The best vampire novels that swept me away

Why am I passionate about this?

All my books are narrated by either dogs or wolves except two. First, animals are a prevalent force in my life, and I have many. I see them with souls. I have combined them with my love of vampires, werewolves, and monsters. After I read Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot, I was hooked on vampire stories. I hold a master’s degree in English. After teaching writing for a decade, becoming a magazine editor and publisher, and then starting my own writing and editing company, I have published 16 novels. Oddly enough, even with the subject matter, they all are about unconditional love. 


I wrote...

Snow Blood: Season 1

By Carol McKibben,

Book cover of Snow Blood: Season 1

What is my book about?

Join the dark world of Brogio, the first vampire! When Brogio must turn Snow, a beautiful white husky, to save the dog, a series of events are unleashed that reveal a sinister plot against the father of all vampires. As life and true death experiences bond the two together, they unravel a conspiracy that when resolved may return Selene, the love of Brogio’s life, back to him and set him free from the lonely existence that has plagued him for thousands of years!

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of 'Salem's Lot

Carol McKibben Why did I love this book?

I read this years ago, and I was terrified throughout the entire book. If I heard a noise in the house while I was reading it, I’d have to go investigate it! I have never had a book scare me as much since. As a child, Ben Mears witnessed something terrible at the Marsten House. He returns home at the same time a new owner moves into the house. After the new arrival, tragedies begin to strike. Gothic-like in nature, 'Salem’s Lot is so beautifully descriptive. King is a master at writing about small-town terror. Evil from the house permeates throughout the story as it tears the town and its people apart. I was chilled from the roots of my hair down to my toes. For me, it is quite possibly the greatest vampire book ever written.

By Stephen King,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked 'Salem's Lot as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

#1 BESTSELLER • Ben Mears has returned to Jerusalem’s Lot in hopes that exploring the history of the Marsten House, an old mansion long the subject of rumor and speculation, will help him cast out his personal devils and provide inspiration for his new book.

But when two young boys venture into the woods, and only one returns alive, Mears begins to realize that something sinister is at work.

In fact, his hometown is under siege from forces of darkness far beyond his imagination. And only he, with a small group of allies, can hope to contain the evil that…


Book cover of Dead Until Dark

Carol McKibben Why did I love this book?

You will not be able to resist the characters in this story. This world houses legal vampires who subsist on a beverage called Tru Blood. Then add in a mind-reading waitress in love with one of them and a love-sick shapeshifter. Just to mix it up a bit more, a serial killer is on a rampage. Dead Until Dark’s twisted and surprising plot is both enthralling and alarming. I could not put it down. It made my toes tingle!

By Charlaine Harris,

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked Dead Until Dark as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Sookie Stackhouse is a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. She's quiet, keeps to herself, and doesn't get out much - not because she's not pretty - she's a very cute bubbly blonde - or not interested in a social life. She really is ...but Sookie's got a bit of a disability. She can read minds. And that doesn't make her too dateable. And then along comes Bill: he's tall, he's dark and he's handsome - and Sookie can't 'hear' a word he's thinking. He's exactly the type of guy she's been waiting all her life for. But Bill has…


Book cover of The Shepherd

Carol McKibben Why did I love this book?

I must include my friend Travis Luedke’s book, The ShepherdIt totally took me by surprise. From the uncensored male teen dialogue to the games girls will play, I totally returned to high school. Travis captured the entire clique strata. Mike has had visions that he does not discuss. His life is depressing with an unemployed, alcoholic father. Then, he meets Nadia, a young girl Mike barely avoids hitting with his car. She is mysterious and latches on to Mike. The reader has no idea who she is, where she is from, or why she acts as if she has always known Mike. Neither does Mike. When weird, awful events begin to happen, Nadia is the key. Travis keeps this twisted tale going in high gear and keeps us enthralled all the way to the shocking end.

By Travis Luedke,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Shepherd as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Skate punks, kleptomaniacs, clairvoyant visions and reincarnation... THE SHEPHERD is unlike any other Young Adult novel you have ever read.

For me, Mike Evans, a skate punk living in a white-trash trailer park, high school blows.

My dad's an out-of-work drunk. My ex-girlfriend avoids me like the plague. My best friend, Anita, won't keep her hands off me...then there's Moses Lake's champion wrestler. The a-hole is waiting for an excuse to beat my face into the skate park concrete.

Worse, my visions of grisly death are back again, and if I tell anyone what I've seen I might actually cause…


Book cover of The Queen of the Damned

Carol McKibben Why did I love this book?

This is amazingly different from the first two books (Interview with a Vampire and The Vampire Lestat) of The Vampire Chronicles. Several new characters are introduced, a number of truly old vampires we have only heard of up until now become part of the action, and the story is woven together into a mosaic much wider in scope than what has come before. It is Lestat’s book, but he is not the focus. He narrates his own role in events, but much of the book is written in the third person. The action is spread out over six thousand years from one end of the world to the other, with a lot of mythology taking the place of the energetic action of the earlier novels. It is a fascinating study of the vampire world.

By Anne Rice,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Queen of the Damned as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

***The Vampire Chronicles is soon to be a major TV show***

After 6,000 years of horrifying stillness, Akasha, mother of all vampires and Queen of the Damned, has risen from her sleep to let loose the powers of the night.

But her monstrous plan for ruling the worlds of the living and the undead must be stopped before she destroys mankind, and it falls to the vampire Lestat to fight her all-encompassing evil - for it is he who challenged her power by waking her from sleep.

Also in the Vampire Chronicles:
Interview with the Vampire
The Vampire Lestat
The…


Book cover of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Carol McKibben Why did I love this book?

This one is just for fun! It is an interesting concept that is well done! The author is well-researched and combined history with vampire terror. It is a surprise and a wonderful, fun read! I loved the concept and the thought that Honest Abe might not have been all that honest about himself! 

By Seth Grahame-Smith,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Abraham Lincoln as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

It's Indiana, 1818. Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin, where a nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his suffering mother's bedside. She's been stricken with something the old-timers call 'Milk Sickness'. 'My baby boy ...', she whispers before dying. Only later will the grieving Abe learn that his mother's fatal affliction was actually the work of a vampire. When the truth becomes known to young Lincoln, he writes in his journal, 'henceforth my life shall be one of rigorous study and devotion. I shall become a master of mind and body. And this mastery shall have…


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A Darling Handyman

By Lark Holiday,

Book cover of A Darling Handyman

Lark Holiday Author Of A Darling Handyman

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Christmas market lover Friend to all croissants

Lark's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

She’s hiding from pain. He’s lost everything but his dog. When fresh air and second chances bring them together, can they rediscover true love?

If you enjoy kind-hearted heroes, small towns, and more humor than heat, you’ll adore this contemporary Alaskan romance! A Darling Handyman is the feel-good first book in the Darling Men series. All books in the series can be read alone and in any order.

A Darling Handyman

By Lark Holiday,


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