Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

Vampires and vaqueros face off on the Texas-Mexico border in this supernatural western from the author of The Hacienda. As the daughter of a rancher in 1840s Mexico, Nena knows a thing or two about monsters—her home has long been threatened by tensions with Anglo settlers from the north. But something more sinister lurks near the ranch at night, something that drains men of their blood and leaves them for dead. Something that once attacked Nena nine years ago. Believing Nena dead, Néstor has been on the run from his grief ever since, moving from ranch to ranch working as a vaquero. But no amount of drink can dispel the night terrors of sharp teeth; no woman can erase his childhood sweetheart from his mind. When the United States attacks Mexico in 1846, the two are brought abruptly together on the road to war: Nena as a curandera, a healer striving to prove her worth to her father so that he does not marry her off to a stranger, and Néstor as a member of the auxiliary cavalry of ranchers and vaqueros. But the shock of their reunion—and Nena’s rage at Néstor for seemingly abandoning her long ago—is quickly overshadowed by the appearance of a nightmare made flesh. And unless Nena and Néstor work through their past and face the future together, neither will survive to see the dawn.

Because without work and a distant goal, he did not know what else he was living for.

A smattering of beautiful prose and an incredibly unique take on the vampire myths, in the frame of a forbidden romance wrought with miscommunication.

Unfortunately I don't think I was the target audience for this book. While some of the writing was genuinely poignant, the plot lagged behind, weighed down by chapters of misunderstanding, added to by one of the more frustrating MFCs I've read in a while. Her inability to see through any eyes but her own was infuriating and I slogged through the first 200 pages waiting for the horror I went into this expecting.

This journey felt as if they were crawling through a nightmare together, a dream that tricked the helpless dreamer into thinking it had ended, only to twist in a new direction and gallop away.

we get our happy ending

He loved looking at her. He wanted her to be the last thing he ever saw, the first thing he ever saw, his heavens and his earth.

Instead of real growth, we get a flash in the pan event where Nena finally stands up to her parents, but we don't get the satisfaction of seeing her actually address their poor communication. I still don't know if Nestor was telling the truth or not about his sordid past that they'd quarreled over, since it is never again addressed. This is just one example of places where the story just trails without satisfying resolution,at least for me. And for goodness sake,the miscommunication!! The parents WERE RIGHT THERE to act as the space between Nena and Nestor, but nah let's just have Nena misunderstand or actively refuse logic again. Girl,you got some problems but you're 95% of them.