The Dead Girls' Dance / Morganville Vampires / Rachel Caine

Synopsis

Claire Danvers has her share of challenges--like living among creatures of the night. On the upside, she has a great roommate (who tends to disappear at sunup) and a new boyfriend. Now a fraternity is throwing its annual Dead Girls' Dance and--surprise!--Claire and her equally outcast friend have been invited. When they find out why, all hell breaks loose, because this time both the living and the dead are ready to tear up the night.

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My Take
4 Stars

This is the second book in the Morganville Vampire series. I really liked this book much better than the previous book (Glass Houses). This book didn't have a lot of wasted space and some kind of action is constantly taking place. This worked very well for this book and it keeps you reading!

I don't really want to discuss what happens in the book because it would be extremely hard to do without containing a ton of spoilers. I started reading this book last night and just flew through it.

You really start to connect with the main characters: Claire, Eve, Shane, and Michael--and you can really start to see them connect with each other. For a YA series, this is one of the better ones that I've read- granted I wasn't extremely crazy about the first book.

Would I recommend this book? Absolutely. It was very entertaining and I couldn't wait to see what happened from chapter-to-chapter. I will definitely be picking up the next book in the series soon.

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Glass Houses / Rachel Caine

Synopsis

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.

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My Take
3 Stars

This is the first book in Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampire series. You can find this series in the YA section in your local bookstore. I have read several YA series before and enjoyed them.

At the beginning of the story we meet the main character Claire Danvers. She's been an outcast pretty much her whole life because she's super smart and advanced to a university at the age of sixteen. She's stuck at a university she didn't want to go to, and the girls in the dorm pretty much want her dead. She soon finds out the town is run by vampires and if you don't have Protection, then you are unsafe in the town of Morganville.

There is a lot going on in this book, and at points, it was a bit too much. I had to push myself to keep reading until the last 50 or 60 pages when it really got interesting. I believe the other books in the series are probably better than the first and I will keep reading on the series. This book wasn't great, but I did get into it toward the end and will continue with the series.

Morganville Vampires Series:

Glass Houses
The Dead Girls' Dance
Midnight Alley
Feast of Fools
Lord of Misrule
Carpe Corpus
Fade Out
Kiss of Death
Ghost Town
Bite Club
Last Breath (November 2011)

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American Vampire / Jennifer Armintrout

Synopsis


Buried in the Heartland is a town that no one enters or leaves. Graf McDonald somehow becomes its first visitor in more than five years…and he was only looking for a good party. Unfortunately, Penance, Ohio, is not that place. And after having been isolated for so long, they do not like strangers at all.
Jessa's the only one to even remotely trust him, and she's desperate for the kind of protection that only a vampire like Graf can provide. Supplies are low, the locals are ornery for a sacrifice and there's a monster more powerful than Graf lurking in the woods. New men are hard to come by in this lonesome town, and this handsome stranger might be Jessa's only hope for salvation.
Even if she has to die first…
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My Take
4 Stars

I read Armintrout's Blood Ties series last year and loved it. When I seen this book authored by Armintrout in the store, I bought it without even reading the description on the back. I've had it in my TBR pile for a while, and I finally decided to pull it out and see what it was all about.

Just by the description alone, the story is a bit different from what we normally see in a vampire romance book. The vampire in this story is Graf. He is self-centered, egotistical, and materialistic. He's on his way to D.C. to party up the Fourth of July with his Sire, Sophia, when he gets stuck in the very strange town of Penance. No one has been able to enter or leave Penance in five years, as if that isn't strange enough, Penance also has a 15-foot monster running around.

Graf meets Jessa, who happens to be hiding from the monster (townspeople call the monster "It") in an abandoned gas station. Graf soon realizes Jessa is a bit of an outcast amongst the townspeople and has a very questionable reputation. Poor Jessa, she's already stuck in a town that hates her, got a monster chasing her, and now a vampire who possibly wants to eat her.

I have to say, I really didn't care for the cover of the book, or the title of it. I'm not sure how Armintrout came up with American Vampire for the title of this book. However, don't let the cover art or the title throw you off. I found this book to be a pretty good read and would recommend it. I found it humorous, interesting and overall enjoyed it.

