Morganville Vampires Series Book #15: Daylighters by Rachel Caine

I’ve said it before on this blog and I’ll say it again. I don’t like final books in series. The whole wrap everything up, weepy characters, and sometimes – if the author is evil – death of beloved characters usually happens in final books and it drives me crazy because most of the time I have high expectations for how things should end. But for the last couple of final books I’ve started to change my mind, and Daylighters was no exception.

This book begins where Fall of Night left off, Michael and the other vamps are being hauled away, Eve, Claire and Shane are being hauled away too, but they’re giving more of a fight. Things have changed in Morganville and not for the better…sort of. All the vampires have been corralled together at the old mall – Morganville had a mall? Who knew? – and they have shock collars around their necks to keep them in line. The head of the Daylighter Foundation – Fallon – has plans for the vampires, not that he reveals what they are for a few hundred pages. Turns out that his ultimate goal wasn’t to free Morganville residents from the reign of vampires, but to exact revenge on vampires for what they did to him many years ago. Or more specifically, Myrinn. Fallon used to be a priest who tried to cure Myrinn of his mental sickness, and for his trouble got bitten and turned. Somehow he got turned back to a human thanks to a mysterious cure. The only problem is that the cure doesn’t work about 73% of the time.

A lot of stuff happens in this book – Claire gets arrested for murder, Eve goes in for shock therapy, Shane becomes a blood thirsty werewolf, Michael becomes human again, Oliver is actually a nice guy, etc. – so much so that you sort of forget that this was the final book in the series, until you reach the end and Caine’s playlist page. Like I said, the last couple of final books in series have really made me rethink my whole ‘endings suck’ philosophy. My only complaint about this book was the tie-up with Shane and Claire’s relationship. Marriage? Really? I mean, yeah, they’ve been through a lot and they survived it all, so marriage shouldn’t be a big deal, but whoa. That was kind of fast.

Final Rating: 5 out of 5 stars. Lovely ending. Not a lot of carnage, surprisingly.

Bookshelf worthy? Electronic or support your local library!

Morganville Vampires Series Book #14: Fall of Night by Rachel Caine

At the end of the last book, Claire told Amelie that she was finally taking her up on her offer to leave for MIT and that she wanted her to allow Shane to leave too if he wanted. When this book starts, Claire is actually doing it. She’s leaving Morganville in the pre-dawn to go and achieve her dream.

But Shane isn’t going with her. Claire hasn’t 100% forgiven him yet for believing that she would cheat on him with Michael, and she really wants to try and do this on her own. She wants to make sure that their relationship can survive them being apart.

The best laid plans… Shane follows Claire to Boston, and watches her just to make sure that she will be all right. The crazy thing is, Shane isn’t the only stalker that Claire has to deal with. Her roommate – and BFF from high school – Elizabeth’s ex-boyfriend Derrick has been stalking her for ages. And that’s just the start of the craziness outside of Morganville.

Claire’s independent study professor – Irene Anderson – is a former resident of Morganville and Myrinn’s former assistant too. She helps Claire with her project – the device she was working on in the last book that can, in theory, take a vampire emotion and neutralize it. A weapon like that could be dangerous, and as the book goes on it does.

Turns out Irene is one of those anti-vampire residents of Morganville. In fact, she was the reason that the vampires didn’t find a cure for their disease quicker. But she isn’t alone. Some organization, called The Daylight Foundation, has been helping her with her research.

This is another book that drove me absolutely crazy at the end. It was a great book – Claire outside of Morganville, trying to fit in, hating her roommate, missing Shane – but then it turned into a total WTF moment. What exactly is the Daylight Foundation? No answer is really given and just when you think that it won’t matter, Claire and the gang go back to Morganville and don’t exactly get welcomed back with open arms.

Final Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. The plot was good. I just wished that Claire could have been in Boston without so much drama for a little longer. And what the hell is the Daylight Foundation???

Bookshelf worthy? Electronic or support your local library!

Morganville Vampires Series Book #13: Bitter Blood by Rachel Caine

The draug are gone and Morganville is on it’s way back to becoming what it once was. But not in a good way. Now that Amelie has no enemies left, she believes she is top of the food chain and she reintegrates the old rule of Morganville.

