A Vampire a Day--House of Night

I've been reading "urban fantasy" since before it was a "thing" and my interest in vampires predates Twilight. Lately, though, it seems like urban fantasy has been edged out by "paranormal romance," a lot of which seems to feature near-naked guys on the cover. (Although to be fair, the whole "shifter" subgenre of UF seems to be the bigger culprit with the paranormal porn-y kinds of covers.)
I thought it might be fun to read (or reread) a sampling of what's out there and I'm going to start 2018 off with P.C. Cast's and Kristen's Cast's "House of Night" series.

Dustin M. Ramsey (Kralizec)

This mother--daughter writing team have set their book in Tulsa, Oklahoma and that immediately sets it off from the bazillion other books that are set in LA/NY/Chicago. The first book opens with a stunning scene that features this truly creepy statue that stands in front of the entrance to Oral Roberts University, and throughout the series, many real-life locations are woven into the story.

There's diversity in the story--the protagonist, Zoey "Redbird" is part Native American and she has inherited powers from her "Grandmother Redbird." Native American myth augments and amplifies the vampire stuff, and when the books (there are twelve so far) get into the "Raven mocker" parts of the story, the saga really takes off. There are characters here I really didn't like when I first met them and then the Casts surprised me with what they did. There is growth here--the characters don't stand still. The books are addictive, in a good way, and there are real stakes at the heart of Zoey's situation.  If you're looking for a series to binge-read, this is a good one.

A Vampire a Day: House of Night Series by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast

I was skeptical about the setting of this vampire eries. Tulsa, Oklahoma? I wasn't really feeling it, but the writers (a mother/daughter team who formerly wrote under one name), convinced me with the opening scene--a visual of the big PRAYING HANDS sculpture at Oral Roberts University. And then they introduced readers to a series of landmarks they'd claimed for their own characters and I went Googling around to find the Art Deco train station and the estate they used. That train station is beautiful. Abandoned and haunted.

The authors also did a good job of coming up with an explanation for vampirism that involves science not the supernatural. It has to do with "junk DNA" and the condition is triggered by puberty. I liked that a lot. What didn't quite work for me was that the vampires start getting spontaneous tattooing on thier faces and bodies the stronger they grow--that's the MARKED of the first book's title. It's kind of a trope that werewolves have tattoos, and also "hunters" of various kinds, but I hadn't encountered tattooed vampires before.

I' was interested in the heroine, Zoey, who has a Native American grandmother and a complicated home life. (Her mother married a religious nut who thinks being marked as a vampire is worse than being a devil worshipper. that storyline plays out over the course of several books and it's heart-wrenching.