Midnight Thirsts: Erotic Tales: Erotic Tales of the Vampire

I Loved all Four Stories But Found The CARNIVAL by MICHAEL THOMAS FORD to be the Most ribbided of them a true work of art but an ending that brought tears to my eyes but each of them a true romance

I really enjoyed this book and was tempted to read some of it again."The Vampire Stone" by Timothy Ridge is by far the best written. It's filled with great details about the locations and characters. So descript, you actually feel like you're right there in this sleepy Hudson River village. Articulate and exciting, the Vampire Stone's character Roceres, is devilish and sometimes frightening to the point of feeling real chills. The wooden box's contents keep you reading and the sex leaves you wondering, who is this guy and where did he learn to do that?...Mr. Ridge is an accomplished writer and I'll be looking out for him in bookstores more. The other stories were also great reads, which is why I gave Midnight Thirsts 2 fangs up!

I haven't read many vampire stories beyond Anne Rice (and one of the characters in this collection jokingly gives his name as "Lestat" in tribute to the quintessential vampire). Each of these novellas offers a new twist on vampire lore and takes Rice's homoerotic vampire theme to a new level. Herren's concept of the "nightwatcher" is a fresh look at vampires who protect mortals even as they feed on them. The story provides a delicious sexual tension and could easily be developed into an entire vampire book with its three protagonists. The New Orleans setting itself is almost a character in the story and Herren uses it well. Ford's story, well-written as it is, is less about vampires and more about being an "other," as it presents the lives of people who live outside the boundaries of normalcy and acceptance in its Midwestern 1940s setting. The exploitative villain truly is one and deserves his fate at the hands of Ford's vampire. Ridge's story is the most densely textured of the four. The shifts in time provide the origin of vampires, and this story's vampire in particular, without the vampire having to tell the tale to the modern-day protagonist. Ridge provides plenty of vampire sex (indeed, the vampires in all of these stories are capable of doing much more than drinking blood, and they do a lot of it). Again, this is a story that could be developed into a full-length novel and offers a couple of unexpected twists in the art of vampire deception. I'd have enjoyed Wolfe's story more if his vampire's lost love hadn't been glossed over. I like a haunted vampire (Rice is a genius at providing this), and the vampire here acts out of rage and heartbreak, but it's often directed in unnecessarily cruel ways toward undeserving victims. Wolfe redeems him in the end, when he grants one important victim's request, but in getting to that point, the story was less erotic than violent. The collection should offer something for anyone who's interested in gay vampires--plenty of sex, plenty of blood, and all of the stories have benefited from good editing.