Delving Into The Darkness Part 2

Back for more blood sucking!

Once the Harry Potter experience was over, I decided to go back to my exploration of the vampire world as told through young adult and adult novels.  This post will be entirely about young adult books and in the next I will talk about the adult novels, which I have yet to begin.  As you know, I had success with the other two post-Twilight series I attempted, The House Of Night series and The Sookie Stackhouse books.  Both worked for me for different reasons and I’m happily going to follow them to their completions.  This time I out I found one series to continue but the rest were epic failures.  I’ll talk a bit about those first and then talk about the one I truly enjoyed.

Evermore by Alyson Noel

I heard about this book, I think possibly on a Twilight sight.  And I know someone mentioned it being as addictive and better than Twilight.  I wish I knew exactly where I read this because I would happily go back and tell the poster that no, not remotely.  I didn’t like it at all.  There was one aspect that I found possibly interesting but the writing was terrible, hard to follow and not really enlightening.  One scene she seemed to be describing a dream but then it appeared to be real.  Very strange and disjointed.

This book tells the story of Ever Bloom, a 16 year old former beauty queen whose whole family was killed in a car accident.  She nearly died but lingered while her family crossed over the bridge to the afterworld and instead was brought back to life.  She moves to California to live with her aunt and instead of embracing being popular again she keeps mostly to herself and a couple of “freak” friends.  A new guy, Damon Auguste, comes to school and starts drawing her out.  He is not a “vampire” per se, he’s apparently an “immortal”.  I guess he doesn’t feed from people at all but he drinks some red drink that is never really defined, although Ever suspects there is some blood base to it. Damon can also read minds, which calls back to Edward; as can Ever, ever since the accident which nearly killed her.

The one interesting aspect to the novel is that Ever is Damen’s soulmate reappearing over and over again over the 600 years of his life.  His former wife keeps killing her and then he finds her again in another place and time.  That could have been interesting but the idea got buried beneath her ghost sister visiting her, the stalking ex and this idea that she could choose immortality.  The concepts were there but I didn’t feel like the story explored anything to my satisfaction.  Another book is coming but I won’t be reading it.

The days of the solitary vamp in the shadows seem to be gone.

The Vampire Diaries by LJ Smith

I decided to look into this one since it’s being made into a show on The CW that I plan on checking out.  In this series, we have Elena, who like Ever looks exactly like a girl from the past of Stefan and Damon (there’s that name again), a pair of vampire brothers who happen across her.  Like Ever, Elena’s parents died in a car accident and she and her little sister are living with an aunt.  Unlike Ever, Elena is still the popular queen of the school and has to deal with the catty politics of high school hierarchy.  Stefan appears on the scene and Elena decides she must have him at all costs.  Initially he tries to resist her but they eventually get together.  Until Damon appears, that is.

Damon is the “bad” brother, the one who embraces being a vamp and lives for the darkness.  Stefan is Cullenized, generally only drinking from animals although occasionally he will drink from a person without killing them.  Damon’s not quite so concerned with people living and dying.  What he is concerned with is Elena, who looks like the girl, Katherine, that both brothers loved.  She’s the one who turned them both into vamps, instead of choosing between them, she chose to turn them both.  When they got angry with her for not picking one and thinking they’d be happy to live together with her for all of eternity, she apparently left herself out in the sunlight to die.  These vamps could be out in sunlight if they wore a special ring but she took hers off.  Stefan carried it on a chain for hundreds of years til he fell for Elena, then he gave it to her.

I read the first two books in the series, they were packaged together and the story was alright.  I would have probably pursued it but I did some reading up online and didn’t like where the author went with the story so I decided against it.  I liked the concept, a good vamp and a bad vamp vying for the same girl years later.  The characters were just okay, as usual the female protagonist didn’t really appeal to me.  She was kind of a bitch and not the kind of bitch I generally enjoy.  Stefan was alright and Damon had a lot of appeal but we didn’t get much of him.  I imagine the 3rd and 4th books explore him a bit more but I wasn’t interested enough to continue.

