Insatiable by Meg Cabot

Sick of hearing about vampires? So is Meena Harper.

Meena Harper is familiar with the supernatural. After all, she knows how you're going to die (Not that you're going to believe her. No one ever does.) But not even Meena's precognition can prepare her for Lucien Antonescu—who she meets and then makes the mistake of falling in love with—a modern-day prince with a bit of a dark side for which an ancient society of vampire hunters would prefer to see him dead.

The problem is Lucien's already dead. Maybe that's why he's the first guy Meena's ever met with whom she could imagine herself having a future. See, while Meena's always been able to see everyone else's destiny, she's never been able look into her own. Lucien seems to be everything Meena has ever dreamed of in a boyfriend, though he might turn out to be more of a nightmare. So now would be a good time for Meena to start learning to predict her own future . . . if she has one.

As you may have realised about me, I love a good vampire story. And one written by Meg Cabot has to be good, just like everything else she's written! I entered this book with minimal expectations, just hoping Cabot's writing was as good as I remember from my pre-teen reading. Thankfully, it was: it was well-written, with interesting alternate chapters and time stamps at each new chapter. And of course highly intriguing characters, from Meena knowing when people are going to die, to her best friend, very pregnant and incredibly funny. 

Mentioned in the synopsis, Meena has a bit of a thing against vampires. All these stories about girls falling for the horrid creatures of the night who will inevitably kill her, Meena hates them. Especially because her job as a soap opera writer is being jeopardised by vampires taking over all aspects of the media. So when she is invited to a neighbour's dinner party and cannot help moaning about the "vampire wars", Lucien is understandably worried. 

Which brings me to Lucien. He is the vampire anti-hero of the story, a gentleman (maybe not actually, because he sleeps with Meena after about 2 days!), pretty old-fashioned, a prince... well, actually he's the prince of darkness himself, Dracula's son. Yeah, so there's that. But he's trying to be a good guy, enforcing a rule for all his subjects not to kill, to only feed from willing humans, but his brother and some other typically macho vamps are going around draining young women. Which is not just horrible but also threatens to expose vampire existence to humans and the vampire hunters. Speaking of which, I can't not mention Alaric, the vampire hunter. Every good vamp story needs one and Alaric has to be one of the best I've ever read. He was strong and masculine, bit hot-headed and stubborn, didn't really think things through. Which is how he came to meet his match with Meena. Even as much as he annoyed her, they had great verbal sparring and chemistry.

This story was not the paranormal-romance I thought it was going to be, and for that I'm actually glad. It was much more complex and juicy with all the drama, not even including Meena's ability and the vampires! Highly recommended for any fans of vampires, you know proper ones that fight dirty and drink blood and want to take over the world, and fan's of Meg Cabot's writing because she's done it again! 

Published 21st June 2012 by Harper Voyager.