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 Dupré 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 Dupré, 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.
