Blood Red - Heather Graham

one sentence summary
In New Orleans for a bridal shower get away three normal women find themselves wrapped up in the world of vampires.

review
Writing typical of Graham, with reliance on cliches and tropes but with enough character development to draw you in.  I would recommend this to anyone who likes trashy vampire romance, good reading for a distracted day.

7/10

Fangland - John Marks

one sentence summary
 A reporter travels to Transylvania following a story and disappears, her source shows up in New York and strange things start happening.

review
This is a well written story with an original idea pushing it. The characters are well developed and deal with the situations they are thrown into in a realistic way, which is nice. The dialogue is a bit stilted from time to time and the action is a bit off (but I can't quite put my finger on why). All in all it is a moderately well done modern Dracula story.

7/10

Blood Lite - ed. Kevin J Anderson

one sentence summary
a collection of short, often witty, paranormal stories.

review
these stories range in quality from "why the hell did I waste my time reading that" to "wow, listen to this..." with the majority being in the first category. I was disappointed by most of the stories but Butcher's was really good and Snell's was interesting (if not particularly well executed) but that was pretty much it for good writing. The more I know the author the more disappointed I was in their story.

2/10

Tall, Dark and Dead - Tate Hallaway

one sentence summary
a witch has a goddess living in her but this doesn't keep her from falling for a warlock vampire...

review
this book could have been better, the main character is great as are some of the supporting characters but the rest of the plot falls short. The writing is strong at points but it falls flat when it comes to dialogue. It was disappointing that the writing wasn't better as it would have added to the story to actually use language from the era of the characters. I will still read the rest of the series at some point when I can buy them at discounted prices. I recommend this if you like quirky stories with a paranormal twist.

6/10

The Bite Before Christmas - Heidi Betts

one sentence summary:
even vampires need a little love around the holidays.

Review:
Three vampire stories that all feed one to another and are written by Betts. She has done a phenomenal job of all three vampire tropes, human girl loves vampire male, vampire female loves human male, and vampire female loves vampire male. All in all  three stories about overcoming the odds, coming to terms with your emotions and falling in love, all with happily forever after endings. The writing is pretty alright, easy reading for sure. The stories are cute and entertaining. Great reading for a snowy afternoon by the fireplace (or the sweltering heat of July if you, like me, are in need of a taste of Christmas to lift your spirits.)

7/10

Black Dagger Brotherhood Series - J.R. Ward

one sentence summary:
The vampires of the Black Dagger Brotherhood find love while battling both their internal demons and the literal ones who are out to destroy everything they have worked for.
review:
Great writing this is not, but it is well written enough to be called descriptive and flowing. These action-packed stories are perfect for the inner rebel in us all. The characters are well developed and the plots all interesting these novels will leave you feeling satisfied when you turn the last page. That said there is an over arching story that runs through each novel as well. Full of smut with enough drama to be interesting I recommend this series to anyone who enjoys the genre of "paranormal romance".
6/10
8/10
*I have only read the first 10 books in this series... but I have read all ten of them because the characters are so enthralling*

If you enjoyed check out the series by:
Laurell K Hamilton (Anita Blake Series)
Rachel Vincent (Shifter Series)
Gena Showalter (Lords of the Underworld Series)
Sherrilyn Kenyon (Dark Hunter Series)

The Passage Trilogy - Justin Cronin

The Passage

One Sentence Summary:
The world as we know it has ended and one girl is the key to the future... also vampires.


Review:
I loved this book. Getting sucked into the story and not losing interest in it (via bad writing or plot holes or characters I don't like) until the book is over is not something that happens very often. I read this before I heard the hype, it seems that the hype brought the book up to be more than it is so it is disappointing if you bought into the "best book of the century" talk but it is brilliant for what it is; a horror story with adventure, intrigue and unreliable science. It is well written with characters that I fell in love with. The setting, while following the traditional post-apocalypse route also introduces what I see as more realistic futures. I highly recommend this book if you like that sort of stuff...

8/10 (Horror / Action)

Notable Quotes:

“We live, we die. Somewhere along the way, if we're lucky, we may find someone to help lighten the load.”

“So perhaps the greatest worry of all was that one day you would realize that all the worries of your life amounted to one thing: the desire to just stop worrying.” 


The Twelve 
have not read yet... waiting for the paperback

If you enjoyed this you should read:

World War Z - Max Brooks
Oryx and Crake - Margret Atwood
Blindness - Jose Saramago
The Vampire Chronicles - Ann Rice