Final Post of 2011.... Stats, brief history and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

So, it’s been a long year. Lots of things have happened to everyone everywhere. I could go on and on about things that have happened in the year politically/personally or some other way, but seeing as this is my book blog, then I’m going to focus on what’s happened this year with Death Books and Tea.

Katy and I began this blog on 23 February 2011. We’d been thinking of starting one like Stephanie (whose blog is here), but couldn’t think of what we were going to call it. Somewhere along the line we though Death Books and Tea would sum us up quite well. Then we had doubts as to who would remember it, but then we left them and got set up.

We then decided we wanted a rating system that was a little different, and we went with tea. But we couldn’t decide exactly what to do, as we were thinking about having “English breakfast” being excellent and “chamomile” meaning terrible. Then we realised that 1. We’d easily forget this and 2. Some of you might love chamomile and hate English Breakfast. And some of you might not like tea at all. so I thought of having a numerical system, neither of us could think  up a better one, and now you have the tea rating system.

We got set up quite quickly, and as the follower count was around 1-20 I was still getting my bearings around the designy thing. I had my heart set on a grim reaper with tea reading, and I drew something, the attempt of which turned out very badly. Then Katy drew something, which turned out quite well. Then Miley/Emily (their blog is here and their deviantART account is here) offered to draw something, which turned out amazing and is now the grim reaper we put in various places. I knew I wanted a pink-light-hearted colour scheme to go against the darkness of the title. By mid-April I’d sorted out the design to what you have today.

And so we carried on with this, with me running it mainly and Katy adding when her computer wasn’t locking her out of Death Books and Tea because we put “Death” in the title/refusing to do things/broken. And there you have Death Books and Tea.

And now for some statistics that I’m quite proud of. This is what we’ve done this year!

• 256 posts
• 127 book reviews
• 20 books read for Parajunkee! I finished!
• 20,400 pageviews
• 3,790 Unique Visitors from months of April-December, excluding August because Google Analyctics went wrong
• 791 comments
• 304 Google friend connect followers
• 9  Feedburner readers
• 221 books read (according to Goodreads)
• 61894 pages (according to Goodreads)
• 1530  books on my Goodreads wishlist

A big thanks to EVERYONE who visits and reads these mad ramblings, and we hope that you’ll  continue to read books and settle down with us into the new year!

Happy New Year Everybody!!

Book Review- The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges

Title: The Gathering Storm

 Author: Robin Bridges

Series:  The Katerina Trilogy #1

To be published:  January 10 2012 by Delacorte Press

Length: 400 pages

Warnings: a little violence, romance

Source: Netgalley

Other info: This is Robin Bridge’s debut novel.

Summary : Debutante Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, tries to hide a dark secret: she can raise the dead. No one knows. Not her family. Not the girls at her finishing school. Not the tsar or anyone in her aristocratic circle. Katerina considers her talent a curse, not a gift. But when she uses her special skill to protect a member of the Imperial Family, she finds herself caught in a web of intrigue.
 An evil presence is growing within Europe's royal bloodlines—and those aligned with the darkness threaten to topple the tsar. Suddenly Katerina's strength as a necromancer attracts attention from unwelcome sources . . . including two young men—George Alexandrovich, the tsar's standoffish middle son, who needs Katerina's help to safeguard Russia, even if he's repelled by her secret, and the dashing Prince Danilo, heir to the throne of Montenegro, to whom Katerina feels inexplicably drawn.
 The time has come for Katerina to embrace her power, but which side will she choose—and to whom will she give her heart?

Review: This is set in 1880s Russia, and centres around Katerina, a young necromancer. As well as the dead being brought back to life, this Russia also contains many different types of vampires, faeries, witches and many paranormal creatures connected somehow to Russian folkore. And with all the mystery going on at court, various things happen and Katerina is the only one who can really do anything about it.

I don’t normally read things involving Russia, mainly because there’s not that many YA books set in Russia. Or maybe they are, and I’ve not heard of them. But anyway, this was a new culture for me. The way the faerie and vampire and other paranormal races were woven into the Nobility was very interesting, and done in a way that I love.d. Really, the actual nobility were the creatures. Fun. 

Katerina is a great lead character, she’s strong, not afraid to voice her opinions and dreams of being a doctor, something almost unheard of for women in those days. I don’t think the other characters were quite as well done, possibly excepting her mother, who was strong and interesting in her own way. The romance, while not being particularly amazing, didn’t detract from enjoying the book either, and was just there.  The biggest drawback in this is the names. All very similar, as per Russian tradition, but hard to remember and distinguish.

The mystery and the part of the plot that was interesting didn’t really pick up until later on in the novel. Until then, it was fairly repetitive. And then when it did all pick up, I was hooked until the end.

I loved the rich mythology and the whole variety of things used. It was very interesting to read about the set up of the nobility, and also the set up of the Faerie and Vampire courts and so and so.

We're kept guessing throughout the second half, partly due to the stuff that's happening and the ways it could go, and partly because of the way things are easily mixed up (at least for me).

Overall:  Strength 4 tea to a very original book with a strong heroine that I want to see more of.

Links: Goodreads |

Japanese YA Week review- Vampire Hunter D by Hideyuki Kikuchi

Title: Vampire Hunter D

 Author: Hideyuki Kikuchi . Illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano

Series:  Vampire Hunter D

Published:  2005 by Dark Horse Publishing

Length: 268 pages

Warnings: Profanity, moderate sex content, vampires, violence, 16+

Source: Library

Other info: This has spawned an anime, manga, animated films, live action film, and video games.

Summary : It is the year 12,090 AD. The world has ended, ravaged in a firestorm of man's wars and madness. But from the wreckage a few humans manage to survive. A few humans...and something else. Doris Lang knew what her fate was when the vampire lord Count Magnus Lee bit her. An agonizing transformation into one of the undead, to be stalked by her fellow villagers or cursed to become the bride of the unholy creature and face an eternity of torment, driven by the thirst for human blood. There was only one chance, and as she watched him ride in from the distance she knew there was hope. Salvation...from a vampire named D.

Review: Some of you may have heard of Vampire Hunter D, some of you might not. It's post-apocalyptic, set 10,000 years in the future and a few humans are still alive. And there's some other things out there that aren't exactly human and aren't exactly alive either.

Vampire lord Count Magnus Lee has bitten Doris Lang, cursing her to transform into a vampire, be fought by her neighbours or marry this vampire. Not a bright outlook. But Vampire Hunter D is able to save her. Add in Rin-Ginsei, rogue who I can't really figure out the point of,  and you generally get the plot...