Night World No 1 by LJ Smith

These books caught my eye because they were in the same display at the House of Night novels.  Since I found them so appealing, I thought why not?  Why not indeed…there’s a lot of reasons why not.  The book contained 3 separate stories that almost read like short stories instead of novels.  I again, liked the idea behind the books but not the actual stories themselves.  The Night World is a secret world of vamps, witches and werewolves.  They hold themselves separate from society and consider humans to be an inferior race.  Falling for a human or sharing their secrets with a human is a death sentence.  I liked that idea and had the actual Night World been explored, I could have enjoyed it.

Instead I got 3 short love stories which did nothing for me.  In the first, a vampire turned his best friend/secret love into a fellow vampire because she was dying of cancer.  His evil cousin was actually tempted to turn them in to the Night Council but didn’t and that was that.  The second story had evil cousin fall for a human, which would have been kinda cool but it was too short and again, not a payoff with the Night World.  The third had a witch falling for a human and choosing to leave the Night World for him.  Nobody had any consequences for going against Night World law and it never felt like there was any threat there.  Kinda ruins the story.  There are 2 more books but again, I’m not pursuing it.

The one thing I did enjoy in this series was that there were two kinds of vampires, those that were made and those that were born.  Yes, vamps could marry and have kids and those kids would grow up until they decided to stop.  Then they were immortal.  Vampires could also feed on humans in these books without killing them.  I do like that concept quite a bit.

Again vamps feeding without killing.

The Vampire Academy Novels by Richelle Mead

Just when I was ready to declare my second go round with vamp lit a failure, I happened across these books.  And lo and behold, I got sucked in again!  When I saw the title I thought of House of Night, immediately, and this has some similar aspects although it’s very different in tone and setup.  Like I mentioned in the last paragraph, these novels also have two sets of vampires, the born and the made kind.  There are names for these and I’ll go into them momentarily.  Like HON, these take place at a school for vampires and dhampirs.  Dhampirs are half human/half vampires, generally born when a dhampir sleeps with Moroi.  Moroi are full blooded, born vamps.  There are 12 royal Moroi families, most of whom have some representation at the school.  Moroi vampires are not immortal, they live and they die.  The immortal vampires are called Strigoi.  These are made vampires, via biting, or born vampires who kill Moroi or humans.  It’s kind of strange to embrace the names and whatnot but you grow used to them after awhile.

The 3 books, with a 4th coming out in a couple months, are told again in first person, but this time our heroine is likable.  I mean, really and truly likable!  She’s Rosemarie Hathaway, a dhampir.  Dhampirs generally have two paths in life, they can either become a guardian of the Moroi, protecting them from Strigoi, or they can sleep with Moroi men and have and raise their illegitimate children.  Rose is in training to be a guardian and she’s protecting her best friend, Moroi royalty Lissa Dragomir.  The novel kicks off with them out on their own living among humans and for a few chapters I was actually afraid they’d been introduced as characters in another book and I’d just missed it.  But no, the author just immediately immerses you into this world and you have to puzzle it out through the first novel.  Sometimes I find that annoying but it worked here.

After Rose and Lissa get dragged back to school, which is not a spoiler as it happens in the first chapter, they are brought back into the world of the Moroi/Dhampir life.  The first novel focuses heavily on friendships and relationships within the school while subsequent novels bring a lot more of the battle with the Strigoi into it.  And I really liked all of it.  Rose and Lissa have a blood blond, but it’s one sided.  Rose can sense Lissa’s moods at all times and she can even enter into her head and see things the way Lissa does, but Lissa does not have the same read on Rose.  Lissa is the last of the Dragomir line, her family was all killed in a car accident that she and Rose survived.  It was after she and Rose lived that their bond formed and Rose got the ability to read Lissa.

