Texas Vampire Series

I'm a big fan of Diane Whiteside's work but overall I was a little disappointed with the Texas Vampire Series. The first book, Bond of Blood was my favorite of the three, but even that took me quite awhile to get into. Usually Whiteside's novels grab me right off the bat and I can't stop reading them, but these didn't move along as quickly as they probably could have.

The series follows a group of vampires, led by Don Rafael, that live in Texas. The main conflict is with a rival vampire leader in New Orleans. However, each of the three books also tells the backstory of one of the vampires. Bond of Blood focuses on Don Rafael and his meeting Grania O'Malley, Bond of Fire tells of Jean-Marie St. Just and his relationship with Hélène d'Agelet, and Bond of Darkness introduces us to Ethan Templeton and Stephanie "Steve" Darling.

As I mentioned, Bond of Blood was my favorite as I found Don Rafael the most attractive and interesting character. Thankfully he and Grania showed up in the other two books as well, since certain aspects of the story are retold from various points of view in all three. Bond of Fire I found to be the most tedious as I did not care much for Hélène and Jean-Marie didn't hold much more appeal. I nearly gave up on the book, which I almost never do, but pushed on. It ended relatively well however, as Bond of Darkness was an improvement and at least held my interest throughout. Steve Darling was a likable character and made up for the lack of personality that Ethan seemed to possess.

There were a few other bones of contention that I had with the series. One was the the lack of sex scenes, as compared with Whiteside's other novels that I've read. When I'm in the mood for a good erotic/romance I usually trust Whitside to satisfy my cravings. While there were a few good scenes, I found them to be lacking in comparison with her other works. My other problem was the excessive use of foreign language in the book. Spanish was used for many of the words related to the vampire's lifestyle and laws and French and Arabic were also used through the second two. While I understand that this was done to emphasize the vampire's ages and histories, I felt it was done to the point that I found it obnoxious.

Well, I guess there you have it. A bit of a long winded explanation, but what are you going to do? I guess in the end I'm ambivalent about the series. If you like vampires and that kind of thing, go for it, but don't be surprised if you find yourself enjoying some parts but struggling to get through others.

3/5 Stars