It seems that not many romance books starring vampires star bad vampires - but this is one!
There were a lot of WTF moments, and the vampire was written more like a perverted old man that liked childrens' blood rather than a "normal" vampire is usually portrayed. This books was definitely written for the tween age category. ( )

This book has explicit child sexual abuse of a five-year-old, explicit child sexual abuse of a sixteen-year-old, normalizing of a teacher possibly coercing a student and the teacher waits until the student is eighteen to divorce his wife, clinical narcissistic father, child and teen grooming by a stranger the parents adore, tons of gaslighting and victim blaming, emotional abuse and psychological control, and vampirism is portrayed as rape. The entire book is all of this. "Repeated examples" doesn't cover it. Several teenagers were murdered by the child/teen sex abuser, too, but that's framed as "this book has a supernatural mystery element to it." I'm sure there's other stuff I've forgotten as a way to protect myself.

Over the past year or so, I've been rereading books that were a major part of my budding sexuality as a twelve-year-old. I wanted as an adult to know if the books could still sweep me up, if I could have that curiosity, and if the books still held up in terms of being good. This was the final book I remembered, so I'm done with this little experiment.
Every single one of these books contained child or teen sexual abuse, whether explicit or coded, or "she's sixteen so it's fine." I feel gross typing that phrase, but it's the fastest way to describe a few of these books. Many contained supernatural or fantasy elements--I've always had a thing for werewolves, tended to go on vampire kicks too, and was suuuuper intrigued by faeries especially Francesca Lia Block's take. Most of these books have vivid descriptions in them, the settings are rich, the period is so 90s and it makes me smile--these books have good things about them. Many of them have interesting plots and are so well-paced that--it feels really natural.
So I have negative feelings about a lot of them and prepare myself for PTSD meltdowns when I have read them. "I Was A Teenage Fairy" especially caused meltdowns. I just realized many, many of these books have clinically narcissistic parents, usually the mom. That is probably another huge reason I loved them so much: my dad was in them! It was the only place I saw kids with parents like mine, and how evil the parents were seen.

"Look For Me by Moonlight" has one of the most beautiful book covers for me, to this day. I mean the one where she's gazing at fallen leaves while lying in them, not the creepy version I got as an adult that suggests this book is a hot new romance. The new cover isn't creepy if you don't know what the book is about. That unsettles me to realize.
The predator meets his victim when he goes to stay at the inn her parents run.
The first half of this book is framed as a romance. It's through the eyes of a sixteen-year-old, so of course she would think a thirty-year-old's attention on her is romantic, not predatory. Ew. This dude's a vampire through and through--he reads everyone's minds, changes people's moods to force them to calm down and love him, the cat hates him, he pushes his food around on his plate and takes his meals in his room. It's shortly revealed he drinks blood, and subtly hinted at even before then, with him preferring extra rare steaks. And those are examples I remember off the top of my head--if I were to go back, there would be more and subtler ones. The author did a wonderful job integrating well-known vampire qualities into her character.

She does a wonderful, just terrific, job of bringing settings and places alive with little effort. I don't know why I responded to it so eagerly, but I did, instantly. Poetry is freely quoted in the form of a well-known murder ballad, "The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes. Other poems are referred to throughout the novel, but this is the heaviest quoted and used as a foreshadowing device to incredibly chilling effect. A huge difference between me at twelve and me at thirty: I first heard Loreena McKennitt's song of "The Highwayman" when I was sixteen or so. It's the poem set to tune, with a few verses cut. The song is still ten minutes long. It's wonderful. And it was the song I heard in my mind as I kept reading. Only this book had me so absorbed, that I imagined a sixteen-year-old girl singing parts of it as a skin-crawling duet with her predator, a man twice her age. In my mind, their voices weren't as stellar as they imagined. I got...really into the book to be that irritated with the characters. And I felt like I understood the girl perfectly. I make completely different decisions and have different emotional--something, but yeah, we have some things in common.

The book opens with her explaining that her parents divorced when she was six because her father left her mother for an eighteen-year-old student. He was her English teacher. Throughout the novel, he prizes his five-year-old son over his sixteen-year-old daughter, snaps at his daughter, ignores her, never once tried to maintain contact, suggests she's stupid, gaslights her, draws attention to himself when he feels not enough is on him, ridicules others for believing in town legends (haunted inn and murdered teens)...Hi, Dad. And hi again, Dad: Mom -was- eighteen when you met. She had me a year later. (stare down)
Not related to my dad: every time Book Dad was on the page, I shouted, "Susan was your student, you g-ddamn weirdo! You're gross!" I could not get past that. I do not intend to. He's so gross.
.
The dad pissed me off, but oooh, let's get to the stepmother.
She clearly doesn't want her husband's daughter there. From the second day, Susan puts her to work right away, in tasks big and small. They're incessant. Susan constantly criticizes the teen and spoils the little kid. There's other indications that she herself may be a clinical narcissist. Couples can both be narcissists. When I first read this, I thought Susan was hugely pregnant and couldn't move around quickly. On second read, she's barely showing. So she's bossing around a strange teenager for no reason other than a power trip. If...I didn't know better, I'd...wonder if Susan considered the teen a romantic rival.
This book is gross.
But there's that vibe, and I can't shake it.

The ultimate moment that I flat-out and utterly hated Susan and wanted horrible things to happen to her: Susan uses her body to block the teen from going to her room as they're arguing about the vampire. "I can see him if I want to!" type thing. "You married my dad when you were eighteen!" the teen yells (I'm paraphrasing). "That was an entirely different situation!" Susan yells.
I shouted a lot of foul, hateful things when I read that.
IT WAS THE EXACT SAME SITUATION, YOU HORRIBLE (long stream of censored words). What's the difference? Laaahuuuvveee? Newsflash: you married your rapist and have stayed with him for ten years. It's not love. I hate you, Susan, for treating your husband's daughter with such hypocrisy and I hope horrible things happen to you.

