—An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novel—
Before there was Sookie Stackhouse, before the Twilight movies and Vampire Diaries, there was the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series. It is one of my favorite vampire series and, although this book is #22 in the saga, I still found it engaging enough to tough out reading 569 pages in a week.
Affliction has everything: vampires, werewolves, zombies, ghouls and more. Anita is a serious necromancer and vampire hunter living in St. Louis, but she never really mentions which side of the state line, Missouri or Illinois. Then throw in a love affair between Anita, a vampire, a werepanther, a werelion and more, and you have an entertaining light read with paranormal romance and a chase after the bad guys. It's a little R-rated but still has plenty of fun in it.