My Roommate Is a Vampire

My Roommate is a Vampire (2023) is a paranormal romantic comedy novel by Jenna Levine. My Roommate is a Vampire follows Cassie Greenberg, a struggling artist facing eviction. She moves into an affordable apartment and discovers her mysterious roommate is a vampire named Frederick J. Fitzwilliam. Cassie helps Frederick adapt to modern life, all while navigating the challenges and surprises of living with a vampire and their growing attraction to one another. The novel is the first in the My Vampires series, followed by My Vampire Plus One (2024).

This guide uses the Penguin Publishing Group eBook edition.

Plot Summary

Cassie Greenberg, a financially struggling artist, and her best friend Sam are looking at an ad for an apartment in Chicago on Craigslist. Cassie is being evicted and needs to find somewhere else to live quickly, but she’s suspicious because the room is only $200 a month. Sam offers to go with her to look at it. Cassie goes to work at the Chicago library and emails the ad poster, a man named Frederick J. Fitzwilliam. They arrange for Cassie to see the apartment the next evening. 

Sam and Cassie search for Frederick online but find no proof of his existence, which makes Cassie uneasy. They go to Lincoln Park, where Frederick lives. When Cassie meets Frederick, she is struck by how handsome he is. He shows her the apartment, though his behavior is strange. Cassie asks him why the rent is so low, and it is clear he does not understand what the apartment is worth. He tells her he has two rules: She cannot enter his bedroom or the closet in the hallway, where he claims he keeps his embarrassing hobby. He is also nocturnal, which he claims is due to the hours he works. Cassie agrees and decides to move in.

Frederick texts Reginald, his fellow vampire, to confront him about the Craigslist ad, and Reginald admits he made a typo with the price. Frederick is apprehensive about having a female roommate, but Reginald assures him that it will be fine. Cassie moves in and finds the decor in her room appalling, so she asks Frederick if she can hang her own art. They communicate via notes, as Frederick first leaves Cassie a welcome note with a gift of kumquats. Cassie tries to cook before she goes to work at Gossamer’s, a hipster coffee shop where she also works, but she finds Frederick has no pots or pans. Frederick wakes up and apologizes, claiming he does not frequently cook. He promises to get some cookware. 

When Cassie gets home, there are numerous expensive pots, saucepans, and other cookware. She thanks Frederick in another note and promises to cook for him sometime. Cassie takes a long shower, and when she comes out in her towel, she crashes into Frederick, who is shirtless. Both are flustered by the exchange.

Cassie works at a co-op studio on her art, and Sam’s husband Scott tells her about an art competition that he thinks she should enter. Frederick receives a number of strange packages from a mysterious sender, but Cassie does not open them. She hangs her own art in her bedroom, and Frederick looks at it, but he doesn’t understand modern art. The moment is full of romantic tension, and Cassie and Frederick’s notes turn flirtatious. 

Cassie leaves for a busy few days at work, letting Frederick know she won’t be around much, but she quickly has to return home for her forgotten sketchpad. When she gets home, she finds bags of blood in the fridge. Frederick returns home with Reginald. He is shocked when he sees Cassie has found the blood, and Reginald reveals that they are both vampires and drinks blood in front of Cassie. Cassie is horrified that Frederick lied to her and tells him to throw away her things, then flees to Sam and Scott’s condo.

At the condo, Cassie receives a letter from Frederick apologizing and offering a time for Cassie to get her things. Cassie agrees to meet him at Gossamer’s and hear him out. At the coffee shop, Frederick confirms he is a vampire. The sun doesn’t kill him, but it does weaken him. He spent the last 100 years in a coma after Reginald accidentally poisoned him while practicing a charm to turn wine into blood. He has no idea how to exist in modern society, so he posted the ad to find a human roommate to help him adjust to the unfamiliar world. He also tells Cassie he has not drank from a human in a long time and promises not to harm her. She agrees to help him adjust and move back in. She shows him how to order coffee at the cafe.

Cassie moves back in and finds a note from Frederick with a list of topics to learn. She adds apparel to it, as she thinks Frederick’s clothes are old-fashioned. She starts sketching out her project for the art competition. When Frederick wakes from his daily slumber, Cassie shows him Instagram. He asks to see her profile and is shocked by a photo of her in a bikini. He seems upset that other people can see Cassie in a bikini, which confuses her. She and Sam take Frederick shopping for new clothes, but Sam is called back to work, leaving Cassie and Frederick alone. Cassie takes Frederick to try clothes on in Nordstrom, and they flirt.

Cassie continues to work on her art contest submission. She then takes a break to sketch and watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Frederick watches with her, commenting on the show’s vampire depictions. Cassie falls asleep on Frederick’s shoulder, and when she wakes up Frederick tells her that her drawings are spectacular. She’s initially upset he snooped in her notebook, but his compliments appease her. They discuss Frederick’s past, when he lived in England in the 1700s before he was turned into a vampire. Later, she submits her art piece to the contest and applies to an art teacher job at Harmony Academy.

Frederick cooks chicken soup for Cassie. While he’s cooking, she stumbles across a page about how to kiss that Frederick searched on her laptop. They kiss, with the excuse of doing it for scientific understanding. Their notes get flirtier, and Cassie invites Frederick to a party at Sam’s. Cassie shows Frederick how to use public transit. At the party, Frederick impresses Sam’s sister by knowing a lot of Taylor Swift trivia, which he researched beforehand. Cassie sees David, the head of the art contest, who tells her in confidence that she did not win. She cries in the bathroom. Frederick finds her and comforts her, then kisses her passionately. Someone knocks on the door, interrupting them, and they decide to go home.

Frederick reveals another vampire ability: Glamors. He can “glamor away” his fangs, which Cassie only now notices because Frederick trusts her enough to stop hiding. He glamors their driver so that he thinks they are just on their phones while they actually make out. When they get home, Frederick shows Cassie the secret he keeps in the closet: His vampire ability is that he conjures fruit when he’s nervous. They go to Frederick’s bedroom. Cassie tries to seduce Frederick, who is worried that he is dragging Cassie into a relationship with him. Cassie assures him that she wants him and they have sex.

When Cassie returns from work the next day, she finds Frederick arguing with his mother Edwina, who wants him to go through with an arranged marriage to Esmeralda Jameson, the woman who sent him the strange packages as gifts. Frederick refuses, and Edwina tells him he must meet with the Jamesons the next night. Frederick assures Cassie that he has feelings for her, not Esmeralda. 

Cassie is troubled when she wakes in the middle of the night and Frederick isn’t back from his meeting with the Jamesons. She goes to her job interview at the Harmony Academy after Reginald arrives at the apartment, also concerned about Frederick and promising to investigate. The interview goes well, but Frederick is still missing when she returns home. Reginald asks her to meet at Gossamer’s and reveals that Frederick was kidnapped by the Jamesons and is being held in a vampire dungeon in Naperville. 

Cassie devises a plan to free Frederick by filming a TikTok exposing vampires as real and threatening to release it. She and Reginald email it to Edwina. Her assistant replies to the email and agrees to release Frederick, but Cassie must come to Naperville and show proof that she deleted the video. She goes to Naperville with Reginald and deletes the video in front of Edwina, who then releases Frederick. Frederick and Cassie go home. 

A year later, Cassie is teaching at the Harmony Academy. Frederick meets her at the school and takes her for a walk. He proposes to her and asks her to consider becoming a vampire, and Cassie agrees to think about it.