Lord of Misrule by Rachel Caine

Title: Lord of Misrule

Author: Rachel Caine
Publisher: Allison & Busby
ISBN: 978-0-7490-0757-7
Pages: 348
Series: The Morganville Vampires #5
Type: Young Adult Paranormal
Source: Purchased
Goodreads



In the small Texas town of Morganville a balance had been found between its vampire and human residents, until Bishop came to town. Now Morganville is a battle ground as the evil Bishop battles with his daughter, the town leader, Amelie. The humans are caught in the crossfire and as skirmishes erupt all over town, Claire Danvers and her friends are forced to take sides. But amongst the chaos Morganville's vampire residents begin to disappear...and an external threat arrives in the form of a massive deadly storm.

This is the fifth book in the Morganville vampires series (after Glass Houses, The Dead Girls' Dance, Midnight Alley and Feast of Fools) and picks up exactly where the last book left off. Although there is a quick "the story so far" section at the start, at this point I'd recommend starting with the first book and reading in order otherwise you will miss a lot of backstory on the characters. That section appears to be more for fans of the series who haven't read them in a while than those new to the series.

The story cleverly written, but at times this does feel like the set-up for a full on war in the next book. Characters seem to appear in the story briefly and then disappear again quickly after fulfilling their purpose which is disappointing as I'd be interested in knowing more about them. That said the action included is really well written and helps keep you glued to the page while the pace of the book manages to sustain a steady level of tension throughout.

The main four characters don't really get much character growth in this book, and nor do the recurring supporting characters. Claire annoyed me quite a bit during this book as she spends a lot of time focusing on romance and wondering whether her boyfriend loves her. It is a bit out of place with the rest of the story and I found it distracting at times. Eve and Michael remain pretty much the same, although it was great to see that the conflicts of this book helped Shane to deal with his issues and accept Michael's vampire nature.

The ending of the book is outstanding and the best kind of cliffhanger, neatly concluding this book and leaving the reader desperate for the sequel. There are also some shocking major twists which I didn't see coming and left me totally stunned.

All in all this was a great read and I can't wait to read Carpe Corpus.

Plot: 9/10
Characters: 9/10
Ending: 9/10
Enjoyment: 9/10
Cover: 10/10

Overall: 46/50

Feast of Fools by Rachel Caine

Title: Feast of Fools

Author: Rachel Caine
Publisher: Allison & Busby
ISBN: 978-0-7490-7979-6
Pages: 367
Series: The Morganville Vampires #4
Type: Young Adult Paranormal
Source: Purchased
Goodreads


In the small town of Morganville, humans and vampires have discovered a mostly peaceful balance. So the clueless college students are fair game for the vampires and no self-respecting human would be caught on the streets after dark but the fragile peace is working. That is, until the ancient Mr Bishop arrives and turns Morganville on its head and Claire Danvers finds herself and her friends in danger once more.

This is the fourth book in the awesome Morganville Vampires series (after Glass Houses, The Dead Girls' Dance and Midnight Alley) and leaps straight into the action after the previous book's cliffhanger ending. From the taut opening the tension continues to build throughout to a heart-stopping action packed finale. The arrival of a truly ancient vampire who is also the father of Amelie, previously the most powerful vampire in town, sparks a lot of changes and allows a new perspective on vampire politics.

Bishop's presence really shakes up Morganville. The previous book ended with some big changes and this one continues to create ripples in their world. Claire's parents have arrived in Morganville and her age is once more brought to the forefront of the story. Unsurprisingly Claire's parents want their sixteen year old to move back home, but Claire is resistant to losing her independence and doesn't know if she'll be able to continue to uphold her ties to the vampire world, thus endangering her friends. I loved how Claire is continuing to work on a cure for the sickness affecting the vampires and while Myrnin returns, Claire also finds a new ally in Dr Mills.

Bishop's arrival also leads to some restructuring of Morganville's vampire population, forcing old rivals Amelie and Oliver to unite against a common enemy. Rather than highlighting the evils that can be done by humans, this is the first book in the series to really focus on how evil vampires can be. Having a group of truly vindictive vampires arrive after spending several books blurring the lines of morality creates even more tension.

Eve is also having some major problems in this installment. Her brother Jason is being his usual creepy self, although no more dead girls appear, but it is the rest of her family that cause her some real pain. It doesn't help her that her boyfriend Michael is having issues with his new vampiric status and so their romance hits a rough patch.

One thing I did notice was missing from the story was retaliation from Monica who blames Claire for her near death in the previous book, although threats are made. Even with the changes to Morganville I doubt Monica will let it slide so I'm hoping the plot line is quickly picked up in a future book.

All in all this was a great read and I'm really looking forward to Lord of Misrule.

