Temptation by R.L. Stine

In this collection of three fan-favorite stories, the vampires of Sandy Hollow crave the summer months. Summer means plenty of beach tourists…and plenty of fresh blood after months of deprivation. But this year the Eternal Ones have decided to spice things up with a little bet: The first to seduce a hot date of the human variety, and then turn him into a fellow creature of the night, wins.

     The catch? In order to successfully turn their prey, they must take only three small sips of blood on three different nights. If they take too much blood on any night, the human will die and the bet will be lost.

     The setup sounds simple enough, but things quickly get complicated—especially since each vampire is just dying to quench her thirst

(Goodreads)
 Genre: horror; supernatural

Rating: 3/5

 The Good:

• It is R.L. Stine so we're talking about a story that is going to hold as a horror story rather than a romance no matter how much the plot seems to be veering that way. It's a bit refreshing that the vampires in this are still a threat and never some romantic entity. 
• It's a pretty decent horror story. Or actually two horror stories. And the second one actually took me a while to catch on to rather than being able to figure out the twist at once. 

The Bad:

• I think the problems I had with the book had more to do with the packaging of it than actual problems in writing. The book is presented as though it is a teenage level romance (I mean look at the cover), so I was expecting a higher writing level I guess. These would actually probably be more appropriate middle school level than anything else. 
• The stories just didn't interest me all that much, maybe because they were written more on a middle school level and just not geared for an older reader in spite of the cover.  

The Verdict:
The book isn't bad and younger readers who like really scary stuff would probably not mind it, but it just wasn't the best thing I've read in a while. 

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame- Smith

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 but one purpose..." Gifted with his legendary height, strength, and skill with an ax, Abe sets out on a path of vengeance that will lead him all the way to the White House.

While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for saving a Union and freeing millions of slaves, his valiant fight against the forces of the undead has remained in the shadows for hundreds of years. That is, until Seth Grahame-Smith stumbled upon The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln, and became the first living person to lay eyes on it in more than 140 years.

(Goodreads)

Genre: horror; historical fantasy

Rating: 4/5

The bad:

• The premise is a bit to get over. If you can separate yourself from the fact that one of the best known presidents is being presented as a hunter of evil vampires, you're better off.
• Abraham Lincoln isn't always a very dynamic character. You understand that the Great Emancipator hates the undead, but you don't always connect with him. He does a lot of unwarranted moping.

The good:

• Believe it or not, the history is pretty accurate, save for the vampire hunting part. Grahame-Smith has obviously done some research here. So much so that when I went to catalog the book for the library, it wanted to put it in nonfiction, to which I laughed as I adamantly replaced the tag with fiction.
• The book is suitably gory and won't disappoint horror fans. Lincoln doesn't always win and the vampires are actually very believably integrated into history. 
• It's an easy read. The action keeps up and there are doctored pictures that make the book look more authentic. 

Verdict: For a piece of speculative fiction, this was fun and a good horror story. Honest Abe made a surprisingly good action hero. 

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride

College dropout Samhain LaCroix is sort of a failure at life. He's stuck in a dead end job without a lot of prospects, but at least he has his friends. That is until one of them ends up nothing more than a talking head after Sam accidentally crosses paths with one of the most evil, paranoid necromancers in the country. And this necromancer sees that unbeknownst to Sam, he's a necromancer too. And now Sam is not only a threat, but he's also managed to make the necromancer very angry. So now, with one of his friends undead and involved in an evil plot involving werewolves, Sam is forced to figure out how to deal with the fact that he can raise the dead.

Genre: horror; humor; supernatural

Rating: 4/5

This was a funny book. Surprisingly so. I'll admit the title was the main reason I picked it up and the tongue in cheek humor carries through most of the book. Sam and his friends are deadpan and snarky and trying hard to figure out how to deal with the fact that Sam can now raise the dead. That's not to say that the book isn't also a horror novel. There's plenty of realistic horrible things going on, starting with the sadistic Douglas, necromancer for Seattle and major bad guy. I've never seen a protagonist get beat up as much as Sam does. He's abused throughout the novel and rather than shake it off, he feels it. There are several points were he just can't do stuff because he's hurt too badly. He's realistically angry at his mother for lying to him about his powers. He has an absolute jerk of a father who walked out on his mom to start a "normal" family after he suspected Sam was a necromancer even though the necromancy genes came from his side of the family (and there is a moment of deep irony when Sam meets up with the "normal" wife and kids and meets his two half sisters). And Sam is up against a horrible bad guy in Douglas. Everything about him is cruel and angering, yet he's not over the top, just evil.

The weakness of book came with some of the humor becoming sparser by the end and also a sex scene that just felt thrown in and unnecessary for a YA novel. It honestly felt like that part was supposed to be in a normal paranormal novel, not a YA one. No, it wasn't graphic, just out of character and not what I think would even be normal for a situation such as the characters were in. That said, I'd read more books if this was made into a series. The humor alone was worth it and Sam was a likable character.