Vampires get free reign and one free hunt every year.

Things have changed and Claire and the Glass House gang are trying to keep the humans from declaring all out war. But it’s getting hard especially when the humans start coming after them.

So, this book drove me absolutely nuts. I mean, seriously. You would think that Amelie would realize that it was because of the humans that she was able to survive the attack of the draug. You would also think that the human residents of Morganville would rally around Eve and Michael because Michael used to be one of them, and he hasn’t really changed all that much – except for the whole vampire thing. But he isn’t like the other vamps.

Then the whole Naomi thing was just so frustrating. I mean, you would think that considering these vampires know what she is capable of and that she is from Amelie’s bloodline that she would try to make a play for the throne. Especially because she already tried when the draug were attacking in the last book. That’s why Oliver made an attempt to kill her…but didn’t succeed. It turns out, the reason that Amelie is going back to the old ways of Morganville is because Oliver – who is being controlled by Naomi – has been whispering in her ear.

The sickest thing is that Oliver isn’t the only one who was being controlled. Hannah gets controlled, and Michael too when he goes out to find Captain Obvious. I literally threw the book across the room when Naomi took control of Michael and told him to break up with Eve. And the way he made Eve – who was in the hospital – believe that things were over between them… GAH. I seriously sat in shock for a few minutes.

Final Rating: 5 out of 5 stars. I loved the plot. I loved being disgusted with characters and their actions. I loved Claire’s ‘don’t mess with me’ attitude after everything settled. The only thing that made me nervous about the ending was the fact that she hadn’t quite forgiven Shane for his actions during the whole Michael under Naomi’s control thing.

Bookshelf worthy? Electronic or support your local library!

Morganville Vampires Series Book #12: Black Dawn by Rachel Caine

At the end of the last book, Claire and her friends were dealing with the affects of what the master draug – a water based vampire race that the other vamps are afraid of – had done their fellow vampire friends including the Founder Amelie. She was bitten by Magnus and is slowly becoming a draug. The race is on to kill Magnus before it is too late.

Just in case that wasn’t enough, Black Dawn also deals with Eve and Michael’s toxic relationship and how they’re dealing with the fallout from his attack on her at the end of the last book. They both know that he didn’t mean it, because he had been fed on by draug for days, but they both realize what he’s capable of now. You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me. Their just now realizing what Michael is capable of? Are you serious? He’s a freaking vampire! How could you not be aware of what Michael can do? This plot line of the Morganville books has been bugging me for a while. Sometimes it makes for a good laugh or ‘aw’ moments, but there are others where I can’t help but be like – you live with him, you sleep with him, and you seriously forget what he is?

Shane, Claire, and Myrinn also have their own drama as well. Claire is pissed off at Myrinn again because not only did he make her leave Shane behind during a mission – the draug were going to feed and kill him, but surprise he’s still alive – but he also used her as bait to lure Magnus to the Glass House. While Shane was captured though, the draug forced him to dream about the perfect life he’s always wanted but can never achieve. After he’s dragged out of the pool, he’s still dealing with what he saw and…man. Shane sometimes really needs a clue.

Miranda – Eve’s psychic friend who’s always helped the gang as much as she can – dies while helping Claire run from Magnus. Richard Morell – the mayor and only redeeming member of the Morell family – dies too. There aren’t a lot of humans that the gang can turn to to help them anymore. Sure, there’s Hannah the police chief but after what happened to Richard – who she was apparently in love with, who knew? – she might not be too keen to help them anytime soon.

Final Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. This book was good, really, it’s just that I’m getting tired of Amelie and Oliver’s game of power, Monica’s bitchiness, and Shane’s ‘I’m not good’ routine. However, it is going to be interesting to see what Amelie does now that she’s been to the brink of…whatever…and came back.

Bookshelf worthy? Electronic or support your local library!

Morganville Vampires Series Book #11: Last Breath by Rachel Caine

So ever since I started reading the physical copies of the Morganville Vampire books (around book 9) I’ve been cheating. Before I start reading the book, I flip to the back of the book and check out the track list that Caine was listening to while writing it. I listen to each song and get a gist of what might happen. For this book, I did the same thing, and after reading it I only have one question. Why wasn’t the song “My Last Breath” by Evanescence not on this list?! The song perfectly describes the second half of the book!

