knows about them but Butchers. The exchange of energy between Butcher and Baker isn't super clearly delineated. There are mentions of an intriguing Twelfth Night, when werewolves change for the first time, but it's not explained in detail. Butchers are considered not human, but this is not explained beyond a DNA split. I constantly had questions that weren't answered properly.
So, this is a book that certain people will devour like cream puffs. I prefer a little more worldbuilding depth, so it wasn't a super good fit for me.
June 17, 2017
Ok I admit that I chose this book primarily for that title, but I did enjoy the story too. The world building was interesting and there is no info dump – we are left to discover things as the story unfolds. For the most part this is good but I would have liked a teensy bit more explanation earlier in the piece.
I liked Violetta and Orion, they were pretty cute together. I also liked the Butcher/Baker bond that drew them together as well. I hated Sebastian. He was a horrible person, taking the baking from his sister ( which gives him the necessary energy to be a butcher) but only giving her the most minimal energy in return and making her feel like a burden, never telling her of all the dangers (ie vampires, werewolves etc) and then lying to her and abandoning her to run about the city cause he was jealous of Orion and wanted to show him up. Violetta’s masquerade as a boy, her interactions with Orion as both Violetta & Sebastien were amusing. I do wish Orion had told Violetta he knew about her masquerade earlier tho. And that brings me to my main gripe with the story was how NO-ONE told poor Vi a single frigging thing about the supernatural or her OWN supernatural powers/role. I mean her parents should have but didn’t for whatever reason. Then after they die and Seb , knowing she is a Baker still abandons her with out telling her anything – prick! Then Orion figures it out but still doesn’t tell her. Ok maybe not straight away but surely after they develop a friendship. Or you know when she meets his father’s actual Baker who offers to take as an apprentice but neither the Baker nor Orion bother to give her critical information about her own powers and needs which she should certainly have been told. Or Nick could have told her, or Armand but no. No-one thinks she needs to know despite being firmly drawn into the supernatural and it being tied to her survival. I was so annoyed on Vi’s behalf. I am very interested to read the next one tho.
I liked Violetta and Orion, they were pretty cute together. I also liked the Butcher/Baker bond that drew them together as well. I hated Sebastian. He was a horrible person, taking the baking from his sister ( which gives him the necessary energy to be a butcher) but only giving her the most minimal energy in return and making her feel like a burden, never telling her of all the dangers (ie vampires, werewolves etc) and then lying to her and abandoning her to run about the city cause he was jealous of Orion and wanted to show him up. Violetta’s masquerade as a boy, her interactions with Orion as both Violetta & Sebastien were amusing. I do wish Orion had told Violetta he knew about her masquerade earlier tho. And that brings me to my main gripe with the story was how NO-ONE told poor Vi a single frigging thing about the supernatural or her OWN supernatural powers/role. I mean her parents should have but didn’t for whatever reason. Then after they die and Seb , knowing she is a Baker still abandons her with out telling her anything – prick! Then Orion figures it out but still doesn’t tell her. Ok maybe not straight away but surely after they develop a friendship. Or you know when she meets his father’s actual Baker who offers to take as an apprentice but neither the Baker nor Orion bother to give her critical information about her own powers and needs which she should certainly have been told. Or Nick could have told her, or Armand but no. No-one thinks she needs to know despite being firmly drawn into the supernatural and it being tied to her survival. I was so annoyed on Vi’s behalf. I am very interested to read the next one tho.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 27, 2017
A new twist
On holding the beasts at bay and of 12th night. Engaging characters with a good story. I look forward to book 2
On holding the beasts at bay and of 12th night. Engaging characters with a good story. I look forward to book 2
November 1, 2016
The love story between Orion and Violetta. They had a connection that went far beyond the normal. It wasn’t just a natural one, but supernatural. They needed each other to fulfill their purposes in life. Bakers keep Butchers alive and moving. She did that for him without giving too much thought.
