I adore vampires in their truest state and the Gothic and steampunk aesthetic particularly. EC Hibbs is an author who can deliver on both themes with finesse, and this story is proof positive of why.
If you enjoy rich Gothic scenery, you will be thoroughly astonished by this author’s creative talent. If taboo and rebelling against societal norms tickles your fancy in any way, this story is right up your alley to stroke both urges in one delightful read.
“It’s like being the heir to a throne. If I don’t pick up the mantle, then nobody else will.”
As the latest in a 250 year-old line, vampirism has always been normal to Hanna Bernstein. She and her father are the bearers of Die Gift: a collection of unpublished theses detailing the most secret and mysterious condition in history. But even she is unprepared for the twisted world of demons which threatens to swallow her.
When she breaks her family’s legacy to save the life of an old friend, she inadvertently catches the attention of a dangerous enemy. Forced to…
I have had a passion for anything vampire since I was a child. This started with films with Bela Lugosi, Nosferatu, and Christopher Lee as Dracula but soon I was into everything and anything to do with these enigmatic immortal beings. Their strength, their passion, their possession, their sense of style, it all hit a nerve. There was something inherently sexy as they stalked their victims as they pursued their eternal love. I paired this with my love of ancient history, mythology, and my pagan roots then wove all these different facets together. I hope you enjoy the writers on my list and hope you enjoy my humble contribution.
Terry was not only a master at reflecting true human nature and touch upon many current issues within his Discworld novels but also a true wordsmith. Thoroughly entertaining, filled with an array of wonderful characters but now also, just when I thought his books could not get any better, vampires. This book has one of my all-time favourites characters in it namely Granny Weatherwax, the best witch that ever lived. She and her fellow witches and a befuddled priest take on the bloodsuckers who threaten the peaceful town of Lancre but be aware you will find yourself laughing out loud while reading this or any other of the disc world novels and incurring worried glances from the strangers around you. A great series to chase away the blues.
A beautiful hardback edition of the classic Discworld novel
In this and indeed other lives there are givers and takers. It's safe to say that vampires are very much in the latter camp. They don't have much time for the givers of this world - except perhaps mealtimes - and even less for priests.
Mightily Oats has not picked a good time to be a priest.
Lancre's newest residents are a thoroughly modern, sophisticated vampire family. They've got style and fancy waistcoats. They're out of the casket and want a bite of the future. But they haven't met the neighbours…
Urban fantasy is quickly becoming my favorite fantasy subgenre, and this is especially the case with Kim Harrison’s The Hollows.
Pale Demon is book 9 of the series, but I think it’s the best one so far. The series focuses on bounty hunter Rachel Morgan. Rachel thinks she’s a witch but in Pale Demon the truth of what Rachel truly is finally comes out, and wow, I really did not see that coming. This is certainly a turning point for Rachel and her friends, the living vampire Ivy and the pixy Jenks.
Sure, you’ll have to go through all of the previous books in the series, but I promise it’s going to be worth your while. I can’t wait to see what the next book has in store for Rachel.
"I wouldn’t miss a Kim Harrison book for anything."—Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels
New York Times bestselling urban fantasy superstar Kim Harrison is back with Pale Demon—her ninth electrifying adventure featuring contemporary witch Rachel Morgan. This time Rachel's leaving the Hollows, on a cross-country road trip with a pixy, an elf, and a vampire, as she races to clear her blackened name at a California witches' convention in order to avoid an eternity of torment at the claws of a soul-devouring demon. Pale Demon is Kim Harrison at her gothic best—combining mystery, action, intrigue, paranormal romance, and…
I am a true-crime author. Most recently, I have released a pair of related books: The Making of a Serial Killer: 2d Ed, by Danny Rolling as told to myself; and Danny Rolling Serial Killer: Interviews. Before that, I published Good Little Soldiers: A Memoir of True Horror. Coauthored with Dianne Fitzpatrick, it relates her tale of murder & mind control under the US Army MK Ultra program. Earlier, I wrote True Vampires, an encyclopedic compendium of bloody crimes, and Knockin' on Joe: Voices from Death Row. I also collaborated with serial killer GJ Schaefer on Killer Fiction, a volume of psychopathic musings he wrote for me.
At long last the Vampire of Paris crawls from his crypt, a living legend emblazoned with magical sigils and muttering dire imprecations for 666 searing pages. A world-renowned artist and bold aesthete of the macabre, Nico Claux holds a Japanese cannibal as his role model and calls Satan his homeboy. This reclusive genius goes beyond the pale only to reveal himself as a regular bloke, albeit one with a taste for torture and blasphemy. Meant to be read in the darkest night!