Some time ago, everyone seemed to have read or seen VHD, apart from me. So I got the library to buy it. I then got put off it at the content in the first chapter. Which looking back on it wasn't too bad, but to a young and somewhat innocent twelve year old was quite bad. So now I'm older, I went back to it to have another go.

 The set up is good, with a clear idea of where it can go if Doris doesn't get the help.

Doris was a fairly strong female main, able to stand up for herself and handy with a whip,  but does rely on D for help. As I said, I didn't see the point of Rin-Ginsei other than as a character to oppose D, but oh well.

The vampires in this are traditional ones, with   laws and ceremony surrounding wives, and biting and other things like that.

The writing was third person and seemed distanced from me through most of it. However, the action scenes were incredibly well written.

Overall:  Strength 3 tea to a book that I can understand why it spawned a huge franchise, but it just doesn't do it for me.

Japanese YA Week review- Chibi Vampire Novel 1 by Tohru Kai

Title: Chibi Vampire Novel 1
Author: Created by Yuna Kagesaki, written by Tohru Kai
Series: Chibi Vampire The Novel #1
Published: 2007 by Tokyopop
Length: 214 pages
Warnings: violence, attempted rape
Source: Library
Other info: Chibi Vampire is a fairly popular series that started as a manga and branched out into anime and novels.
Summary : Karin Maaka can bite a throat like a proper vampire, but where others of her kind need hot red blood, she has too much of it! Every month, she's compelled to inject blood into her victims the way a snake injects venom. And her handsome classmate Kenta Usui makes her feel like she's is going to spurt blood like a geyser. Talk about embarrassing! When Karin's latest victim turns out to be as rich as he is good looking, it causes hilarious chaos at her school. Will she ever live in peace?The much talked-about manga is now a supernatural-love-comedy-mystery novel starring our favorite clumsy blood injector, Karin!
Review: One day, Karin is out in the park when she feels e need to inject her blood into a passer by(because otherwise it'll all come out of her as one giant nosebleed). And so she does. In the next few weeks, the girls from her school start being kidnapped. And at the same time, rich senior Youichiro comes along, and everyone starts fawning over him. And it's up to Karin and Kenta to find out what's going on.
This is a light novel to accompany the Chibi Vampire manga series by Yuna Kagasaki. It helps if you have you've read the manga or seen the anime, as there are no character intros so you may be a bit lost at the start. The whole book is short and sweet, introducing and writing out Youichiro. On top of this, there are kidnappings, mystery and a bit of romance, so something for everyone.
Youichiro throughout seemed a little boring. I didn't get very attached to him and in the brief love triangle, I was rooting for Kenta throughout.
The writing meant that this novel was really easy to skim without missing anything. With that and the length of the book, this is easily a one-sit read.
The characters from the manga were kept in character, with Kenta and Karin continuing their awkward almost-romance, and Anju and the rest of the Maaka/Marker family staying the same as ever.
The new characters, we got a good idea of their backgrounds and motives. The twists and turns and the sub-plot with Youichiro and his staff was very interesting and while I didn't mind that he was written out by the end, I think their characters developed a fair bit.
Overall: Strength 3 tea to a must for fans of the Chibi Vampire/Karin franchise. Anyone else should read this if they want a quick, lighthearted vampire novel.

Book Review- Vampire Knight vol 12 by Matsuri Hino

Title: Vampire Knight vol 12

 Author: Matsuri Hino

Series:  Vampire Knight #12

Published:  7 June 2011 by Viz media

Length: 182 pages

Warnings: gore, vampires, slight sexual ideas not too much in this volume

Source: Library

Other info: The series is currently 13 volumes long and can only get longer. I reviewed volume 1 here

Summary : Yuki and Zero lock eyes, but they turn away from each other. Yori wanders around the ballroom, and Sara Shirabuki finds and talks to her. She tries to lure Yori away, but is stopped by Zero, who grabs her wrist. Yuki squeezes through the throng to get to the fracas, and she convinces Zero to let go of Sara. Zero takes Yori away, while Sara asks Yuki if she wants to be her friend. Kaname arranges for Yuki to meet privately with Yori and Zero, but Zero declines. At the party, Sara Shirabuki's Pureblood fiance, Ouri, goes missing, as well as a vampire hunter. A scent of blood suddenly fills the air, and Yuki goes to investigate while Kain finds the remains of the dead Pureblood hidden underneath a tablecloth. Yuki finds Zero and Kaien investigating the body of the dead hunter, who committed suicide after becoming a vampire

Review: The book starts a year after volume 11, at a soiree held by vampires which the hunters are attending. Zero and Yuki probably would be catching up, but they still have to protect her human best friend Yori, youngl blood  the middle of many many vampires. Add to the fact that pureblood Sara Shirabuki is also there and her fiancé, Ouri, is missing, and maybe that vampire party may not go quite as planned....

So the  one year time skip hasn't made Yuki develop. her personality seems very similar to that in volume 11. Zero and Kaname are their usual mope-y selves (bowing to the Twilight rule of miserable vampires? Please no...) and so on. I actually prefer the supporting characters to the main ones. The appearance of Shiki, Rima and Kain and Kaien all made me really happy. Kaito, a hunter originally a character from the light novel, seems to have suddenly appeared without explanation(I can't remember him turning up before. Forgive me if I'm wrong) and I'd like to get to know him more.

Matsuri Hino's drawing is completely different to the style she opened the series *has volume 1 and volume 12 side by side*. It's more detailed and delicate, with different shading and so on. it's actually been like this since volume 4, but I’ve not reviewed that yet. I prefer this new flowy style as it looks a little more romantic to work with Vampire Knight.

Sadly, i don't think this series will get much better unless Hino pulls out all the stops. The series seemed to get a high point at volume 4/5, where Shizuka was killed. The relationship between Kaname and Yuki is getting extremely complicated and can only get worse. and Zero and Yuki's relationship is going nowhere. And it's not just the romance that's dragging it down. Generally, the high point was Shizuka's death, with Ichiru's death being a slight peak. I didn't seem that interested in sorting out the Kuran family issues.

Despite this, I'd like to read on to the very end of the series, just to see what will happen to Yuki and her doomed love triangle.

Overall:  Strength 3 tea to just another book in a long drawn out series.

