Bitchery reader Jennifer is a student at Davidson College who is focusing her research on the romance genre, and she comes to the Bitchery with a query.
She’s looking for vampire romance, specifically those that do ti differently, or did it over but better the second time:
I’m putting together a list of what I think are vampire romances that are both representative of the genre and ones that break, subvert, or rewrite vampire romances. But I’m afraid I’m going to leave an important book out!
Is there any way you could get a thread started so I could mine the brains of your readers for suggestions? I’m looking for romances that are both representative of the vampire romance genre, and those who break away from it.
If you doubt the mad power of Jennifer’s brain, take a look at her online essay Intertextuality and the Vampire Romance. A key quote in her examination of the “Death and the Maiden” motif in art, and the sexuality and inevitability inherent in those portrayals:
On another note, how eerie is it that the Death and the Maiden Paintings echo some romance novel covers in the way the two figures are positioned? Am I the only one seeing the similarity?
Do you know how hopping-in-my-chair giddy it makes me to see the power of big brainfulness applied to the themes of romance, especially when they are so intrinsically linked with similar themes in art and other subgenres of fiction? WORD TO YOU, JENNIFER.
So anyone got any ideas of vampire romances she absolutely should not miss, the ones that subvert the genre and/or the themes within it?
Excuse me-
the vampires that are “born” that way are ABOVE the vampires that are “made”
That set off the reminder bells: Prince of Dreams by Susan Krinard, about a vampire who feeds on life force as people dream.
What a great idea. For a more traditional type of vampire romance, I’d recommend The Vampire Diaries by L. J. Smith. Mainly because I’m obsessed with those books.
I’d like to put in a good word for Jeri Smith-Ready’s Wicked Game, which if not a romance is arguably romance adjacent. Her vampires suffer from OCD, and are psychologically frozen at the time of the time of their being turned. While they are immortal, in their unchanging nature lie the seeds of their demise. Plus it’s just a great book!
YA, but I have been reading Rachel Caine’s Morganville Vampire series. It’s about a town in Texas with a University. The town was founded by a vampire to give her people protection. One of the characters is a resident who is caught between states.
And I can’t remember the name of the book but there was a book from the early 90’s set in Hawaii. The hero was a vampire, it was definitely a romance, and there was a strong suggestion of Highlander.
Nancy Gideon also wrote a series of Vampire books. The last one I read was a disappointment because the villain kept coming up with all sorts of complicate, nefarious plans when he could have gotten to his goals easier by mundane means. The villain was not a vampire.
I love Lara Adrian. Kiss of Midnight is one of my favorite romance novels ever. It’s just brilliantly executed, IMO. I also like Ward, Lover Eternal my fave of the BDB.
One review that caught my interest recently was for a female vamp that didn’t have superpowers – just an amplified aura that aroused protective instincts. That seemed like a departure from the classic super strength, hearing, telepathic abilities. Sorry I don’t remember the title!
Jenica, I think that might be Barb Hendee’s Blood Memories. I remembered reading the review at Dear Author and it sounds like the book you’re describing.
P.N. Elrod’s Vampire Files series is different from the pack! He’s a vampire PI and his first case is to solve his own murder.
They’re more urban fantasy than romance, but the hero is totally in love with his lady and the love scenes are … *ahem* …inspiring.
Ignore the covers. Her publisher did her no favors with those. The insides are worth it.
Elrod has a more romantic historical series with Jonathan Barrett: Gentleman Vampire. Can’t think how Jennifer missed two of the titles, “Death and the Maiden” and “Dance of Death” since she used them in that essay.
There’s some good, smokin’ hawt love scenes in the Barrett books. Barrett’s a man of his times and really enjoys being with women! And the nookie really IS part of the story arc.
Michele Hauf has a master list of all things vampire:
http://www.michelerhauf.com/vamplist.html
You may find some interesting entries on this list that are off the beaten path.
I really enjoy Charlaine Harris’ world-building, myself. She has great details in her books.
Tanya Huff’s Victory Nelson/Blood Ties series is another world I enjoy. It’s closer to the post-Ann Rice classical vampire world, but there’s enough detail and characterization to make it really enjoyable. Plus, she’s capable of capturing creepy at the Stephen King level, which is a nostalgia thing for me.
Finally, there’s the Ariane Dempsey series by Jemiah Jefferson. There are romantic elements in this series, but it does move closer to straight up horror.
