In an effort to find something else to read – I have read through the Twilight series at least 4 times now – I stumbled across a book called NightWorld.  There are a couple of books available in this series.  Also, there are three different books contained within the book.  (hmmm…  books within books?  Did that make sense? I hope so!)

Anyway, on to NightWorld, by L.J. Smith…  Have you seen the movie Fight Club, or at least do you know the first rule of Fight Club?  “There is no such thing as Fight Club.”  So, carrying on with that theme, there is no such thing as NightWorld.  Even more importantly, NightWorld folks (which range from Vampires, to Witches, to Werewolves, etc.) are absolutely forbidden to fall in love with a human.  In Volume One, Book One of NightWorld we meet a vampire, James, whose best friend, Poppy, is a human – who finds out she had a terminal disease.  Was I really surprised when our fanged friend revealed he was in love with his best friend and decided to give her a pair of fangs of her own?  No, not really.  So now these two have broken both the NightWorld rules AND have been exposed by another vampire.  Will their love survive?  Yeppers, not only do they not get busted, but it turns out there is some witchy blood in our heroine’s veins therefore making everything all better.  I hate to break it to you, but this entire book is set up like this.

In Volume One, Book Two we have another vampire who falls in love with a human, Mary-Lynette.  Here’s the twist – they hate each other.  Huh?  Okay, within NightWorld you have Soul Mates (kind of like Jacob imprinting on Nessie) – so these two imprint or connect with each other and have to figure out what to do.  Our vampire (Ashe) is somewhat arrogant, highly immature, and a stickler for NightWorld rules.  As a side note one of Ashe’s sisters falls for the little brother of his Soul Mate & they get along perfectly (this would be Jade & Mark).  Okay, back to Ashe…  long story short they beat the bad guys & our two star crossed Soul Mates end up falling for each other after all.  However, Ashe decides he must earn his Soul Mate’s love & banishes himself until he grows up a little.  His three sisters (Ooops, did I tell you he had three sisters?  Okay, Ashe has three sisters – Rowan, Kerstrel & Jade.) stay in the little town and live happily ever after. 

On to Volume One, Book Three…  WITCHES!  Not that we don’t love our Vampires – I mean the site is called It’s FANGtasitc after all, but with this book the vamps were – well lame.  So, Witches – cousins raised like sisters – one who is a goody goody and one who is…  well…  not.  So who will fall in love with the human in this book?  In this case our good girl breaks the rules, big time!  She falls in love with a human boy – and she releases a vengeful spirit intent on killing teenagers at a Halloween party.  Thea (our good witch whose been bad) gets found out & is sentenced to forget she was ever a witch, along with her Soul Mate who will forget he ever heard about NightWorld.  Ready for our twist?  Our bad witch (Blaise) switches out the potion!

So where does that leave us?  On the whole I give this first volume of NightWorld a Rating: .  I am hopeful that volume two will pick up the stories and give them a little more depth, or provide us with new stories, also with a little more depth.  The stories are highly condensed, but pretty much as soon as the story starts to get interesting it is over.  This also leaves us with a lot of characters to remember as most over lap within the three books.  This is a good, quick read – the kind of book that you could bring to the pool or beach and zip through while tanning your back. 

Thank you Stephenie Meyer! Thank you for Edward, and Bella, and Jacob, and Alice, and Carlisle, and Edward… and did we mention Edward? The Twilight series has taken a hold of teenage girls (& their moms) and instilled in us this glimpse into the world of vampires. It’s FANGtastic! Rating:

Now here is the kicker… there are only 4 books available (at least for now). We have found a amazing outlet for imaginations only to find it has a limited supply. Now, I am an avid reader, and I devoured these books, but when you reach the end – well that’s it. There isn’t anything else. Or is there?

In the wake of Twilight, other vampire series have been brought to light. Some may have been written prior to Twilight, but it was Meyer who refocused our attention on this genre. Heck, HBO has even spun this into a cable series called True Blood. (I don’t subscribe to HBO & therefore have not yet seen this show, but I’ve heard it is pretty darn good.) Okay, back to books. I love books, I love being able to just immerse myself in good writing, in interesting characters, and plots. I love it! So I have found a few additional series that I would like to share with you.

Melissa de la Cruz has a great vampire series out… Blue Bloods. Rating: Okay, no Edward, but Jack Force is something any Team Edward girl can appreciate. These vamps live it up in New York, they are privileged, attend prep school, and of course are heart stoppingly beautiful. Enter Schyler Van Allen whose family used to be among the fanged elite, but have fallen on hard times. Mom is in a coma, Dad wasn’t even a vampire (scandal), lives with Grandma who while well respected is a bit distant. On top of not even knowing she’s a vampire. In this series, vampires discover their abilities right about the time they hit high school. Not surprisingly, our A-crowd popular teens are also vampires. Also, in a twist Blue Blood vampires only number 400. They “cycle” through their lives – somewhat like reincarnation – allowing them to live forever and yet not attract unnecessary attention. Schyler, of course, falls for Jack Force & is forced to go up against his twin Mimi – a side note, twins in the Blue Blood series are actually soul mates & are not usually reincarnated as siblings. All in all the Blue Bloods series is well written. If Meyer’s 800 pages was a little hefty, you’ll love de la Cruz’s more condensed versions.

Richelle Mead also has a great series out… Rating: Vampire Academy. In this series we have the Moroi – vampires who are alive & have the use of magical powers – each tied to an element (earth, air, water, & fire). Then there are the Strigoi – also of the fanged persuasion, but a darker sort. These vamps are undead, have lost their ability to use magic, and cannot be out in the sunlight. Moroi are born whereas Strigoi are made – more of your traditional vampire. Last but not least, we have Dhampirs. Dhampirs are what happens when Moroi & humans (or Dhampirs) have children together. Dhampirs use their vampire strength to protect the Moroi from Strigoi. Okay, that was a lot to take in – suffice it to say in this series there are good vamps, bad vamps, and kick ass slayer types who only hunt bad vamps. As for characters, we have a slew of them, but the ones you need to know are Rose, Lissa, Dimitri, Christian, and in later books Adrian. Rose & Dimitri are Dhampirs – the twist being they have fallen for each other, but can’t act on it. Dimitri being Rose’s teacher and all kind of makes it a lose-lose situation. Lissa, Christian, & Adrian are Moroi, and not just any Moroi, but royal Moroi. Got it? Okay, moving on… Vampire Academy has all your expected prep school drama, but with the added twist of fangs. Vampire Academy is good but not great.

With both the de la Cruz Blue Bloods series and the Mead Vampire Academy series I am three books in & it has finally gotten to a place where I am hooked in, and I want to know what is going to happen next. The later books in the series improve as you get into more into the plot behind the books, but I can’t help thinking that a lot of this information could have been covered in one book. It is a lot like a weekly tv show, where just when you start to figure out what is going on, its over. Each series is good in its own way, but I will admit that I picked these up only because I was waiting for Eclipse & then Breaking Dawn.