Links:  Goodreads | 

Book Review-Department 19 by Will Hill

Title: Department 19

 Author: Will Hill

Series:  Department 19 #1

Published:  31^st March 2011 by Razorbill

Length:540 pages

Warnings: moderate fantasy violence, a lot of gore, vampires, mythical creatures

Source:Library

Other info: This is Will Hill’s first book. The sequel, The Rising, will be released in April 2012.  PARAJUNKEE’S VAMPIRE CHALLENGE #15

Summary : Jamie Carpenter's life will never be the same. His father is dead, his mother is missing, and he was just rescued by an enormous man named Frankenstein. Jamie is brought to Department 19, where he is pulled into a secret organization responsible for policing the supernatural, founded more than a century ago by Abraham Van Helsing and the other survivors of Dracula. Aided by Frankenstein's monster, a beautiful vampire girl with her own agenda, and the members of the agency, Jamie must attempt to save his mother from a terrifyingly powerful vampire.

Review: Jamie carpenters mother is, one night, suddenly kidnapped. Jamie has no idea who, what or why it happened, but afterwards he is taken to Department 19, a secret part of the government. It turns out that Department 19 has the things needed to find his mother and kill the vampires that took her. So Jamie, vampire girl who turns up Larissa and Frankenstein(the monster who took his creator’s name after said creator dies) and some more soldiers go after her. Meanwhile, someone is trying to bring back Dracula.

This is definitely one for the boys(and girls like Katy and I who prefer vampires to be scary not sparkly).a little romance is hinted at, but it is in no way the focus of the story. From start to finish there is full on action.

I love the whole mix of creatures in this. Ok, there aren’t many, but big points to Will Hill for including Frankenstein’s Monster in such a prominent part. And more points to him for making Shelley and Stoker’s creations not just fiction in the world of Department 19, making me excited to see if any other classical creatures (Maybe the chuthlu, or whatever that is, that thing that Lovecraft made up) will turn up in the sequel.

I liked the vampires in this. I like the way their status in life is presented. It shows them kind of like humans-some living in luxury, some working boring jobs. The chemist vampire, the one that produces Bliss, blood mixed with other stuff sent out to stop vampires going on killing sprees, is a particular favourite of mine. Frankenstein was written very well, with his personality being like he is in Shelley’s book. Other characters taken from classics, such as Morris, were also kept well to the originals.

There were quite a few surprises along the way, such as the werewolves appearing out of nowhere, and the fate of Jamie’s mother. However the events in the second epilogue are not surprising at all, as it was easy to guess that that would be the set up to the sequel.

Overall:  Strength 5 tea to a fun action packed vampire story that I can’t wait to see more of.

Links: | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review: Vampire Kisses, Blood Relatives vol 1 by Ellen Schreiber and Rem

Title: Vampire Kisses- Blood Relatives 1

Author: Ellen Schrieber. Art by Rem

Series:  Vampire Kisses Blood Relatives #1

Published:  1^st October 2007 by Tokyopop

Length: 128 pages

Warnings: vampires, slight kissing

Other info: This is based on the Vampire Kisses series written by Ellen Schreiber, who has also written the Full Moon series. Rem has illustrated things, most recently the manga version of Gail Carriger's Soulless. 

Summary :The absolute last thing goth-girl Raven and her vampire boyfriend, Alexander, need is another hitch in their nighttime-only romance—but dark trouble hovers on the horizon when Raven and Alexander discover four freshly dug graves filled with empty coffins. When a crew of sketchy vampires takes up residence in Dullsville's lonely graveyard, Alexander finds this motley bunch led by his very own blood-sucking cousin, Claude Sterling. Shocking! Claude and his creepy crew can only spell out more problems for the pair, especially when Raven finds them in daylight in the very last place she could ever imagine. What could Claude and his invaders be doing—or searching for—in Dullsville?

Review:This is a spinoff to the fairly popular series Vampire Kisses, which features goth girl Raven and her vampire boyfriend Alexander. However it’s not a adaption of the novels, as Blood Relatives has a new storyline-Alexander’s cousin Claude has turned up in Dullsville (where they live) and has started looking for something. Exactly why is not known. However, judging by Alexander’s determination to stop him, the reason can’t be good.

The storyline’s ok. It’s not outstandingly good, or outstandingly bad. Same goes for the action that happens, because not that much happens. This is probably because it’s the first volume and therefore only really character introductions and scene setting and all that ever happens in manga volume 1. It may also be because of the length. You can’t fully have a story set up in 128 pages. Especially in manga, where it’s mainly pictures with a little text to explain it all. It doesn’t give quite enough room to pad everything out. And even if it does, it’s read and over far too quickly. There’s physically not enough in this book.

The characters are good. Raven can get on your nerves slightly, as can Alexander. But most people can after constant exposure. I.e. The first chapter features no-one but Raven and Alexander, except for a few panels at the end.

I like Rem’s art. Its in her own style, and the clothes are well designed. The character designs are also amazing- they’re exactly how I envisioned Raven and Alexander when I read the novels. Six of them I read, and there’s a few more I need to read. The clothes are also extremely detailed and pretty-I loved Raven’s wardrobe

I like the fact that the novels aren’t essential reading to enjoy this. There’s a double page spread introducing the characters we’d know from the novels, and the manga-only characters get introduced when they appear. Of course, reading the novels are a good way of adding a bit more character, but you could, I think, very easily read the manga without the novels. I say I think because I read the novels before I knew the manga existed. Oh well.

Overall:  Strength 3 tea to a quick light read that needs more to it than the 128 pages there is.

Links:  | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review- Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Title: Tantalize

 Author: Cynthia Leitich Smith

Series:  Tantalize #1

Published:  13^th February 2007

Length: 336 pages

Warnings: kissing, gore, vampires, violence

Source: library

Other info: Book 2, Eternal, and book 3, Blessed, are both out.

Summary : CLASSIFIED ADS: RESTAURANTS SANGUINI'S: A VERY RARE RESTAURANT IS HIRING A CHEF DE CUISINE. DINNERS ONLY. APPLY IN PERSON BETWEEN 2:00 AND 4:00 PM.

Quincie Morris has never felt more alone. Her parents are dead, and her hybrid-werewolf first love is threatening to embark on a rite of passage that will separate them forever. Then, as she and her uncle are about to unveil their hot vampire-themed restaurant, a brutal murder leaves them scrambling for a chef. Can Quincie transform their new hire into a culinary Dark Lord before opening night? Can he wow the crowd in his fake fangs, cheap cape, and red contact lenses — or is there more to this earnest face than meets the eye? As human and preternatural forces clash, a deadly love triangle forms, and the line between predator and prey begins to blur. Who’s playing whom? And how long can Quincie play along before she loses everything?

