Affliction by Laurell K. Hamilton

Affliction by Laurell K. Hamilton - 576 pages
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Book 22

I have a friend who calls these books "therapy on the page."  Hamilton spends an awful lot of time psychoanalyzing her characters every thought and action.  I continue to read out of loyalty to the franchise and wanting to find out what happens to the characters I've invested in over the course of 20+ books.  This book has about three or so days of actual plot and a lot of dialogue and her trademark sex scenes.  The action is compelling and the characters are strong so I read on...

Evernight by Claudia Gray

Evernight by Claudia Gray, 327 pages
Book 1 of the series

A Romeo & Juliet novel with one as a vampire and one as a vampire hunter. This book held a lot of twists and turns. I had some suspicions of who would be a vampire but nothing prepared me for the discovery. I was actually shocked and had to flip back to see if I had missed anything important that gave away answers - nothing. The story runs along at a brisk pace -- not too fast, not to slow. The romance is there but it's your typical teenage forbidden love romance.  This was the first book in the series and, while it did have a snippet of the second book at the back, it didn't hold me well enough to want to read anymore about the main character and her forbidden love story.

Companions of the Night by Vivian Vande Velde

Companions of the Night by Vivian Vande Velde, 212 pages

Imagine if your brother left his stuffed bear at the laundromat and you had to go get it in the middle of the night. Now imagine you found the bear at the same time that a group of men came in with a young, bloodied up college kid drug between them.  When they see you they try to convince you that the bloodied up kid is a dangerous killer - a vampire. Would you believe them? When they accuse you of being a vampire, too, what would you say to prove them wrong? What would you do?
16 year old Kerry finds herself in just that situation and is convinced the men are nuts. Trying to stay calm and rational so they don't harm her, Kerry tries to figure out a way to help the boy who identifies himself as Ethan. Once she releases him, she realizes the men were right... he is a vampire. After a startling turn of events, Kerry finds that she doesn't know who to trust and isn't so sure she will live to see the next morning.
   Vivian Vande Velde keeps the story moving until the very end. I was left feeling like the story was a bit unresolved, but I think that's the best part of this book.  You can decide how it ends. It's a very fast read, but it's a good one.

The Dark Heroine: Dinner With A Vampire by Abigail Gibbs

The Dark Heroine: Dinner With a Vampire by Abigail Gibbs, 534 pages
(book one of The Dark  Heroine series)

Romeo & Juliet meets Twilight sums up what this book is about. Seventeen year old Violet Lee's life is changed forever when she witnesses a mass murder before her eyes and is taken prisoner by the murderers. Everything she thought she knew about her world is false. There are monsters in the world and they aren't just evil men. They are vampires. Caught in a web of lies and betrayal, Violet Lee's life is threatened on a daily basis. Yet she finds herself drawn to her captor, Kaspar, at the same time as loathing him. As their attraction for each other grows, truths come out that will shatter everything they hold dear.
I was done with this book in one day. It's pretty easy to figure out the plot line, but it doesn't stop the book from being enjoyable.

Kiss the Dead by Laurell K. Hamilton

Kiss the Dead by Laurell K. Hamilton - 367 pages

I wanted to like this book.  I really did.  I loved the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series when it first came out.  The author is from St. Louis and it features my hometown - what's not to like?  I'll tell you.  The series has degenerated into what my one friend calls "therapy on the page."  Hamilton's characters are way too self aware and spend endless amounts of dialogue analyzing their relationships and themselves when they aren't engaging in lots of sex that has no impact on the overall narrative.  This book has about two days of plot and its not a very interesting two days at that.