Right. So. Last Breath. I’ll admit that this book started out really slow and I was sitting and going C’mon pick up the pace… when the mysterious runner from the other town with vampires shows up things got real interesting. And they got interesting fast. Something that this runner had causes the Founder Amelie to turn on Claire and Shane and she orders Myrinn to kill Shane. Oliver comes in later to talk her out of it, so he is sent to stop the crazy vamp and man does the action only escalate from there.

Because of Myrinn’s attempt to kill Shane, Claire is no longer speaking to him, which made me a little bit sad for our bunny slipper-wearing vamp. Don’t get me wrong, what he did was bad – but he was under orders and Claire should know that Amelie’s will is hard to fight. Michael and Eve are preparing for their engagement party and their wedding. But even this causes problems with the citizens of Morganville. The humans, because they don’t want to stand with the vampires who have been oppressing them for years. The vampires, because they don’t think they should ‘marry the cattle.’ Bloody freaking hell. So, at the engagement party, the Founder lays down the law and says that she doesn’t approve of the marriage and that it won’t take place. Eve, finally, snaps and cusses out Amelie and bitch slaps her. Holy shit!

You know considering what Amelie did to earn that bitch slap, you would think she would let it slide. Especially because she knows what it’s like to be denied her love. But no…she’s the Founder she has to make an example. Luckily though, Morganville has bigger problems and Amelie quickly forgets about her vendetta against Eve.

The bigger problem for Morganville turns out to be another species of vampires (I won’t even try to spell the name) that are water based, and the master of this species feeds on other vampires to make more of his kind. Hence why there are vampire disappearances all over town and Amelie instigates a vampire wide evacuation of the town.

Oh, and in case that wasn’t enough, the head of this mysterious vampire race kills Claire. But she doesn’t really die. Thankfully, she dies in the Glass House, which has been in tuned to her for a while now, and saves her. However, because she isn’t a Glass she doesn’t get to come back as a ghost like Michael did. …seriously, what was with Hiram Glass? Why did he hate Claire so much?

Final Rating: 5 out of 5 stars. I think I got my daily workout thanks to the ups and downs of this book. And the craziest thing is the book ended on a cliffhanger – the first time since book 5 or so. Uh…excuse me while I go place a hold on the next one.

Bookshelf worthy? Electronic or support your local library.

Morganville Vampires Series Book #10: Bite Club by Rachel Caine

The first rule about Fight Club: You don’t talk about Fight Club.

The same should go for the vampire version – Bite Club. You know, I wasn’t sure that Rachel Caine’s Morganville Vampires series could get any better than it did in the last book Ghost Town. But I was shockingly surprised.

In book 10 of the series, Shane is having his usual anger management issues, but they seem to be worse than normal. He’s attacking Michael for no reason. He thinks Claire is cheating on him with Myrinn, and he accuses Eve of being a fang banger. Jeez, Shane take a chill pill would you? But as it turns out, his anger has only been amped up because of a vampire named Glorianna – or Glory for short – and this protein shake that contains vampire blood.

Oh, and did I happen to mention that the reason his anger has been hyped up – along with a few other members of Morganville – is so not only they could be in vampire version of Fight Club, but because Bishop needs an army to fight for him as he tries to take over the town again.

Wait. Bishop? The big badass vampire from five books ago? The one everyone thought was dead?

Yeah, apparently, he wasn’t dead. Amelie kept him alive but locked up without blood. Dude. That’s just… *shakes head*

Thankfully Bishop’s rise to power again is short lived, thanks to Myrinn killing him with airborne silver nitrate. And as for Myrinn, I still think there is something going on there between him and Claire. Or at least, he wants something to happen between them. I don’t know, it could just be me reading too far in between the lines.

And then Michael and Eve are getting married! WHAT?! And what’s with Michael not being too overly ecstatic about this? Something is up there. Also, Claire rejecting MIT – the dream school she’s wanted to go to forever – what was up with that? Yeah, she would have to leave Morganville, but c’mon girl! It’s your dream! You can’t forsake those just because you don’t want to leave Shane and the others.

