Soul to Keep

The third installment of Weatherspoon's Vampire Sorority Sisters series (after Blacker Than Blue) doesn't commit to the setting's potential either as porn or as camp the way it should. The sex is not juicy enough, the sisters' cattiness not far enough over the top, and the characterizations not quite broad enough%E2%80%94even with the distinctiveness of the main characters' narrative voices%E2%80%94to elevate this beyond a forgettable, formulaic same-sex college romance. Unpopular good girl Jill is trying to design a sex education course for Maryland University, but her sexual experience is limited to the orgasms induced when vampire Ginger feeds on her and the lazy post-feeding orgies among the girls of Alpha Beta Omega. She secretly reaches out to shape-shifting rebel vampire Tokyo to serve as a fake research girlfriend, but the relationship grows real enough to cause conflict in the sorority house. A secondary plot about a demon threat targeting the vampire community feels more driven by logistics than fear and is largely disconnected from the romance, and its resolution requires Weatherspoon to insert an unexplained deux ex machina to give the romance its required happy ending. (Mar.)