The fighting was not gory, the love was not explicit, no foul language at all – the story was pure, complicated, and very reminiscent of an old Shacksperian tale
The fighting was not gory, the love was not explicit, no foul language at all – the story was pure, complicated, and very reminiscent of an old Shacksperian tale
February 7, 2017
She does it again. Another book I could not put down. I loved the characters in the book and I can not wait to read more.
May 9, 2024
Quite honestly this book broke my heart. The entire idea is absolutely wonderful and could've been taken to so many places. Bakers infuse energy into their baking? They can cure werewolves and romantic relationships with Butchers are taboo? Wonderful, it's straight up for a forbidden romance with some baking descriptions. But no. OH THE PLOT HOLES. Don't even get me started. So many things were left unexplained. I so desperately wanted the book to give a very good explanation because I liked the story. A lot. It felt like the writer was just trying to cut off the story in favor of a particular page count and didn't give it time to develop. The only thing I can say good about this book apart from the potential is the baking tips, which I appreciated. I've made cream puffs and totally would've ruined them if not for this book.
August 22, 2018
3.75 stars
I love Twelfth Night. It is my favorite Shakespearean comedy and I am drawn to retellings. In this novel, the world and the system of magic has so much potential. That is why I gave it almost 4 stars. Unfortunately, I still have no idea about the how/why/history of the butcher-baker relationship. This needs exposition because it has no mythology (unlike vampires, shapeshifters, witches, etc.). If a supernatural slayer has to eat food specially cooked by supernaturally gifted bakers (at one point it is like 120 muffins in one sitting), I think the natural question is “but why?” It’s like shadow hunters who need to eat food prepared by culinary energy vamps...? Super weird, would be awesome if you could explain wtf was going on, but I feel like I fell down the rabbit hole and everyone expects me to act like this is an everyday thing.
I love Twelfth Night. It is my favorite Shakespearean comedy and I am drawn to retellings. In this novel, the world and the system of magic has so much potential. That is why I gave it almost 4 stars. Unfortunately, I still have no idea about the how/why/history of the butcher-baker relationship. This needs exposition because it has no mythology (unlike vampires, shapeshifters, witches, etc.). If a supernatural slayer has to eat food specially cooked by supernaturally gifted bakers (at one point it is like 120 muffins in one sitting), I think the natural question is “but why?” It’s like shadow hunters who need to eat food prepared by culinary energy vamps...? Super weird, would be awesome if you could explain wtf was going on, but I feel like I fell down the rabbit hole and everyone expects me to act like this is an everyday thing.
February 18, 2020
This adaptation of Twelfth Night is so twisted. It is like Shakespeare's story, shaken with A Midsummer Night's Dream and Laurell K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry books or Patricia Brigg's wolf novels. What would be an otherwise sweet youthful romance becomes particularly dark and action-packed with our innocent heroine falling for a slayer and meeting wolves and vampires. The combination is weirdly poignant. It would have been quite a bit less stressful for our heroine if her brother wasn't being such a boy!
May 7, 2018
The twins & the Butchers
Violetta Tancetta and her twin brother Sebastian are orphans. She is impersonating her brother at his boys school because he wants to drop out in his senior year. She is beginning to develop feelings for Orion Daughtry a leader of the boys at the school.
Charectorization & plotting are interesting.
Violetta Tancetta and her twin brother Sebastian are orphans. She is impersonating her brother at his boys school because he wants to drop out in his senior year. She is beginning to develop feelings for Orion Daughtry a leader of the boys at the school.
Charectorization & plotting are interesting.
October 3, 2018
This started off really promising, but as I read further along I just started getting really bored and kind of angry at the characters. The love interest's personality sucks. I decided not to finish it when Violetta jumps into a car with Orion and then they drive to a remote location. I was too mad that a situation that could easily turn horrific was being romanticized.
November 12, 2018
Interesting spin
I have a love hate relationship with Shakespeare but Ms. Whicker brings Shakespeare to life and makes it interesting. I loved how she interpreted the characters and created an incredibly unique world. This oart if the story ends with loose ends but no cliffhanger.
I have a love hate relationship with Shakespeare but Ms. Whicker brings Shakespeare to life and makes it interesting. I loved how she interpreted the characters and created an incredibly unique world. This oart if the story ends with loose ends but no cliffhanger.