If the books had been told through Lissa’s eyes I might not have enjoyed them as much.  She’s a definite good girl queenly type, but she’s not annoying.  Just kinda bland.  She does have a dark side to her, a battle with depression and power addiction that Rose constantly has to help her with.  Rose, though, Rose is awesome.  She’s an act first, think later kind of a girl.  She’s sarcastic, smart alecky and a badass.  Although another virgin, she doesn’t give a damn about her reputation for hooking up with guys and having a good time.  I really like that attitude amidst all the purity in most of the books.

Rose has major mother issues, a common theme in most of the novels I’ve read.  Her mom turned her over to the academies when she was four and continued her quest to be one of the top guardians in the world.  There’s a lot of resentment there but she and her mother do bond a little over the 3 books.

This series fulfilled my need to get some kind of read on the society being set up.  Where Stephenie Meyer only briefly touched on the Volturi, this one explores the Moroi royalty dynamic, courts, punishments, etc.  I won’t spoil the who’s should I convince anybody to read it, but someone Rose cares very much about appears to become Strogoi at the end of the third and novel and the fourth is going to explore her quest to kill that person.  Where I didn’t get the battles that I longed for in Twilight, here you get them plentifully.

There is a romance aspect for both Rose and Lissa, Lissa with an outcast fellow royal and Rose with an older guardian.  That’s not the driving interest of the stories for me but I like both situations all the same.

I mentioned The House Of Night novels and there is another similarity here besides the school factor.  In these books, the vampires specialize in one of the elements as well.  Lissa has yet to specialize but it turns out there’s a reason for that I won’t spoil.  I did find it interesting that calling the elements comes to play here but there is less of a spiritual aspect than in HON.

I thought it was interesting that 3 of the series revolved around dead families.  Evermore & Vampire Diaries were about gorgeous blond girls and Lissa in Vampire Academy is also a gorgeous blond.  Rose is statuesque brunette though, so there’s a little diversity.  I’m about to graduate into the big person books so we’ll see if there’s any different themes brought to life there.  I really find the vampire hierarchies to be quite interesting and that’s what made me enjoy Vampire Academy so much more than the rest.  None of these books are gripping me like Twilight did, but that was because of the love story for me.  I’m enjoying exploring the other worlds out there though and finding a couple of good series to continue with.  Back soon with more!

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True Blood

Sookie & Bill

Reading Harry Potter was not my sole project of the long holiday weekend; I also watched True Blood Season 1 on DVD.  Yeah, I probably will be blind in a year or two with all the work I put on my eyes, but in the meantime, you gotta do what you gotta do.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that I liked most of the casting and the show in general.  I was irritated by a few of the extra plot twists, but for the most part I found it a good watch.  Clearly, as I zoomed through all the episodes rather quickly.

Of course, the only way you’re going to like the books or the show is if you’re alright with Sookie.  She is far from my favorite character but she doesn’t bother me either.  Initial clips I’d seen made me think I was going to hate the actress playing her but I thought Anna Paquin did an alright job.  She’s not the bombshell I pictured in my mind but she’s alright and I got past the southern accent after while.

Bill was also in the alright category.  I loathe Bill in the books but this guy was pretty likeable and somewhat mysterious I thought.  I’m interested to see how they play him in season 3/4 when we get more information on the characters true motivations.

There was so not enough of Eric but I enjoyed what I did see.  He had that sexy menacing thing going on, although I wasn’t too much of a fan of the hair.  The actor in real life is actually much hotter, but what can you do?  I thought they foreshadowed his interest in Sookie rather well when he was watching her kiss Bill goodbye and I am looking forward to much more time with the character.  Here’s hoping they expand his role even beyond the books, right?

