With a breezy writing style that brings to mind Laurell K. Hamilton in her lighter moments, Sands introduces Elvi Black, the titular accidental vampire who has become, of all things, a beloved mascot – pet, local legend, idol, what have you – for the fictitious Ontario, Canada town of Port Henry. Elvi isn’t her real name, however, but merely one of the many little affectations, like sleeping in a coffin, she adopts as a misguided attempt to live up to the vampire image. To Elvi’s dismay and reader’s amusement, these affectations prove wholly unnecessary and Sands cleverly lays out her vision of vampires (immortals, as they call themselves) by sending up genre clichés. To Elvi’s amusement and, arguably, to reader’s dismay, vampire genre clichés are replaced with romance genre clichés. The cover image should have been a big fat hint of what to expect.

With conveniently beautiful characters, pages of drawn-out, occasionally pedestrian sex scenes, and the clockwork romantic evolution of Elvi and her paramour, the enforcer Victor Argeneau, The Accidental Vampire comes across as light and frothy fare. The impression isn’t helped by the lack of serious menace throughout the book, despite a whodunit involving rogue arrows. But the surprisingly sci-fi take on vampirism and the direction away from horror into other genres does make the book refreshing in a way; light and frothy may not be so bad after all. The romantic sex is an admittedly nice alternative to gory violence, the sweet-natured comedy is winning, and if considered as the equivalent of the superhero origins story that sets the tone for future, more developed stories, the plot involving Elvi’s integration into a larger, secretive community casts a surprisingly charming spell.