So tell me what your favourite vampire themed books are lately...I've read all the Twilight ones and all the Vampire Academy ones too but looking for more adult themed ones. Are the Sookie Stackhouse series worth a look? I love the series...

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Sookie Stackouse...I don't know, I couldn't get into them, they are incredibly dull after seeing the series which is so flamboyant and ridiculous and exciting. About half the characters are created for the TV show.

LOVE LOVE LOVE the Sookie Stackhouse series (and the TV adaptation 'True Blood' as well).
I really liked the Vampire Academy books and am excited about the 6th book coming out in December.

Bellefin, that's my hesitation in the Sookie books too, I love the tv series and am so far into it now that I'm not sure I could get my head around the books. Thanks for the Historian, will look it up.

Me too but I would haved paced myself better if I knew I had to wait til December for the last one

Am dying to know who she will go with! I kinda wish it got a teeny bit more, ahem, adult though....

Look at the Black Dagger Brotherhood
Big tough and butch male vampires who are into lots of sex with their chosen partnes.
There are 8 books in the series and each book follows a botherhood member and how he meets his mate.
Most of the characters are good - but there is a dodgy ghost partneship in one book that I don't really like

The Sookie series is fun to read and it is up to 10 books.

thanks twinboys, will look it up

Has anyone read any of the Lords of the Underworld series? any reviews?

The Black Dagger Brotherhood - without a doubt!!

thanks deva ju - am buying the set of 6 on ebay

Dracula

which one lyra?

Anne Rice's 'Interview With the Vampire' series.

The first 4 Anne Rice. After The Tale of the Body Thief they go downhill. The first 3 are particularly good and very well written. So that's Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and Queen of the Damned.

I read good reviews about the Passage

http://www.amazon.com/Passage-Justin-Cronin/dp/0345504968

thanks Mrs Bax and niggles - I actually have read all the Anne Rice ones and liked them.

thanks gina70 - will check it out.

I don't understand your question. There is only one book called Dracula and that's the one about Dracula LOL

edited to add that I have heard good things about The Passage too. I'm keeping an eye out for it. I don't like my vampires angsty

lol, so you mean bram stoker's dracula...

Ummm, yes. I didn't realise there was another one LOL

Lords of the underworld in fact anything by Gena Showalter rocks, she is a great author. Christine Feehan writes some great vampire books too.

ooh thanks ozbilby - that's the other series i was interested in - looks good...

The undead series of books are really good. They are adult but more in the style of chick-lit novels. The Anita Blake series is good, but does descend into erotica further on in the books.

Link to the undead series
http://maryjanicedavidson.net/the-undead-series-betsy/

thanks athanasey!

Ooh, I second the undead series! Very lighthearted chick lit vamp fiction.

I also like the Rachel Morgan series by Kim Harrison. Not strictly just vamps, but other supernaturals as well, witches, werewolves, demons, elves, pixies etc.

Also wanted to add Kresley Cole as another good author, she writes about vampires and other supernatural beings finding love, her characters have really good chemistry .

The Sookie Stackhouse books are fabulous. SO much better than the TV series and I do love the TV show.

+1 for the Sookie books - MUCH better than the series!

The series and the books really stand on their own merits though - I think the series deviates from the books just enough to hold its own.

I definitely wouldn't recommend the Anita Blake series. I couldn't finish the first one it was that bad.

I prefer the sookie books to the tv show. I don't find the books dull at all. I actually think the 'created' characters on the tv show are really annoying and a waste of space after reading the books. I also can't stand Tara because she is so irritating in the tv show compared to the books where she is a pretty minor character. The big positive is that there are 10 sookie books which you can read right now rather than wait 10 years for them to be made into a tv show (they are only doing a book a season) and that's if it doesn't get axed before then.

i'm another for the sookie books, i have all 10 and ive read them several times! i also own season 1 and 2 of the show and they are quite different especially after the 1st few episodes. Out of the 10 books, i didnt really like 3 of them, but they were worth reading for the other 7!

I haven't read all of these, but I am getting through them slowly...
ob - on bookshelf, haven't got around to it yet.
nr - Not read yet.

The Southern Vampire Mysteries / Sookie Stackhouse Novels / True Blood Series by Charlaine Harris - excellent
Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton - okay, stop at book 7..they just keep getting worse. Great if you just want to read porn though.
Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead - excellent
The Darren Shan Saga series by Darren Shan - ob
The House of Night by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast - ob
Vampire World series- Brian Lumley - excellent, but makes more sense if you read the Necroscope series first. Good from a sci-fi ish perspective
The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice - good
The Morganville Vampires by Rachel Caine - nr
Vampire Kisses by Ellen Schreiber - nr
Night Huntress by Jeaniene Frost - nr
Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith - started off well, then book 3 & 4 (which was actually a physical book 2) lost the plot.
Undead and ... by MaryJanice Davidson - good for a very light occasional humourous read.
Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz - ob

Some other ones that I haven't got around to yet ... I have the Jim Butcher ones, but havent had a chance to read yet...