The Gospel of Blood is the autobiography of Nico Claux, a French morgue attendant whose morbid obsessions led him to grave robbery, cannibalism and murder in the early 1990s. It is a bone-chilling chronicle of a real-life vampire who prowled the Gothic cemeteries of Paris, unearthing coffins and mutilating the bodies inside. A practicing Satanist, Claux escalated to murder after working for a year in several morgues, receiving orders to kill from the corpses he had autopsied.The Gospel of Blood provides a rare insight into a killer’s tortured mind, as he relates the graphic details of his crimes, including never-before…
I was introduced to vampires through Barnabas Collins of Dark Shadows fame, but I was a child and found the show boring. But, when I was 15, I was handed the paperback edition of Salem’s Lot and it scared me to death. I was hooked, reading books, and watching movies about vampires whenever the chance arose. When I wrote the first draft of Redemption, it sat for years before I reworked it, reading Dracula again and taking notes, researching Vlad the Impaler, and watching lots of vampire movies before re-writing it. Since then, I’ve continued reading vampire fiction and watching movies and shows about the creatures whenever I can.
This Icelandic Dracula remained hidden from the world-at-large as merely a translation of the original for more than a century before Hans Corneel de Roos translated the Icelandic back into English. What he discovered is that Asmundsson took the liberty of making Dracula his own book. A Nordic spin on the vampire is reason enough to discover this interesting take on Stoker’s Dracula. Two-thirds of the book takes place at the Count’s castle in Transylvania where the notorious vampire is given much more depth and voice. Nordic lore spices this story up as well as a very seductive vampiress. The book is also much shorter than Stoker’s, which makes it an easy read.
Powers of Darkness is an incredible literary discovery: In 1900, Icelandic publisher and writer Valdimar Ásmundsson set out to translate Bram Stoker’s world-famous 1897 novel Dracula. Called Makt Myrkranna (literally, “Powers of Darkness”), this Icelandic edition included an original preface written by Stoker himself. Makt Myrkranna was published in Iceland in 1901 but remained undiscovered outside of the country until 1986, when Dracula scholarship was astonished by the discovery of Stoker’s preface to the book. However, no one looked beyond the preface and deeper into Ásmundsson’s story.In 2014, literary researcher Hans de Roos dove into the full text of Makt…
I have been a fan of the horror genre since I was a kid. Even though sometimes I was so scared, I had to sleep with the light on or not sleep at all. Something about the darkness and the unknown has always seemed so alluring. I can't even count the number of horror movies I've watched or books I've read. That feel of the hair standing up on your arms or the back of your neck is a thrill like no other.
Again, this is one that has stuck with me for many years. The twist on the age-old vampire story where an elderly lady must commit murder to grow younger is interesting and unique. Her two nieces, one ambitious, one off the rails crazy, assist her in her evil doings while the Keystone detective, sort of, investigates. As I recall, it was a delightfully horrible guilty pleasure.
I’m a writer of epic fantasy and paranormal romance, and my obsession is writing about the fashion, food, language, and social politics of the worlds I create. World building is vital if you intend to create a lived-in backdrop for your story, but intricate, elaborate world building will only take you so far. You (the author) must have a cast of characters equally well developed. I’ve tried to take lessons away from every book I’ve read and every author I’ve interviewed and worked to balance characters to fall in love with against places that feel absolutely alive. Their joy/terror/love/hate/experience becomes the readers. It’s that combination that makes a book unforgettable.
Although The Scar is the second book in the Bas Lag series, I prefer it to Perdido Street Station (which is also glorious.) The Scar takes to the seas, a place I always prefer to be, in the form of the floating, roving city of Armada.
We come aboard (as it were) and experience life on Armada—its precincts, villages, towns, secrets, and its people—swordsmen and librarians and vampires and the mysterious pair who run the place—The Lovers (that’s the only name we get) through the eyes of Bellis Coldwine, a prickly, difficult, but fascinating woman who would literally rather be anywhere else.
I get where she’s coming from but I would absolutely book a cruise on Armada!
