Reviewed by Mrs. Walker

I’ve always loved vampire stories, but since the mayhem surrounding the Twilight series erupted, I’m asked almost daily for “books like Twilight.”  So, I’ve been reading more vampire stories than ever.   The Vampire Diaries comes the closest of any to being “like Twilight,” but guess what – it was written more than 10 years BEFORE Twilight.  And, I have to wonder if Twilight author Stephanie Meyer may have been influenced by this vampire classic.

A few of the startling similarities:  Well, for starters, both Twilight and the Vampire Diaries are told in four novels.  Vampire Diaries novels are MUCH shorter, and each book contains two of the novels, so there are two books in total to read to complete the series.

Startling Similarity #2:  The premise:  Human girls meets vampire boy at high school, they fall in love, they battle all the human-in-a-vampire-world/vampire-in-a-human-world problems.  In this case, the “new kid” is the vampire boy, Stefan, for whom mega-popular Elena falls for immediately.  Stefan at first seems to entirely hate Elena, but we soon learn he’s simply masking an uncontrollable attraction to her (hmm, sounds familiar).  In Twilight the attraction is based on the smell of Bella’s blood, in Vampire Diaries, it is Elena’s uncanny resemblance to Stefan’s former love Katherine.

Startling Similarity #3:  The main characters.  Stefan is a brooding, guilt-consumed, reluctant, but ”good,” “vegetarian” (aka non-human diet) vampire who tries repeatedly to keep Elena from continuing a relationship with him for her own good.  Elena is strong-willed and pursues their relationship with complete abandon – the need to be with Stefan is more important than anything to her.

Startling similarity #4:  Evil vampire enters the picture and wants human girl.  Vampire boy must save human girl.  In Vampire Diaries, the evil vampire happens to be Stefan’s older and stronger vampire brother Damon with whom he once battled for the love of Katherine and whom he must now battle for Elena.

There are many other little similarities between the stories, so I can’t help but wonder how much Twilight might have been influenced by this series.  Others obviously share this thought.  Just Google “twilight vampire diaries” and you’ll find a number of websites where readers discuss which one they like better.   For me, I’m still a bigger Twilight fan, but if you’re jonesing for another story in a similar vein, I’ll quickly admit that Vampire Diaries is a good read.

Reviewed by Nancy Orozco

Pandora is a woman who lives in ancient Greek times.  There she falls in love with a man named Marius.  Her father finds out about this and tells him to leave.  She marries a man, but divorces him some years later because he is sterile.  Her older brother gets jealous and sends some soldiers to kill his father and his whole family.   Since she escapes, she leaves for a different country.  There she finds out that the brother who betrayed them is there and wants to kill her. She also finds Marius as a vampire. She tells him that she has been having dreams about a vampire queen who is suffering.  He tells her it is his queen Akasha along with the vampire king.  Pandora and Marius together must fight off other vampires to protect the queen and king.   This book is awesome! And if you like vampire books, I suggest you read the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice.

Find all Anne Rice novels in the Fiction section under FIC Ric.

Reviewed by Tysha Bowling

Renz, a vampire who is over 300 years old has gone down the blood line of his once-love. But she was killed by her dad after exchanging their blood. Now he went after these two girls’ mother, but she killed herself knowing what she was becoming. He already went after one of her daughters, now the question is, is the other one going to be changed?

Find this novel in the Fiction section under FIC Sti.

Reviewed by Tysha Bowling 

Book 1: Twilight

This book is unbelievable.  It’s one of those heart-pounding, can’t put the book down, can’t wait to see (or should I say read) what happens next kinda thing.  The sparks that fly between Edward and Bella are so strong that even a dangerous tracking vampire could not keep them apart.  But the love between them keeps them holding on to each other.

Book 2: New Moon

So okay, you have read the first book.  So you know the Cullen family, the story of Bella andEdward, and the danger they faced in the first book.  In this book, unfortunately, she has to lose Edward, but Bella does everything she can to keep her memories of Edward.  She gets to be friendly with Jacob, a family friend.  Something happens to Bella that puts Edward in danger, and this time, it’s up to her to save Edward’s life.

Book 3: Eclipse

Now you understand everything from the first two books, but you still have questions.  Well, just about every question from the second book will be answered, but you will soon have new questions, for example: Is Bella still going to become a vampie?  Will she and Edward marry? What happens to Bella’s relationship with Jacob? Well, be patient, the answers will come.  The 4th book will be out later this year, so if you fell in love with the first 3, you will be reading the 4th one soon.

Find all of the Twilight series in the Fiction section under FIC Mey.

For those of you who read Peeps, you’re going to begin this book wondering where Cal, Lacey, and Morgan, our peeps crew from book one are hiding. Trust me, they each have a presence in the story, and two of them will reappear. In the meantime, enjoy a new cast of characters who form a rock band as New York City crumbles around them. With a newly-made (and very hungry) Peep as the lead singer and a love triangle brewing, the band’s dynamics become complicated.