Jason…I definitely liked the actor playing him and he was just that right kind of redneck hot guy with little regard for anybody else.  The issue I had with Jason was the stuff they added for him.  Making him the number one murder suspect was great, he is in the book, but making him addicted to V and then throwing him in with the Fellowship of the Sun?  I didn’t care for that at all.  Jason doesn’t hate vampires…while he was a little leery of his sister dating one he wasn’t outwardly hostile and never seemed to care if a girl he was sleeping with had done a vamp before.  I didn’t care for this added element to the story.

Sam was perfectly cast in my eyes as well.  Just the right amount of cute and overprotective.  I also didn’t like his more antivamp stance though, in the books he may have hated Eric and Bill but he wasn’t against vampire rights and such.  He’s a shapeshifter for crying out loud, it doesn’t make sense for him to be against the rights of a different race.

And then we have Tara…initially I loved her.  I thought she was hilariously outspoken and a lot of fun, but then she started freaking out every single minute about something stupid.  I was okay with the Sam/Tara romance that doesn’t remotely exist in the books, but they took her way too OTT for my taste.  I guess it’s to set up the MaryAnn storyline, whatever that might be, but I really stopped liking her.  And I was annoyed that they didn’t stick to the true Tara from the books either, the one who was out doing vamps long before Sookie met Bill.  I think she needs a friend who will encourage her and that deviation bothered me.  I did like her friendship with Sookie, it was just really changed from the books.

My favorite character was probably Lafayette.  He was awesome, a gossip, totally gay and proud of it and just like I imagined him to be.  I’m quite sorry that they’ve likely killed him off already, as I assume the foot hanging out of Andy’s car at the end of the show was his.  Too bad, he rocked.

Those were the main characters I wanted to touch on.  The rest of the side characters were okay to me.  Pam was not “Alice in Wonderland” enough for my taste but that’s about it.  I thrilled to see Danko appear as the Magistrate guy ordering Bill to turn Jessica as his punishment for killing Chow.  None of that happened in the book but I found it an enjoyable turn.  Not that I like Jessica, she’s quite annoying and the fact that she got on Eric’s nerves and he gave her back to Bill worries me.  I hope she dies soon.

As to the story, well it was pretty faithful minus the extra stuff they added for Jason and the romantic twist for Sam/Tara.  I don’t mind the idea of Sam/Tara but clearly that’s not going ahead since she met Eggs but I don’t want Jason with the Fellowship at all.  They could have brought that in more with Arlene I thought.  Oh well.

Lots of sex, lots of blood, definitely more than you get in the books, particularly the sex.  But I guess if we get to experience all of Jason’s conquests we’ll be in for quite a show.  It’s fine as long as we get some naked Eric soon…it’s only fair.  All in all, not a bad show and I enjoyed seeing the characters brought to life.  For the most part I actually liked them and it makes the books a little better for me actually.  Hopefully I can find a way to watch season 2 as it happens, somewhere the internet will have it for me right???  I do have a thirst for more!

All photos from True-Blood.tv.

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Delving Into The Darkness

The vampire world differs greatly from story to story.

Most of my spare time (and really time I didn’t even have to spare as well) these past 3 weeks I have spent exploring my inner vampire fangirl.  As ya’ll know, I fell for the Twilight series despite its many flaws due to my love of one Edward Cullen.  That love has not abated in the 6 months since I began Twilight.  Then I got to remembering my love for Angel and Spike in Buffy The Vampire Slayer and I started wondering if maybe I have a vamp thing going on?  I don’t think I want to start hanging out in alleys at night hoping that a vampire will happen upon me, but I admit that the creatures of the night (or in some cases day) intrigue me.  So I decided to read a couple more popular vampire series to see if they had the same effect on me.  I’m proud to say that while I find a few of the vampires in these series intriguing, I appear to be a one vamp girl!  But while reading, and greatly enjoying, two other series I caught a lot of interesting themes that were prevalent in all of them as well as a lot of differences and thought I’d talk about them a little bit.  It’s really fascinating to me and I hope it will be to you as well.