Review: Quincie Morris and her uncle remodel their restaurant with a new vampire theme. Then their much beloved chef is killed horribly-ripped apart by what looks like a savage beast. They hire a new chef, Henry, and they need to style him into the vampire chef of Sanguini’s. And Quincie falls a little bit in love with him. On top of this, Quincie’s boyfriend Kieren is a werewolf.

The plot was original. I love the idea of a vampire themed restaurant. If it were real, I’d want to go there. I like the way it all fits together was interesting, and  and the pacing was great-action starting in the first twenty pages. And then action carried on throughout, staying interesting till the last page.

Quincie is a very strong heroine, with a strong personality, she tackles the millions of things that life throws at her in a mature and determined way, even if it is somewhat unrealistic.  I didn’t really like Henry. His personality slowly grew on me, but he wasn’t extremely interesting. Kieren the werewolf was your typical over-protective boyfriend, but I liked him anyway. However, I don’t understand the prologue or how it was relevant. Prologue aside, I quite liked him.

I had problems with the revalation about ¾ of the way through-that almost every character we had met was ((insert spoiler. You’ll know if you’ve read this)). It was just a little “really? You too?” and was a bit annoying.

The characters were all fleshed out very well, including the minor characters. We got even got a good idea of the chef, even if he does die within the first 20 pages.

It was well written from Quincey’s point of view. We got a good view into her thoughts, her personality and history, all of which were very interesting.

Overall:  strength 4 tea to a very good vampire novel with just a few little annoying things.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review- Descended by Blood by Angeline Kace

Title: Descended by Blood

 Author:  Angeline Kace

Series:  A Vampire Born trilogy #1

Published:           26 August 2011

Length: 263 pages

Warnings: vampires, kissing, violence

Source: Author in exchange for review

Other info: This is Angeline Kace’s first novel.  Book 2, Enemy Within, is expected next year.

Summary : Brooke Keller is a high school junior who has never spent much time living in one place. She is finally in a town long enough to almost snag the boy of her dreams, until her life is threatened after killing a fanged man in his attempt to kidnap her. Brooke begins a dangerous journey in an effort to find out who is after her and how to stop them. In a world with powerful and prejudiced vampires, Brooke must tap into the side of her that she never knew existed at the risk of losing her life in order to save it

Review: Brooke wants to settle down in a town, and thats what she's been doing. She's got an extremely close best friend and has even  managed to start going out with Jaren. And then one night she notices she's being followed. After shaking him off for a little, she ends up having a fight with this guy, who is trying to kidnap her, who ends up dead. She then discovers that she's a vampire-and there's nothing she can do about it because she's the kind of vampirism where it runs in the family. She is then sent off for protection from someone called Mirko, and decides she will leave as long as Kaitlynn (the best friend) comes too. When they meet Mirko, Brooke has no idea exactly how she's going to  be protected by him. In the end she has to trust him and her friends to protect her while she has to find out who it is that wants her and exactly how to stop them.

It took a little while to get going with the vampire element. The opening third was set up and romance, which to me felt slow and boring. For someone who enjoys romance, I think you'll like this part a lot. The middle was good. I got a good picture of the setting and what is happening. The ending was amazing. There's a lot of action, very fast paced, and

I liked Brooke. Her reactions to everything were realistic and  exactly what you'd expect from a teenage girl. The supporting characters, the ones I could remember, were good, fleshed out and given personalities.

The names, for me anyway, were hard to remember. Probably because they're names that aren't common at all in everyday life. I like it when we get a couple of unique names, but for me I find that too many unique names makes it impossible to remember who's who due to the fact that I can't remember the names. However it's easy to tell who they are from their function in the story and their personality, so I remembered it all like that.

I like  the new take on vampires, their attitudes and such. We normally see powerhungry vampires, but Jelena takes it to a whole new level. As well as this, the general lore surrounding Angeline Kace's vampires is very interesting, completely different to the traditional vampire.

The writing style was all from Brooke's point of view. It was written descriptively so I got a good understanding of what was going on, and the voice you could tell was that of a teenage girl.

Overall:  Strength 4 tea to an interesting new vampire trilogy I want to see more of.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website | 

Trailer:

Book Review- Vampire Doll Guilt Na Zan vol 1 by Erika Kari

Title: Vampire Doll Guilt-Na-Zan vol 1

 Author: Erika Kari

Series:  Vampire Doll #1

Published: 12 September 2006 by Tokyopop

Length: 200 pages

Warnings: vampires, violence, fanservice,

Source:  Library

Other info: There are six volumes  in the series. 

Summary : Guilt-Na-Zan is a vampire aristocrat who was sealed into a cross by Kyouji's ancestor more than 100 years ago. Now Kyouji has revived him - although he was resurrected as a doll and can only transform into his real figure when he sucks blood from Kyouji's sister Tonae..

Review:  Parajunkee's Vampire Challenge #11 
100 years ago, an exorcist locked vampire lord Guilt-Na-Zan into a cross. Today, exorcist Kyoji, a descendent of the first one, releases Guilt-na. And puts him into a female wax doll, with the intention of using Guilt-na as a maid. It is possible for Guilt-na to attain his original form; if he drinks the blood of Kyoji's sister Tonae, he becomes the lord of the night once more. Add in a bat/human, a stupid younger brother,  a little action and a lot of laughs, and there you have Vampire Doll.

This has suprisingly, a lot of plot, for 200 pages of first volume. There's a fight between Kyoji and his idiotic younger brother Kyoichi, we meet batman Vincent who turns out to be the friend of Guilt-Na-Zan, we meet a creature who sucks the evilness from others and leaves them civil and nice to others, and we get the insanity of life in Kyoji's house.

The storyline isn't your normal vampire story. There's elements of one, such as something to defeat them (the original exorcist) and requiring  human blood for something (Guilt-na an Tonae), but there's also some original stuff too.

It's rare to have character intros in a first volume. This book does. And they're pretty fun too: the name, one of their characteristics and then a plea to read this book to find out x. Funny from the first page.

The actual manga starts with a flashback to when Guilt-na-zan was first trapped. It then goes to his resurrection, his discovery he is in a female body and then his realisation his magical powers now only stretch to flowers and cakes. And then the aforementioned things happen and so does some more stuff until we reach a fitting conclusion that can still make you want to read volume 2.

Tokyopop classed this as a horror and comedy. The horror part wasn't that accurate-just because it has vampires and other dark creatures, it doesn't necessarily make it a horror story. The comedy on the other hand is a very large part of this. From the first page it was funny, and this continued throughout the entire book. In addition to the humour throughout the main story, we also get bonus strip at the end of each chapter and about 12 more at the back.

