Stolen Nights

Gr 8 Up—In the modern world, elemental magic is all but forgotten except by those who seek to use it to gain power: namely, the vampires. Lenah Beaudonte, 500-year-old ex-vampire queen, and her soul mate, Rhode, used elemental magic to turn Lenah into a human teenager. The cost: Rhode's death. Or so she thought. The adventure truly begins with Rhode's reappearance and the zealotry of a vampire from Lenah's past who seeks to learn the secret of her human ritual to become her successor. The tale is fast paced, with a lot of vamp combat and a complex weave of Lenah's many romances throughout her centuries of living. At first, this novel seems to lack luster in its genre, but timeless themes of love and the search for identity, in addition to the cliff-hanger ending, leave readers pondering Lenah's choices and keenly anticipating the next installment. Fans of Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" saga (Little, Brown) and P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast's "House of Night" series (St. Martin's Griffin) will find their appetites for the paranormal sated with Maizel's twist on vampire lore.—Jamie-Lee Schombs, Loyola School, New York City