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Fall Of Night by Rachel Caine Book Review
Book: Fall Of Night (The Morganville Vampires Book #14) by Rachel Caine, NAL Hardcover received for review, 338 pages, on sale May 7, 2013
Rating: 4 / 5 Stars
More Info: Goodreads | Amazon | The Morganville Vampires official site
Official Summary:
When Claire Danvers gets accepted into the graduate program at MIT, she can’t pass up the opportunity. Enrolled in a special advanced study program with former Morganville native Professor Irene Anderson, Claire is able to work on her machine, designed to cancel the mental abilities of vampires. But when she begins testing her machine on live subjects, things quickly spiral out of control, and Claire begins to wonder if leaving Morganville will be the last mistake she’ll ever make…
I don’t usually include the publisher’s summary, but since this is the 14th book in the Morganville Vampires series I’m scared to attempt to summarize on my own!
We’ve reached the penultimate installment of the MV series and I still feel giddy when I get a new book in my hands. I don’t even read a lot of paranormal anymore, but I’m so attached to these characters I can’t stop reading. This is rare nowadays, and I commend Rachel Caine for keeping this series fresh.
This installment is a little different in that it takes place outside of Morganville as Claire ventures off to MIT. Claire wasn’t sure what to think of that, and neither was I. I was unsettled and felt like the new locale was a dangerous unknown entity. I missed the group dynamic but agree it had to happen. There are all these sketchy new characters around and Claire doesn’t have the backup she usually does. It’s a good chance for her to show what she’s made of though, and maybe even appreciate what she left behind in Morganville.
Claire and Shane have alternating POV in this installment. Their relationship was a little rocky in the last book so it’s interesting to see where their heads are. And of course, they each have lots of excitement going on around them and the alternating perspective provides some additional insight. Not to fret though, many of the series regulars appear in this book, along with some new blood. And, some of the old favorites appear in a whole new light, which is pretty exciting. It’s a little ominous that some of the characters from Morganville are not heard from in this book though, and they were missed.
I read this book during the 24-hour readathon. Series books are great for read-a-thons, especially action packed ones like 
these. It’s easy to settle in with favorite characters and let the pages fly. If you haven’t started this series yet, and you’re intimidated by the fact that there’s 14 books to catch up on, don’t be. These books are addictive and very fast reads. Each book usually ends on a big cliffhanger, so you’ll just want to binge on the whole series at once. And the last book of the series is out in the fall, so it’s a perfect time to give them a go.
Rachel Caine does a great job with character development and introducing new conflicts. As always, she surprises with another game changing ending to set up this falls series finale, Daylighters. I can’t imagine how Caine will resolve this newest wrinkle, but I have faith the series will go out with a bang.
Look for Fall of Night in stores on May 7, followed by Daylighters Nov. 5.
Bitter Blood: Morganville Vampires Book 13 by Rachel Caine Book Review
Book: Bitter Blood (The Morganville Vampires Book #13) by Rachel Caine, NAL, Nov 6, 2012
Format/pages/source: Hardcover, 404 pages, received from the publisher
Rating: 4 / 5 Stars
More Info: Goodreads | Amazon | IndieBound | The Morganville Vampires official site
We’ve come to lucky #13 with Rachel Caine’s Morganville Vampires series. I feel like with each new book I’m bracing myself for the inevitable heartache and game changers that face Claire and her friends. And this installment is no different – the whole book has an ominous feeling to it. The scene in Morganville is even more unsettled than usual and felt more than ever like no one was safe. And now with only two more books to go Caine is going all out with the shocks.
In Bitter Blood, the vampires are now more bold and fearless than ever, and not willing to cut the humans any breaks. Eve and Michael’s relationship is causing all kinds of trouble for the residents of the Glass House. And Morganville is getting in on the election year fun by holding mayoral elections of their own. And besides all that a TV ghost hunting crew is in town looking for material – uh, they will probably get more than they bargained for.
