Love Bites: Vampire Kisses, Volume 7 by Ellen Schreiber

Raven is a teenage goth girl living in a town she calls Dullsville. Ever since she was little, she's been obsessed with growing up and becoming a vampire. So when Alexander Stirling, a handsome goth Prince moved into town and took up residence in an old, spooky mansion, Raven found herself quite in love with him, and joy of joys, he found himself loving her back.

Even better for Raven, she discovered that her handsome Prince was *actually* a vampire! Though Raven loves Alexander and wants them to be together always, Alexander has problems of his own- he wants to be human, and he's resisting turning Raven into a Princess of Darkness to be lover to his Prince.

After dealing with Alexander's ex-fiancee and her brothers, and Alexander's parents, who wanted Alex to sell the mansion and return to his home in Transylvania, now someone new has come to Dullsville. It's Alexander's best friend, Sebastian. Thankfully, unlike with his parents, Raven doesn't have to hide, and she enjoys spending time around Alexander and his friend.

But that's until Sebastian catches a glimpse of her best friend, Becky. Becky already has a boyfriend, Matt, once a member of Trevor's group, but now enjoying being his own man. Raven is not only jealous of Becky... she wants to be a vampire first! But also afraid for her. She knows that Becky and Matt love each other, and thinks they should stay together.

Desperate for her friend, she decides to throw a party for Sebastian, and invite the prettiest vampire girls she knows- the girls from the Coffin Club in Hipsterville. But Sebastian isn't making her job easy for her- he keeps acting besotted with Becky, and doing things that more than reveal his interest, like sending her flowers and mooning over her. It's all Raven can do to pretend that the flowers came from Alexander, but even so, the kids at school think that she is cheating around on him.

And Alexander is having problems of his own. His recent selling of his paintings to raise money have made him famous in Dullsville, and now a magazine writer from an art magazine wants him to give an interview, and Alexander is afraid that someone might guess his secret from the appearance and condition of the house. And then, the man wants to take a photo of him to illustrate the article- a photo that can't be taken, because, after all, Alexander is a vampire.

But the party Raven gives starts to go south when normal human kids from the High School that Raven and Becky attend show up, including her nemesis, Trevor. But when Matt shows up to fight Sebastian, having finally found out who the other vampire is mooning over, will Raven's party be destroyed? And how about her friendship with Becky and Matt? And what will happen when Jagger and his sister Luna crash the party?

Another great Vampire Kisses book. This one seems to revolve around the theme of being who you really are. Sebastian can't tell Becky who and what he really is because he's a vampire, and only Raven out of all the people in Dullsville knows that vampires are real and exist. The party does seem to have torn it for at least some people to know more about vampires, so we'll be finding out more about that in the next book, it seems.

Then there is Alexander, who is thinking about changing who he is to keep his secret from the reporter. But once Raven has hidden all of his real furniture and created a preppy haven, will Alexander go through with the deception or risk revealing who, and maybe what, he really is? And how will he get around the requirement of a photo?

This book ends on a cliffhanger, very much so, but it's obvious that the action in the next book will take up where this one leaves off. I definitely want to see more of this series, and I'm loving it. Recommended.