I am officially a fan of the Love At Stake Series. I absolutely adore the world that Kerrelyn Sparks has created. In my opinion, it is one of the best 'worlds of vampires' in the publishing market right now. I like the humor and I love the characters. But just as much as I love the characters, those characters are also my biggest gripe with the series. That is because the more of the Love At Stake books I read, the more that the male vamps and female love interests start to seem the same. The men are all good hearted, protective and strong, synthetic blood drinking vamps who long for love but have waited their whole (long) lives to find the real deal. The woman are all shocked to find out that the man is a vampire, then they look at all the previous female characters and think how happy they seem. I just wish Sparks would shake the love stories up a bit...give us Pheneus's (spelled wrong, sorry) story, make two vamps fall in love with each other...something. I can't tell you how pleased I am that the next book focuses on one of the female vampires. I also like urban fantasy more than romance and I know thats not the case with alot of readers, but I would enjoy some more action in the books. Sparks did a great job with the final 'showdown' in this story. It was the best confrontation so far. I also adore that she has introduced some 'shifter' type characters and I think that is another good step in keeping things spicy. Despite my tirade here, this is a romantic vampire series that is a cut above many of the others out there. I have completely given up on a couple of those series and I am still firmly a "Love at Stake" fan. ( )

I would categorize Kerrelyn Sparks' latest paranormal in her vampire series, "Secret Life of a Vampire" as one of the sweeter, yet still hot, in this whole series. Her hero is more Gamma than Alpha, her heroine is an ex-beauty queen turned cop, and there's not much blood spilled unless it comes from a glass.

The vampires in this series are divided into two camps; Malcontents who want to rule the world and feed from humans at will, and the good vamps who feed off bottled blood and battle the Malcontents. Even though this same good vamps vs bad vamps has been done over and over, Sparks adds enough twists to distinguish her series from the rest. Her good vamps have their own 'Black Pages', their own Vamp Network cable TV station, and their own Vampire Fusion Cuisine.

This story begins at a wild vamp bachelor party that gets raided by a pair of cops due to the noise of the bagpipes. Yes, I said bagpipes. The humor in this series isn't just in the dialogue. I mean kilt wearing, sword-bearing, sexy vampires in New York City? Be still my heart.

Anyway, my enjoyment of this series is its refusal to bow to the popularity of the more serious and darker vein (couldn't resist) of stories that currently abound. Fun and funny, sweet yet with enough heat to satisfy most romance readers, I confess to being hooked. ( )