Nowhere in the novel does anyone stop to wonder why Vincent, the vampire, isn't interested in women his age. -Every- -single- -blame- is at the teen. She's all but called a harlot, and really is accused repeatedly of seducing an adult male. She sees it as absolute love until she realizes she's being brainwashed and literally cannot say no.

The five-year-old is an enormous brat and I hated every second he was on the page..
Even when the book unquestionably turns into a horror novel halfway through and the little boy is being abused by Vincent, I still hated him. I just hated them both. I didn't blame the little kid or anything, but that doesn't mean I liked him.
The rivalry between a young child and a vulnerable teenager developed as they battled first for their parents' attention, then for a vampire to abuse them. It was upsetting in a variety of ways. This book was too realistic, and I hated that. I just--and yet, I wanted to read a -normal- book by this author because she's so skilled.

The teenager hits all the areas a kid at risk for abuse would. Noted without a scrap of judgment, meant as praise (ew) that the author was so thorough (ew). Her insecurities and worries echo mine as an adult and were unquestionably mine as a tween. She's constantly called childish and selfish for feeling this way. I guess I'm still childish and selfish. (shrug) Not like I've been in therapy for years or anything and am trying to change but the emotions are there. Hm.

There is a healthy love interest named Will. He helps save the day in a way that delighted me, but it was something melodramatic. This book requires splashes of high melodrama, though. Otherwise it's a spine-chilling, skin-crawling, dead-on portrayal of sex abuse.
Another nice thing about reading this: it made me want to write again. I want to write as vividly and draw attention to unusual combinations as the author does (a haunted inn on a lake in the winter. Usually that'd be the summer). Gonna get started. ( )

This book was ok. It wasn't the greatest vampire story out there.

The story is about Cynda, who goes to Maine to stay with her father, stepmother and stepbrother in their inn while her mother and her mother's boyfriend go to Italy. During this time a stranger, Vincent, comes to the inn to stay for awhile. It turns out that Vincent is a vampire and has come to feed on Cynda.

This was a slow moving book. At times it was very boring. Cynda was a whiny little thing that annoyed me. She was always whining that her father didn't love her, that her stepmother always took advantage of her, that her brother got all her father's attention and that her mother was living it up in Italy without her. After awhile I was thinking "grow a pair". First off I have NO IDEA why Cynda would NOT want to go to Italy. I'd be all over that. I have been to Italy twice, once when I was 16 and this past summer (2012) and I absolutely LOVE everything about Italy. I would move there in a heartbeat of I had the chance. And Cynda REFUSED to go! That just blew me away. Second I have no idea why she would give up Italy to go to her father inn in Maine where it was winter and below zero degrees often. It was always cold and there were always snow storms.

Anyway When Cynda meets Vincent she falls instantly in love with him. He charms and complements her an pretends to understand her problems, which she eats up. They have a little romance before Vincent reveals what he is and takes her blood. It was weird how Cynda changed in this book. She became very weak, couldn't get out of bed most of the time and became very pale. She was always cold, the sun or light in general hurt her eyes, she stopped eating and began to want blood. All this happened and Vincent WASN'T trying to change her. This is a new take on vampire mythology and it was kinda weird.

Vincent is not the type of vampire who readers see filling up Y.A. books nowadays. Vincent is a monster. He is not loving, kind or brooding. He is a true vampire monster, who takes her blood when he wants it and loves being an evil creature. He feels no love for anyone and doesn't care what happens to people. He manipulates other to get what he wants. He is very powerful, strong and of course beautiful (that hasn't changed). He pretends to love Cynda to get her where he wants her. One bite and she is powerless to stop him. She belongs to him and he can take her blood any time he wants. He also goes after Cynda's brother Todd who is just 5 years old. Vincent drinks Todd's blood and Todd is under Vincent's power as well. Vincent really is a despicable monster. When I first read this book years ago, I hated Vincent. Now re-reading this book, I still don't like him but I don't hate him like I used to. I just think that its interesting to read a book with a different kind of vampire in it. Now all vampires are loving, sexy good guys, not monsters like vampires were in the old days. This book takes you back to those old days when vampires were evil and they liked being that way.

I liked Cynda's brother Todd. He is adorable and like any 5 year old; he wants to play, be read to and get his way. He immediately hates Vincent when he firsts sees him and calls him a bad man. Todd can tell that Vincent is evil and wants him out of the inn but no one listens to him. Then once Vincent bites him, Todd is under his spell and Todd loves him. I always feel sorry for Todd that he had to become involved in Vincent's spell. He was too little to have to face a trauma like that.

Susan was ok for a step mother. She was pregnant and did ask Cynda for help a lot. But she truly cared for Cynda and loved her. She though of Cynda as her daughter, which was sweet.

All in all a quick read that treats vampires as they were meant to be seen: as monsters.

This review is also posted on Spantalian's Book Reviews ( )

I read this book in sixth grade and loved it. It's the first book I ever finished.

This is the first vampire book that I've read wherein vampires were depicted as being evil and sinister. I too, did not like how fast Cynda fell for Vincent then in a blink of an eye, she ends up despising him. I found Todd annoying as hell, but I enjoyed the ending. Vincent burns to a crisp, and Will ends up saving the day! Thank goodness for the human boy! Worth the read if you want a change from your typical 'Edward' vampires. Vincent is a true bad ass in every sense of the word! ( )