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Dead Reckoning / Charlaine Harris

Synopsis (From Goodreads)

With her knack for being in trouble's way, Sookie witnesses the firebombing of Merlotte's, the bar where she works. Since Sam Merlotte is now known to be two-natured, suspicion falls immediately on the anti-shifters in the area. But Sookie suspects otherwise and she and Sam work together to uncover the culprit - and the twisted motive for the attack. But her attention is divided. Though she can't 'read' vampires, Sookie knows her lover Eric Northman and his 'child' Pam well - and she realizes that they are plotting to kill the vampire who is now their master. Gradually, she is drawn into the plot -which is much more complicated than she knows. Caught up in the politics of the vampire world, Sookie will learn that she is as much of a pawn as any ordinary human - and that there is a new Queen on the board . . . 

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My Take
2 Stars

I'm definitely on the fence with this book. I didn't love it, nor did I hate it (hate is too strong a word). It seemed to be lacking in several areas.

It's been said that Harris will soon be ending the series after the next two book releases. After reading Dead Reckoning, I believe it might be time. It seems the characters we've all come to love are losing their personalities and are becoming somewhat uninteresting.

Earlier in the series, I thought it would be very interesting to see Sookie and Eric get together...until I finally did. This book (really the past 2 books) have opened my eyes and I am seeing that Eric and Sookie are just not meant to be.

I feel Eric has lost his spark in this book and has become...well, for lack of a better word- boring! I am really missing the old Eric. He was sharp and unintentionally humorous, and now he just seems like the shell of the vampire he used to be.

What about Bill? He's been pretty much a ghost in the past two books. Do I think Sookie should run back to Bill? Nah, not really. I think they have pretty much explored their relationship as far as it's going to go.

The way Dead Reckoning ended, I believe Sookie and Eric will be calling it quits soon. So, where does this leave Sookie? At this point I'm not really sure. I'm pretty much throwing my hands in the air because I'm not sure where Harris is going to lead Sookie in the next two books.

I know it seems that I am possibly being a tad over-critical about Dead Reckoning, but I really did expect more from such a beloved series. I can only hope the next book will be better. I am a devoted Sookie fan and hope for bigger and better things with the next book.

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Hard Bitten / Chicagoland Vampires / Chloe Neill

Synopsis

Times are hard for newly minted vampire Merit. Ever since shapeshifters announced their presence to the world, humans have been rallying against supernaturals--and they're camping outside Cadogan House with protest signs they could exchange for pitchforks at any moment. Inside, things between Merit and her Master, green-eyed heartbreaker Ethan Sullivan, are... tense. Then the mayor of Chicago calls Merit and Ethan to a clandestine meeting and tells them about a violent vamp attack that has left three women missing. His message is simple: Get you House in order. Or else.

Merit needs to get to the bottom of this crime, but it doesn't help that she can't tell who's on her side. So she secretly calls in a favor from someone who's tall, dark, and part of an underground vamp group that may have some inside intel on the attack. Merit soon finds herself in the dark, heady heart of Chicago's supernatural society--a world of vampires who seem ready to fulfill the protesting human's worst fears, and a place where she'll learn that you can't be a vampire without getting a little blood on your hands...

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My Take
4 Stars
 
Wow! I finished Hard Bitten this morning and immediately had to pop open the laptop and get to blogging!

A new drug called "V" has been circulating around the city and showing up at raves. Merit takes it upon herself to trace down the source and stop the distribution against the wishes of the GP.

(The GP isn't really looking very favorable to me. Darius, the head of the GP, is more-or-less plain mean.)

The beginning through the middle of the book was a bit slower for me than the previous books, however, there is a very shocking ending to this book and it makes you totally forget the slower pace. I believe the ending in this book answers some questions about a previous revelation made by Gabriel Keene.

Mayor Tate is also carrying around a secret that is revealed toward the end of the book. Which I believe we have suspected the mayor was into some malicious activities before even reading this book.

Overall, this book leaves a lot of questions to be addressed in the next book, Drink Deep, which will be released in November. I did think the pace was slower than the previous books, but (oh my!) the shocking ending makes up for it.

All I can say is November can't come fast enough!

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