July 15, 2018
So much fun. Can't wait until the next book comes out. Characters you love and love to hate.
September 22, 2018
4.5 stars
June 23, 2019
A little confusing since I didn't know the plot to the Shakespeare. But a nice story overall.
Want to read
July 28, 2019🎁 FREE on Amazon today (7/28/2019)! 🎁
May 22, 2025
I still can't decide if the butcher/baker relationship in this magic system is a metaphor for something.
October 11, 2016
Violetta has a twin brother who seems to be throwing away a prestigious education in the wake of her parent's death, who were mauled by tigers. Unwilling to let her brother throw away his education, and also not willing to throw away their father's legacy, Violetta impersonates her brother in his last year at an exclusive private school for boys. Unbeknownst to her, it was a school to train the elite Butchers who slay the very things that go bump in the night. Too bad she doesn't know they exist.
Orion is The Butcher and has kicked Sebastian, Violetta's brother, out of the Buther's. But when he meets Sebastian again, he feels a connection ... and is determined to make him Orion's Baker - a person who bakes life into food that helps heal and sustain butchers while they're out hunting. It doesn't take long for Orion to realize that Sebastian is really Violetta and the feelings that he has for her cream puffs are more than edible, it's downright romantic!
I love loved this. It could be that I have a soft spot for the heroine pretending to be a boy and wondering how long it'll take the hero to figure it out and what they'll do when it's revealed. There was a lot of banter between Violetta, Orion, The Greek, and Orion's brother that made this book fly by. The switching POVs was seamless and it didn't bother me one bit. I enjoyed this book wholeheartedly and couldn't even be bothered to put it down to do things that I was supposed to do that day - which seems to be a thing that the author inspires in me. I look forward to how this story plays out.
I was given an advanced copy of this work for my honest opinion and I honestly enjoyed this book.
Orion is The Butcher and has kicked Sebastian, Violetta's brother, out of the Buther's. But when he meets Sebastian again, he feels a connection ... and is determined to make him Orion's Baker - a person who bakes life into food that helps heal and sustain butchers while they're out hunting. It doesn't take long for Orion to realize that Sebastian is really Violetta and the feelings that he has for her cream puffs are more than edible, it's downright romantic!
I love loved this. It could be that I have a soft spot for the heroine pretending to be a boy and wondering how long it'll take the hero to figure it out and what they'll do when it's revealed. There was a lot of banter between Violetta, Orion, The Greek, and Orion's brother that made this book fly by. The switching POVs was seamless and it didn't bother me one bit. I enjoyed this book wholeheartedly and couldn't even be bothered to put it down to do things that I was supposed to do that day - which seems to be a thing that the author inspires in me. I look forward to how this story plays out.
I was given an advanced copy of this work for my honest opinion and I honestly enjoyed this book.
May 10, 2025
very interesting
The whole time I was listening to the book I kept on thinking about the movie, “she’s the man” with Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum. I didn’t realize that the retelling of the 12th night also had something to do with that movie, It was a really interesting read. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I really enjoyed the book. I’m not sure if I would read the other books in the series though.
The whole time I was listening to the book I kept on thinking about the movie, “she’s the man” with Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum. I didn’t realize that the retelling of the 12th night also had something to do with that movie, It was a really interesting read. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I really enjoyed the book. I’m not sure if I would read the other books in the series though.
December 6, 2016
This book has everything and just enough melodramatics. I needed something light to read and this was perfect. Who wouldn't have giggle fits reading lines like this,
"I needed a chocolate man made out of his hot chocolate. I could still taste the sweet liquid pool in my mouth and trickle down my throat filling my whole body with warmth and joy."
"I needed a chocolate man made out of his hot chocolate. I could still taste the sweet liquid pool in my mouth and trickle down my throat filling my whole body with warmth and joy."
November 29, 2016
It is interesting just kinda didn't quite grab me.
January 2, 2017
Sorry to the author, but I couldn't get into
the book.
the book.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews