What do you think?
Rate this book
Vampire Roadtrip
When a group of vampires living in New York City become discontent with their current existance, they set out upon an incredible journey towards New Orleans to see the great and powerful Lucius. In a storyline that parallels The Wizard of Oz, each have their own individual wish to request of him; knowing that Lucius may either grant their wish or destroy them.
Along the way, the travelers are hunted and opposed by both the mortal and the immortal and are forced to rely upon their primal instincts to pave a safe route. Vampire Roadtrip offers the perfect blend of gore, comedy, romance, and fantasy.
Along the way, the travelers are hunted and opposed by both the mortal and the immortal and are forced to rely upon their primal instincts to pave a safe route. Vampire Roadtrip offers the perfect blend of gore, comedy, romance, and fantasy.
354 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 15, 2011
9 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 14, 2026
I liked this story of 5 vampires with strong ennui going on a roadtrip to see if they can improve their circumstances, despite the risks. All of the characters were well thought out and I enjoyed all of them except for Jerek. It was fun and funny watching the characters do many roadtrip activities such as going to rest stops, fast food drivethrus, and visiting tourist destinations.
There were some weird spacing and spelling issues throughout (I read on Kindle Unlimited).
-Spoiler section of review-
While I thought the character work was good in this book, I felt that the worldbuilding did not make sense or needed more of an explanation.
For instance:
The governance of vampires. Why are they required to live in packs with tyrannical absolutist leaders? Why are they so mysoginistic? While both of these things are set up as wrong things that our heroes dislike, there is not much explanation for why all other vampires in this world adhere to this and don't desire to live in other ways. And them all being vampires with vampire powers, I've got to believe some female vampires would form their own fully female packs and attempt to overthrow the current regime. I would think being vampires would offset any physical disadvantages and they would all be on similar playing fields. Especially since vampires in this seem to either become more powerful with age, or use that time to hone the powers they had all along, a female vampire of sufficient age should be more powerful than those of her kind who are younger, regardless of gender.
Our main characters are described as unusual for vampires because they have not "succumbed to the darkness" and still care about humanity. The story suggests that they would become more powerful by doing this, but it is not explained how, why, or in what way embracing evil would increase their power.
Also, the beginning makes it seem that they are strict in their principles of only feeding on bad people, they don't seem to adhere to that throughout the book. They kill a random Dairy Queen worker who we weren't told was actually evil. And they justify killing people who were tricked into going to a vampire party with the excuse that wanting to go to such a party means it is okay to kill them. But there were definitely non-evil people there and they didn't actually know the nature of this party. The main characters also kill a random police officer, a van full of of religious children singing hymns that enraged them, and a guy behind them in a drive-through who got mad about their driving. So, the standard for being fair game to die was pretty low.
Was Lucius's place some sort of magical dimension? They were in an alley in New Orleans but then went into a huge forested area with a mansion. And while I'm on the topic, what were Lucius's capabilities? Did he time travel to show Dominic scenes from his own past or was that just some sort of vision or illusion? It seemed the people at the end he was telling him to kill were real. Were they teleported there? Do they now know about the existence of vampires? Or can Lucius erase their memories or something? How did Lucius give Christoph the empathic power and the inability to die? Why didn't he give this ability to Stephan and his pack. Wouldn't that make them better guards for him? How does he have the power to give other people powers? If he wanted Christoph to stay with him and embrace the darkness, why would he give him a power that would make him more acutely aware of the suffering of people than he was before?
Lucius explains to Dominic that part of his space preserves the souls of vampires, and thus their souls are important. And his admiration for Dominic comes from his ability to balance his vampirism with music, his passion from his human life. So, if that trait is admirable, and only is the way it is because Dominic had so far resisted embracing the darkness, then why would Lucius want Dominic to embrace the darkness before replacing him as the vampire's leader? It seemed that he wants a replacement who will be different from himself, and that sees the importance of good, but his demand that Dominic basically become like the rest of their kind defeats that purpose.
Lucius is set up like the Wizard of Oz; that they can go on a journey and make wishes to him. But why? Is it a known belief in the vampire society that he can and would do this? And why is every other vampire so angry at the main group for attempting this? Even if it doesn't work out for them, how is that anybody else's problem?
A few nit-picks of mine
-Why did the pack roast Christoph for making a crossbow with silver arrows? It seems like every time they had encountered other vampires it ended in a fight, so wouldn't this be very useful to have?
