It’s easy to say that vampires are having a moment, but it’s probably more accurate to say they’ve never really stopped. Sure, thanks to AMC’s Immortal Universe, we can all sing along to The Vampire Lestat’s music now (and “Brutal Love” is a banger!). But books about the bloodsucking undead have pretty much always been popular to some degree or other—and we can probably thank Anne Rice for a lot of that too. Throw in a few more TV adaptations like True Blood and The Vampire Diaries, and you’ve got what is essentially a cultural force.
Vampire fiction, as a genre, is both broad and deep, encompassing everything from high fantasy and horror to dark academia and YA stories. But romance is a particularly obvious lane for these kinds of stories if only because, if nothing else, vampires are canonically very attractive. Not to mention that there’s something viscerally appealing about the idea of a love that can literally last forever. Here are our recommendations for some vampire romances that will sink their teeth into your heart.
Bride by Ali Hazelwood
Romance author Ali Hazelwood is best known for her STEMinist romances like The Love Hypothesis and Love on the Brain, which follow nerdy heroines who work in traditionally male-dominated professional fields like science and technology. But in 2024, she published Bride, a paranormal romance that features vampires, werewolves, arranged marriages, and complex politics among various supernatural clans. A considerable swerve from the narrative blueprint that made her famous, Bride sees Hazelwood playing with new romantic tropes and character dynamics in fun, unexpected ways.
The story follows the awesomely named Misery Lark, daughter of a powerful vampire councilman, who is told she must marry Lowe Moreland, the hulking Alpha of a prominent local werewolf pack. The union is meant to maintain the peace between their species, who have long been mortal enemies. Misery has reasons of her own to say yes to this plan, which involve investigating the disappearance of her best friend—and most definitely don’t involve catching feelings for her new spouse. (Too late.)
The (also excellent) companion novel Mate was published a year later and is set in the same universe. It follows the story of Serena, the hybrid who plays a key role at the end of Bride, and her relationship with the Alpha Koen.
The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent
Carissa Broadbent’s sprawling Crowns of Nyaxia series is set in a world full of vampires, gods, monsters, and magic. It follows multiple lead characters and central relationships across three interconnected duologies and a pair of standalone novellas, each with plenty of political intrigue, dark curses, heartrending romances, and plenty of spice. The Serpent and the Wings of Night is the first book in the series, and sets the tone for all that follow—not to mention introducing many of the characters who will get stories of their own later on.
Serpent is the first book in Broadbent’s Nightborn duet, and its story follows Oraya, the adopted human daughter of the Vampire King, who enters a deadly centennial tournament to try and win a goddess’s favor, the kind of prize that might finally win her father’s respect. She finds herself teamed with Raihn, a turned vampire from a different house than her own, who remembers what it’s like to be human and longs to free himself from his past. That the two fall in love is inevitable, but their relationship is carefully crafted and compellingly written, involving choices that reverberate throughout the books to come.
Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
The first book in Charlaine Harris’s megapopular Southern Vampire Mysteries, Dead Until Dark introduced the world to Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana who was later made famous by way of the hit HBO series True Blood. But Harris’ novels are lighter, faster-paced fare that feature supernatural investigations, small-town shenanigans, and no small amount of romance between all sorts of characters, both human and otherwise. And Dead Until Dark started it all.
In the series opener, Sookie meets her first vampire, Bill Compton, and her life undergoes a drastic series of changes. A handsome, almost uncomfortably polite Civil War veteran, she’s drawn to him for many reasons, not the least of which being that she can’t read vampire minds, which is a relief compared to the chaotic world of human thoughts. As the pair’s personal relationship develops, they also end up investigating a series of puzzling murders in Bon Temps after Sookie’s brother is arrested for the crimes. Light, breezy, and surprisingly funny, the series boasts a sprawling cast of colorful supporting characters— the book version of Eric Northman is perfect—and eventually involves everything from werewolves to fairies. A great time.
We Who Will Die by Stacia Stark
Gladiators, vampires, and romance are probably not a combination that many of us have considered—most sword-and-sandal stories tend to involve some mix of sand and sun after all—but Stacia Stark makes it work. Set in an Ancient Rome-inspired world where vampires have essentially built their own empire and human magic users fight for scraps, the story follows Arvelle, a former fighting champion who now struggles to care for her younger brothers in one of the city’s slums.
But when a mysterious vampire named Bran offers her the chance to get her family out of poverty for the low, low price of killing the emperor, Arvelle is forced to enter the Sundering, a dangerous gladiator-style competition for a chance to get close to him. But things get complicated quickly when she learns that the leader of the emperor’s elite guard is her vampire ex, who abandoned her years earlier. (And that’s before she catches the attention of the emperor’s powerful vampire son, Rorrik.) Featuring a high-stakes plot, intriguing world-building, and unapologetically morally gray characters make for a thoroughly entertaining ride.
