Last Breath: The Morganville Vampires

4.5/5I've been debating on how to review this series for a while now. (Or, you know, for as long as I've had this blog, which isn't all that long.) I've thought about doing it from the beginning, book by book. Or two or three books at a time. Or maybe just doing the last couple of books. I even started a review. Obviously, though, I decided to just start with the most recent book, since it just came out.I started this series a couple years ago, when only a couple of the books were out. I almost immediately loved it. And my feelings for the series, and the characters, have only grown the more I've read.The main story with the series, is that Claire starts college in Morganville at sixteen and gets bullied and moves into the Glass House with Eve, Shane, and Micheal. She finds out about the vampires that run the town, and finds her way quite close to the higher ranks. A lot of stuff happens within the other ten books, but I'm not going to talk about all of that, since there's a lot.I like how mature this series seems. Claire is in college, so she's more mature, or just smarter, than most, plus she lives in a house with three people already out of high school. There aren't any parents around, and they all have jobs and all that. Mostly the fact that they're all out of high school and on their own, or only have each other, makes it seem more mature to me. Either way, though, I like this aspect to it.I love Claire. She is my favorite character. I love how smart she is, and that she's in college at such a young age. And she's smart, while also being insecure. And I love Shane. He's so sweet to her, but he's still an actual boy. He has characteristics of an actual boy; he's emotional and violent and intense and sweet and confused by certain things. Their relationship has lots of swoon.All of the characters are good, really, and different from each other, unique. Eve is emotional and dramatic but tough. Micheal is kind of complicated, and kind of the head of the house. Amelie is powerful and the Founder of Morganville, and untouchable. And Myrnin... Myrnin is Myrnin. He's crazy, not completely sane, dangerous, and quite random with all of the modern things he finds. I love his and Claire's relationship, with how they are mostly equals in how they feel for each other. And they love each other, but in a complicated way.There are others, but I'm not going to list any more.In this book, there's something wrong with the vampires. They keep disappearing, and Amelie decides to have them all pack up and move to some other place, because whatever is coming after them is serious. His name is Magnus, and he's not a vampire, he's a draug, which is a water thing. I understand how they works, but I don't really understand why they would be a big enemy to vampires. They're dangerous to them, yea, but the elemental thing didn't really make sense to me.I wasn't sure what to expect with this book. Several books ago, when the Bishop story line ended, there have been more one-book story lines. Which is okay, only it doesn't add as much suspense. And it makes it seem like there are just books coming out for the sake of making more books because the series is popular enough. Not that I'm saying that's what's happening, because that's not how I look at it. And I love the series, so I'm perfectly happy that the series is continuing. And there have been serious plot points happening in each book, even if some of it is more character development things; that is perfectly okay.Aside from the draug thing, there's a big thing that happens with Claire. Which I totally didn't see that coming. I was surprised and horrified. I don't know if I like it or not, but I am wondering if something big is going to come from that. I don't want to say to much and give it away, but I'm wondering if what happened is going to affect her later, and the house.And something big also happens with Amelie at the end. Well, something happened with Amelie and Oliver, which everyone knew was a long time coming, but not that. I was kind of wondering if it was going to be her, but I was still surprised. I'm glad that she didn't go out being a coward, because she was fighting instead of running away. But I'm wondering if that's really going to be it for her, or if there's going to be some twist in the next book. I'm a bit upset at what happened, but it would be a little too cliché for something to save her in the next book.In the last book, Caine added Shane's point of view, and she also added Micheal, Eve, and Amelie's point of view. I didn't mind theirs, but I like Claire and Shane's most. They were all done very well, and I'm glad that everyone has their own voices, but I personally enjoy Shane and Claire more. I find it odd, though, that Claire's chapters are done in third person, while everyone else's are in first. I'm assuming that it's because she started it in third, and when she wrote the other characters later put them in first. But I wonder if that's tricky, or if it just seems natural.I am excitedly anticipating the next book. I always am, though, since I love the story and characters so much.