If you can find it, I highly recommend Nancy Baker’s Kiss of the Vampire/The Night Inside. The vampire mythos is average, but the vampire himself—a Russian aristocrat—makes all the classic tropes new. And the heroine, Ardeth, is awesome, and there’s some government conspiracy, and some deep thoughts on how much of the changeover to vampirism is affected by the circumstances of the change, and…yay. Go read it.
Traditional
Linda Lael Miller: Forever and the Night, For All Eternity, Time Without End, Tonight and Always (Have read a couple about 15 years ago, from what I can remember there was a pretty traditional take on vamps. Oh, they can time travel back up to the time of their deaths/their lifetime(?).)
Nora Roberts: Circle trilogy
Different
Laurell K Hamilton: Anita Blake series -not really romance (continuing story, various & varied love interests, no HEA, some HFN), cross-genre, difficult to classify. Twist: vampires legal citizens of US
MaryJanice Davidson: Undead series -different voice (as mentioned above), IMO chick lit-y more than romance
C.T. Adams & Cathy Clamp: the Thrall trilogy: Touch of Evil, Touch of Madness, Touch of Darkness (mentioned above, totally different take)
Sherrilyn Kenyon: Dark-Hunter series -bad ‘vamps’ take souls not blood, good ‘vamps’ don’t take blood either, except for some exceptions (and those not from humans but specific individials)
Angela Knight: Mageverse series -Merlin was an alien who made Arthur & knights into one kind of vamp to battle another kind of alien vamp
Kresley Cole: Immortals After Dark series: books with vamps as main characters: The Warlord Wants Forever (in Playing Easy to Get), A Hunger Like No Other, No Rest For the Wicked, Dark Needs at Night’s Edge
And let us not forget that gay and Jewish vampires exist . . . in ebookland.
Obligatory link to Our Vampires Are Different here…
Aha! I have something new to add! I’m so excited!
I enjoy reading Lynn Viehl’s Darkyn series. The vampires in her series are former Knights Templar; they do not know how they became vampires (they call themselves Darkyn) and haven’t been able to turn any new vampires in 500 years. Viehl does a pretty good job of world building. Because the vampires were all knights, they have a very strict society with rules and hierarchy. In the first book, a physician is turned, and she tries to find the medical reason for her mutation. She theorizes that the Darkyn were exposed to multiple diseases, both from the Middle East and plague-ravaged Europe, and that those diseases mutated together to create vampirism. She herself was innoculated for those diseases to give medical care in Africa, and so was able to be turned when bitten.
I have been a huge fan of vampire novels for over 14 years, and I agree with RfP’s assessment of the genre. Vampire romances originally had a “woe is me, who will share in my eternal night?” theme to them that is missing lately. It’s not a romance, but Interview With the Vampire should probably be mentioned. This was really the first book to cast the vampire as the protagonist instead of the antagonist. The rest is history.
*delurks*
While not strictly a romance, (though the MC pays the bills as a romance writer and does develop a romantic relationship with one of the vampires) “Children of the Night” by Mercedes Lackey has some interesting takes on vampires. There’s one fairly traditional vampire (Andre), one Japanese (?) soul-eater type of vampire, and several rock band members turned “psi-vamps” that feed first off of the positive energy released by their audiences, then later off of negative emotions.
CotN is #2 in her Diana Tregarde Investigations series, and IMHO, the best of the bunch. I don’t remember if #1 and #3 have any vampire-ish stuff in them.
*relurks*
MaryJanice Davidson’s series is great, Undead and…(fill in the blank)!!! The main character is not your ordinary Vampire while the rest of the vamps in the story are. The series is very funny too.
Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series is very interesting.
There is a couple of great YA authors who have created a new form of vampire. All the vamps in these books do not become vampires by being bitten, it is either in their blood or they get chosen.
Rachelle Mead
PC Cast and her daughter (forgot her name, something Cast. lol)
Melissa De La Cruz Blueblood, series is very cool.
There are just so many authors out their it’s really amazing.
Lynn Viehl’s Darkyn series
All the vampires used to be Templar Knights and they all think they were punished by God for the Crusades. They turned sometime during the Crusades and think it’s a kind of curse. A female doctor, who gets turned, thinks it’s a virus of some kind and working on looking for a cure.
It’s very difficult for new vampires to be turned, especially women.
I love the series and hope she keeps writing.
I’m a bit late to this thread, but I wanted to give a third to PN Elrod’s Vampire Files, whose vampire PI Jack Fleming is refreshingly un-angsty and in a (gasp!) monogamous relationship with his nightclub singer girlfriend.
There’s also the Cal Leandros series by Rob Thurman, which feature a lovely vampire named Promise as a secondary character and love interest for the protagonist’s brother. Promise is rather unique in that she subsumes her craving for blood by taking massive doses of iron and other supplements. She can also walk abroad in daylight if she’s well covered, and can use a crossbow and kick ass.
And I’m terribly fond of Jim Butcher and Sherrilyn Kenyon too.
Oh, I should probably have suggested that Jennifer go to my paranormal entertainment blog, Vampire Wire, http://www.vampirewire.blogspot.com where, I have daily updates to vampire and paranormal entertainment stories.
Ok I have to agree with Marita Joss Whedon is my Master now but i would argue that the vamps in Buffy are actually quite traditional, apart from Angel and Spike they are all monsters who have no redeeming features (apart from their ability to snark on demand).
I’m glad people are agreeing with Sunshine I wasn’t to sure it would count (I’m glad it does, Mckinley is one of my favorite authors whichever genre is being discussed).
I just don’t “get” vampire romances. A vampire is a walking corpse that sucks blood, and if you get involved with him, you have a choice between turning into a wrinkled old hag while he stays young and hot, or becoming a walking corpse yourself and sucking blood for eternity, which is a Looong time. What’s “romantic” about THAT?
I would like to suggest an anthology that has four shorts. One is werewolf so it doesn’t count but the other three are vamp. The book is called “Hot Blooded” and has Christine Feehan, Maggie Shayne (werewolf), Emma Holly, and Angela Knight. All pretty good for shorties. Usually not anthology fan, but since I was collecting the whole Feehan Carpathian, I figured I needed the whole kit and kaboodle so to speak and glad I did.
Jeannine Frost’s “Halfway to the Grave” is one of the better vampire novels I’ve read in a good while.
Pop Culture/Vegas Culture Vampires-Erin McCarthy’s books.
Southern Vamps & Mystery genre-Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris
Humourous Vampires/regaining a soul when meets mate-Dark Ones series by Katie Macalister.
Humourous Vampires-Lyndsy Sands
Vampires are Evil and should be slain-Connie Gleason
I want to add my vote for Lynn Viehl’s “Darkyn” series … and am surprised that not more people have mentioned them.
IMO, excellent writing, world building, and characterizations. Unfortunately, she has recently reported on her blog that with the seventh book out in the series (“Stay The Night”, due Jan ‘09), that will be the end in that particular Darkyn series. WAHHHH!!!!!!
Gotta admit, I admire an author who goes out on a high-note of an admitted well-received series, instead of flogging it to death.
— Bonz
I’ve talked about these before when vampires are mentioned but no one else ever does so either I’m the only one that likes them or they aren’t well know at all which is shame. They are the only Vampire novels I think I could bring myself to read again at this point of over saturation.
Susan Sizemore’s FIRST series Law of the Blood.
http://susansizemore.com/lawsoftheblood.html
You’re aware of The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance, right? It includes stories by a number of the authors suggested here.
“The biggest names in paranormal romance have created a fascinating array of 30 short stories of hot blood and inhuman passions that will leave you thirsting for more. Authors include Sherri Erwin, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Jenna Black, Jenna Maclaine, Raven Hart, Delilah Devlin, Keri Arthur, Kimberly Raye, Alexis Morgan, Lilith Saintcrow, C.T. Adams, Cathy Clamp, Susan Sizemore, Dina James, Colleen Gleason, Barbara Emrys, Savannah Russe, Shiloh Walker, Vicki Pettersson, Rebecca York, Rachel Vincent, Amanda Ashley, Karen Chance, and Nancy Holder. These ain’t your mother’s vampires!”
Amy Lane’s Little Goddess series has sort of a different take on vampires, and a very nifty mythology to go with it it!
Fred Saberhagen’s Dracula series… Not straight romance, but definately a blend of romantic genres.
I also second the Mary Janice Davidson and Charlaine Harris books. And the Tanya Huff, PN Elrod and Butcher.
