The original four of the Vampire Diaries books are actually quite good, and by original, I mean the ones I bought for like three dollars a piece at KMart in the 90s. I can't speak at all about the newer ones. The Blood Ties series by Tanya Huff, and the subsequent series, Smoke, are good reads. There's also a writer, Fred Saberhagen, who has at least two books, I think, centering around vampires. I'll see if I can dig up the titles.