Meanwhile New York City is in crisis. Everyone can sense something is very wrong: the underground rumbings have increased and the rat population is out of control. More and more people are giving away to the “sickness” (vampirism) and are taken away by “angels” (the Night Watch crew). The great battle between the Peeps and those very weird yet deadly enormous worms lurking beneath the city surface is intensifying, and our new band of friends are caught right in the middle of the action.

Find Peeps and The Last Days in the Fiction section under FIC Wes.

Reviewed by Mrs. Walker

Reviewed by Tysha Bowling

Schuyler spent most of her life with her head stuck in the clouds.  She had no idea that her life was about to change.  By her 15th birthday, she finds out that she is a “Blue Bloods” also known as a vampire.  And something is killing Blue Bloods.  She must discover her history and set out to find out what is killing her kind.

Find Blue Bloods and the sequel Masquerade in the Fiction section under FIC DeL. 

Reviewed by Nancy Orozco 

A vampire named Louis gives an interview to a man, telling him everything that has happened to him.  After becoming a vampire, Lestat, Louis’ master, makes a little girl a vampire so that Louis won’t leave him.  As the years pass by, the little girl starts to realize that she will never grow up and become a woman.  She finds out that Lestat is the one who made her a vampire, so she tries to kill Lestat. Louis and the girl go to London.  There they meet other vampires at a theater and their leader Armand.  The vampires in the theater find out about the little girl vampire and plan to punish her in a horrible way.  This book is fun and I liked reading it.  If you like this book, I suggest you read the rest of the Vampire Chronicles in the library.

Find all Anne Rice books in the Fiction section under FIC Ric. 

Reviewed by Andrea Jones

This is the third book in a teenage romantice vampire series. Bella is back again and still loves 100-year-old vampire, Edward. There is trouble in Seattle, but the Cullen family does not know what, or who, is behind it. While trying to solve the mystery, Bella is left to confront herself about her feelings for Jacob Black. Plus, it is getting closer to graduation and closer to when Bella will need to decide if she wants to become a vampire. I recommend reading the first two books to fully appreciate this novel. This story is full of suspense, but the romance keeps the plot thrilling. I LOVED IT!

Find all books from the Twilight series in the Fiction section under FIC Mey.

Reviewed by Andrea Jones

This book is the sequel to Twilight, the vampire love stories. Bella loves Edward Cullen, but he breaks her heart when he leaves. Bella turns to the friendship of Jacob Black. The friendship is great, but soon things start to change. This story ends up taking our characters to Italy, and they face the top vampires. This story showed how strong Edward’s and Bella’s love was and how far sould will go for their soulmates. Great book for guys & gals alike!

Find all the Twilight books in the Fiction section under FIC Mey. The fourth book will be released this August!

Happy New Year! And welcome to a new year full of great reads. Over break I was able to finally finish Eclipse, book three in the Twilight series. Wonderful! This series just keeps getting even better. I love that in this book there is much more depth given to several characters – Bella’s character finally comes to some honest to goodness sincere revelations on several issues, Edward is no longer the arrogant Edward of book one (and I can finally REALLY see what makes him so special to Bella – besides being gorgeous, rich, immortal and all), and we get to know another character who’s been lurking in the background – Jasper, who has a very interesting story to tell. All those countless conflicts in book two come seamlessly together in a MUST-read battle of epic proportions, one that involves former foes, new foes, the Cullens, and the werewolves. And of course, the Edward-Bella-Jacob triangle continues to develop with some surprises (or maybe you saw it coming?). Not sure how I like the very last few pages and the final decisions that are made (or rather why they’re made). I’d like to hear what others think (use the Comments button above), as I don’t want to give away too much here for those who haven’t read it yet. But read it, you must.

For Twilight fans, there’s great news on two fronts. First, the next book, tentatively titled Breaking Dawn, is scheduled to be released this August. This may or may not be the last book in the series, but there’s talk of a companion book told from Edward’s point of view.

Also, there’s a MOVIE in the works and filming is set to begin in the next few months, so it won’t be in theaters for another couple of years. In the meantime, visit author Stephenie Meyers’ website for talk and pictures of actors she and other readers would recommend to play various characters. The roles of Bella and Edward have been cast with actress Kristin Stewart playing Bella and Robert Pattinson (aka Cedric Diggory from Harry Potter movies) playing Edward…hmm, I think I can see it. The series has developed quite a following. There’s dozens of fan websites and MySpace pages devoted to the book and its characters, so there’s plenty of Twilight content out there to keep you busy until August as you wait for the next book.

Be sure to visit my reviews of the first two Twilight books in the December archives to the right. More vampire fiction reviews coming soon…

Reviewed by Mrs. Walker