Vampire kisses series by Ellen Schreiber to movie Sixteen-year old Raven Madison started her obsession with the dark side in kindergarten. While the teacher was asking her young students what they wanted to be when they grew up and getting the typical responses of nurse, fire fighter, and football player, young Raven answered the question the only way she knew how--she wanted to grow up to be a vampire. Raven's parents, Sarah and Paul, were typical hippies who spent their early years together waxing poetic about love and the music of the Grateful Dead. When Raven came along, they became slightly less hippie, in that they moved into an apartment instead of living in their Volkswagon van. Raven's first years were spent surrounded by lava lamps and glow-in-the-dark posters, with her parents playing games with her, eating junk food, and watching old horror films on the small black and white television. All of that changed, though, when two things happened--her mother dared to give birth to a brother, endearingly termed Nerd Boy, and they forced her to go to school, every day. Now sixteen, Raven is still the outcast that she found herself to be when she proclaimed her life's ambition was to be a vampire. Now the only goth girl in a town dubbed Dullsville, Raven is still a social outcast who enjoys horror movies, black lipstick, and pushing her parents to the edge. Raven has no real friends except for Becky, a timid farm girl who lives on the wrong side of the tracks. None, that is, until the Sterling family moves into the dark, abandoned mansion sitting on top of Benson Hill. Suddenly the whole town is talking about the mysterious Sterlings, especially the teenage son, Alexander. It's said he hangs out in the cemetery at night, that he's brought bats to town, that he's pale and is never seen outside during the daytime. Could Alexander be a real, live vampire If so, he could be Raven's ticket out of this loser town. But does she really want to leave her family and real life behind to spend her days sleeping in a coffin Or is all the hype just that--the ramblings and crazy speculation of a town who can't stand for anyone to be different As Raven gets closer to Alexander, she realizes that being a vampire might not matter so much as being loved for who she is. As she deals with the small-minded people in her town, she just might find out that she's not so different from the residents of Dullsville as she thought she was. VAMPIRE KISSES is a good start to this entertaining vampire series by Ellen Schreiber. Although there are parts that appear too shallow for Raven's character, and way too many exclamation points for my taste, I still recommend the story, and look forward to reading the next book in the series, Vampire Kisses 2: Kissing Coffins (Vampire Kisses).

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