A Vampire a Day: Bent Steeple by G. Wells Taylor

Horror writer G. Wells Taylor (his new book, The Night Once More is a genre-bending, phantasmagorical noir-horror-thriller), hit an absolute home run with Bent Steeple, a stand-alone vampire book set in the Canadian north woods. If you like Stephen King (and I do, a lot), you will LOVE this book. The characterizations are absolutely first rate, from a doctor who sees what's happening before anyone else, to a disabled kid. (Fergus will break your heart.) this is another vampire book that is for readers who prefer their horror to be just that--horrific. Taylor is also the author of the Dracula of the Apes trilogy, a masterful mashup of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Bram Stoker. (You'll never look at Tarzan the same way again.)

Bonus:  I love this cover. Stark. Graphic. Eerie-looking. So much subtler than the usual black and red  with creatures.

A Vampire a Day: Vampyrrhic by Simon Clark

Remember when vampire books were horror stories? Me too. (I still get chills thinking about Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot.) Vampyrrhic, which is free today, is a throw-back to the days before sparkly vampires and alpha-hole blood-drinkers. The vampires in this book are Nosferatu and they're damn scary. The tale unfolds in a small town in Northern England and like all horror stories that take place in small towns, the isolation and the vulnerability of the town play a part. Clark is a writer to watch in the horror-thriller genre and if you like your vampires to be monsters, you will like this book.

A Vampire a Day: Blood and Snow by RaShelle Workman

I love re-imagined fairy tales. I love writing them (Bride of the Midnight King, Fashionista) and I love reading them. I'm always pleased when someone comes up with an inventive new twist on an old story, as Christine Pope did with her sci fi Beauty and the Beast novella Blood Will Tell. RaShelle Workman's contemporary paranormal version of Snow White is now a multi-book series that's sold more than a million copies and it's easy to see why. You can get book one free on kindle, and move on from there.

Workman's version of Snow White is a thoroughly contemporary young woman who doesn't own any makeup, is hopelessly out of fashion compared to her fashionista friend, who is prone to bouts of TMI, and generally doesn't think she has much to offer. She's sympathetic, relatable, and likable. And SHE HAS A CHARACTER ARC!!

And the author has worked out a history and a mythos for her vampires. And there are consequences for people's actions.

I liked this book a lot. If you like heroines who have character, and plots that involve real emotion, you will like this series.


Bonus: I really liked the font used for this story. So many ebooks look like they were typed on a typewriter or use some generic font that is just ugly. The font here is very feminine without being overwhelmingly girly/swirly.

Another one for the TBR pile (bookcase)

I am an absolute sucker for books on the "secret history" or the "history you never learned" books. This one caught my eye on a Library Thing give-away and I'm not the only one fascinated by this kind of material. Something like 600 people have already put their names in the hat to win 100 review copies. So yes, that's a one in six chance but the month is still early. And I can't wait. so I'm off to snag my kindle copy of Spies, Sadists, and Sorcerers by Dominic Selwood. (The painter of the Shroud of Turin was found in the 1300s!!! I cannot wait to read this book.)

A Vampire a Day: The Vampire Maid by Hume Nisbet

First of all, don't bother to download this "public domain" novel from Amazon. The type is spindly and hard to read and the formatting is atrocious. (Words like "kind" are split.) But because the story was written in 1901, the good people of Project Gutenberg have made it available online in a much more readable form. (Find it here.)

It's a wonderfully Gothic kind of story that makes me wonder why we haven't heard more about Hume Nisbet. Turns out he was a really interesting guy. He was an artist and a poet who also wrote books on art in addition to lots and lots of ghost stories. He also wrote a fair number of romances.His paintings are all quite moody--his most famous is probably "the Flying Dutchman," and are full of clouds and fogs and so forth.

I really enjoyed this short story and think you will too.

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.

A Vampire a Day: HEARTBLAZE by Shay Roberts

I don't know about you, but if I see ONE MORE paranormal book where the heroine is a passive little twit, I'm going to throw up my garlic pizza. HEARTBLAZE is a refreshing change.

Right from the start, author Shay Roberts serves notice that this is not going to be an ordinary paranormal romance. Yes, there are vampires and werewolves in the story, but there’s also a richly detailed paranormal world, where there are rules and reasons for what happens. Then there’s the setting—Rhode Island, a place steeped in history that comes alive, particularly in the sections of the book set in Emma’s past life. That past life element is very appealing, especially since there are “real life characters” woven into the tale. (Watch for a great bit involving the birth of the national anthem.)

Written in a briskly cinematic style—we’re plunged right into the action as heroine Emma Rue finds herself acting in inexplicable ways for reasons she doesn’t understand—and told from multiple points of view across two timelines, HEARTBLAZE delivers on all levels. There’s a vampire hierarchy, complicated clan politics among the shifter characters, and a vengeful ghost who has an agenda related to the larger world. And there’s a romance that’s deepened not just by conflict, but by intelligence. Emma is not a silly little girl and her pursuit of the truth about herself, about who she was and who she is, draws us in. And bonus points for the spooky old mansion! Both Gothic and contemporary, this book is a treat for readers who are tired of the same-old/same-old.