The characters were different to your normal stock cast  of a vampire tale. They're all very likeable,  but there's very little in the way of character development.

The art is detailed and realistic. The costumes are drawn well, as are all the little things. However in a couple of places it's hard making out what's happening because the lines blend so much into the shadows.

Overall:  Strength 4 tea to a vampire story that will make you laugh if not much else.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | 

Book Review- The Vampire Blog by Pete Johnson

Title: The Vampire Blog

 Author: Pete Johnson

Series:  N/A

Published:  7 June 2010

Length: 240 pages

Warnings: vampires, gore, kissing,

Source: Library

Summary : Marcus was convinced that vampires don't exist—he was very wrong. On the night of his 13th birthday, he is faced with a bombshell when his parents tell him that he is actually half-vampire and is about to go through his vampire changeover period. As Marcus secretly blogs about the horrors of his new fangs, bad breath, and cravings for blood, he is unaware that his life is in serious danger

Review: On his thirteenth birthday, Marcus is told that his parents are half vampires and that, joy of joys, he'll become one too. He really doesn't want to be one, and spends part of his time denying that he is one. And then strange things happen, yes, even stranger than discovering you.re about to be a half vampire, and Marcus ends up in even more danger than he first thought. 

The writing in this is ok. I liked the way that Marcus responded with witty remarks to everything. His personality change from disbelieving and denying to accepting is interesting to watch, if not the most original. The way he handles everything with sarcasm and cutting remarks add to  his personality. However, I can't really connect with Marcus, possibly because I'm not a thirteen year old boy turning into a half vampire.  

The supporting characters are interesting  with individual, if extremely odd, personalities. Joel is really your average friend to have a laugh with, and the parents are your standard I'll try and do what's best for you ones. Even if they are guiding their son through transformation into a half vampire. Tallulah, the weird girl, while I started off hating her, as the story progressed she seemed less insane and more likeable and I feel really bad for how she ended.

Like I said, I couldn't reall feel that much connection to Marcus, or indeed any of the characters. This book was a bit predictable and I guessed what would happen at the end about 2/3 of the way through. However, it's an original take on traditional vampire myth, and done well.

Overall:  Strength 3 tea to a book more for the boys looking for something they can relate to, rather than the standard brooding romantic vampire boys of today.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review- Vamps by Nancy A Collins

Title: Vamps

 Author: Nancy A Collins

Series:  Vamps #1

Published:  1^st August 2008

Length: 222 pages

Warnings: sex, drink references, violence, romance

Source:Library

Other info: The other two in the series are called Night Life and After Dark. Nancy A Collins has also written the Sonja Blue series, starting with Sunglasses after Dark

Summary : When the sun goes down, New York's true elite all head to one place: Bathory Academy, where the young ladies of the finest vampire families are trained in shapeshifting and luring their prey.
Bathory's reigning queen, Lilith Todd, is the daughter of a powerful vampire businessman, and she knows exactly what she wants from life. She wants to look beautiful for eternity and party till the sun comes up with her gorgeous boyfriend, Jules. And she doesn't want any New Blood upstarts standing in her way.
Enter Cally Monture, an unexpected threat from a trash zip code. When their first meeting leads to tragic results, Lilith is hungry for revenge.

Review: Lililith Todd is the daughter of Victor, a rich, influential Old Blood vampire. As a result, she is a "not very civil individual" (Credit to Iza for that nice way of putting it). At Bathory Academy, she is adored/hated in the way that not very civil individuals are. Enter Cally Monture, Newblood, powerful stormgatherer, and general rival to Lililith. Then various things happen, and the whole book is basically the rivalry between the two, with their backstories, family troubles, friendships and the obligatory forbidden romance on the side.

The characters had very clear personalities and were easy to imagine and distinguish, apart from the identical twins, which you always mix up in everything anyway. However they did seem very cliched: you have the girl who rules the school, her boyfriend, her friendship group that breaks up to join the down to earth new girl,  her new loving boyfriend and her friends who stick with her. Lililith was generally unlikeable, and seeing her group fall apart was very satisfying to see unfold. Cally is very nice, but everything she does is stereotypical and therefore boring.

For example, you get Cally and Peter. Peter Van Helsing. Some of you may know the name Van Helsing as being that of a stereotypical vampire hunter (Blame Dracula). But yes, Cally falls in love with the person who is supposed to be shoving a stake through her heart and removing her head. Not my kind of thing. And then there's Lililith and Jules, which is based purely on the fact that due to family contracts, she will marry him. And arranged marriages don't really count. 

The writing was a little bland; general third person, nothing to make it stand out, no distinguishing features, but not completely terrible. The world building was very good, explaining fully how the vampires could basically hide in plain sight. The spin on vampires as being mainly rich members of society isn't too original, but the way Collins put these rich vampires in modern day America instead of Victorian England was different and worked well.

Overall:  Strength 3 tea to a vampire story that fans of chic lit will enjoy. Those looking for bloodthirstier vampires will have to go elsewhere.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author goodreads | 

Parajunkee's Vampire Challenge #9

Book Review- Teeth-Vampire Tales. Anthology

Title: Teeth-Vampire Tales

 Author: Anthology. Edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

Series: N/A

Published:  April 5 2011

Length: 452 pages

Warnings: vampires, drugs and sex references, profanity, sexual situations,  

Source: Library

Summary : Sink your teeth into these bite-sized tales exploring the intersections among the living, dead, and undead. Features stories by Neil Gaiman, Melissa Marr, Cassandra Clare, Garth Nix, and many more.

Review:  Teeth is an anthology of nineteen stories of varying lengths, all about vampires. As this is an anthology, it will be reviewed story by story, with the title, author, thoughts and strength tea in numbers. The tea strength for the entire book will be the average strength per story.

1. Things to Know About Being Dead by Genevieve Valentine is written as a list, interspersed with relevant stories, that link with both the list and each other. It's written from the perspective of a girl who died and came back, with nice characters and good flow. 4

2. All Smiles by Steve Berman. Saul goes hitchhiking and is picked up by a couple of vampires. It then turns into action, and Saul's realisation that everyone else knew about the vampires, just not him. I like the fast pace, even though at times it got a little confusing. 4

3. Gap Year by Christopher Barzak. Retta and Lottie have a nice little friendship. Then the vampires come to town and Retta and Lottie's friendship breaks up slowly. The character development in this is very good, but this really isn't my type of vampire book.  2

5. Bloody Sunrise by Neil Gaiman. It's a short poem written from the vampire's point of view, about how it rises, goes along life and is bound by a bloody sunrise. It's a pretty little poem, though it doesn't seem to make a point.

