Love In Vein

by Stavros

"Love In Vein" another in the superb series by Stavros about some very unusual vampires.

Once again the author creates superior universe filled with an entirely new culture of vampires. "Love in Vein" continues the story of Linnet Pevensey and Z, the two vampire women from "Blood Junky". "Love in Vein" delves deeper into the background of Z and her transformation into a vampire.   It also introduces Sarah, a young woman whom Lin (Linnet) becomes fascinated with. It goes further into Dominique's  life story as well.

In the previous novel, I compared "Blood Junky" to a very rich dessert but "Love in Vein" is a full course meal.  The series is a gift for those that love vampire fiction.  It dispenses with overly sweet love stories and brings back a tiny bit of the scares that vampire novels ought to have. There is a strong romantic element to it.  The novel, however, doesn't go overboard with those romantic elements. It keeps itself from becoming just another weepy saga.

It has some of the best vampire  characters ever written in a novel. I was thrilled to read about Z's eventual conversion to a vampire and those that changed her.   It changed my thinking of her as a character. It seemed, at first, that she was a self indulgent brat bent on destruction. I learned that there was more to her than that and that she has a much deeper personality.   The author adds a few new aspects to the story. One of which is the addition of a police detective who is on the trail of Lin and Z.  He's out to arrest them but is very unaware of what he is tracking. Another addition is the inclusion of a back story about the coven with which Z begins her un-life.

One of the more interesting ideas of this series is the concept of the Jadaraa Soo,  a blood hungry parasite.  The  nature of the parasite is is a wholly unique idea about vampires.  Vampire novels of the past have included some very formulaic visions of simple blood exchange. Yes there is an exchange of blood but this series adds more to the basic scheme.  It breaks many molds and expectations of this being another generic story of immortal blood suckers.  This series and more directly this novel are comparable with and at times surpasses the "Vampire Chronicles" by Anne Rice.