Morganville Vampire Series Book #4 Feast of Fools by Rachel Caine

Since this is book #4 of a series – the first three I haven’t reviewed before – let me summarize quickly what this series is about. Sixteen-year-old Claire Danvers is super smart, she’s bound to go to MIT or Cal Tech, but her parents are too protective and instead send her to a college in Morganville. The problem? There’s a secret that the whole town of Morganville seems to be keeping, and Claire is out of the loop…until due to some intense bullying circumstances she is introduced to the problem because she moves out of the dorms and into the Glass House where her roommates quickly inform her about what the hell is going on.

Turns out Morganville is run by vampires. Michael is a ghost (until book two), Shane’s dad is a vampire hunter, and Eve’s brother is pretty much a psycho. Oh, and the vampire in charge of the whole operation – the Founder Amelie? – has taken an interest in Claire.

So, my major complaint with books 2 and 3 of this series was that the cuteness and familiarity of Shane and Claire’s hang out sessions, were very few and far between. It didn’t help either that Shane was either captured or in the hospital with a stab wound, but c’mon Rachel Caine! That was what really drew me into the books was the flirtations between Shane and Claire. Also, book 3 was sort of lacking with a climax; if I didn’t know any better I would have thought it was one of those odd novellas that I can’t stand.

Because of my issues with Book 3 – Midnight Alley – I was a little hesitant to read book 4, but all my issues were addressed.

Feast of Fools takes place right where Midnight Alley left off. Claire’s parents bringing in three vampires – one who claims to be Amelie’s father – and demands to see his daughter. Without ruining too much, I was really glad that this character of Bishop was brought in, especially one of his comrades Ysandre. She brings in drama to Claire and Shane’s relationship that was sorely lacking in the other two books. Also, things were sorely lacking, like Shane and Claire’s cuteness comes back in this book too! Their video-game sessions and even their hanging out in Shane’s room, make up for the lack of fluff in the previous novels.

The only thing that I still don’t like about Caine’s novels is the constant cliffhangers! As a person who writes her own fiction – fanfiction yes, but still – I can get behind a good cliffhanger, but there is such a thing as just too many cliffhangers. Eventually the tactic gets old, and four books in, it has.

Final rating: Four out of five stars.

Bookshelf worthy? Well, no and that’s only because this series is really long – 15 books – and I don’t know, I think there are better books out there. However, if you won the lottery and have tons of bookshelves and room isn’t a concern, than yeah, I’d get them. Otherwise…rent these from the library.