5. Flying by Delia Sherman. Lenka is getting over leukaemia, and wants to get back into circus work, like she did before. She then joins a circus of vampires. This is a very nice idea, with a fair amount of character development, but no real conclusion to it. 3

6. Vampire Weather by Garth Nix . In this world, Amos uses religion to protect him from the vampires. When bitten, he is offered  a scientific cure, going against his religion. I liked  some of it, and while some things were understandable, some things seemed to be there for the sake of it. 2

7.Late Bloomers by Suzy McKee Charnas. Josh is a fairly musical boy, although he ends up working at a small shop. A couple of vampires turn up, turn out to be art collectors, and various things happen. I like the idea that a vampire is unable to create anything, and therefore collect stuff instead. The writing flowed well and the characters had good personalities. And on a completely irrelevant note, points to Suzy for the reference to Voltaire-one of my favourite musicians. 3

8. The List of Definite Endings by Kaaron Warren. It follows vampire Claudia and human Ken. Ken's work means he has a list of terminally ill people. Throughout the years, Claudia, who doesn't want to go hunting, uses this list to work out who to take blood from. This is a fairly short story that’s very touching, emotional and ends in a way that ties it all together. 5

9. Best Friends Forever by Cecil Castellucci. Amy the vampire and Gina, a girl who's dying, are very close friends. This is a story that shows exactly how deep their friendship is, and not much more. 2

10. Sit the Dead by Jeffrey Ford. Luke is asked to sit vigil for dead Gracie, with weird uncle Sfortunado. And then Gracie rises as a Gritchino, a type of vampire. This is an action filled vampire story, with about half of it being some kind of action. The other  half is introducing and wrapping up the story. 4

11. Sunbleached by Nathan Ballingrud. Joshua(what is it with vampire stories featuring boys named Josh, and any variations, and girls named Claudia. We'll think about that some other day...) makes friends with a vampire, who attacks his family and transforms Joshua. This was a confusing story and I didn't particularly like the characters. 2

12. Baby by Kathe Koja. It's written by a girl who has come across a baby, who is obviously a vampire from the descriptions. There's not much storyline to it, but I connected enough with it to feel slightly  the end. 3

13. In the Future When All's Well by Catherynne M. Valente. In this world vampires are commonplace, Health and Safety measures go to ridiculous levels against vampirism, and you're fairly likely to turn, especially if you fall into a High Risk group, such as being conceived on a Saturday, being OCD, or having unkempt eyebrows(side note, Hetalia fans; Iggy may be a vampire). This is all about Scout's life in this world, making friends with vampires, and so on. There wasn't much plot, but the world building, and the world created, was excellent.

14. Transition by Melissa Marr. This is a story of love and action...there's not much more I can say without telling you everything that happens. Although it was a bit predictable, I liked the clever foreshadowing, the way the story didn't end once we knew the full details of what happened, and it had a nice ending. 4

15. History by Ellen Kushner. Its written from the point of view of someone in love with a vampire, who has helpfully lived through the majority of things you are studying in your history course. The description was detailed, but not much seemed to happen. 2

16. The Perfect Dinner Party by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black. As the title suggests, it revolver around a dinner party, hosted by a couple of vampires, with a human guest. Who is you. The narrator, a vampire who looks 14, is resenting the fact that her older brother can get along in society just fine and she can't. This all comes out at said dinner party, and various family secrets are revealed. There's a lot of character development in this, but my favourite thing is the way the reader directly involves the reader, with you being the main pronoun at the start until the narrator starts talking about herself. 5

17. Slice of Life by Lucius Shepard. It's centred around Sandrine and Louise aka Louie aka Elle. Sandrine needs people for various reasons, and  Louise gets them for her. There is also a little romance mixed in that doesn't seem to get very far. Parts of this got confusing, as a lot of things happen, and I don't like the way Sandrine and Louise's relationship just stopped, but the character development is great.

18. My Generation by Emma Bull. It's another poem from a vampire's point of view. I like the way that life is viewed in musical terms throughout. 3

19. Why Light? by Tanith Lee. Daisha is going on a journey-she's a vampire still young enough to bear children, and therefore she's basically forced into an arranged marriage with Zeev. However he turns out to be ok and they fall in love anyway. This story isn't really my type, but it was done well enough that I enjoyed it anyway. 3

The new authors I found and want to read more of are ; Steve Berman, Genevieve Valentine, Kaaron Warren, Jeffrey Ford, Catherine M, Valente and Tanith Lee.

Overall:  Strength 3 tea to an anthology full of different types of vampire tales with a story for almost anyone interested in vampires.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Publisher  website | 

Book Review- Rosario and Vampire vol 1 by Akihisa Ikeda

Title: Rosario and Vampire vol 1

 Author:  Akihisa Ikeda

Series:  Rosario and Vampire #1

Published: 3 June 2008 by Viz Media (under Shonen Jump advanced)

Length:192 pages

Warnings: suggestive situations, fanservice in the form of school uniforms and short skirts, violence, vampires, werewolves, monsters,

Other info: There are ten volumes in this series. The series has now finished. There is also Rosario and Vampire Season II, a continuation which currently stands at 4 volumes.

Summary : PJV’s Vampire Challenge #7
All round average student Tsukune can't get accepted to any high school save one... But on his first day, he finds the rest of the student body doesn't appear to be average in the least. Best of all, the cutest girl on campus can't wait to fling her arms around his neck! Wait a sec, are those her TEETH around his neck too? Tsukune's going to have one heck of a hickey when he gets home from Monster High. But does he have a chance in H-E-double hockey sticks  of pairing his grades when the turf war isn't between the jocks and the nerds but between the vampires and the werewolves?

Review : Tsukune Aono enrols at the only school that will take him. Which he doesn't particularly like, considering the only  way of accessing the school is through a long tunnel, and the bus driver tells him he might not see anything other than the school ever again. But things start to look up when he comes across a really cute girl who seems to fall in love with him. The bad side: she's a vampire who immediately snacks on his neck. And the rest of the students and staff are also monsters of various kinds.Everyone seems to want to get hold of Tsukune for some reason, because he's with a hot girl, because they're in love with him, or they just want to dial a fight with him. But never mind-when the Rosario around Moka's (the vampire) neck is pulled off, she  transforms, into her powerful form, whose kicks are able to knock the wind out of almost everyone. Which is a good thing for Tsukune, the only human with a zero tolerance policy on them-one that involves killing them.

