Vampire's Kiss

Vampire's Kiss is a young adult horror novel by Nicholas Adams, published in 1994. It belongs to the run of vampire stories written for teenage readers during that decade.

Susan has at last fallen in love, and the object of her affection is a newcomer to her small town. Drew is tall, handsome and plainly concealing something, and the timing of his arrival is unfortunate: shortly after he appears, a girl is found dead on the beach, and then a second girl turns up completely drained of blood. The local explanation, where there is one, does not account for what Susan has noticed, and she has to decide whether the boy she loves is a witness, a suspect or the thing itself. The novel keeps her affection and her suspicion pulling against each other for as long as it can.

Adams writes short horror novels for teenagers, and this one uses the ordinary anxieties of a first romance as cover for something much older and considerably less friendly. The small town, with its beach and its gossip, does most of the work of making the threat feel close to home.