The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King
Carissa Broadbent
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Vampire
Romantic stories featuring vampire characters with paranormal abilities and immortal lifespans.
22 books with this trope
Vampires never actually went away. They just took a decade off after Twilight and came back stronger. The romantasy version of the vampire trope keeps the bite, the immortality, and the romantic doom, and adds the kind of plotting and worldbuilding the YA wave skipped past.
The 22 Best Vampire Books
The Serpent and the Wings of Night
Carissa Broadbent
Shadow Kiss
Richelle Mead
The Serpent and the Wings of Night 2
Carissa Broadbent
A Dowry of Blood
S.T. Gibson
Court of the Vampire Queen
Katee Robert
Empire of the Vampire
Jay Kristoff
Last Sacrifice
Richelle Mead
A Duel with the Vampire Lord
Elise Kova
Empire of the Damned
Jay Kristoff
Frostbite
Richelle Mead
Interview with the Vampire
Anne Rice
Spirit Bound
Richelle Mead
Blood Promise
Richelle Mead
Midnight Sun
Stephenie Meyer
The Vampire Lestat
Anne Rice
The Queen of the Damned
Anne Rice
Breaking Dawn
Stephenie Meyer
Eclipse
Stephenie Meyer
Twilight
Stephenie Meyer
Court of the Undying Seasons
A.M. Strickland
Court of the Undying Seasons
A.M. Strickland
New Moon
Stephenie Meyer
Why Vampire Works
Vampires work for the same reason they always have. The hunger is a metaphor, the immortality is a metaphor, and the bite is rarely just a bite. Add a fantasy world with politics and the vampire becomes a vehicle for exploring power, longevity, and what love means when one party will outlive the other by centuries. It's tragedy with sharp teeth.
What to Watch For
The genre has cycled through vampire variations enough times that it's hard to do something new. The good books either commit fully to the horror angle or use vampires to explore something else. The boring ones just put a vampire in a romance and call it done. If the vampirism doesn't drive the plot, it's a costume.
Where to Start
The Serpent and the Wings of Night for the modern bestseller. A Dowry of Blood for the literary, sapphic, time-spanning version. Empire of the Vampire for the dark fantasy take with stunning illustrations. House of Earth and Blood for the SJM crossover. Bride by Ali Hazelwood for the romance-first approach with a vampire husband.