The whole school for monsters idea is done quite a bit, but I don't think I've found a school with such a varied amount of monsters in it. You get the normal, vampires, werewolves etc, but you also get things like mermaids, succubi and lizardy things that don't have a name, as well as traditional Japanese monsters, yokai. The plot can get a little bit repetitive:its the first volume so it's all intros, and it wouldn't really move very much,  but each chapter is just:a little context, monster goes after Tsukune and Moka, Tsukune pulls off Moka's Rosario, Moka transforms, shouts "Learn your place", defeats enemy. While the backing behind each chapter is varied and interesting, it does get a bit boring, as each chapter doesn't seem to lead upto a climax. However this is only the first volume, so it should build up a bit more as the series goes on.

The romance in it is very funny. It's not the human falls hard and fast for the vampire, instead the human got into an incredibaly awkward situation which led to the vampire falling in love, and things go on from there. There's even the beginning of a love triangle, with Kurumu the Succubus falling for Tsukune. ((side note:even more girls start falling in love with Tsukune, ending up with a harem))

The art is well done. It's easy to distinguish the characters, even without colour. However, without colour it's hard get an idea of details such as hair colours.

The comedy at times can be a little adult, stemming from the extremely awkward situations that Tsukune gets himself into. However it is very funny and there is other flavours of humour and a few slightly more serious undertones. The pointless omake theatre, bonus panels at the end, are very funny, particularly the one involving Gin, the perverted werewolf.

It's an interesting take on vampires in that their power can be kept in check by  holy items, and that they transform when said holy item is removed.

Overall:  Strength 3 tea to a book that is a fun cute read with plenty of action included.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Publisher website | 

Book Review- Ocean of Blood by Darren Shan

Title: Ocean of Blood

 Author: Darren Shan

Series:  The Saga of Larten Crepsley #2

Published:  April 27 2011 by HarperCollins First published April 5 2011

Length: 256 pages

Warnings: blood, death, vampires, a little romance but not very much

Other info: The first book is called Birth of A Killer. This series ties in very closely to the Saga of Darren Shan. Darren Shan has also written the Demonata Series. This is read as part of Parajunkee’s Vampire Challenge.(( Number 6, I think. I'm behind...))

Summary : Free from their mentor Seba Nile, Larten Crepsley and Wester Flack join the Cubs – wild young vampires with little respect for human life, and a taste for mindless enjoyment.
 For the Cubs, everything is easy. But nothing has ever been easy for Larten, and soon fate throws his life into another spin. With dark paths to travel, Larten finds himself far from the Vampire Mountain and its rules. A long way from home, sick and alone, he must decide what kind of vampire he will be. Whether he will stand firm, be true to his master and his princples – or whether he will lose himself in blood…

Book Review: Bloody Kiss by Kazuko Furumiya

Title: Bloody Kiss

Author: Kazuko Furumiya

Series: Bloody Kiss #1

Published: Published August 11th 2009 by TokyoPop

Length: 192 pages

Warnings: Teen for mild sexuality, mild violence, mild gore, mild fanservice (Tokyopop’s rating)

Other info: Volume 2 was also published by Tokyopop.

Summary : When Kiyo inherits her grandmother’s house, she gets a lot more than she bargained for. You see, also living in the home are two hot vamp1ires, Kuroboshi and his servant Alshu! Then things go from weird to bloody crazy when Kuroboshi decide’s to make Kiyo his “bride”-his only source of blood.

Review: it’s all centred around Kiyo, who inherits a house from her grandmother. She goes in and finds Kuroboshi and Alshu, a couple of vampires. Kuroboshi fake attempts to drink her blood, and gets knocked out. He then forces Kiyo to help him clean up, then things happen and she agrees to let them stay. And also Kuroboshi wants to make Kiyo his only blood source, which kind of makes her mad when she learns the term for this is “bride”. Yeah…its just a  really short comedy and I cant really go into much more detail than this or I might as well give you the book to read...

I like the plot. What there is of it. And actually theres quite a lot of it for the start of a series that spans two volumes.  Its fairly detailed, and while the majority of the book is comedy, both laugh out loud, and slightly perverted types, there are a few more serious notes in this.

The characters are easy to connect with and have strong personalities. Kiyo is a girl who is in no danger of being a Mary Sue, because of the way she talks back and tends to slap Kuroboshi. Kuroboshi and his way of taking half the things Kiyo says in a perverted way is slightly annoying, but funny anyway. Alshu doesn’t particularly do much, just really there to add comic relief.

The comedy is the strong point in this. Some of the jokes will not be appreciated by some people, but some will, such as Kiyo turning up with a cross, Kuroboshi telling her that they don’t hurt vampires, and Kiyo hitting him around the head with it.

I like the art in this. Its detailed and realistic, and the traditional shojo style of the drawings compliment the story. The little extras such as the rough sketches of  various scenes and the gender-bended Kiyo and Kuroboshi were a nice little touch.

Bloody Kiss only really takes up three quarters of the 200 pages.  The final quarter is one shot manga called Angel Love Song. I wont go into too much detail, but its a sweet little love story involving a singing contest and the typical  shojo character development and so on. 

Overall:  Strength 4 tea to this fun manga that fans of comedy, vampires and romance will like. Anyone looking for scary vampires should go elsewhere.

Book Review- Vampire Knight vol 1 by Matsuri Hino

Title: Vampire Knight vol. 1

Author: Matsuri Hino

Series: Vampire Knight #1

Published: January 2007 by Viz Media. First published in Japan in 2005 by Hakusensha. First published in magazine Lala in 2004. First published in English in Shojo Beat in 2006.

Length: 200 pages

Warnings: vampires, gore, violence, guns. (my recommendation) “Sexual themes and violence” (Viz rating)

Other info: There are currently 11 volumes out in English the twelfth should be published later in the year. Matsuri Hino has written Captive Hearts and Meri Puri. Vampire Knight is still ongoing.

Summary (blurb):Cross Academy is attended by two groups of students: the Day Class and the Night Class. At twilight, when the students of the Day Class return to their dorm, they cross paths with the Night Class on the way to school. Yuki Cross and Zero Kiryu are the Guardians of the school, protecting the Day Class from the Academy’s dark secret: the Night Class is full of Vampires!
Yuki Cross has no memory of her past prior to the moment she was saved from a vampire attack ten years ago. She was adopted by the headmaster of Cross Academy, and now works alongside Zero to guard the Academy’s secret. Yuki believes that vampires and humans can co-exist peacefully, but her partner has different ideas...

Review: My book 4 of Parajunkee’s Vampire Challenge.

The story begins with a girl who looks about three (but is five) about to be attacked by a vampire. A boy who looks about eight comes along, kills said vampire, is a vampire himself, and walks off.

