September 13, 2010
Jasper introduces tattoo artist Riley Poe in this shallow launch of a Southern-fried vampire romance trilogy. Once a wild child, Riley is now a surrogate parent to her younger brother, Seth. Riley's adopted Gullah relatives provide a living blood bank for the Dupré family of "good" vampires, who kept deadly undead "strigoi" bloodsuckers encrypted in Savannah's Bonaventure Cemetery until Seth's teenage prank freed them. Now evil strigoi Victorian and Valerian are bent on recruiting Seth and slaking their thirst on Riley's rare blood. Mysterious and magnetic Eli Dupré, entrusted with Riley's protection, both thrills her and freaks her out with vampiric cravings and sensual caresses. This superficial addition to today's vampire craze, couched in superheated first-person tough-girl lingo, adds only a few meager drops of insight into the current popularity of Dracula's literary descendants.
November 1, 2010
Darkly atmospheric and steamy, Jaspers tale follows Riley Poe from her wild-child teens to her becoming a talented tattoo artist, and taking care of heryounger brother, Seth, after their mother dies. One night she follows Seth, 15, and his friends to the historical Bonaventure Cemetery, where, before she can stop them, they break into an ancient crypt that her Gullah friend Preacher had always called da hell stone and warned her away from. Over the next few days, Seths personality changes as he spends the days sleeping and the nights prowling the city. Preacher takes Riley to meet the Dupres, an ancient vampire family who helped Preacher lock the Arcoses, two evil vampire brothers, in the crypt long ago. Now that theyve escaped and infected the teens, the city is in peril. Eli Dupre is gorgeous and has an instantaneous deep connection to Riley, but they have to stop the growing pack of soon-to-be-vampire teens and the Arcoses.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)