I'm torn on this one because the two central characters are really good, but the story can be very wordy and spreads its focus on things of little interest. 
 The Good 
 I don't generally care much about vampire tales but this one hit the notes I like. Imagine you were once human and are now made into this undead being that must prey on your own kind, live away from society, and are generally shunned and reviled. Many of us would probably be sad creepy loners. Not charming Oxford scholars. Or sexy/creepy high school students. Or even campy hyper-sexed creatures. Which brings me to the vampire of this book, Constantine. He is very alien and inhuman in the way he is described and the way he speaks as opposed to be written as some 'hot-guy-that-never-dies-and-has-powers' but in all other ways feels comfortably human. He's not glamorous and you don't remotely envy him or any of the others. I especially love this description of him late in the book when (for reasons I'll not spoil you on) he is trying to pass as human: 
 "There was a kind of threateningness to his ugliness but you couldn't have said why. There was a study once about whether ugly or good-looking people are more imposing. Generally the uglier you are the less imposing, till you reach a sort of nadir of ugliness and then you get really imposing. I thought Con just missed the nadir. Just." 
 LOL. Kudos to McKinley for not annoying me with talk of his immortal hotness. I loved Constantine who was at once creepy, alien, and sorrowful but possessing of a sort of hesitant old school chivalry. 
 Alas it didn't feel like he was in the book all that much. And while I also loved Sunshine who was in focus from start to finish I didn't love all the things Sunshine loves. 
 And here comes my big issue. For every cool development or event with Constantine and the vampires you get endless pages of Sunshine's life and times as a baker at her family coffeehouse and all the hangers-on pertaining to. 
 I cannot even convey how much of this there was, how little any of it seemed to matter to the story, and what a book-killer it was in a novel that otherwise had so much going for it! I don't think I am exaggerating in saying this sort of minutiae took up 3/4 of the pages. 
 I loved the main characters (and even a side character or two). Loved the world building and general idea of the plot. But eek. This was my first McKinley book so I don't know if this is typical or not but it was sort of a shame. However, others may not be bothered by this at all in which case I'd say give it a shot as the characters and story were otherwise interesting.