The Red and the Black

No not Stendahl, but two other red and black books - one about spies and one about vampires! I have been craving an old style thriller, so it was great to stumble across Red to Black by Alex Dryden. I grew up reading John Le Carre's Cold War thrillers, so it was a little nostalgic, but of course the political landcape has changed. Putin is in charge now and the Communist "red" is being replaced by the capitalist "black". Finn is a British spy and Anna is a KGB Colonel. Anna lures Finn in a "honey trap" but the relationship actually works for them despite the complications of their lives. Finn uncovers a corrupt banking arms money scam that he tries to foil but of course it's in everyone's interests that he doesn't. The layers off corruption and the irrelevance of the truth are pure spy thriller stuff. Alex Dryden really takes you into the settings both in terms of the espionage world and the European backdrop.

Vampire Academy is first in a series by Richelle Mead. In this world there are two types of vampires - Moroi, living vampires, and Stigoi ,the undead type we are more familiar with. There are also Dhampirs, guardians to the Moroi. The main character of this book is Rose, the "shadow-kissed" guardian of Lissa, a Moroi princess. The high school politics are catty and there are a lot of young women being mean to each other about their sexuality, which I didn't like! But there's a noble hunk and the supernatural side of things is creative and involving.