Vampire Kisses
by Ellen Schreiber


Raven Madison is the strangest girl in town.  Goth girl and vampire obsessed, she is convinced that vampires are real and it's her highest dream to become one.  Needless to say, in a small conservative town, she doesn't have many friends.  Only painfully shy farm girl, Becky, will put up with her weird ways, and that is because Raven became her champion when the other kids tormented Becky in elementary school.   Life in "Dullsville"  is borderline unbearable for Raven until the new people move into the dilapidated mansion on the hill.  They are oviously rich because the parents are always flying off on trips, they have a butler who does all the shopping in town, and an expensive car sits in the driveway.  But to Raven, the most fascinating person in the family is the teenaged son who only comes out at night.  Devilishly handsome, Alexander Sterling has captured Raven's imagination, and she is convinced he is really a vampire.  She is determined to meet him and wants nothing more than to receive his "vampire's" kiss.  Raven gets her wish, but the result is not exactly what she expected!  Vampire Kisses is book one in a series by the same name. Read more for the further adventures of Raven and Alexander!
                   ~reviewed by Mrs Sams

    

Vampire Academy

by Richelle Mead 

       Lissa Dragomir, a vampire princess, and Rose Hathaway, Lissa's guardian, are bound together by more than friendship.  Rose can actually enter Lissa's thoughts and emotions and feel what she feels.  For two years, they have lived on their own, with Rose protecting Lissa from the Strigoi, the undead, but they are finally captured and returned to St. Vladimir's Academy where they have to adjust all over again to royal intrigues, tons of homework, and having no control over their own lives.  As much as she dislikes being back, Rose recognizes that she needs the intense physical training she is getting from the incredibly handsome guardian, Dimitri.  That becomes even more evident when terrifying things start happening to Lissa, even in the safe world of the Academy.  Dark and edgy, Vampire Academy has everthing a young adult novel should have--conflict, a strong, sarcastic main character, and romance.  Vampire Academy is the first in a five-book series.  Reviewed by Mrs. Sams.

Hawkes

Harbor

S.E. Hinton

Those who have read and loved such S.E. Hinton classics as The Outsiders and Tex may have wondered if she has written anything new recently. The answer to that question is yes! After a 15-year hiatus, Hinton has come out with a new novel, but if readers are looking for another teen novel like The Outsiders, Hawkes Harbor will come as something of a shock. This dark, adult novel of Jamie Sommers, an orphan abused as a child, and terrified as an adult by an awakened vampire to the point of madness, moves too slowly to really capture, and for me, at least, was too crude and violent to engage. I wanted to stop reading every page. The plot seems inconsistent. Near the end of the book, the cruel vampire, Grenville Hawkes, is cured of his vampirism, and suddenly gains concern for the man he violently controlled for years. While I like happy endings as much as anyone, this resolution just didn't seem to fit the tension-filled beginning of this novel. S.E. Hinton's new book will not be available in the high school library, and I would be hard-pressed to recommend it to our students. There are plenty of better vampire books out there. Leave this one on the shelf. ~review by Dail Sams