The three series I am comparing are of course Twilight, The House of Night books by PC & Kristen Cast & The Sookie Stackhouse Novels (the series that True Blood is based upon) by Charlaine Harris.  I’ll start out with the main similar themes and then discuss the very different worlds the authors have created.

The Virgin

All 3 novels have sexually inexperienced girls or women.  Zoey Redbird (House of Night) and Bella Swan are both fairly young, 16 and 17 respectively, so no surprise there, but Sookie Stackhouse is 25 or 26 when the series begins.  There are reasons for her virginity that I’ll get into shortly, but she is just as inexperienced as the younger two, maybe even more so than Zoey who at least had a steady boyfriend in high school and has clearly done some physical stuff.  All 3 lose their virginity in the books and all 3 lose said virginity to a vampire.

I flash back to the Scream movies to the virgin never dies discussion with Jamie Kennedy and Neve Campbell’s characters and have to laugh a little.  These virgins don’t die either but they sure have death all around them.  Many a horror movie has mentioned the whole virgin thing so it’s not a surprise the writers all chose to make their heroines innocent.  The contrast between their “light” and the vampires “dark” just stands out all the more.

Girls With Powers

Another major likeness between the 3 series is the fact that all the women have something extraordinary about them.  Bella has her shielding power to block Edward from reading her mind and Jane and Alec from tormenting her physically; Zoey Redbird has the ability to call the elements and has been tagged by the vampire goddess Nyx as a future high priestess; and Sookie can read minds (I was floored when I saw this was written before Twilight) of all humans and pick up some thoughts from werewolves and shapeshifters, but is unable to read vampire minds.  I guess in order to garner and keep the attention of vampire there has to be something fascinating about you, and all three of these women have that in spades.

Everyone Loves The Girl

Okay, so I am generalizing a bit here but one of the heavy Twilight complaints I saw was that Bella had all these guys falling for her without lifting a finger.  I understand the irritation with that somewhat, although I would argue the human boys mostly just liked her because she was someone new in a small town.  I have been the new kid many times in my youth and I can say that you do garner some attention just because you’re different.  It doesn’t tend to last long, but it does happen.

If that bothered anybody reading this, I would highly recommend NOT reading these other series because it’s even more prevalent.  Sookie has 2 vampires, a weretiger, a werewolf and a shapeshifter all sniffing around her in 8 books so far.  Every time a new male character gets introduced I cringe wondering if they’ll be yet another potential love interest.  Zoey has her human boyfriend, her fellow vampire fledgling, a vampire teacher, a red vampire and some kind of demon god all wanting her, through 5 books.  It all ties back into their looks and their abilities, of course, but it can be a bit offputting.  I’m able to swallow it because I like most of the characters involved.

The thing I found most interesting was my reaction to these suitors differs very greatly.  In Twilight, I’m all about Edward.  Jacob need not exist in my book, but whatever.  Never before and never again probably have I ever rooted so heartily for a fictional couple.  But in these other two?  I can see why Zoey would be interested in Heath and Erik and Lauren and even Stark.  Kolona not so much but I understand his draw.  It’s very weird not to have a rooting interest but I think it makes me much more sane.  I did whip through the House of Night books with about the same pacing as I did Twilight though, read one each day.

In Sookie’s case, it’s the exact opposite for me.  I do have rooting interest even though I think I’m probably rooting for the guy that I’m not supposed to.  But I see the flaws with every guy she’s into and I really don’t think any of them are necessarily good choices for her.  Bill was her first love but he turned out to be a liar and a user.  The fact that he’s sorry for this and he loves her still doesn’t move me at all because I never liked him even before I knew he had betrayed her.  He was just so secretive and standoffish in my viewpoint.  Eric, on the other hand, is the vamp I would so love to take a bite out of.  Or vice versa!  He’s far more intimidating and far more dangerous but he’s also tons more complex and interesting to me.  The thing that really sets him apart for me is the fact that he’s very truthful with Sookie, even when he knows what he has to tell her is going to hurt her.  It’s a refreshing difference from my overprotective Edward, who I do love but he could have been more forthcoming about things instead of trying to take care of them himself.  Eric does not have as good a grip on his emotions, I’m quite sure he loves Sookie and I think he knows it but doesn’t feel comfortable saying it.  Still, there’s a heat and a draw between them that is palpable, especially since both have had one another’s blood.  More on that later!