Immortals After Dark series by Kresley Cole
(Paranormal Romance: Lykae, vampires, demons, witches, valkyrie, etc)

Lords of the Underworld series by Gena Showalter
(Paranormal Romance: immortal greek warriors, gods/goddesses, demons, etc)

Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
(Urban Fantasy: wizards, werewolves, vampires, etc)

Dark-Hunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon
(Paranormal Romance: immortal gods/goddesses, shifters, immortal warriors hunting vampires)

I've also had the following recommended to me...
The Mortal Instruments, by Cassandra Clare
Argeneau vampire series by Lynsay Sands
The Black Dagger Brotherhood by JR Ward - vampires
Laws of the Blood by Susan Sizemore - vampires
The Darkest Whisper by Gwen Showalter - demons
The Castle of Dark Dreams series by Nina Bangs - vampires
Myth and Magic Series both by Keri Arthur - half vamp/half werewolf
The Shadowdwellers by Jacquelyn Frank - demons, vampires, shapeshifters
Darkyn vampire series by Lynn Viehl - vampires
The Supernatural Series by Kim Harrison - demons, witches, vampires

I'm hoping for Adrian
Dimitri is too much about honour and crap. He's soooooooo boring

I love this series. It is a YA series, but I found that I couldn't put it down. There's vampires, werewolves, demons and fairies as well as others. The twists really are something you don't quite expect!!! There are 3 published already and there's one more coming out in Dec (I think). The prequel is coming out later this month too.

OP - I know you weren't looking for YA, but give this series a go.

Cathode - I recommend that the Mortal Instruments make it onto your bookshelf.

Aqua - Bookdepo has the first 6 black dagger brotherhood books as a box set for $42. If you pm me your email address, I can send you a 10% off coupon as well

Well thats a vey comprehensive list there Cathode.

I have read all but one of the blackdagger brotherhood books and enjoyed those. There is a lot of smut in the first few books, but as the storyline got more and more complicated I found her characters had less time for sex in the latter novels LOL.

After Twlight and Sookie the black dagger brotherhood probably my next favourite series.

Although, Twilight seems really lame now, but because it was the series that got me into the genre its like a sentimental love.

Have read all of the vampire academy series. I almost gave up after the 3rd book, but the twist in the 4th kept me going... LOL.

I really really couldnt get into the Undead series... by MaryJanice Davidson. Stopped after the first chapter of book one. It was just so unfunny.

I've also tried and failed at Christine Feehans Dark Demon (I think its the first of a series). Couldnt make heads or tails of that one and stopped after the first couple of chapters. I have a feeling there might be an earlier series that leads into that one.

A friend has lent me the Melissa De la cruz/blue blood books, but I havent got to them yet.

I'd also like to put in a plug Maggie Stiefwater and her two books shiver/linger. They are werewolf novels (no vampires) but I am almost loath to put them in the same catarogy as any of the above. They are written far too well.

I have Bram stokers Dracula on my To do list. I feel the need to read the classic/original vampire novel.

Christine Feehan's Dark series starts with Dark Prince back from 1999 Dark Demon (2006) is about #16 in the series (so lots of back story missing for you Milli). I have read all in the series so far (20 books). Some were better then others

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/f/christine-feehan/

I like JR Wards Black Dagger brotherhood too.

Lynsay Sands Argenau series is much lighter/funnier.

I don't know about other people, but I really disliked the way it was written, and found it hell boring. For me it was one of those cases where the movie (Gary Oldman version) was better than the book

I also read Bram and was less then impressed.

I did like the Anne Rice books (Before she started writing in 1st person.... the same reason I refuse to read Twilight )

No wonder it didnt make any sense

I just bought DD the abridged version of Dracula... maybe that will move at a faster pace

heresy!

I remembered another one. It's by a Swedish author and is called 'Let the Right one in' It was one of the best books I have read in a long time and I was blown away by it. The movie was also good but missed some key plot points so made it a bit confusing for my husband who had not read the book. They are doing an American remake called 'Let me in'

The Passage!!!

But don't expect any Edwards (giggles)

Thanks Cathode!

Anytime!

I borrowed an audiobook of bram stokers Dracula from the Library today. Its unabridged there are 18.5 listening hours. (I find audiobooks a good way to muktitask at two of my great loves... sewing and reading )

Not exactly 'vampire', but very close & very sexy without being porno

Black Jewels trilogy by Anne Bishop

also Sebastian by Anne bishop

I like Sherrilyn Kenyon for light entertainment, but she's now HEAVILY into mythology which is nice but a bit of a brainstrain some days....

I'm into fan fiction lately...

Yasmine Galenorn is also great, really enjoying kim harrison's series atm after working my way through some of the other series's suggested here =)

ive been reading the dresden files by jim butcher and really enjoyed them, its mainly about wizards (well 1 wizard really) but theres vamps and other nasties in there.

really shouldnt have come in here, im going to spend a fortune in the bloody book shop now lol, and i still havent finished all my holocaust books

Larissa Ione has a Demonica Series that has 5 books in them which I have read and really enjoyed.

Again they kinda follow the same line as most series out there lately with Vampires/Demons etc in that each book tells a story for each character in the 'family' but quite entertaining!

Millipede: I am reading the Dark Series at the moment, and can certainly understand you getting lost if you started so many books in Quite like the BDB Series really.

omg who recommended the black dagger brotherhood series to me? YEEHAH! lol I just read all 8 of them and LOVED them! I'm thinking of getting her two new books in the new series Crave and Covet about a fallen angel? Anyone read those?

Desperately awaiting March next year for the 9th book...

Aquamama: They are addictive aren't they?

I think you will like the Demonica Series by Larissa Ione (5 books) or the Carpathian Dark Series by Christine Feehan (23? books). Very similar in structure with HOT storylines.