Final Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. Not as good as the last one. There were some plot points I wasn’t too ecstatic with, but still really good considering it’s the tenth book in a series.

Bookshelf worthy? Electronic only.

Morganville Vampires Series Book #9: Ghost Town by Rachel Caine

 Well, I predicted back in book 7’s review that eventually Rachel Caine would have to write the perfect book in this series, and she finally did. After what happened in Kiss of Death, I was a little reluctant to read this book, but my motto is, once I start a series I have to finish it.

So, Ghost Town… Claire and company are back in Morganville and things are…well, they’re not really normal. Ever since Amelie’s new rules that allow humans to protect themselves from vampire attack, the vampires are getting a little testy and the humans are…they’re finally acting out. They like the power that has been given to them, but they want more.

Claire though isn’t too aware of this because she has things of her own to deal with. Obviously she has a hot boyfriend whose attempts at wooing her are always good for some nice fluffy moments, and then she’s still working with Myrinn to rebuild the town’s computer system – the one responsible for keeping Morganville residents in the town, wiping people’s memories if they leave, and the portals that are scattered throughout the town.

Myrinn. You know, in the 5 reviews I’ve done about this series, I don’t think I’ve ever really discussed this guy at length, and I really should. I think that I’m like a lot of readers of this series when it comes to this character. It’s a love/hate relationship. There are times where his antics and his clothing choices make me grin, but sometimes when he loses his sanity and tries to kill Claire – at least once every book – I kind of start to hate him, even though I should know that he doesn’t really know better. Considering what happened to his last assistant, I’m still not sure if the reason he’s being nice to Claire is because he wants the same thing from her, or if he’s just genuinely being nice to her.

Anyway, Claire does finally get the new machine up in running – after a five-day stint with no sleep – and everything should be back to normal, well, as normal as things can be in Morganville. But it’s not. People are starting to forget. People are starting to think that it’s three years ago.

I’ll admit the memory wipe was a nice touch, all the way up until Shane forgot who Claire was. The moment he woke up and didn’t recognize her and thought that he had a one-night stand with her, seriously broke my heart.

Final rating: 5 out of 5 stars. This book had the bite that the last one was missing and was written so well that even I – the one who wanted Claire’s parents to get killed off – was rooting for her dad to make it.

Bookshelf worthy? Electronic only.

Morganville Vampires Series Book #8 Kiss of Death by Rachel Caine

Okay, so with Ada gone, Bishop dead, and Morganville at peace – for the moment – what could possibly go wrong in book 8?

Well, as it turns out not much. Oh, sure, there was the deal that Claire made with Marley and his band of rogue vampires – where she had to get them out within a month or else Eve, Shane, and her would become their personal blood bank – but even that was dealt with within the first twenty or so pages. Michael and the gang are given permission to leave Morganville so that way Michael can go to Dallas for his studio time. If they’re not in Morganville, Marley can’t attack them.

But, holy crap! They get to leave Morganville!

I have to admit that I figured that Caine was going to pull this stunt after the last book because there were only so many secrets that Morganville could hold, it was about time these characters got to see the world outside the little town. But even though they leave Morganville there is still drama – obviously. It turns out that the world outside Morganville is almost as bad. Within twenty-four hours of leaving, they manage to piss off a gang, get escorted out of town by the sheriff, befriend a local motel owner, Eve’s car gets burned – RIP – and to put icing on the cake are accused of murder.

Sheesh, can’t these guys go through one book without ending up behind bars? Or becoming personal blood bags to the evil vamps? Gah.

Anyway, as much as I love this series, I’ll admit that this book wasn’t one of the best. It had so much potential to be good, but I don’t know the execution was lacking. I mean, these guys finally leave the world of Morganville behind, shouldn’t they also leave the vamps behind too? Also can we take a moment to assess Eve? I mean she is the strong bad ass Goth who is always good for a sarcastic laugh. But in this book, she wasn’t herself. Yeah, I get that her and Michael were still having issues with their relationship, but to make her have complete and utter breakdowns – three times – was just so not Eve. And when did she go back to work for Oliver at Common Grounds?

Final Rating: 3 out of 5 stars. Still a good book, just lacking the usual bite that Caine usually offers.

Bookshelf worthy? Electronic only.

