Reviews: Glass Houses and The Dead Girls' Dance

(Purchased by me)

I have finished reading the first two books in The Morganville Vampires Series by Rachel Caine.

I will start off by giving a synopsis of each book followed by a review of each book! Enjoy!

p.s beware of some small spoilers below for both books

Glass Houses (Book 1) Synopsis(from wikipedia):

"Is the first book in the series. College freshman Claire Danvers has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation. Being two years younger at sixteen and already smarter than most in the party college, TPU (or better known as TPEWWWW) life was never going to be easy. Monica Morell, Jennifer and Gina, better known as the Monikettes beat her up and make her life hell. Monica is the most popular girl in the college and she has connections. The popular girls never let Claire forget just where she ranks in the school's social scene: somewhere less than zero. After a violent confrontation, Claire is threatened that she will "get what's coming to her" by Monica. She believes that they are attempting to seriously hurt her if she stays in the dorm.

When Claire heads off-campus however, the imposing old house where she finds a room may not be that much better. Her new roommates (Eve, Shane and Michael) all have their secrets, but the biggest secret of all isn't really a secret - well, only to Claire. But Claire and her new friends come out fighting when the town's deepest secrets come crawling out, hungry for fresh blood. In this book, secrets come to light. We discover that Eve, the goth roommate, has a brother, Jason. As children, the two were beaten by a vicious and young vampire by the name of Brandon, who proves to be a problem for the girls. There's a mystery behind the death of Shane's little sister in a fire that burned down their home and killed her. Did Monica set the fire as retribution for Shane humiliating her? Also in this book, Michael, the angelic beauty who disappears in the daytime, is in fact a 'ghost'. More or less, he's a half-vampire (or so Claire thinks) who disappears during the daylight hours... literally."

My thoughts:
    The beginning of the book is slow. I really thought, why does everyone like this book so much, nothing really had me attached to it, but I continued to read because I really have heard nothing but amazing things about it. And you know what, I am glad I listened to alllll those people, because once Claire moves into the Glass House, the book just comes to life. Claires character is everchanging and she shows the most growth throughout the book, going from mousy new freshman to best friend willing to go the extra mile to help out her friends. She also goes from being sheltered to being tossed head first into what morganville is, a place ran by vampires, and she handles herself relatively well. I absoutely love the world that Caine created, everything from the psychic shields to vampire protection to secrets pertaining to the vampires. You'll have to read it to understand what i'm talking about. And you definately should. I recommend this book to anyone who likes vampires, young adult,  and a touch of romance. I will be getting the next books in the series soon, very soon.

The Dead Girls' Dance (Book 2) Synopsis(from Wikipedia):
"The second book in the series, it continues from the cliffhanger ending of the first book.The book starts with the arrival of Shane's anti-vampire father (who tries to murder Michael) and causes havoc in Morganville. His killing spree starts with Brandon, the evil troller. Shane gets blamed for Brandon's murder and is caged as a result. (Caged meaning the punishment for murderers, which is being locked in a cage and publicly burned to death). Soon after that, Claire sees Oliver holding a friendly conversation with Shane's father and starts to get suspicious. While trying to free Shane, Eve gets out an arsenal of vampire-killing equipment and Michael locks her away in her room after mesmerizing her. Eve takes Claire on a search for help the next morning, but Claire gets kidnapped by Monica and her pet Monickettes. They are intercepted by Shane's father, who takes Monica hostage. To get help from Sam the vampire (incredibly, also Michael's grandfather!), Claire and Eve go to the Dead Girls Dance to meet him. Claire meets a boy called Ian, who offers her a drink. Ian turns out to be an amateur rapist. Eve finds Sam just in time and they leave the party unharmed. When they return to the house, they find that Michael has begged Amelie to turn him into a vampire. He is turned and soon after that, they find that Shane has been freed by his father. After a period of fighting, Shane's father leaves town, and Claire strikes a contract with Amelie."

My thoughts:
     If I thought the first book was good, then this one was great. The pace of the book was perfect and I had to read it in two sittings because I just didn't want to put it down. I love the closeness of the four main characters and the lengths they are willing to go to protect one another. If there is anything negative I have to say about the book, is it that Caine introduces a new character and situations and they just don't go anywhere. I haven't read the next book, so it is possible she was just setting up for that book, but what I am referring to seemed to just disappear and then there was nothing which was odd. So i'll hold off judgement on that part until I read on. But don't get me wrong, I still loved the book. It's one of my new favorite series. Don't take my word for it though, go grab the new 2 in 1 book consisting of the first two books in the series, thats what I got, and check it out for yourself.

I don't have a rating system, and people always include the cover in ratings, so instead of saying the cover is a whatever out of whatever I will just say that I thought the cover was done well. The striking blue stands out perfectly against the black and the design is very pretty, it made me want to read this/these books even more.

These are both part of my 2010 Reading Challenge, so I will be posting my reviews at J.Kayes Book Blog as well.

Next up is Firespell by Chloe Neill, followed by Break by Hannah Moskowitz.


Sherry <3
 

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