American Vampire by Jennifer Armintrout

Title: American Vampire

Author: Jennifer Armintrout

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Rating: * * * 1/2

Publishers Date: 2/22/11

Paperback: 336 pages

Publisher: Mira

ISBN: 0778328783

FTC Disclosure: Net Galley

HE'S THE GOOD KIND OF VAMPIRE. SORT OF.

Buried in the Heartland is a town that no one enters or leaves. Graf McDonald somehow becomes its first visitor in more than five years…and he was only looking for a good party. Unfortunately, Penance, Ohio, is not that place. And after having been isolated for so long, they do not like strangers at all.

Jessa's the only one to even remotely trust him, and she's desperate for the kind of protection that only a vampire like Graf can provide. Supplies are low, the locals are ornery for a sacrifice and there's a monster more powerful than Graf lurking in the woods. New men are hard to come by in this lonesome town, and this handsome stranger might be Jessa's only hope for salvation.

Even if she has to die first…

Honestly, I’m still not real sure how I felt about this book. I finished it a couple of weeks back and thought I’d let it simmer for awhile. It wasn’t great but I didn’t dislike it either. I thought the whole idea of being stuck in a town and unable to leave to be a great plot idea but it fell short in the execution of the idea. Reminds me a bit of a Twilight Zone episode.  Why the monster (not the vampire) was there and how one of the other town’s people came to have it under his control wasn’t really explained very well. While I loved Graf and Jessa’s characters and their interaction was laugh out loud funny, the rest of the cast was pretty blah however. I was never able to discover if this was the start to a series ( I hope it is) but if so I’ll definitely give the next book a try as I hope the world building will go into more depth. I didn’t feel as if the vampire laws were fleshed out very well. Yeah, he had to stay out of the sunlight, needed blood and was some stronger than the humans, but it just wasn’t enough. It just really felt lacking. A bit more on Graf’s history would have helped too. I also felt that there were a lot of little side stories going on that either should have been better fleshed out or left out altogether. It sounds like I didn’t enjoy the book but I never had any problem finishing it and really wish that the ending hadn’t been so abrupt.