Heh. I don't read vampire stories very often either -- one Anne Rice was enough, and I've never read Anita Blake -- but I do recommend "Sunshine". It's by Robin McKinley and it's excellent: well-written, engaging, different from other vampire lit.

I noticed that alot of the newbie NaNoWriMo writers in the Fantasy and Romance forums on the site are all about this book.

You know, that really doesn't surprise me? A lot of the problems I had with the book can possibly be chalked up to Mayer being a first-time author. These issues may smooth themselves out with time. Or they may not! At this point I'm not interested enough to find out, but strong enough recs from the right people might change my mind.