Plot: 10/10
Characters: 10/10
Ending: 10/10
Enjoyment: 9/10
Cover: 8/10

Overall: 47/50

#WWReadathon - Tease at Random Challenge & Giveaway

Welcome to the first challenge of the last day of the Wicked Winter Read-a-Thon which is...

Tease at Random

I love taking part in the Teaser Tuesday meme, but I've noticed how sometimes the teasers can be very different to what the book is actually like. So when April and Rebecca gave me the chance to create my own challenge I thought of this and immediately started to wonder what would happen if teasers were taken throughout a book - would they be close to the real story, or would it create a whole new one?

For this challenge I would like you to tease me at random from your current read. All you need to do is to divide your book roughly into thirds and then randomly select two sentences from each third (so six in total) and put them together to give a good tease.

You can either leave your entry in the comments or leave me a link to your blog post.

One winner will be picked at random to win either a £5 gift certificate from Amazon UK or a $7.50 Amazon US gift certificate (winner's choice) so be sure to leave your email, twitter or some other way for me to contact you.

My example is from Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare:

"Well, there's no accounting for taste," Tessa said sweetly, knowing he was trying to goad her, and refusing to take the bait. "What is one person's pleasure is another's poison, don't you find?" (pg 72)
His eyes were raking the room anxiously. She could sense the tension in him, a thrum just under the skin, like the fast-beating heart of a hummingbird. (pg 193)
"You know what this means to me," said Will. "Did you really think I'd delay?" (pg 405)

So go on...tease me :)


And the winner is...Melissa from Melissa's Eclectic Bookshelf! Congratulations :)

Wicked Winter Read-a-Thon

I can't believe it's time for the Wicked Winter Read-a-Thon already! January has flown by and now we're into February. The Wicked Winter Read-a-Thon is being hosted by April at My Shelf Confessions and Rebecca at Kindle Fever and takes place between February 3 and 5. The official Read-a-Thon description is below:

The Wicked Winter Read-A-Thon is a time when we all get together to dedicate the weekend of February 3-5 to as much reading as possible. You read as much as you can in order to get yourself a little further through that huge to-read pile! We know real life gets in the way and even if you can’t participate more than one day, you’re welcome to join in on the fun!

In the meanwhile, we will be hosting book-related challenges where you can win some awesome prizes and have a Twitter party at the hashtag #WWReadathon! You can posts updates on your blog, Twitter, Goodreads or Facebook — as long as the profile is public and we all can enjoy your reading progress!

All challenges have different prizes you can win and they’re all offered internationally!

Friday, February 3rd:
10AM – 2PM EST | Fight for Survival | Rebecca @ Kindle Fever
4PM – 8PM EST | Wintry Sentences | Melissa @ Melissa’s Eclectic Bookshelf
8PM – 12AM EST | Welcome into the Unknown | Vicky @ Books, Biscuits and Tea
Saturday, February 4th:
10AM – 2PM EST | The Wicked Winter Ball | Kimberly @ Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer
4PM – 8PM EST | Wicked Cover Lover | Christy @ Love of Books
8PM – 12AM EST | Guess the Title – Picture Puzzle | Michelle @ Book Briefs
Sunday, February 5th:
10AM – 2PM EST | Tease at Random | Claire @ Project TBR
4PM – 8PM EST | Sentence to Song | Amanda @ Letters Inside Out
8PM – 12AM EST | The Fight for Survival Continues | April @ My Shelf Confessions
I personally won't be able to read much this weekend as I have a family event, but I will be reading and hosting on Sunday so I'd love it if you could stop by :)

Top Ten Tuesday (18)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by the Broke and the Bookish where a new top ten list is posted each week. This week is a freebie so I've chosen to do Top Ten Minor Characters. It always seems to be the hero and heroine of books that get focused on (and to be fair it is generally their story being told) but the minor characters can often be unfairly overlooked. Where would Harry Potter be without Ron and Hermione or Buffy without Willow or Scooby without all those meddling kids?

1. Cole St. Clair from Linger and Forever by Maggie Stiefvater 
Cole wasn't written to be likeable, heck Maggie Stiefvater herself has said multiple times that Cole is a bad boy and we girls should steer clear. That said, he was a pretty awesome addition to Sam and Grace's world because he has his own demons and actually chose to be a wolf thus showing Sam a whole new side to his wolfish ways.

2. Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter series
I love Looney Lovegood! She is probably one of my favourite characters from the entire series. She's quirky and confident in her skin which is unusual for a lot of YA books. Luna doesn't let other people's opinions affect her and if she was real I'd love to be her BFF.

3. Emmett Cullen from the Twilight Saga
Emmett is possibly my favourite character from Twilight. I love the fact he is clearly a badass, and I love his sense of humour. The scenes with him and Bella's father in Breaking Dawn had me in hysterics, plus he's seriously hot in the movies.

