A couple weeks ago I saw Kate’s request for bloggers who wanted to talk vampire. Since I’ve got a long-standing relationship with the unholy undead, I eagerly volunteered.
My thing for vampires goes back to the ’70s. When I was in second grade, my sister used to make a point of watching Dark Shadows – the original TV show, not the movie – just because she knew it would freak me out. At that point, I hated vampires. And you know what? They say your tastes can change, but I’ve never developed much of an appreciation for horror.
Real life scares me enough!
Sometime in the ’80s, though, vampires became less frightening and more…well… romantic. For me, reading the sexy bits worked like a spoonful of sugar to help the scary parts go down.
Wait… I’m not sure that analogy worked quite right…
Anyhow, here’s a list of my favorite romantic vampires, guaranteed to feel appropriate to the season without actually – you know – frightening you. The only order to this post is how quickly these five characters came to mind. I could no more choose one favorite vampire than I could choose a favorite flavor of ice cream….
1. Lestat de Lioncourt – The Vampire Chronicles – Ann Rice
Lestat is THE vampire. He’s narcissistic and charismatic, and he’s thoughtful without devolving into angst – something Louis never quite understood. Ann Rice wrote “Interview with a Vampire” before she wrote “The Vampire Lestat”, but I read them in reverse order, so I was bonded with Lestat before I spent a whole book listening to Louis whine about him. I’ve often wondered if my opinion would be different if I’d read them in the order the author had intended.
Nah.
Louis is whiny, and Lestat is cool.
2. Jean Claude – Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter – Laurell K Hamilton
Of all the vampires on this list, Jean Claude is perhaps the most gorgeous. With long dark curls, brilliant blue eyes, and fair skin, his beauty attracted the attention of the vampire who turned him, and through her he draws his most potent power, the ardeur. Basically, he can love people to death, and from that perspective, he embodies the essence of the Anita Blake stories: beauty and sensuality framed in heart-rending violence.
Like Lestat, Jean Claude is French, which I think actually adds to the romance angle. He’s smart and sexy, and it has been fun to watch his character grow over the twenty-some books in the series.
3. Wild Bill – Channeling Morpheus for Scary Mary – Jordan Castillo Price
Now Wild Bill is a different sort of vampire. He’s intrinsically American, a punk rocker from the ’80s who hooked up with the wrong (undead) dude and since then has spent a couple of lifetimes hiding his artistic soul under black leather and spikes. He meets Michael, a vampire hunter of a sort, and their gritty romance mostly takes place in the back of a beat-up van, somewhere on the back roads of the Midwest.
But Wild Bill bought the van for Michael, which is kind of romantic…isn’t it?
4. Eric Northman – The Southern Vampire Mysteries– Charlaine Harris
What can I say about Eric that hasn’t already been said? He’s always struck me as Lestat’s younger, straighter, brother. He’s just as unapologetically All About Eric, and while we don’t see him spending hours pondering the meaning of existence, we’re also not in his head. Maybe he does ponder – or maybe he’s just too busy living. Eric appears in all the Southern Vampire mysteries, but it’s his sweet, vulnerable side we see in “Dead to the World”. This is book the fourth in the series, and it starts when Sookie finds a naked man on the side of the road. Well, not a man, a vampire. A vampire who doesn’t even know his own name.
Eric with amnesia? Now that’s romantic!
5. Don Simon Ysidro – The James Asher Novels – Barbara Hambly
For my final favorite romantic vampire, I’m going old school. “Those Who Hunt the Night” by Barbara Hambly was published back in 1988. It tells the story of James Asher, a former spy for Queen Victoria who left that military to become an academic. He’s newly married, and appreciates the peace and safety of his Oxford life, until the night a vampire shows up. Don Ysidro needs a favor. Someone is killing the vampires of London, and the good Don has no problem threatening Asher’s young wife to motivate him to return to his espionage roots.
But over the course of the first two books, Don Ysidro and Asher’s wife develop a … flirtation. A very Victorian, restrained, unspoken … something. Don Ysidro’s more like Lestat, in that human means of expressing physical affection are lost to him, and we’re not in his head, so we don’t truly know what he’s feeling. But the extended looks, the long, drawn-out moments of…
Wow.
There you have it! Five romantic vampires, for when you want to get your spook on without actually feeling frightened. Thanks very much for having me, Kate! And thanks to all of you for reading along! I’ve got a brand new baby mailing list, so if you’d like to be the first to hear about my own vampire work-in-progress, jump HERE to sign up.
Happy Halloween!
Do you have a favorite romantic vampire? I know I left quite a few off my list, so leave me a comment and we can compare notes!
A Vampire’s Deadly Delight
by Liv Rancourt
She’s a quiet, unassuming bookstore owner by day, but by
night…
Kristen has a deadly secret—when she smells a vampire, she turns into Jai, a beauti-licious babe who makes vamps permanently dead. To a vamp, Jai is like ambrosia. They can’t resist her. She uses this attraction, plus her super strength and her trusty blade, Mr. Sticky, to end their undead lives. The thrill of wearing miniskirts without worrying about cellulite stifles any qualms Kristen might have about killing the undead. Being Jai is the most fun she has ever had—until they come up against the one vampire Jai can’t kill. If he and Jai have a history, as he claims, Jai can’t remember it…or him.
But when her work catches the attention of some old enemies—who won’t hesitate to destroy Kristen if it also means the end of Jai—this vampire may be their only hope. Can Kristen and Jai learn to tell the difference between good and evil in time to defeat Jai’s ancient nemesis? Or will being Jai’s hostess cost Kristen more than just her beauty sleep?
Available from Black Opal Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.
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Thanks so much for having me, Kate! What a great series of posts.
I’m with you Liv. I love Vampires and I loved Dark Shadows. I would run home from school, it was on at 3:00 pm then, and watch it, then be scared the rest of afternoon and then I’d do it again, LOL.
My fav: It’s a tight race between Lestat and Eric Northman….
Happy Halloween!!