-When in the soul room, Lucius shows Dominic his soul in a leopard, but references Aztec mythology. Leopards are an old world animal. This should have been a jaguar.
-Raina is frustrated that she cannot see her reflection, but it is mentioned that Lucius has security cameras. If vampires do show up on camera, Raina could have used a camera as a mirror. I suppose it is possible that they don't show up on camera either, but the security cameras would still find disturbances due to the movement of things around the vampire and things they are handling though.
There were some weird spacing and spelling issues throughout (I read on Kindle Unlimited).
-Spoiler section of review-
While I thought the character work was good in this book, I felt that the worldbuilding did not make sense or needed more of an explanation.
For instance:
The governance of vampires. Why are they required to live in packs with tyrannical absolutist leaders? Why are they so mysoginistic? While both of these things are set up as wrong things that our heroes dislike, there is not much explanation for why all other vampires in this world adhere to this and don't desire to live in other ways. And them all being vampires with vampire powers, I've got to believe some female vampires would form their own fully female packs and attempt to overthrow the current regime. I would think being vampires would offset any physical disadvantages and they would all be on similar playing fields. Especially since vampires in this seem to either become more powerful with age, or use that time to hone the powers they had all along, a female vampire of sufficient age should be more powerful than those of her kind who are younger, regardless of gender.
Our main characters are described as unusual for vampires because they have not "succumbed to the darkness" and still care about humanity. The story suggests that they would become more powerful by doing this, but it is not explained how, why, or in what way embracing evil would increase their power.
Also, the beginning makes it seem that they are strict in their principles of only feeding on bad people, they don't seem to adhere to that throughout the book. They kill a random Dairy Queen worker who we weren't told was actually evil. And they justify killing people who were tricked into going to a vampire party with the excuse that wanting to go to such a party means it is okay to kill them. But there were definitely non-evil people there and they didn't actually know the nature of this party. The main characters also kill a random police officer, a van full of of religious children singing hymns that enraged them, and a guy behind them in a drive-through who got mad about their driving. So, the standard for being fair game to die was pretty low.
Was Lucius's place some sort of magical dimension? They were in an alley in New Orleans but then went into a huge forested area with a mansion. And while I'm on the topic, what were Lucius's capabilities? Did he time travel to show Dominic scenes from his own past or was that just some sort of vision or illusion? It seemed the people at the end he was telling him to kill were real. Were they teleported there? Do they now know about the existence of vampires? Or can Lucius erase their memories or something? How did Lucius give Christoph the empathic power and the inability to die? Why didn't he give this ability to Stephan and his pack. Wouldn't that make them better guards for him? How does he have the power to give other people powers? If he wanted Christoph to stay with him and embrace the darkness, why would he give him a power that would make him more acutely aware of the suffering of people than he was before?
Lucius explains to Dominic that part of his space preserves the souls of vampires, and thus their souls are important. And his admiration for Dominic comes from his ability to balance his vampirism with music, his passion from his human life. So, if that trait is admirable, and only is the way it is because Dominic had so far resisted embracing the darkness, then why would Lucius want Dominic to embrace the darkness before replacing him as the vampire's leader? It seemed that he wants a replacement who will be different from himself, and that sees the importance of good, but his demand that Dominic basically become like the rest of their kind defeats that purpose.
Lucius is set up like the Wizard of Oz; that they can go on a journey and make wishes to him. But why? Is it a known belief in the vampire society that he can and would do this? And why is every other vampire so angry at the main group for attempting this? Even if it doesn't work out for them, how is that anybody else's problem?
A few nit-picks of mine
-Why did the pack roast Christoph for making a crossbow with silver arrows? It seems like every time they had encountered other vampires it ended in a fight, so wouldn't this be very useful to have?
-When in the soul room, Lucius shows Dominic his soul in a leopard, but references Aztec mythology. Leopards are an old world animal. This should have been a jaguar.
-Raina is frustrated that she cannot see her reflection, but it is mentioned that Lucius has security cameras. If vampires do show up on camera, Raina could have used a camera as a mirror. I suppose it is possible that they don't show up on camera either, but the security cameras would still find disturbances due to the movement of things around the vampire and things they are handling though.
January 3, 2016
WOW!!! This was a different spin on vampires
I am in aw after reading this awesome story. The author put a whole new spin on traveling. I will never be able to look at vampire book the same again!!!! One amazing read
I am in aw after reading this awesome story. The author put a whole new spin on traveling. I will never be able to look at vampire book the same again!!!! One amazing read
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews