Glass Houses by Rachel Caine

Glass Houses (Morganville Vampires, #1)
by Rachel Caine

YA Paranormal
256 pages, softcover
Target Reader: 14+

Penguin Group
978-0451219947
Release Date: October 2006



From the publisher:

Welcome to Morganville, Texas.
Just don't stay out after dark.

College freshman Claire Danvers has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation, where the popular girls never let her forget just where she ranks in the school's social scene: somewhere less than zero.

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.

Read Sample Chapters HERE.

Do not read this book.

Seriously.

Unless you're prepared to buy the entire series and lock yourself away, neglect your house, your kids, your husband—and just read, read, read until you're done.

Because it was that good. And if you're thinking you can read just one book at a time, think again. This is the Lays potato chip of vampire stories—and each book ends with a killer cliff-hanger.

But to back up a bit. . . My sister has been bugging me to find her a "book like Twilight" for ages now. And there isn't one. Not really. But I've been reading vampire books off and on for months now and while some of them are good, most of them have way to much swearing, violence and sex for my tastes.

But this series is really good. Oh wait. I said that already, didn't I?

This is how good it was—I started reading Glass Houses (book 1) on Friday after work. Finished at about 11:00 p.m.

Do you want to know how Glass Houses ends? Yes, you do. It ends with one of the main characters two seconds away from having a knife plunged into his heart! Not fair at all. (Unless, of course, you have a Kindle and you can immediately order book two and start reading it in less than a minute!) (Message to DH: Thank you, thank you, thank you—I love my Kindle!)

Okay. So. Main character is Claire, who is sixteen, extra smart and ready to go off to college. Her parents won't let her go to MIT or Yale because they are too far away and she is too young. They send her to a small college nearby, thinking it will be better for her. What they don't know, but Claire soon discovers, is the town is ruled by vampires. And the college is ruled by a snotty girl named Monica, who pushes Claire down the stairs and threatens to kill her. Claire moves out of the dorm and into a house with two guys and another girl—and the vampire fun begins.

While Twilight is a romance with some suspense and adventure thrown in, the Morganville Vampires series is suspense and adventure with some romance thrown in. I actually like that better. There is some swearing. Some violence (it is a vampire story, after all) but it's not too explicit. There's no sex in this book, but there is very descriptive kissing (Just skip a paragraph or two).

I read the first five books between Friday and Monday. Book #6 comes out in June. Rachel Caine also writes the Weather Warden series but I'm not even going to go there until I have a full weekend with nothing to do.

Plot:

Characters:

Ending:


Cover: Really? That's the best they could do?



Content Ratings

Language: Some light swearing.

Violence: Some of the vampire stuff is a little grisly, but not too intense.

Drugs/Alcohol: Some drinking.

Immorality: Two of the characters have an intimate relationship but we don't have to watch it. There's some pretty steamy kissing scenes.

Values/Themes: Well, it's vampires.

Age Appropriate: I'd say 16 or older.

Writing Mechanics: Engrossing! Wonderful!


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