Dark Prince, Christine Feehan

OK, try not to let the cover get you down. It's a pretty decent book 1.

Book 1's have a hard time right? A lot they need to get done. You've got to set up the characters, the general plot of the series. The feel/tenor of the series.

It's a lot of work.

This paranormal romance does a fairly decent job.

It's not exceptional. I can't lie. It's good. (There's lots of sex, FYI.) But it's got a really interesting take on the vampire legend.

See, there's a race called the Carpathians. They're an immortal race. They exist on blood, but they never kill their food. They actually think the idea of killing something and eating it's meat like we do is repulsive and barbaric. They are sensitive to light, but the whole garlic thing seems to be just a random myth. And they are definitely not dead, though they do appear that way when they're asleep. And their connected to the earth, so sleeping covered in dirt (aka buried), heals them.

So, is it just misunderstanding that created the vampires we know?

Nope. Not exactly.

Hush, Hush, Becca Fitzpatrick

This book should be a how to book: How to Have Unhealthy Relationships and Make Bad Decisions.

I mean, these kids are six-fucking-teen!!! Maybe, maybe, if they were at least freshman in college, instead of sophomores in high schooll, it would have been better. Still bad, but better. I mean, Patch is this physically and sexually intimidating pedophile, for the love of God! He may look like a high schooler, but he's been a fallen angel since the 1500s!

OK, deep breath. Keep it together, Michelle. Let me back up and explain the book before I go on a rant.

So, this is the first book in a quartet about young love, a la Twilight. Let me make sure I'm clear here: I have never read Twilight. I have never seen the movies. I can only take my information from conversations I've had with those who have seen or read these stories. As opposed to Twilight's vampire leading man, the main male character, Patch, is a fallen angel. Hear that again: A fallen angel. An angel that God had such an issue with that He cast the angel out. And what did Patch get cast out for? Lust. Yup, the angel cast out for lust is now after a 16 year old girl, Nora.

The Killing Dace, by Laurell K. Hamilton

I've taken quite the hiatus from this series and this was by first book back. Since it had been so long, I got a little confused about which book I was starting with, so I read a bunch of reviews trying to find out what happened in the book to make sure I wasn't rereading by mistake. (I did anyway, but that's neither here nor there) So, I'm going to use this review to talk about this book, as well as the series in general and some of the things I read while browsing reviews.

First, the series definitely has aspects of Twilight and True Blood, but came before both. Vampires, werewolves  and most things supernatural and scary are not only real but "accepted" in society. Accepted like gays are accepted: technically yes, but really, there's a lot of discrimination. Anita, the human lead, is in a love triangle with a wolf (Richard) and a vampire (Jean-Claude), a la Twilight. Unlike Twilight, however, Anita is not some helpless damsel in need to saving. She is a bad ass, gun totting  zombie raising force to be reckoned with. As the series progresses, so do her powers. She's a vampire executioner, because, lets be real, a jail isn't going to hold a vamp. She works with the cops, but isn't one. And she is definitely OK skirting the law now and then.