Insatiable by Meg Cabot

If you think you are sick of vampires, so is Meena Harper. A writer for the soap opera Insatiable, she is disgusted when her bosses decide that she must include a vampire in her storyline because of their recent popularity. Still, she's prepared to do just that when her next door neighbors set her up with a distant Romanian cousin, Lucien Antonescu...who, as it turns out, is a vampire himself. Oh, and not just any old vampire; he's the prince of darkness, the head honcho, the ruler of all vampires. All of which Meena doesn't discover until after she falls for him. Will life get any weirder?

Well, yes, it will. In Meg Cabot's Insatiable, Meena goes from normal every day life to the middle of a vampire war in the space of a couple of days. Meena becomes a pawn between Lucien and his devious brother Dimitri, and her world takes an even worse turn when Alaric Wulf, a member of Palatine, an organization that fights vampires, shows up and also wants to use her to get to Lucien. Meena's not sure where her loyalties actually lie; she's still incredibly attracted to Lucien but realizes that he's probably not the best choice for her while Alaric, annoying but determined, also starts to seem appealing. Meanwhile, Meena's struggling with her own psychic powers: she knows when people will die, and it's this knowledge that makes her determined to protect both Alaric and her brother Jon.

Whew. Lotsa stuff there. The first part of Insatiable dragged somewhat for me; I wanted Meena's relationship with Lucien to progress faster and for Meena to stand up to her witchy boss, Shoshonna. Then when the whole vampire bit exploded, it was almost too much; I thought this was Cabot's idea of a parody yet it was at times too coincidental and over the top. Still, Cabot is terrific at engaging the reader with her witty writing, and once I got into the rhythm of the tale, it really moved along quickly. Despite the unevenness of the storyline, Cabot managed to pull me in. I do wish there was more focus on what sort of tale this actually is: parody or good old fashioned light romance. Rounded up from 3.5 stars because of Cabot's fun factor.

~taminator40