OVER the last couple of years there has been a proliferation of teen vampire novels, with Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series () being the the best known and most popular.
However, this hasn't stopped a number of other authors jumping on the obviously lucrative bandwagon and coming up with their own versions of the 'I'm a teen and maybe my mother/boyfriend/friend/self is a vampire/werewolf/witch' genre.
Now, many of these are forgettable, some are downright rubbish, but a few are actually quite good; in fact some are even better than the ubiquitous Ms Meyer's novels.
While I'm a lover of all vampire genre novels, with a particular love for the works of the original vampire-lover author, Anne Rice, and Laurell K Hamilton's Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novels, I have to admit that I've never really 'got' the Twilight stuff.
Yes, blasphemous, I know. But there was always something about the wholesomeness of Meyer's characters that just irritated the hell out of me.
Which is why, if you're going to read teen vampire novels, you should really give Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy a go.
Admittedly, tagging this series with 'Vampire Academy' could be a bit of a turn-off; it positively reeks of 'teen romance, being sent away to boarding school, no parents allowed' vibes, but nonetheless, these aren't bad books.
The latest in the series, Blood Promise, continues the story of Rose Hathaway – a half human, half vampire 'guardian' whose story is not exactly 'wholesome' thanks to a bit of realist sex, love and violence.
Sure, the central characters in Blood Promise are teens, but thankfully they aren't idealised 'saving it for marriage' dweebs. This lot get into normal trouble. The drink, have sex, fall in love with the wrong people and basically cause their parents and guardians all kinds of sleepless nights.
In the previous novel, Shadow Kiss, Rose's school came under attack from the 'Strigoi' – these are the bad guys; actual vampires that aren't' all that human and go around killing humans. The other kind of vampire in Mead's novels are the 'Moroi', these guys are like 'good' vampires ie. They don't kill humans to drink blood and generally try to stay out of the way.
Unfortunately for Rose, her lover – and former teacher (see what I mean about a bit of raunch) – has been turned into a Strigoi, so Rose has to track him down and kill him.
Taking off and travelling the world with very little forethought – again more realistic teenage behaviour – Rose ends up insulting the Russian mafia, become a 'blood whore' and just about gets her best friend killed.
All this is much more exciting than those rather wet Twilight stories about well, teenage angst, saving yourself for marriage and doing the right thing, even is you are an all-powerful vampire who has lived for hundreds of years.
So, if you couldn't quite get into Twilight, but are looking to read more about vampires in all their varied forms, give the Vampire Academy series a go; there's love, sex, violence, betrayal and gaining wisdom in this lot.
I would recommend you start at the beginning though, it makes it much easier to care about the characters and see the depth to their stories.
Blood Promise: A Vampire Academy Novel by Richelle Mead is published by Razor Bill, an imprint of Penguin Group and is available from good book stores and online.