It take place in (a slightly alternative) Europe at the time of WWI and has interesting and different characters; the vampires are monsters and are nothing you want to have nibbling on your neck or being turned into. It also has some interesting non-vampire monsters.
I haven't read it myself, but opinions I trust say Robin McKinley's "Sunshine" is really, reallllly good.
Personally I like J. R. Ward's "The Black Dagger Brotherhood", which is an ongoing series with a bunch of different characters (the old ones regularly reappear, since almost every male lead is involved in the epic bromance that is said Brotherhood)--it's a really different take on both vampires and slayers. It also touches on a lot of serious business issues, and generally handles them much better than I would expect from romance novels. It isn't heavy reading, but it's fun.
I haven't read it (I'd like to), but Scott Westerfeld has a set of vampire books; I think they are Peeps followed by So Yesterday. I pretty much adore everything I've read by Westerfeld; I greatly enjoy his characters and world building, so I'd say his take on vampires is probably worth a look.
The Sookie Stackhouse vampire mysteries series, by Charlaine Harris. That's the series that True Blood was based upon. See here for why I love them: http://beboots.livejournal.com/62052.html
Granted, that post was about the TV series, but much of the reasons I love it still stand when referencing the books:
-it has a main human character who actually has definable personality traits independent of her love interest(s). She also stands up for herself and calls people on their bullshit if she disagrees with what's going on. -Believable and original vampire politics! Vampire-human politics! (Vampire have only recently been revealed to the world, so the world is still hashing out how to react to them) -When vampires do creepy, possessive things, it's not portrayed as being a healthy relationship/reaction. -AND MUCH MORE
Tanya Huff's Victoria Nelson books. They TECHNICALLY were published in the 1990s, but the omnibus editions came out in the 2000s, and the equally awesome spin-off triology about Tony Foster (not technically about vampires, not to the same extent as the Victoria Nelson books, but featuring a vampire main character) WERE published between 2004-2006. There was a terrible TV series based on the Victoria ones - don't watch it. It makes me cringe lots.
Victoria "Victory" Nelson is a PI who used to be a cop before her eyesight degenerated to the point of night-blindness, and she quit rather than be forced into a desk job. Henry Fitzroy is the bastard song of King Henry VIII turned vampire turned romance novelist, living in Toronto. Mike Celluci is Vicky's short-tempered ex-partner and sometimes romantic interest. Together, they fight crime! Supernatural crime. They make morally grey choices! They tread the line between justice and revenge! Vicky kicks ass! Henry and Mike are permitted to help!
Tony Foster is the street-kid-turned-psuedo-respectable who works on a syndicated television show about a vampire detective during the day... and then very pointedly does NOT go home to a vampire detective at night. Because. The whole thing where said vampire sort of kind of owns his soul? NOT THINKING ABOUT THAT. There's a hilariously awesome cast of secondary characters that I tried to list but gave up because there are too many awesome people. Zev! Amy! Mason! CB! SO MUCH AWESOME. Also, Tony has a giant crush on Lee, the male co-star of the show. Also, Tony become a wizard. (Hilarity ensues.)
Both series are dark supernatual romance/comedy/action type books (yay for genre-benders!), but the Victoria Nelson books (the "blood books") are heavier on the romance, while the Tony Foster books (the "smoke books") are heavier on the hilarity. Starting with the Tony Foster books, if that strikes your fancy, would be perfectly doable.
...I love these books. They make me proselytize. As you may have noticed. *sheepish*
I have read the series with Victoria and Henry! <3 It is glorious. I think the first two are my favorites. Do not think I've ever read the Tony Foster books.
A movie about a struggling band touring Canada, where one of the members manages to get herself vamped. Slowly, despite the protests of the guy ostensibly leading the band, it spreads to the rest of them- kind of metaphorical for drug-used, I suppose.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1323605/
It's nothing really new, but Malcom McDowell plays the Slayer, and the film both cracks me up, and makes me really sad for him.