Morganville Vampires Series Book #7: Fade Out by Rachel Caine

So remember in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, when Ron says to Harry, “Follow the spiders? Why did it have to follow the spiders? Why couldn’t it be follow the butterflies?” I felt for Ron then, and I really related to that quote while reading Fade Out.

Spiders, Rachel Caine? Because the town of vampires wasn’t scary enough, you had to throw in spiders the size of Chihuahuas? I personally believe that this book should have come with a disclaimer in the introduction: Arachnophobes beware. Gah.

Anyway, book 7 – seriously SEVEN – takes place a few months after book 6. The town is recovering nicely from Bishop’s take over. Vampires are protecting those that have signed up for Protection, Amelie has allowed humans to be armed and attack vampires in self-defense, and Claire is living at her parents’ house until she turns eighteen – sort of.

I thought that this book was going to be boring. I mean, c’mon, big bad Bishop is dead. Everything has been restored in Morganville, and the book opens with Eve being excited about being cast in the town’s production of A Streetcar Named Desire. Yawn.

But then… ooh. UV bomb – can Claire get through one book without being maimed in some way? – Ada acting up and trying to kill Claire, Amelie becoming suicidal, plots to overthrow her, and my favorite, Eve’s new bestie Kim shows up and Claire gets jealous. Honestly, did I say boring? I meant, exciting!

I won’t bore with the same things I’ve been saying since book 4; action packed, twists that you don’t expect, etc. But I will complain about two things: one, there wasn’t enough Monica in this book. She literally had three scenes and one of them wasn’t very Monica-esque. She hugs Claire! I mean, honestly, that isn’t Monica’s character at all. Second: Eve and Michael’s relationship. It got a little rocky near the end of this book because Eve finally realizes that Michael isn’t human anymore. Um…excuse me, but he turned vamp six books ago already. You’re just now realizing that your boyfriend is one of the undead? Seriously? Jeez. C’mon, Eve, I thought you were smarter than that.

Final rating: 4 out of 5 stars. One day, Caine will write the perfect book in this series. I hope.

Bookshelf worthy? Electronic only.

Morganville Vampires Series Book #6: Carpe Corpus by Rachel Caine

One word about this book: FINALLY!

I’m not sure how much I can say without giving too much away – not that’s really stopped me before – but I have to say that this book was probably my favorite so far of the series. The twists, which one would think would have gotten old by book six of a series, twisted into areas that I still didn’t expect them to. The action was non-stop, and even when you did get a reprieve I took a deep breath with my characters and enjoyed it because I knew that it wasn’t going to last.

I’ve read some of the reviews for this series before I started it, and a lot people complained that there wasn’t a lot of character development and that was a big reason they didn’t like it. I have to disagree. The character development in these books is just fantastic. I sort of envy Caine’s ability to develop these characters over an arc of books like she does. I can barely do it over fifteen chaptered stories.

Anyway, the characters are just fantastic. My favorites for development are Richard and Monica Morell. Richard has really grown from the burly cop with the crazy family to someone the town of Morganville including Claire and her friends can trust. The moment near the end when Richard hands Claire a knife and then pats her on the shoulder was just so fantastic – it really showed his growth as a character. And as for Monica, I’ll admit when the book started and she went back to her evil bitch ways I was really pissed off. I thought Caine would have kept her as she was at the end of book 5 considering everything that she had been through. However, there was a reprieve when Monica softened after Claire asked about her mother. Just wow fantastic.

As for Claire’s parents, is it sad that I’m rooting for a vampire to kill them? I mean, honestly, the town is going to shit and they’re going to screw up their escape attempt because they wanted to chastise their daughter about having sex with Shane. Arresting him? Honestly? Please, kill them off, PLEASE?

Finally, there’s Claire and Shane’s relationship. I’ll admit when the book started I was going to be annoyed because hello. Shane was in prison, so obviously there wasn’t going to be too much Shane/Claire fluff until he was broken out of prison and knowing the way that Caine worked she was probably going to save his breakout until the end. But when she did have Shane get broken out of jail – sort of – I was excited, especially because Claire was seventeen. And man, did she not disappoint, which is odd considering this was a YA.

Final review: 4 out of 5 reviews. By book 6 you would think an author couldn’t pull any punches, but wow, were there some deep ones.

