Slow start but the end got great i won't look at chess the.same.

A solid continuation that's still plagued with perennial issues that probably exist, in part, due to the short gestation period between instalments. There's a popcorn-movie digestibility to the series that I'd hate to undersell, but it comes at the expense of greater character investment. Amelie's father Bishop feels like an ominous yet intangible presence, which is a difficult thing for a potentially interesting antagonist to overcome. Or a reader to fully appreciate. When villains have an unknowable quality like this, as is common with a lot of Rachel Caine antagonists actually, they can do and say just about anything; they can't be predicted, which means they can't be understood, and that can feel like a cop-out.

Still locing this series, so glad books 5, 6 and 7 arrived yeseterday!

This is the first book in this series where I’m gone ‘what?’ At the cliffhanger at the end. I loved it. It really felt like we’re getting into the gritty of the story. Excited to see where it goes from here.

4.5

Unfortunately nothing really happens for the majority of this book. The action only starts in the last 3 chapters and is rushed through. So since most of this book is just build up, that leaves plenty of time for more teen angst about whether or not Shane and Claire will have sex. Weirdly, every other character is fixated on this - Eve talks about it, Claire's parents talk about it, even Monica mentions it. Frankly, I'd think the people of Morganville would have bigger things to worry about, and I'm just beyond caring as the makeout scenes are getting very predictable - there's lots of rolling around and touching unsexy bodyparts until Shane's conscience pricks. How exciting, not.

Another annoying thing about this series is that Claire constantly comments on the attractiveness of every male character. She'll just randomly start waxing lyrical about how devastating Michael's smile is (hello, he's your boyfriend's best friend) or how she couldn't imagine finding Myrnin sexy, or how Richard Morrell is hot. Erm, no. It's gross, there's no need to objectify everyone you meet Claire.

To be honest, the plot of this book was an improvement on the last one, but there were some glaring continuity errors. Firstly, Michael is a vampire, so it should be the humans who require an invite to the house, yet vampires ask for invites on numerous ocassions (Oliver and Ysandre both ask) and the humans are strolling in and out (Richard, Jason and Miranda to name a couple). Another thing that bugged me was that

Spoiler

Amelie said to Claire in one of the previous books that if she was staked then it wouldn't have any effect, she'd just take it out and be annoyed at her clothes being ruined, yet at the end of this book, Amelie gets staked and nearly dies - or at least is seriously injured as she's on the ground, needs to be carried out, and Oliver and Sam have to remove the stake. It's possible that Amelie was lying to Claire but I think it's more likely that the author just wanted more drama.

Overall, I'm enjoying the main plot with Myrnin finding a cure for the vampire disease, but that stoyline barely features, most of the book is padded out with high school drama and random events that serve no purpose (like Monica handcuffing Claire to a bathroom for no apparent reason). The action gets shoved in at the end, feels rushed through and ultimately everything ends with a cliffhanger. This series is quite a frustrating read.