The Strain and it's sequel The Fall are both out at the moment. They very dark and twisted, vampires aren't romanticized at all but are instead foul creatures who deserve immediate extermination. Very chilling and exciting.
Oh, and the co-writer is Guillermo Del Toro (director of Pan's Labrynth and the Hellboy movies.)
Although they're not specifically about bipedal mosquitoes, the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs (starting with Moon Called) features vampires that you'd think are the anne-ricey type of sexy tall dark guys that seduce everyone in sight with a bad eurotrash accent, but that turns out to be because the main character's point of contact with vampire society is a wierdo that tries to act humane, and that most vampires are just walking corpses with a vested interest in making their human cattle (called their "menageries") lasting as long as possible.
(though I'm fairly sure that the cover art uses softcore pornography as photo reference)
Chiming in late! I love Sunshine, which has already been mentioned, and I'm a pretty big fan of My Swordhand is Singing by Marcus Sedgewick. It's got incredibly well researched old European lore of several varieties, and I'm a sucker for that stuff. It's my favorite traditional vampire book.
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Personally I like J. R. Ward's "The Black Dagger Brotherhood", which is an ongoing series with a bunch of different characters (the old ones regularly reappear, since almost every male lead is involved in the epic bromance that is said Brotherhood)--it's a really different take on both vampires and slayers. It also touches on a lot of serious business issues, and generally handles them much better than I would expect from romance novels. It isn't heavy reading, but it's fun.
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Granted, that post was about the TV series, but much of the reasons I love it still stand when referencing the books:
-it has a main human character who actually has definable personality traits independent of her love interest(s). She also stands up for herself and calls people on their bullshit if she disagrees with what's going on.
-Believable and original vampire politics! Vampire-human politics! (Vampire have only recently been revealed to the world, so the world is still hashing out how to react to them)
-When vampires do creepy, possessive things, it's not portrayed as being a healthy relationship/reaction.
-AND MUCH MORE
Mostly, I see it as the cure for Twilight. >_>
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Otherwise, the vampire stories I read are either old or bad.
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Victoria "Victory" Nelson is a PI who used to be a cop before her eyesight degenerated to the point of night-blindness, and she quit rather than be forced into a desk job. Henry Fitzroy is the bastard song of King Henry VIII turned vampire turned romance novelist, living in Toronto. Mike Celluci is Vicky's short-tempered ex-partner and sometimes romantic interest. Together, they fight crime! Supernatural crime. They make morally grey choices! They tread the line between justice and revenge! Vicky kicks ass! Henry and Mike are permitted to help!
Tony Foster is the street-kid-turned-psuedo-respectable who works on a syndicated television show about a vampire detective during the day... and then very pointedly does NOT go home to a vampire detective at night. Because. The whole thing where said vampire sort of kind of owns his soul? NOT THINKING ABOUT THAT. There's a hilariously awesome cast of secondary characters that I tried to list but gave up because there are too many awesome people. Zev! Amy! Mason! CB! SO MUCH AWESOME. Also, Tony has a giant crush on Lee, the male co-star of the show. Also, Tony become a wizard. (Hilarity ensues.)
Both series are dark supernatual romance/comedy/action type books (yay for genre-benders!), but the Victoria Nelson books (the "blood books") are heavier on the romance, while the Tony Foster books (the "smoke books") are heavier on the hilarity. Starting with the Tony Foster books, if that strikes your fancy, would be perfectly doable.
...I love these books. They make me proselytize. As you may have noticed. *sheepish*
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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1323605/
It's nothing really new, but Malcom McDowell plays the Slayer, and the film both cracks me up, and makes me really sad for him.
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Oh, and the co-writer is Guillermo Del Toro (director of Pan's Labrynth and the Hellboy movies.)
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(though I'm fairly sure that the cover art uses softcore pornography as photo reference)
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I love Sunshine, which has already been mentioned, and I'm a pretty big fan of My Swordhand is Singing by Marcus Sedgewick. It's got incredibly well researched old European lore of several varieties, and I'm a sucker for that stuff. It's my favorite traditional vampire book.