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rachel caine

reviews

Midnight Alley by Rachel Caine

Midnight Alley (The Morganville Vampires 3) by Rachel Caine

Morganville is such a nice place to live… And die. If you don’t mind that sort of thing.

When Claire Danvers learnt that her college town was run by vampires, she did what any intelligent, self-preserving student would do: she applied for a transfer and stocked up on garlic. The transfer is no longer an option, but that garlic may come in handy.

Now Claire has pledged herself to Amelie, the most powerful vampire in town. The protection her contract secures does little to reassure her friends. All of a sudden, people are turning up dead, a stalker resurfaces from Claire’s past, and an ancient bloodsucker extends a chilling invitation for private lessons in his secluded home. (back cover)

Claire has now pledged herself to Amelie, the founder of Morganville, but is scared to tell her friends knowing they will get mad. Something is happening to the vampires and Amelie needs Claire’s help to solve it. She sends Claire as a pupil to Myrnin, who is old and half-crazy with periods of lucidity.

I have to say that I hate these evil cliffhangers! It’s so wrong to end every book like that…

The book pretty much starts where the last one ended and now Claire is pledged to Amelie but is afraid to tell her friends because she knows they’ll get mad. Especially Shane who is still trying to come to terms with the fact that Michael is a vampire. Shane doesn’t trust Michael anymore and honestly it’s getting old very soon. I mean they’ve been best friends for ages and now that Michael is a vampire everything suddenly changes? It’s not like he wanted it and is killing half the city.
But I like Shane and Claire together and it’s nice to see they move forward slowly.

How Claire always manages to get herself into these situations where she need to be saved is beyond me. And once again she finds herself in party where everything doesn’t go as planned. I understand she’s polite and all but enough. Monica threw her down the stairs and what else and she’s still being polite to her. Enough is enough.

We meet new vampire Myrnin to whom Amelie sends Claire. I liked Myrnin who’s half-crazy and only has periods of lucidity. His mood swings made him unpredictable and dangerous but he was nice between those.

We also meet Eve’s brother Jason again who’s apparently killing girls but no one seems to do anything about it. I really want to learn what’s his deal and I think he is hiding something.

Another enjoyable read from Caine. These are fairly quick reads but entertaining.

3,5/5

Published: Allison & Busby (2008)
Format: paperback
Pages: 384
Source: my own

reviews

The Dead Girls’ Dance by Rachel Caine

The Dead Girls’ Dance (The Morganville Vampires 2) by Rachel Caine

Claire Danvers has her share of challenges—like being a genius in a school that favors beauty over brains, dealing with the homicidal girls in her dorm, and above all, finding out that her college town is overrun with vampires. On the up side, she has a great roommate (who tends to disappear at sunup) and a new boyfriend named Shane, whose vampire-hunting dad has called in backup: cycle punks who like the idea of killing just about anything.

Now a fraternity is throwing its annual Dead Girls’ Dance and—surprise!—Claire and her equally outcast best friend, Eve, have been invited. When they find out why, all hell is going to break loose. Because this time both the living and the dead are coming out—and everybody’s hungry for blood. (Goodreads)

Starting right after where Glass Houses ended, Shane’s dad is back with his friends intending to kill every vampire they can get their hands on. Then Shane gets himself implicated in a vampire killing and Claire finds herself in trouble trying to help him, while Michael makes drastic decisions to help his friend.

I didn’t remember that Glass Houses ended in a cliffhanger and of course this one started right from it. Good thing my friend has the 1 book so I could read the last chapter.

I think Claire grows little during this book and comes to herself more but I found her more annoying than in book 1. She’s supposed to be this genius who skipped few grades but makes few idiotic choices. Like when in dark alley where more than one person has told you not to go, then what do you do? Well go in there of course because that’s the sensible thing to do. Or when she’s told to stay at home in safe she insist going to school. To a class she’s already read the books and spends the entire time daydreaming about her boyfriend. Intelligent behavior?

Also what is such a big deal with the age difference between Claire and Shane? I don’t remember for sure but if Michael is 19 I assume Shane is the same or close and Claire is 17. This was bugging me in the first book also but then it was with Claire and Michael. And now it’s between Claire and Shane. See how fast these things changes?

While I liked the first book more this wasn’t bad either even if there was some stupid things mentioned before. Guess I have to read the next book to see if it gets better than this since the first was better too.

3/5
Published: NAL (2007)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 248
Source: my own

reviews

Glass Houses by Rachel Caine

Glass Houses (The Morganville Vampires 1) by Rachel Caine

It’s a small college town filled with quirky characters. But when the sun goes down, the bad comes out. Because in Morganville, there is an evil that lurks in the darkest shadows—one that will spill out into the bright light of day.

Claire Danvers has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation. The popular girls never let her forget just where she ranks on the school’s social scene: somewhere less than zero. And Claire really doesn’t have the right connections—to the undead who run the town.

When Claire heads off campus, the imposing old house where she finds a room may not be much better. Hew new roommates don’t show many signs of life. But they’ll have Claire’s back when the town’s deepest secrets come crawling out, hungry for fresh blood.. (Goodreads)

I have to say that I was positively surprised about this book and very much enjoyed this. I’m not usually huge fan og these kinds of books because it’s just too YA for me. At least there was no sparkly vampires or going out in the sun.

I liked Claire but I wished at times that she would have more spirit but I guess time for that comes later on… There was few “omg, he’s so hott” scenes that could have been left out but thankfully there wasn’t many of them. What I didn’t gt why was it such a big deal that Claire was nearly 17 and the boy’s were nearly 19? Not sure if Michael was actually 19 but anyway… I mean it’s still only 2 years. I mean that’s kinda normal and not in “Eww, that’s gross! category.

And I cant believe that the book ended on such an evil cliffhanger! That’s just…wrong! Now I have to read the next book.

3,5/5
Published: Allison & Busby
Format: Paperback
Pages: 348
Source: my own