4. Giguhl from the Sabina Kane books by Jaye Wells
A naked cat demon? A naked cat demon! Giguhl is brilliant. He starts out as a regular demon and (minor spoilers) accidentally gets stuck as a cat. In trying to turn him back he looses his fur. Giguhl has a great sense of humour and actually puts up with wearing little handknit sweaters :)

5. Stefan from the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs
A vampire who drives a replica Mystery Machine - seriously how could he not make it onto my list? Stefan is Mercy's connection to the vampire world, but he's also her friend as well which puts him in more than one akward position.

6. Jenks from The Hollows series by Kim Harrison
Jenks is Rachel Morgan's pixy partner and he has some of the best one liners I've ever read. Every book in the series has had me in hysterics - in part due to Jenks. Here are some of my favourites: "You think my kids just popped out of the ground?" "Tink's a Disney whore!" and "Grab the fish and run like hell."

7. Nick from the Secret Circle by L.J. Smith
Dark, brooding and good with his hands I adore Nick. He's also incredibly loyal and will pretty much do anything for his friends, as long as you can get to be his friend. He's my favourite character from the series and I'm curious to see how he is in the TV show as soon as I get a chance to watch it.

8. Bubba from the Southern Vampire Series by Charlaine Harris
If you haven't read the Southern Vampire books I won't spoil Bubba's true identity for you, so I'll just say I wasn't a fan until I read these books. Bubba is an awesome character and I was horrified when I realised he wasn't going to be included in True Blood.

9. Savitar from the Dark Hunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Savitar will eventually be getting his very own book, but at the moment he's mulling about in the background of the other Dark Hunter novels so I get to put him here. He's a bit of a mysterious character who has some serious powers and does whatever he wants, which seems to mostly be hanging on the beach and surfing.

10. Ari and Janco from the Poison trilogy by Maria V. Snyder
I debated between these two before deciding one without the other is like Ben without Jerry. I love both of these two and loved every scene they were in. If you haven't read the series, I'd recommend it based on these two kick-butt hilarious soldiers alone.

Teaser Tuesdays (18)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.

My teaser:

"And then they were out in the vestibule, away from the choking smell of flowers and the subtle smell of death, and all Claire could think was, How is that closure?
   But Eve looked better, and that was what mattered."

~ Page 169, Feast of Fools by Rachel Caine

Midnight Alley by Rachel Caine

Title: Midnight Alley
Author: Rachel Caine
Publisher: Allison & Busby
ISBN: 978-0-7490-7922-2
Pages: 365
Series: The Morganville Vampires #3
Type: Young Adult Paranormal
Source: Purchased
Goodreads


When Claire Danvers realised that vampires run her college town, she tried to transfer out. Leaving Morganville is no longer an option for her so she's trying her best to get along. Claire has traded her freedom for protection for herself and her friends from Amelie, the most powerful vampire in town. Amelie sends Claire to take private lessons from the ancient Myrnin, but that isn't the only danger she faces. Girls are turning up dead all over Morganville, killed by a human, and Claire and Eve find themselves being stalked.

This is the third book in the awesome Morganville Vampires series (after Glass Houses and The Dead Girls' Dance) and I was really looking forward to reading it. Things have changed for Claire and her friends. In order to save Shane, Michael had to become a vampire so now there is a source of conflict in the Glass house as everyone adjusts to this newest change. Shane is having the hardest time adjusting to the idea that his best friend is now a vampire and his anti-vamp issues cause a lot of friction, especially in his relationship with Claire.

As usual the plot is really well thought out and the book well written, revealing even more about Morganville and its vampire residents. The introduction of Myrnin as Claire's tutor means that the scientific side of Morganville can be explored and Claire stumbles across some surprising vampire secrets.

As in the previous book it is the humans who behave worse than the vampires, with school bully Monica trying to use Claire to improve her own standing with the vampires and the reappearance of Eve's psychotic serial killing brother Jason. Jason is deeply creepy and the whole storyline with him is rather disturbing, especially his past. The events of the previous books have also not been forgotten and the vampires of the town are still distrustful of Shane.

I was a little disappointed that the end of the book wraps up very quickly with a slight cliffhanger. The cliffhanger I don't mind, but the book built to a great conclusion that never fully played out. Lots of story threads were tied up quickly and without any real emotional resolution. I really hope that these characters have their storylines continued in future books, especially Myrnin as he was a great addition to Morganville.

All in all, this was a great read and I'm looking forward to Feast of Fools.

Plot: 10/10
Characters: 10/10
Ending: 8/10
Enjoyment: 9/10
Cover: 10/10

Overall: 47/50