Family Issues

I could have titled this section Mother Issues, since the strongest issues do seem to have been between mother/daughter.  What’s amusing is that we barely know any of the mothers in the series, in fact, Sookie’s died when she was seven but I think her nonaction played a major part in who her daughter became today.  Anybody who has read one of my Twilight blogs might have noticed that I greatly dislike Bella’s mom, Renee.  Any mother who is going to choose a man over her own daughter just sucks in my book, whether or not said daughter still considers her her best friend.  She’s supposed to be your mother, not your best friend, and choosing to wallow because her new husband travels a lot, to the point that you drive your daughter to move to a new state so you can be happy, well that just sets me off.  And eerily enough, Renee is the best mother of the bunch!

Zoey’s mother has the Renee thing going on in spades.  She remarried 3 years prior to the novels starting and basically became her husband’s little parrot.  What he believes, she believes.  He’s a religious nut, she’s now a religious nut.  All vampires are evil so Zoey, who has been chosen to become one, is evil.  Best to let her die rather than let her become a vamp.  Buy her a bible for her 17th birthday to show that she’s evil and needs to turn away from Nyx and embrace their way of thinking.  Yep, that woman is a real prize.

Sookie’s mother takes the cake though, and we get very little about the woman.  It turns out that Sookie was molested by her uncle from about 5 to 7 and when she told her mother, she refused to believe her and told her she had a terrible imagination.  She didn’t even try to keep the guy away from her either.  Sookie later finds out that through her father she has fairy blood and it turns out that said blood makes the people around you more apt to be fascinated by you (hence I guess all the supernatural creatures being drawn to her).  So her father was the center of her mother’s world despite their two young children and she really had no time or interest in her kids.  Fun.  I’m not sorry she died when Sookie was 7 and I’m glad that her grandmother raised her and believed her about the uncle.

In HON & SSN, biting equals sexy!

Differences

I think those were the main common themes I wanted to discuss, so now I’ll talk a little about the different worlds and lore that the writers have created.  Again, I’ll briefly compare with Twilight but I don’t feel the need to outline all of that with you guys, been there and done that.  While the vamps in Twilight can come out on nonsunny days, these vampires prefer the night, HONs won’t die right away but it does hurt them and it will kill the vamps in Sookie’s books.  There are plenty of other smaller vamp lores to address but maybe I’ll do that in another blog.

One big commonality between the House of Night & Sookie novels is the concept of the vampires living openly among us.  While they were in Twilight, they had to keep their identities hidden.  Not so in these other series.  House of Night is a school where selected fledglings go to learn how to become a vampire.  Over a 3 year time period, they will either become a full blooded vampire (The Change) or they will die.  There’s no rhyme or reason to who becomes a vamp and who dies, at least not that I’ve yet learned.  But the vamps are distinguishable by a marking on their foreheads.  When you’re chosen, a tracker vamp finds you and aims something at you and you get a mark on your head.  You have a day or two to report to a House of Night school or you die.  The vampires are known to the public via their markings and it seems that all our famous actors and actresses are vamps, the beautiful people you know.

In the Sookie novels, the vampires came out of the closet 6 years before the novels started when a Japanese company was able to make substitute blood that they could consist on.  They no longer had to hide and hunt humans so they declared themselves to exist publicly.  That’s not to say that they don’t face some adversity and discrimination, both books have human elements that are against the vampires and attacking them in stealthy ways.  But there are also all sorts of humans lined up to have their blood sucked by a vamp and unlike in Twilight, it’s not a killing thing.  All vamps seem to have the ability to take what they want and leave the person alive and well.  And…horny.