The book is written in multiple POV again, with Claire’s POV covering the lion’s share of the book. And this is the first time that everyone’s favorite mad genius, Myrnin, gets to narrate. He shares tidbits of his past too so it’s quite a treat. Amelie, Oliver, Shane, and Michael also share their perspectives. Since this is such a long-running series it’s fun to have a narration change of pace and learn more about different characters.
It’s always a pleasure returning back to Morganville, like visiting old friends. The first half of the book had me tied up in knots waiting for something to happen. I liked catching up with all the characters but must admit the book wasn’t capturing my full attention at first. It was like the calm before the storm I guess. But then things got good and I couldn’t put it down. Caine was really playing games with my heart with these romantic entanglements too! She has me questioning my alliances at this point.
Claire has shown tremendous growth throughout the series, and I was proud of the way she took charge and handled some of the challenges in this book. She’d be my mayoral candidate for sure, though I don’t know why anyone would want that job.
As always, the book ends with a big twist- and I can’t imagine what the next book will look like but I have faith that Caine will work her magic with it. The penultimate installment, Fall of Night, will be out May 7th. I already miss this series.
Top Ten Books on my Fall Reading List
Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature from The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Top Ten Books On Your Fall TBR List - no small task! I’m sure I’m not the only one who had a hard time narrowing the list down to ten.
Listed in no particular order, here are some of the books I can’t wait to read this fall:
Sequels:
1. Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor (Nov. 6) – The much anticipated sequel to Daughter of Smoke and Bone.
2. Bitter Blood by Rachel Caine (Nov. 6) - The Morganville Vampires lucky #13. Wonder what trouble is in store for the gang this time around?
3. Middle Ground by Katie Kacvinsky (Nov. 20) – I read the first book, Awaken, almost two years ago. Hope I can remember the story well enough. This series touches on a future society that is too reliant on technology.
Series Debuts:
4. Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff (Sept. 18) – According to the hilarious book trailer this book is “totally sweet. It has Airships, Griffins & Ninjas!”
5. Crewel by Gennifer Albin (Oct. 16) – Looks like a creative fantasy book about time weaving and I’m very curious about this one.
Standalone Books:
6. Send Me a Sign by Tiffany Schmidt (Oct. 2) – This contemporary sounds like my kind of book. It is about a girl with cancer, but also sounds uplifting and romantic.
7. Live Through This by Mindi Scott (Oct. 2) – Really enjoyed Freefall and Scott’s latest contemporary sounds like a touching/sad/romantic read. Anyone else think of the Hole album when you see this title or is it just me?
8. The Spindlers by Lauren Oliver (Oct. 2) – I liked Oliver’s other MG book Liesl and Po and The Spindlers looks like another imaginative read.
9. Touching the Surface by Kimberly Sabatini (Oct. 30) – I’ve been wanting to read this book for a long time, and it’s finally out this fall. It’s about a teenage girl who dies and has to come to terms with her past in the afterlife.
10. Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill (Nov. 13) – Not a lot of contemporary books this fall, so thank goodness for this one. Meant to Be looks very sweet.
Looks like a great season of reading ahead! What fall books are you looking forward to?
Black Dawn: Morganville Vampires Book 12 by Rachel Caine Book Review
Book: Black Dawn (The Morganville Vampires Book #12) by Rachel Caine, NAL, May 1, 2012
Format/pages/source: Hardcover, 367 pages, received from the publisher
Rating: 4 / 5 Stars
More Info: Goodreads | Amazon | IndieBound
Here we are back for another installment of the YA Morganville Vampires series. This latest is book 12 of a planned 15 book series that centers on Claire Danvers, a teen who attends college in Morganville, a Texas town where vampires and humans co-exist openly. Once you move to Morganville and find out their secret, good luck getting out. Rachel Caine sure knows how to feed my addiction to this series by releasing new books twice a year. Life is never dull in Morganville and each book introduces a new challenge for the gang. I miss the series already, even though there are still three books left to go. The latest book is still keeping me guessing on what the end game of the series will be as circumstances in Morganville become more and more dire.