A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson
One of the darker and more overtly horror-tinged entries on this list, given that it features no small amount of emotional abuse, gore, murder, and violence, S.T. Gibson’s retelling of the story of Dracula’s brides is a lush, haunting tale full of beautiful prose and Gothic tropes. A Dowry of Blood is told in the style of a confessional letter from Dracula’s first bride, Costanza, and follows her dramatic and frequently toxic relationship with her maker from medieval Romania to 1920s France and beyond. As the years pass, Costanza’s husband manipulates her into adding two new members to their family (and marriage bed): The Spanish Magdalena and Russian actor Alexei. As genuine affection and desire grow between the three consorts, their polyamorous relationship helps unlock Costanza’s rage and desire for freedom on her own terms.
Fast-paced, full of truly gorgeous prose, and unabashedly queer, it’s not only a unique spin on the classic Dracula story, but a great Gothic tale in its own right.
My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine
Vampire fiction is, in general, fairly heavy fare. Things like death, violence and blood are baked into the very premise, after all, and the question of immortality brings with it the kind of thorny moral questions that lend themselves to darker-than-average themes. Jenna Levine’s My Roommate Is a Vampire is most certainly not that kind of undead romance.
A lighthearted paranormal rom-com about a cheerful human artist named Cassie and the adorably polite vampire she ends up sharing an apartment with, Levine’s story is utterly charming from its first pages. Frederick, who has recently woken up from a century-long coma, hopes that, in exchange for the cheap rent, living with Cassie will help him learn to navigate the ins and outs of the modern world. An adorable odd-couple romance ensues, featuring witty banter, adorable handwritten notes, and awkward trips to the mall.
Two subsequent books set in the same universe follow, My Vampire Plus One and Road Trip with a Vampire, which are both full of similar silly and cozy delights.
A Long Time Dead by Samara Breger
Anne Rice fans will particularly enjoy this sumptuous, atmospheric tale of a decades-spanning love story between two women who keep being drawn back into one anothers lives and doing a heck of a lot of yearning in the meantime. Set over several decades in Victorian England, the story follows Poppy Cavendish, a sex worker who meets a mysterious woman and wakes up the next morning to find herself craving blood. Ancient vampire Roisin is there to help her through the transition to her new immortal life, and they form a and visceral attachment. But living for hundreds of years comes at a cost and Roisin has some issues of her own to handle, like getting revenge on the abusive vampire that turned her so long ago. Still, they can’t seem to stay away from each other, and the slow-burn of it all is delicious.
The story is lush, decadent, and unabashedly queer and inclusive throughout, with a raft of excellent supporting characters (particularly the group known as The Brood), excellent found family vibes, lots of sex in various permutations, and a deeply feminist spirit. [Insert that Saoirse Ronan “Women!” GIF here.]
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
As the title suggests, Deborah Harkness’s popular All Souls trilogy is about much more than just vampires, and focuses primarily on the story of historian and reluctant witch Diana Bishop. But when she discovers a mythical ancient manuscript in the bowels of Oxford’s famous Bodleian Library, she’s forced to accept her magical heritage and join forces with a centuries-old vampire geneticist named Matthew Clairmont to battle dangerous supernatural threats.
If you’ve seen the popular AMC adaptation, then you already know that Matthew Clairmont (played by Matthew Goode in the series) is serious fictional boyfriend material, mixing brooding intensity and emotional constipation with passionate devotion and a protective streak a mile wide. Their prophesied romance is tied to the larger lore of the series, but their story, at its heart, is about choosing one another in the face of impossible odds.
The Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith (and others)
One of the foundational texts of the vampire YA boom, The Vampire Diaries series is comprised of a whopping 19 main novels — the core series, prequels, and the six Stefan’s Diaries TV tie-in books — focused on the story of Elena Gilbert and her complicated relationships with vampire brothers Stefan and Damon Salvatore. Soapy, dramatic and full of teen angst, the books added bite (sometimes literally) to the typical high school romance tale, and helped launch a publishing phenomenon that’s still going strong today. (Twilight and everything that came afterward doesn’t exist without The Vampire Diaries, after all.)
The series follows Elena, a popular high school teen in Falls Church, Virginia, who falls for the centuries-old vampire Stefan, sparking a rivalry with his brother Damon who also wants to claim her as his own. If you disregard the undead of it all, it’s an emotional dynamic whose stakes would fit easily in the very human teen worlds of a Sweet Valley High or a Gossip Girl. But, in the world of The Vampire Diaries, the challenges are more like to involve mysterious deaths, vampire hunters, vengeful undead exes, the heroine of the story dying repeatedly, and shifting romances with both brothers. Later novels involve everything from kitsune to angels. (No, I’m not making that up.). It’s patently ridiculous, but it’s such a good time.
