If You Like “Twilight”…

Posted On: Nov 17, 2009 In: If You Like..., In the Spotlight

Just in time for the theatrical release of New Moon, here are more vampire tales you might enjoy.

• Blue Bloods
  by Melissa de la Cruz
  The students at an exclusive New York City prep school are rich, powerful, and have a thirst for human blood. When 15-year-old Shuyler Van Alen starts to crave raw meat and have flashbacks to ancient times, she begins to grasp her family’s deadly secret. Sequels: Masquerade and Revelations.
• Vampire High
  by Douglas Rees
  The students at Cody Elliot’s new high school seem a little odd. They avoid sunlight, have superhuman strength, and make frequent trips to the blood bank. Cody thinks they might be vampires and is a little worried about fitting in.
• Vampire Kisses Series
  by Ellen Schreiber
  A new family has moved into the local abandoned mansion. Raven, a 16-year-old, vampire-obsessed goth girl, suspects that they might be vampires and soon finds herself falling for the new boy in town. First book in the series is Vampire Kisses.
• Tantalize
  by Cynthia Leitich Smith
  Orphaned 17-year-old Quince Morris is reopening her parent’s vampire-themed restaurant with the help of her uncle. Her plans start to hemorrhage when the chef is mauled to death, possibly by Quince’s boyfriend who happens to be a werewolf.
• Companions of the Night
  by Vivian Vande Velde
  Kerry Nowicki, a 16 year-old girl, encounters a vampire-lynching party during a late night trip the laundromat. When she helps the accused vampire escape, a complicated game of cat and mouse follows.
• Peeps: A Novel
  by Scott Westerfeld
  After moving to New York, 19-year-old Cal Thompson contracts a parasite that causes vampirism. Luckily for Cal, though he is a “peep”, he is partly immune. Cal is recruited to work for a shadowy organization that tracks down dangerous peeps and starts to believe that things are not what they seem.
• Bloodline
  by Kate Cary
  This novel uses diary excerpts from each main character to piece together the story of a World War I nurse who falls in love with a descendant of count Dracula. She travels to Romania to be married before understanding the disturbing truth about her future in-laws. Followed by the sequel Bloodline: Reckoning

Books written for an adult audience:

• Southern Vampire Mysteries Series
  by Charlaine Harris
  Sookie Stackhouse is a cocktail waitress in rural Louisiana who tries to keep to herself for a good reason: She can read minds. Her life starts to get a little stranger, and a lot more violent, when she starts dating a vampire named Bill. First book in the series is Dead Until Dark.
• Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter Series
  by Laurell K. Hamilton
  Anita Blake, a detective who happens to be able to temporarily raise the dead, lives in a version of St. Louis where vampires, werewolves, and other fantastic creatures have been partially integrated into society. First in the series is Guilty Pleasures.
• Sunshine
  by Robin McKinley
  On one eventful night, the self-proclaimed “Cinnamon Roll Queen of Charlie’s Coffeehouse” discovers her dormant magical powers after being chained to a good-hearted vampire named Constantine. Together, they’ll need to outrun and outwit the group of evil vampires that brought them together to begin with.
• Rachel Morgan Series
  by Kim Harrison
  Rachel Morgan is a witch from Cincinnati who is in the private investigator/bounty hunter business with a vampire and a four-inch-tall pixie as partners. Her problems, however, are all too human. First in the series is Dead Witch Walking.
• Black Dagger Brotherhood Series
  by J.R. Ward
  In this romance series, Beth, a twenty-five-year-old with dim career prospects, learns that she is half-vampire after she awakens one night to find a very large, very dangerous-looking man standing at her door. First in the series is Dark Lover.
• Dark-Hunter Series
  by Sherrilyn Kenyon
  This long-running and immensely popular romance series revolves around the Dark-Hunters–vampire-like creatures in and around New Orleans. Start with Night Pleasures, the story of an ancient warrior who falls for a human woman after nearly two thousand years alone.