In the 12th Morganville Vampires book Black Dawn, the action picks up right after Last Breath took off. In fact, many of the same problems exist from that book so this is more of a continuation of that story. The icky mysterious draug creatures are still creating havoc in Morganville and have the vampires running scared. The draug hide out wherever the water is and feed off of any available vampire or human they can find. They are fiendish creatures that can multiply in water – they made me recall the monsters of Gremlins or CHUD. They have a deadly leader too named Magnus but he doesn’t have a stripe like in Gremlins, in fact it’s almost impossible to tell him apart. Time is running out to destroy them before they take over completely. And with Founder Amelie infected, wannabe vampire leaders come out of the woodwork to try and take over. Claire, Shane, Michael and Eve have their work cut out for them once again.
The book again continues the recent trend of multiple POV, with Claire, Shane, Michael, Eve, and Oliver taking turns with the narration. And Shane in particular takes the reader on quite a journey with one of his chapters that had me holding my breath. I like following different characters around, and learning their secrets and thoughts about the craziness of Morganville. So I’m glad that the multiple POV has become a regular thing now.
This book is moody, dark and intense and has a bigger sense of hopelessness than other installments. With Morganville under attack basically it felt like anything could happen. The stress and tension of the crisis brings out some interesting reactions from the characters.
One thing that sets the vampires of Morganville apart is that they are so unpredictable, and for the most part very dangerous. And with Morganville in flux, the relationship between vampires and humans is extremely fragile. That relationship continues to intrigue me and I’m so curious to see where it’s all heading.
In Black Dawn important events occur that set the stage for the next book in the series. Emotions run high and glimpses inside the minds of different characters show how much they care about one another. This installment was a little uneven for me though, and I can’t quite put my finger on why. I think I was ready to move on from the draug story, or maybe they just creep me out. Regardless, this book ends on such an ominous tone that has me concerned for the fate of my favorite characters. I look forward to visiting Morganville again soon to see how Claire and the gang are managing to survive in the next book, Bitter Blood.
Here is the Black Dawn book trailer that is sure to worry Shane fans:
12 Days of Morganville Madness Tour & Giveaway
I’m excited to spread the news about the 12 Days of Morganville Madness blog tour! For the next 12 days leading up to the release of the 12th Morganville vampire series book BLACK DAWN, 12 blogs will be counting down with reviews of, you guessed it – all 12 books. Follow along and brush up on the series before BLACK DAWN‘s release on May 1. There will also be interviews with author Rachel Caine, and a corresponding signed book giveaway & BLACK DAWN bookmark giveaway at every stop.
BLACK DAWN (Morganville Vampires Bk 12) by Rachel Caine, May 1.
The 12 Days of Morganville Madness tour kicks off today and here is the schedule:
April 20 – GLASS HOUSES (Book 1) PageTurnersBlog
April 21 – THE DEAD GIRLS DANCE (Book 2) A New Kind of Ordinary
April 22 – MIDNIGHT ALLEY (Book 3) Book Splot Reviews
April 23 – FEAST OF FOOLS (Book 4) Hobbitsies
April 24 – LORD OF MISRULE (Book 5) Book Monster Reviews
April 25 – CARPE CORPUS (Book 6) My Overstuffed Bookshelf
April 26 – FADE OUT (Book 7) Miss Vain’s Paranormal Fantasy
April 27 – KISS OF DEATH (Book 8) The Story Siren
April 28 – GHOST TOWN (Book 9) AwesomeSauce Book Club
April 29 – BITE CLUB (Book 10) Confessions of a Bookaholic
April 30 – LAST BREATH (Book 11) Literal Addiction
May 1 – BLACK DAWN (Book 12) Release day! Mundie Moms
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! has ended.
Congrats to Mercedes who won a copy of GLASS HOUSES & a bookmark of BLACK DAWN
About GLASS HOUSES:
From the author of the popular Weather Warden series comes the debut of an exciting new series set in Morganville, Texas, where you would be well advised to avoid being out after dark.
College freshman Claire Danvers has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation. When Claire heads off-campus, the imposing old house where she finds a room may not be much better. Her 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.
