Vampire Kisses 2: Kissing Coffins by Ellen Schreiber

Raven has finally found love with Alexander Stirling. But ever since she found out that Alexander is actually a vampire, he's been missing, and she's bummed. She really does love him, but it's hard to stand when she can't be near him because he isn't there.

But finally Raven decides to take the initiative into her own hands and goes to see Ruby, her former co-worker. While Raven was getting close to Alexander, Ruby was doing the same with Jameson, his butler. In fact, they had a date. Under the pretext of returning Ruby's compact, Raven returns to where she so briefly worked and finds out that Ruby had gotten stood up on her date. Jameson does send Ruby flowers to make up for his rude behavior, allowing Raven to track them both to Hipsterville, where her aunt, Libby, lives.

Talking her parents into letting her visit her aunt during the winter break. Ruby travels there on the bus, and almost immediately commences her search for Alexander- but not without detouring to buy some more wonderful Goth clothes. Raven loves it in Hipsterville, which is a community of artists who care more about who a person is than their mode of dress. Here, Raven finds lots of people who dress like she does- and a goth bar named the Coffin Club.

Raven, pretending to attend her aunt's performance in Dracula, slips out to go see the Coffin Club, and while she's carded at the door, she uses her wits, and the fake ID her brother's friend made her, to get in. Once inside she is stunned by the attention- because it's good attention, for the first time in her life. She makes a hit with the people in the bar, but finds no sign of Alexander- or Jameson. Instead, she attracts the attention of Jagger, a young man who seems to like her a lot- but is he really a vampire, or just a goth-obsessed teen?

Raven isn't sure at first, but when she ends up visiting his apartment, she sees a coffin surrounded by dirt- which he claims he bought cheap as a movie souvenir. But all too soon, she's running from Jagger when she finds out that he's a vampire, too- and he's looking on revenge on Alexander, who was engaged to his sister but threw her over because she had always been human- and because of that, they hardly knew each other. So instead of marrying her, he set her free, and her family took it as an insult.

For having taken marriage away from his sister, Jagger wants to make Alexander pay- and he's going to do it by taking the one thing Alexander loves and cares about away from him- Raven. If he can just get her to pledge to him on sacred ground, their bond can never be broken and Jagger can have the ultimate Revenge on Alexander. But neither of them counted on one thing- Raven! Can she stay free of Jagger's grip while sticking close to Alexander? And can se get Jagger to just leave her and Alexander alone? One thing is for sure- her life has just gotten complicated!

This was a short but still cute sequel to "Vampire Kisses", and it also had that sort of strange, chopped-off ending. And then it hit me. These books are the print equivalent of manga. Every book slowly advances the story while ensuring enough zany things happen to the hero and heroine to keep you interested, and then it ends on something of a cliffhanger to keep you buying the manga/books.

And in this one Raven is left along, much like Edward left Bella in New Moon. And while Raven doesn't go on a half-year long cryfest, she is very bummed out about it, but soon gets an idea to break into Alexander's house to see if he is really there. Which leads, slowly and inexorably to finding out where he has gone. I like Raven. She's smart, witty, and not afraid to jump in and do what needs to be done to get her man back.

I like this series, and while we got in #4 along with the second book, I haven't seen the third one- I'll have to order it before I read #4. But this is a very likeable series. Maybe a bit fluffy, but very cute to read. Girls who like vampires will definitely like this one- maybe even consider it a "Must-read". Recommended.