Gone by Lisa McMann

This is the third and final book in the Wake Trilogy. The first two books are Wake and Fade. It concludes the story of Janie, an 18 year old girl who slips into the dreams of anyone who happens to be sleeping around her. She actually uses her ability to help solve crimes in the second book. This ability might have seemed interesting at first, but you soon realize how upsetting and even dangerous it could be. Imagine driving past a house where someone is sleeping with their window open, and suddenly you have no control over your car! That actually happened to her in one of the other books and she had to sell her car and stop driving. In this book, she has to make a decision about her future because of the health implications of her ability. Should she isolate herself from everyone, or stay with her boyfriend Cabel and risk going blind? Then she meets her dying father and discovers that he chose isolation but it may be what is killing him now.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer

This book was very good and a quick read! It allowed you to get inside the head of a newborn vampire in a way that the books in the Twilight Saga never enabled you to do. Stephenie Meyer wrote in the Introduction that after writing this novella she wished she'd concluded Eclipse differently. I agree. I found myself rooting for Bree and yearning for her to escape and live a different life than that of the other newborns, even though I already knew how things would end for her.

Hourglass by Claudia Gray

I just read this book in a day and half. It was very good, with several plot twists and a cliff-hanger ending. This is the third in what looks to be a four-book series which began with Evernight and continued with Stargazer. It is the continuing story of Bianca, born of two vampires yet still mostly human, and Lucas, a member of a cell of Black Cross vampire hunters. They met at Evernight Academy, a school for vampires to learn to fit into society. They fell in love and eventually ran away together. Their love is strong enough to survive anything, or so we hope. I can't wait to read book four, Afterlife.

Insatiable by Meg Cabot

Meg Cabot's new novel, just released on June 8th, provided a different twist on the vampire genre. The main character, Meena Harper, was as usual very likable and relateable. I love that about Meg Cabot's novels. But Meena also has the ability to sense how someone is going to die. So when she meets Lucien Antonescu, she doesn't realize that the reason she can't predict his death is because he's a vampire. And not just any vampire, but the prince of the vampires. What follows is a story about their relationship and about the other people in Meena's life that she tries to protect, not just from him but from the other vampires who are waging a war against Lucien in order to gain control. And then there's the vampire slayer who comes to town to kill Lucien, who had originally come to find out who was responsible for several recent killings in Manhattan. This book has history, humor, romance, and action/adventure.