It "turned" me into a vampire story fan
Before reading Vampire Vacation, my exposure to any kind of paranormal or vampire-related fiction was restricted to the late night Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney movies I grew up watching and Twilight.
I was hooked on this story from page one. Werewolves and vampires and sex, oh my.
This book has it all - an interesting mix of characters, a mysterious murder, and habanero-hot sex. Some authors use sex scenes as the central focus of a story and some inject it gratuitiously. The sexual scenes in this story are woven masterfully into the plot and serve to enhance it.
Vivian/Dria and her husband, Rafe, have a unique relationship. Despite having been together for hundreds of years, the sex is still exciting and *gasp* -- they communicate with each other. Verbally and through telepathy. After all these years together, they still like each other.
Vivian has other interesting powers too. I shiver to think of the damage I could do with her power of persuasion! If my boyfriend tuned out my voice (like I know he routinely does), I'd simply get into his head where he couldn't avoid me. But I digress....
The characters are well developed and the reader is able to become involved in the story through their thoughts and actions. As others have commented, I would have liked to have more background on Vivian, so I'm looking forward to the prequel.
This story is captivating and a fun read. Given my limited exposure to vampires and werewolves, I would have expected the author to have made the story darker and closer to the horror genre, but she kept it just light enough to be entertaining without being too comedic.
The fact that this was completely done in first person point of view is outstanding in itself.
Considering how well this was written, it's hard to believe this is the author's first book. I can't wait for the next one.