All the novels embrace the possibility of vampire love, albeit with different results.

Yep, both series portray the blood drinking as something very sexual in nature.  The vamps in the Sookie books often bite a little as they have sex.  In turn, if a human drinks vamp blood it acts like a drug and a healing element.  Sookie drinks blood from Bill once or twice and Eric three times and her tie to Eric is deep and abiding as a result.  They can actually sense one another’s emotions.

Similarly, in House of Night, when a vampire feeds on a human or another vamp they can form an imprint with one another.  Yes, there’s that imprint word, only this time it’s not wolves and their mates.  Zoey imprints with Heath and they can actually communicate with one another somewhat and definitely feel what one another feels.  And the actual act of drinking the blood turns out to be a major turn on when it’s guy/girl involved.  Two girls imprint in the HON novels but that one is not sexual in nature, however they are tied and can feel one another’s feelings as well.  It’s really quite fascinating and when reading them I was rather sorry that this did not happen with Edward and Bella in any way.  A friend had mentioned that she would have loved it in New Moon if Edward had known Bella was in danger by a tie with her thoughts, which could have been achieved via an imprint like in these other books.  Ah well!

The House of Night novels not only explore vampirism but they also explore witchcraft and Native American spirituality (which makes me think of the wolves in Twilight, for that matter).  While Zoey is a vampire fledgling, her mark is filled in like that of a regular vampire because Nyx has chosen her as a future High Priestess.  She appears to Zoey in her dream and helps her throughout the novels.  Zoey is able to call the 4 elements plus spirit, a staple of any witchcraft I’ve seen.  Zoey’s grandmother is a native American and she uses chanting and magics as well.  It’s a very interesting diversion from your regular vampires to be sure.  While I’m used to vampires having more skills, it’s quite different to have them using magic.  I have yet to read the Harry Potter novels (and yes, they are on the way!!!) I think this book series ties in somewhat, in the whole school and magic factor.

While the Sookie books do not have magic as done by vamps, they do have magic done by witches and fairies.  Yep, you have a little bit of everything in these books.  Weres don’t just have to be wolves, there are werepanthers and werefoxes and weretigers.  Not to mention shapeshifters that can be anything.  And maenads.  The vampires do not have a school but they do have a governmental system that remains unknown to humans.  There are kings and queens of the state and their sheriffs (Eric is one) control various areas within.  They have meetings and conferences.  I tend to think if Stephenie Meyer had explored the Volturi more, they would stand as a kind of governmental body that might be somewhat similar, although they were all clustered together.

Angel & Spike were my original sexy vamps.

Well this blog has gotten really long and I could probably keep talking for another 2500 words, but maybe I’ll just wait on that for now.  All three worlds fascinate and appeal to me for very different reasons and I wanted to share a little with you.  Hopefully those of you that haven’t read one or both of the other series will check them out and come back and discuss them with me.  I’ve already got one friend hitting the HON as I type, and another friend reading SSN, so I’m pretty excited.  HON is actually written, like Twilight, for the teen audience, so it’s very easy to read and quite enjoyable.  Sookie is more for adults but again, easy read, 300 page books, I was done in a day.  Sometimes with two books in a day.  The new Sookie comes out today and I’ve had to restrain myself from running out to buy it right now.  I have to actually do some work sometime, after all.  I’m not as addicted as I was to Twilight but I certainly enjoy the stories just as much.  Hopefully you guys will check them out if you haven’t already and if you have, please drop me a line and let me know what you thought.  I know there are other series out there to explore and I’m definitely considering doing that after my Harry Potter adventure.   More sexy vampires can only be a good thing, right?

All photos from photobucket.com keyword vampires

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