Check back for my review of BLACK DAWN on May 2!
Last Breath: Morganville Vampires Book 11 by Rachel Caine Audiobook Review
Book: Last Breath (The Morganville Vampires Book #11) by Rachel Caine, Tantor Audio, November 1, 2011
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Format/pages: Audiobook 10 hrs. 46 mins. Read by Cynthia Holloway. Also available in Hardcover, 335 pages
Rating: 5 / 5 Stars
More Reviews: Goodreads
Buy the Book: Audible | Amazon | Book Depository | IndieBound
I admit I was worried that this series had started to run out of steam after reading the tenth installment, Bite Club, but I’m happy to say that the latest Morganville book put my mind at ease. Last Breath offers lots of surprises, reveals, action and emotion that make it one of the most satisfying of the series so far. Literally no one is safe this time from Morganville’s latest threat where the twists just keep coming. I couldn’t have predicted any of the events that occurred this time around, and I love that Rachel Caine is taking so many exciting risks with her characters and providing such a juicy storyline this late in the series.
This time around in Morganville there’s a new threat that even has the vampires scared. Vampires are disappearing left and right and Amelie fears that the dreaded enemy that has hunted them for years has finally found them. It’s interesting to learn about this new threat and what makes it so powerful and lethal to everyone in Morganville. Claire, Shane, Eve and Michael are facing a huge challenge, and I was holding my breath to see how they would come out of it. Through multiple narrations of Claire, Michael, Eve, Shane and Amelie, we get more character reveals that give a new insight into our favorite Morganvillian’s. There is also plenty of Myrnin as well and he plays a key role in this book.
The characters go on quite a journey this time around. And the relationships they have built with each other and the other members of Morganville really make the events that occur that much more touching and meaningful. There is just the right amount of time spent with each character to move the story along and keep things interesting. The beginning of the book really threw me off track with how I expected the story to go, and the action just kept ramping up. There are plenty of emotional and romantic scenes though that balance out the drama and suspense. In fact, some of the biggest insights and vulnerabilities of the characters are revealed this time around.
This is the third installment I’ve read via audiobook, and I think this is now my favorite way to experience this series. The narrator, Cynthia Holloway, does an expert job with the characters. From Myrnin to Amelie, Claire to Shane, all of the character voices are distinct and believable. They match up very well to the character voices in my head, and the narration conveys the appropriate amount of emotion and intensity. I don’t think I can go back to the printed version of the series.
I eagerly await the next installment, Black Dawn. There will be fifteen books in the series in total, and after this game-changing book I can’t wait to see where Caine takes the story next. Black Dawn is due out in May 2012.
Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 Sequels I’m Dying To Read
Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish featuring a new top ten list each week. Everyone can participate- head on over to their blog and sign up.
This week’s topic is Top Ten Sequels I’m Dying to Read. This is one of the easiest topics for me because there are so many sequels I’m anticipating. The problem is narrowing it down to ten.
In order of publication date, these are my top 10 most anticipated sequels:
1. Last Breath (The Morganville Vampires #11) by Rachel Caine (November 1)
2. A Million Suns (Across the Universe #2) by Beth Revis (January 10)
3. Enshadowed (Nevermore #2) by Kelly Creagh (January 17)
4. Truth (XVI #2) by Julia Karr (January 19)
5. Hallowed (Unearthly #2) by Cynthia Hand (January 24)
6. Bloodrose (Nightshade #3) by Andrea Cremer (January 24)
7. Fever (The Chemical Garden #2) by Lauren DeStefano (February 24)
8. Pandemonium (Delirium #2) By Lauren Oliver (March 6)
9. Spell Bound (Hex Hall #3) by Rachel Hawkins (March 13)
10. Insurgent (Divergent #2) by Veronica Roth (May TBD) – cover not available
Bonus:
Shine (Shade #3) By Jeri Smith-Ready (May 1) – cover not available
The Golden Lily (Bloodlines #2) by Richelle Mead (June 19)
What sequels are you eager to read?
