Elle Jasper: Afterlight

Jasper introduces tattoo artist Riley Poe in this shallow launch of a Southern-fried vampire romance trilogy. Once a wild child, Riley is now a surrogate parent to her younger brother, Seth. Riley s adopted Gullah relatives provide a living blood bank for the Dupr&#233, family of «good» vampires, who kept deadly undead «strigoi» bloodsuckers encrypted in Savannah s Bonaventure Cemetery until Seth s teenage prank freed them. Now evil strigoi Victorian and Valerian are bent on recruiting Seth and slaking their thirst on Riley s rare blood. Mysterious and magnetic Eli Dupr&#233,, entrusted with Riley s protection, both thrills her and freaks her out with vampiric cravings and sensual caresses. This superficial addition to today s vampire craze, couched in superheated first-person tough-girl lingo, adds only a few meager drops of insight into the current popularity of Dracula s literary descendants.