Top 5 vampire books

NOTE: The TV show True Blood deserves to be branded as a complete failure of an adaptation. The only thing they did right was the casting of Eric and Pam, and maybe Sookie. But the book series (13 books + 15-ish short stories) is 100% complete perfection. Even when it went a little off the rails around book 10…

Sookie Stackhouse is a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. She’s quiet, keeps to herself and doesn’t get out much — not because she’s not pretty — she’s a very cute bubbly blonde — or not interested in a social life. She really is… but Sookie’s got a bit of a disability. She can read minds. And that doesn’t make her too dateable.

And then along comes Bill: he’s tall, he’s dark and he’s handsome — and Sookie can’t ‘hear’ a word he’s thinking. He’s exactly the type of guy she’s been waiting all her life for. But Bill has a disability of his own: he’s fussy about his food, he doesn’t like suntans and he’s never around during the day… Yep, Bill’s a vampire. Worse than that, he hangs with a seriously creepy crowd, with a reputation for trouble — of the murderous kind.

And then one of Sookie’s colleagues at the bar is killed and it’s beginning to look like Sookie might be the next victim…

NOTE: A newbie to this list (compared to others), but well worth the hype. Especially since it’s also a standalone book. (Guess you can write a lot when they’re immortal.) While a lot of the other series feature vamp and were politics, this one takes it to a whole other level.

A dangerous alliance between a Vampyre bride and an Alpha Werewolf becomes a love deep enough to sink your teeth into in this new paranormal romance.

Misery Lark, the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre councilman of the Southwest, is an outcast — again. Her days of living in anonymity among the Humans are over: she has been called upon to uphold a historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres, and she sees little choice but to surrender herself in the exchange — again…

Weres are ruthless and unpredictable, and their Alpha, Lowe Moreland, is no exception. He rules his pack with absolute authority, but not without justice. And, unlike the Vampyre Council, not without feeling. It’s clear from the way he tracks Misery’s every movement that he doesn’t trust her. If only he knew how right he was….

Because Misery has her own reasons to agree to this marriage of convenience, reasons that have nothing to do with politics or alliances, and everything to do with the only thing she’s ever cared about. And she is willing to do whatever it takes to get back what’s hers, even if it means a life alone in Were territory… alone with the wolf.

NOTE: I devoured this entire series (13 books + 5 short stories) last year on a recommendation from Clo @ Cuppa Clo. Like, I could not read it fast enough. Perfect mix of paranormal and mystery, set in the early 2000s.

They killed me. They healed me. Then they changed me.

Sure, the life of a graduate student wasn’t exactly glamorous, but it was Merit’s. She was doing fine until a rogue vampire attacked her. But he only got a sip before he was scared away by another bloodsucker — and this one decided the best way to save her life was to make her the walking undead.

Turns out her savior was the master vampire of Cadogan House. Now she’s traded sweating over her thesis for learning to fit in at a Hyde Park mansion full of vamps loyal to Ethan Sullivan. Of course, as a tall, green-eyed, four-hundred-year-old vampire, he has centuries’ worth of charm, but unfortunately, he expects her gratitude — and servitude.

But an inconvenient sunlight allergy and Ethan’s attitude are the least of her concerns. Someone’s still out to get her. Her initiation into Chicago’s nightlife may be the first skirmish in a war — and there will be blood.

NOTE: So, I’m feeling like a lot of my books are actually mystery/thriller books in the guise of paranormal fiction… And I’m not actually mad about it. This is no exception. It’s a 16 book series (which I thought ended at 15!!) + god knows how many short stories and crossovers with other series. It’s also set in the late 90s/early 2000s, and I don’t know how well it’s dated. BUT, if you love the Stephanie Plum series, I would highly recommend.

Also, you can damn well bet that I will be reading book 16 soon!!

First Betsy Taylor loses her job, then she’s killed in a car accident. But what really bites is that she can’t seem to stay dead. And now her new friends have the ridiculous idea that Betsy is the prophesied vampire queen, and they want her help in overthrowing the most obnoxious power-hungry vampire in five centuries.