A Vampire a Day: Vampires Rule by Kasi Blake

Like ohmigod, I thought when I saw the title of this book, thinking it was going to be a story about teen vampires in high school or something. As it turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
The cover is a better clue to the content. It's got that angsty thing going on and despite the kind of cheesy typeface, the image clearly depicts the kind of isolation the young vampire narrator experiences.

The book begins with a very emotional and very effective scene as "a boy with no name' pays a visit to his childhood home and sees that the cheery yellow his mother chose has been painted over with a muted olive green. He nearly panics t the thought that his brother Billy has sold the farm, but as it turns out, losing the farm is not the worst problem facing him.


This is the first book in a series, and  Jack (a boy with no name actually has a name) is a very likable, very sympathetic protagonist. He comes across as authentic, even in the moments when his Tarot-card consulting friend Lily is shrieking dire warnings in his ear. "You're going to die," she tells him and he retorts, "I've already died once, so what's the big deal?" Which is exactly the right tone of teenage bravado. But we know it IS bravado because we've seen his vulnerability. To put it simply, Jack doesn't sparkle.

This book surprised me--in a good way--and I will definitely check out the next book in the series, Werewolves Rule. I was also curious enough about the author, that I tracked her down to her site. You can read about her here.