A human cargo bound for servitude in exile... A pirate city hauled across the oceans... A hidden miracle about be revealed... This is the story of a prisoner's journey. The search for the island of a forgotten people, for the most astonishing beast in the seas, and ultimately for a fabled place - a massive wound in reality, a source of unthinkable power and danger.From the author of Perdido Street Station, another colossal fantasy of incredible diversity and spellbinding imagination, which was acclaimed in The Times Literary Supplement as: 'An astonishing novel, guaranteed to astound and enthral the most jaded…
I read my first romance novel at fourteen. I know, I know, too young to probably read any of these novels. As I grew older, my library expanded beyond Regency Romance and I entered the Contemporary genre. I found my happy place among the modern world. I related more. Who wouldn’t? And yet, my personal life was nothing like the romance novels I read. It was a tragedy. A complete train wreck. Being the single friend among the group was awkward and sometimes lonely. Between my fanciful love of romance novels and the dreaded dating era I experienced, I came up with the concept of The Martini Girl Bar and wrote my first novel.
I know, I know, this book is a paranormal romance, but hear me out. This is a series and if you can guess, I love series. I love knowing if the other characters in the stories also get a HEA. I mean everyone deserves one. Well except for the bad guys. But even then…that’s another genre. In this case, Fated is a Vampire series however Rebecca Zanetti takes a different spin on the Vampire myth which makes this one of my favorite paranormal series. The tug and pull between the MMC and FMC…chef kiss.
Talen is the ultimate ALPHA male, warrior, dominant, “I am man, you are my mate” kinda dude and Cara is so not having it. Due to the imminent threat against herself and her daughter, Janie, Cara is left with no alternative but to trust the strange man who claims to be a Vampire. The dynamic between…
Cara Paulsen does not give up easily. A scientist and a single mother, she's used to fighting for what she wants, keeping a cool head, and doing whatever it takes to protect her daughter Janie. But "whatever it takes" has never before included a shotgun wedding to a dangerous-looking stranger with an attitude problem. . .
Or Else
Sure, the mysterious Talen says that he's there to protect Cara and Janie. He also says that he's a three-hundred-year-old vampire. Of course, the way he touches her, Cara might actually believe he's had that long to practice. . .…
This was one of those "stay up all night, call out of work so you can read just one more chapter" kind of books.
Henderson is an absolute master of worldbuilding and suspense, and her take on vampire lore perfectly showcases this. This story of a lower-class "blood maid" moving into a Victorian manor home in service of a mysterious, vampiric employer had such phenomenal explorations of class differences and power imbalance, absolutely bubbling sensual tension, and so many twists that I often had to put the book down and stare at a wall to digest.
I adored the way that queerness was an accepted and ingrained part of this world, along with the examples of female friendship and the steampunk Victorian gothic vibes throughout.
NOMINATED FOR BEST HORROR NOVEL in the GOODREADS READERS CHOICE AWARDS...
'A lurid, luscious debauch of a book.' Guardian
'An unforgettable feast of decadence and depravity, House of Hunger cements Henderson's place as one of the great gothic writers of our generation.' S T GIBSON, author of A Dowry of Blood
A young woman is drawn into the upper echelons of a society where blood is power in this dark and enthralling Gothic novel from the author of The Year of the Witching.
WANTED: A bloodmaid of exceptional taste. Must have a keen proclivity for life's finer pleasures. Girls of…
What if there was something you absolutely had to do to survive, but you were bound by world rules that prevented you? What would you do? These are the kinds of impossible dilemmas the characters in my Community Series face. Hidden from discovery in a secret, underground town, the vampires of Ţărână struggle against the threat of extinction while trying to forge a difficult path toward love with an unforgiving humanity. Combining the dark intensity of True Blood with the small-town vibe of Virgin River ended up creating—to my utter delight—an award-winning series that has become “wildly popular” (Readers’ Favorite) with paranormal romance fans.
The men in the Black Dagger Brotherhood Series by J.R. Ward are the original bad boys of vampire romance. With her street-slang style of writing, Ward is one of the best in the business at immersing a reader into deep POV.
Lover Awakened (book 3 in the series) is one of my favorites because of the compelling hero. Zsadist, a former blood slave, bears so many internal wounds that watching the psychological growth he must conquer to find love with Bella is truly enthralling.
In the shadows of the night in Caldwell, New York, there's a deadly war raging between vampires and their slayers. And there exists a secret band of brothers like no other - six vampire warriors, defenders of their race. Of these, Zsadist is the most terrifying member of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. A former blood slave, the vampire Zsadist still bears the scars from a past filled with suffering and humiliation. Renowned for his unquenchable fury and sinister deeds, he is a savage feared by humans and vampires alike. Anger is his only companion, and terror is his only passion…