Bookshelf worthy? I’ve sort of changed my mind about this series. Why it’s not a physical bookshelf worthy, I would definitely consider getting them as a digital edition – especially since I’ve been reading them through the digital library anyway.

Morganville Vampires Series Book #5: Lord of Misrule by Rachel Caine

You would think, after reading four volumes in this series, I would know to expect the unexpected when it comes to plot points in these books and to expect a cliffhanger at the end of the novel. You would think that, but for some stupid reason, as I read and finished Lord of Misrule I literally had my jaw drop open a few times, and threw my hands in the air when it finished with a cliffhanger.

Now, honestly, I was expecting something completely different from what Lord of Misrule actually offered and I’m glad that it did. I was expecting for a boring, bloody war between Amelie and her father Bishop and even though, yeah, the war was bloody, it was definitely far from boring.

Vampires walking around like zombies in the sun! Oliver admitting to the fact that he has the disease! Monica finally, finally getting what was coming to her! Monica’s father succumbing not to a vampire attack, but to a heart attack! Tornadoes! And just in case that wasn’t enough, crazy psycho magic that makes Claire – out of all the characters – side with the wrong side.

This book should not have been titled Lord of Misrule – although I do get the reference – instead it should have been called Morganville: Clusterfuck time. I mean, honestly, I didn’t think I could handle anything else Rachel Caine would have thrown at me. It was getting very hard to breathe while reading this book because I was holding it as I continued reading.

I got to admit though, as crazy as the events in this book caught, Caine still stuck true to her usual writing style. Just when you think you can’t take any more of the tension from Claire and the others situation, she throws in her usual sarcastic wit. Take for example the scene when Claire rescues Monica from the human mob and Eve and Shane realize that she has to stay with them:

“Yeah? Well, I can’t,” Eve said. She glared at Monica, who glared right back. “Claire, you have to stop picking up strays. You don’t know where they’ve been.”

“You’re one to talk about diseases,” Monica shot back, “seeing as how you’re one big, walking social one.”

“That’s not pit, kettle – that’s more like cauldron, kettle. Witch.”

“Whore!”

“You want to go play with your new friends back there?” Shane snapped. “The really pale ones with the taste for plasma? Because believe me. I’ll drop your skanky butt right in their nest if you don’t shut up, Monica.”

“You don’t scare me, Collins!”

Hannah rolled her eyes and racked her shotgun. “How about me?”

That ended the entire argument.

I was on the floor with this one for a little bit.

As much as I loved the turmoil in this book there were a few things that annoyed me. The first thing, is when everyone in the Glass House is getting ready to start the war for Amelie against her father, and Shane and Claire are saying their good-byes. She gets really annoyed with him that he didn’t tell her those three little words even though he’s going out to man the Blood Mobile and something bad could happen to him. As much as I love Claire, she picks the worst time to gripe on the fact that Shane hasn’t said those three little words yet. I mean, honestly, the town is going to hell in a hand basket and instead of enjoying the time she has left with him until he goes out on what could be a suicide mission, she over thinks the fact that he hasn’t said “I love you,” yet. C’mon Claire! I thought you were better than that!

The other thing has to deal with Claire’s parents. After some of the craziness has died down, she goes to visit them and her father brings up the fact that he would feel better about all of this if Claire moved back home with them. Claire originally thought that the whole protectiveness thing was because of a spell that Bishop put on them, but after her father tells her this, she wonders if it’s because it’s just a natural parental instinct.

I’m not going lie, besides Monica, the other characters that I can’t stand in this book series are Claire’s parents. They are absolutely horrible creatures. When Claire thinks this though, I completely lost it. How can it be a parental instinct to have her at home to keep her safe when they haven’t wanted to keep her safe before? When she was dealing with the whole bullying thing with Monica? I mean, they thought Monica was a nice person even though they knew that she had pushed their daughter down the stairs and had one of her friends splash acid on her? I mean, honestly, if I could, I would have slapped their faces.

Final rating: 4 out of 5 stars. Definitely better than the previous three novels, and I was really excited to find out what happens next.

Bookshelf worthy? As I said with the last book, this series is just too long to actually purchase them.

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.