Kathy Love has a series set in Vegas- what better place to hide? One of the vamp/heroes owns a casino. And Vamp politics run rampant through the books.
Lackey’s Children of the Night still brings me to tears. And I have all my original copies of Linda Lael Millers books. they were some of my faves of hers.
and thanks for all the new stories!!
I’d also like to add my voice to those recommending Sunshine by Robin McKinley and One Foot in the Grave by Jeanette Frost.
Also, if you can get your hands on it, see if you can find Gifts of Blood: The Collected Stories of Susan C. Petrey. It’s a collection of short stories, some of them romantic, that has a very different representation of vampires. The stories were collected and published after her death in 1980.
I think I’m a second on Tanya Huff’s “Books of Blood” (vampire Henry and initially human Vicky) but I’d further add her spin-off from that, the “Smoke and…” series (vampire Henry and male companion Tony).
Hmm, Tate Hallaway’s series that starts with Tall, Dark and Dead is maybe a bit different from the norm. Or Adrian Phoenix’s A Rush of Wings. Or Lynn Viehl’s Darkyn series. Jeanne Stein’s Anna Strong series twists things a bit, after starting off very much in the strong male vampire bit.
Two very good series not mentioned yet are Jacquelyn Frank’s Nightwalkers and Diane Whiteside’s Texas vampires. Both have pretty traditional vampire abilities. Whiteside’s world reminds me of a mafia run organization, without the illegal activities. Frank’s elaborite world features races of supernatural beings that are just discovering their future may lie in getting rid of their racism attitutes among the nightwalker groups.
I wanted to just repeat the vote for Lynsay Sands’ “vampires” who are actually Atlanteans who need to suck blood due to an evolutionary jump aided by science/technology. Also a very well laid out mythos behind the whole thing.
I’ve read and enjoyed many of the authors listed and would like to suggest looking at Jennifer Armintrout‘s Blood Ties series.
Wow! So many of these I have to read now. . . But, if erotic vampire fiction counts for vampire romance too, there’s a wonderful sampler of vampire mythoi in Erotica Vampirica (though it may now be out of print). It’s still one of my favorites. And I must “ditto” everyone who mentioned Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake novels, though I do believe they deteriorate after the first six.
I admit it… I’m a complete and utter wuss where vampires and weres and other beasties/creatures of woo are concerned. Blood and gore and guts doesn’t interest me, but doesn’t faze me either—I worked in a crime lab for years around the real stuff. But a few fangs, pale flesh and glowing and/or freakish eyes (not to mention hairy palms, etc) scare the bejeebers out of me. Even the corny stuff, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the original movie), gives me the willies.
And OMG… that description above, where the vamps are like bees and the larvae and the bloodstream … TOTALLY squicked me out the door and had me yelping in my office. I’m still shuddering hours later.
But I did catch Marta’s comments about Anne Rice last week, and was duly impressed. With her comments, anyway. Very underwhelmed w/ Rice.
Diane
wondering how the heck I’ll ever sleep tonite, what with my skin crawling and all…
I’ll be the tenth or so person to recommend Robin McKinley’s “Sunshine”. Yum!
I also enjoyed the vampire “family” in Patricia Briggs’ Mercedes Thompson Series – though those books are mostly based on werewolves, the second book (“Blood Bound”) is all about vampires. Rumor has it the fourth book will also feature vampire retribution. Good Stuff! Dresden Files, Southern Vampire Mysteries, Anita Blake (books 1-5 mostly).
On a more scholarly note, I didn’t see a citation for Nina Auerbach’s Our Vampires, Ourselves in Jennifer’s essay – if you aren’t already familiar with it, Jennifer, it’s a postmodern, feminist reading of vampire lit from 19th c. Britain and 20th c. America. I read it just for fun, but it’s great for what you’re researching!
I will echo other Bitches in recommending McKinley’s Sunshine.
All of these suggestions are so great. Many of these books I have read and loved with the Charlaine Harris and Bucher books being among my favorites these days. However, I noticed that no one mentioned the L.A. Banks vampire books which start, I believe, with Minion.* They aren’t my favorite but they are different from most of the books on this list in that the herione is a black woman and the story is definitely rooted in Hip Hop music culture. I found it refreshing to read a vampire series written with such a different cultural slant.
*Of course there are a lot of great comments so I might have missed someone mentioning her books up-thread.