Cut to present day: Aforementioned girl is revealed to be Yuki Cross. We’re at the Cross Academy, with a day class and a night class. The night class are all extremely beautiful and adored by the Day class. This is because they are all vampires. The Night Class walk to school, and would be attacked by the Day Class if it wasn’t for Yuki, whose job, as school guardian, it is to keep Day and Night Classes separate. Kaname Kuran is revealed to be the boy who looked about eight and is now dorm president. And then Zero Kiryu turns up, who is the other school guardian. The rest of the volume is really an introductory thing, which does have a plot of its own. We learn that Zero is a vampire, we meet a couple of vampires, one of which bites Yuki and ends up with a slap from Kaname, and we meet the headmaster of Cross Academy, whose dream it is that vampires and humans can co-exist. In case you haven’t guessed, this goes badly, which is basically what the whole of this volume revolves around.

The story is good. There’s a lot more going on than I said earlier, but I tried to summarise it all. It’s interesting as everything happens in a fairly quick period of time and is fairly fast paced.

The characters are slightly stereotyped, with the damsel in distress caught in a love triangle between Mr. Perfect and angry young man. The romance is a lot of “who will she go for”, which I suppose is interesting to those who like that sort of thing. Characters other than Yuki, Zero and Kuran don’t really serve much purpose other than as comic relief, in this volume anyway. The art is especially pretty, detailed and realistic.

This isn’t a Twilight clone. I know this because it was published BEFORE Twilight. However, t

here are a lot of similarities (the love triangle, the Mary Sue, and many more) that means people do compare t

hese.

Overall: I give it strength 3 tea because I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t outstanding. It’s a good read for any vampire fan, especially Twilight fans, but to anyone else, it would just be average.

Book Review- Trinity Blood vol. 1 by Sunao Yoshida, Kiyo Kyujo and Thores Shibamoto

Title: Trinity Blood vol.1

 Author: Sunao Yoshida, Kiyo Kyujo and Thores Shibamoto

Series: Trinity Blood manga #1

 Published: November 2006 by Tokyopop

 Length: 192 pages

Warnings: gore, vampires, violence, guns, a bit more gore

 Other info: Read as part of Parajunkee’s Vampire Challenge. Reads R-L. Spawned anime and light novels. Currently x volumes in the series.

Summary :

 Review: Its set in a post apocalyptic world, with a war between vampires and humans. We meet Esther, a nun in a very catholic setting who doesn’t seem to do much. We meet Abel Nightroad, a priest from the Vatican who’s job it is to fight the vampires. They agree to fight the vampires together. Good.

The first chapter is character intros and a big action scene. This comes from one of Gyula(a high standing vampire) sending one of his vampires to dispose of Abel Nightroad. There’s a big, gory fight scene, in which we discover that Abel is a Crusnik- a kind of vampire that requires the blood of other vampires to survive.

The rest of the volume is part action, part flashback, part talk with nothing happening and part confusing. Another character we meet is Machine, who I don’t see the point of being there. There is also Dietrich, who doesn’t do much until halfway, then becomes a major part in events. The characters could be interesting, some of which have interesting habits (such as Abel’s requirement of thirteen sugars in tea), but the action and confusing plot didn’t really let us get very close to them.

About the plot, everything that happened seems to be quite random, until the very end of a particular chapter, where it all makes perfect sense, but you don’t know why you are still reading it.

The character designs are beautiful, as is the rest of the artwork. I think the style really suits this manga, but the action scenes should be broken into a few more panels- at times, it can be hard to know where to look first. Also, the chibis that come in from time to time sort of ruin it for me, as they don’t fit the dark, gothic manga that clearly wasn’t made with incorporating comedy relief.

I would recommend this to anyone who really likes manga vampires, a lot of action, gore, and slightly pointless plotlines. If you’re new to manga, you may not want to though-the confusing bits may put you off.

Overall: I give this strength two tea because it was a bit confusing and nothing happens that makes me want to read on. Good idea behind it though and the artwork is beautiful.

Book Review: Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey

Title: Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

Author: Beth Fantaskey

Series: Jessica #1

Published by: Graphia Books 2010

Length: 384 pages

Warnings: Profanity, sex references 13+

Other facts: Fantaskey has also written Jekel Loves Hyde (review coming one day), and a sequel

Summary from Goodreads: Marrying a vampire definitely doesn’t fit into Jessica Packwood’s senior year “get-a-life” plan. But then a bizarre (and incredibly hot) new exchange student named Lucius Vladescu shows up, claiming that Jessica is a Romanian vampire princess by birth—and he’s her long-lost fiancé. Armed with newfound confidence and a copy of Growing Up Undead: A Teen Vampire’s Guide to Dating, Health, and Emotions, Jessica makes a dramatic transition from average American teenager to glam European vampire princess. But when a devious cheerleader sets her sights on Lucius, Jess finds herself fighting to win back her wayward prince, stop a global vampire war—and save Lucius’s soul from eternal destruction

Review: This counts as book 2 of Parajunkee's vampire challenge. The book started off brilliantly. Jessica is stalked on the way to school, is told she is a vampire princess and stabs her betrothed, Lucius in the foot with a pitchfork. All this happens in the first 30 pages. So far, so good. It goes dramatically downhill from there. I vaguely liked Jessica, who, to start with at least, is in no way Mary-Sue-ish. But I absolutely hate Lucius. He is rude, arrogant and snobby. For a Romanian vampire prince he has no manners whatsoever, breaking the folk dolls in the room he is staying in because he doesn’t like them. I'm sorry, Mr. Vladescu, but your future parents in law do! By the time we learnt about the abusive uncle, it was too late to feel any sympathy for him.

This ended up escalating into the classic love-story-with-random-things-protagonists-must-overcome. Of course, sometimes this can be fun, especially when at the end it is revealed they all tie up neatly for a satisfying ending or tie up leaving you with a cliff-hanger that makes you want to read the sequel. However, none of said random things seemed to relate even indirectly to the (non-existent) climax. If you removed the side stories about the horse, and the LuciusxBitchGirl (sorry, I forgot her name), and skipped to the end, it would make perfect sense. Good things about this book? Err... Jessica doesn’t seem too bad, actually at some times rather fiesty and likeable, and the descriptions are very detailed. That’s all I can say. And on a side note, the titular guide to dating on the dark side features in about 6 pages.

Overall: I give this strength 1 tea because while the start of it was good, the whole thing is total rubbish. Fans of Twilight will love it though. And yes, that is an insult.