Also appears on The Screaming Nitpicker.Michael and Eve are ready to ring the wedding bells, but the rest of the town isn't so ready for their marriage. Neither side is willing to let the two races mix and considering previous precedent of what happens when humans and vampires marry, their worries are almost understandable. As the group fights for the couple's right to marry, Claire is seeing a man no one else can see, a nondescript man that...turns to water? Who is he? What is he? Whoever or whatever he is, his presence has the vampires ready to run away, but the capture of people near and dear to them sends them into the monster's lair.See how different my summary is from the back cover summary? That's because the "official" summary lied.Last Breath was a fast-paced thrill ride that could keep a reader glued to their seat. It can be occasionally interrupted by shifts in the point-of-view (there are five narrators this time around, giving the reader a better look at characters they have already come to know well), but it. is generally a straightforward novel. The numerous tension-filled scenes and fights are wonderfully written and fly by in a flash. Funny, shocking (and it really is this time--can you say another main character death?), complex--it's everything a Morganville book should be and just a little bit more.And there went all the praise. Crit time!It appears the reader is supposed to be on Claire and co.'s side about the marriage, but I found myself on Amelie's side. It isn't fair for them to be denied their right to marry, but Amelie has never pretended to be fair. She wants to keep Morganville peaceful and letting the two get married would cost the town what small and fragile peace there is. Solid rationale by a person whose decision could either make a small group unhappy or send the entire town into chaos.The dual plots of Magnus's presence in Morganville connected to the vampires going missing and Michael and Eve's struggle to get married are unevenly balanced--the marriage plot conquers the entire first half of the book with minute appearances from the Magnus plot, then the Magnus plot takes full control and the marriage plot is (understandably) completely forgotten--and I still have questions about it that were never answered. Why could Claire see Magnus when she wasn't supposed to?Somehow, I have only just now managed to notice the lows of the descriptions. Between all the not-facey faces and the eyes-but-not-eyes, I wanted a decision to be made already about what they were or were not. Then there was a gem in Eve being described as poisonously fierce (that is going to be a memorable example of bad description) and after so many descriptions of Eve's Goth makeup and Goth clothes and totally-not-described-but-totally-there Goth underwear, I wanted the book to stop. She's beautiful. She's Goth. Point made. Describing them so much so many times is a waste of precious words.And that was the end of our objective segment (and yes, that was my twisted version of objective). Now is where I stop considering the true quality of the book and get down to how I felt about it in my heart of hearts and yadda yadda yadda.See, I have a longstanding tradition concerning the Morganville Vampires series: I read each book in one sitting during one day. They were just that good (though Bite Club was another story, but that's neither here nor there) and kept me glued to the pages so I could find out where Claire, Shane, Eve, and Michael were going and what they would do.This time? It took me two days, and the tradition was not broken out of necessity. No, it was broken because I was so disinterested in the book that I procrastinated reading it, mostly by working on my NaNoWriMo novel. A terrible sign indeed. (AND I HAVE SAID NOTHING OF MY DARLING MYRNIN WHEN MY LAST TWO REVIEWS OF MORGANVILLE BOOKS BABBLED ABOUT HIM. Could there be a worse sign?)Does the book have problems? Absolutely. Is the book terrible? No. Despite my indifference to it this time around, I do recognize the book's quality (why else would it be getting four stars instead of the three I think it deserves?). It is a marked improvement on Bite Club, but it appears I've checked out on the series at this point. Not even a huge cliffhanger promising that the next book Black Dawn will be a dramatic one full of good fight scenes interests me now.

How Caine keeps it coming with new and original ideas while still keeping our need for Shane, Eve, Claire and Micheal is testament to the series so far.And your in for a treat with this new and believe me, you will never have seen it coming, story!While we know that our favourite housemates may be on reprieve and be 'in' in some ways with the Founder Amelie, Morganville is still not a safe place when teaming with Vampires. But this time it's not humans vs Vampires, we see the emergence of a new enemy and one who is not so easily seen...While oblivious to the threat, we start off almost normal life with Eve and Micheal arranging to try to tie the knot, something which later doesn't exactly go to plan. But for now life seems good for all of 4 and the town seems, like a home almost. The calm before the storm. A storm which quite literally comes which of course in a town where it rains, if you are lucky, twice a year, begins to rain a lot and this is significant in relevance to the enemy which shows to be deadly not just to humans, but to Vampires...It seems this is something Amelie had seen coming, we see the choices become clear of why Morganville was chosen and the origins of the Vampire come to light. With the realization of a new enemy which seems to be claiming more lives than can be saved and some which we love as a reader, we are on edge to it climactic end in bullets, silver and water...While before we have have had mostly Claire's perspective, this time the book, quite appropriately has multiple narratives and for the first time in one book we hear from Eve, Micheal, Claire and Shane, something I am sure any Morganville Vampire will cherishly read :)Cassandra220689

Book eleven and still loving it. This book has several voices, including Amelie, Michael and Eve. I discovered I liked Amelie's voice, she's very regal and thinks about how everything might affect Morganville. Even though some of the choices she makes seem weird and wrong, they're for the good of the town and keeping the peace.This book has one particularly shocking section that I was not expecting and, as is the norm for Rachel Caine's books, there are several small shocks in the book too. One thing I really enjoy is getting into Shane's head more and finding out exactly how he really feels about Claire. It's silly but I feel protective of Claire, we've read her growing up and seen all the hardships she's had.The UK version also had a free short story called Anger Management which is set between Bite Club and Last Breath and focuses on Shane going to a Founder-mandated Counsellor instead of jail. It was very short and I do really enjoy Shane so that's a huge bonus!

The big question has to be why hasn't this series been picked up for a television series by one of the networks. I can't believe this is the eleventh in the series because it is so good.Morganville is awash in torrential rain and in the rain comes something worse than vampires that preys on them as well as humans. Its very hard to review this latest episode without spoilers but its a rollercoaster of emotions where one major character dies and some of the vampires find some of their humanity, oh and so does Monica, almost. What I love about Rachel Caine's writing is that it doesn't read like a screenplay like some authors but having said that the book ends on what would be an amazing season finale. I do wonder how Rachel will fill a whole book with the rest of this story but I've no doubt she will!

Really enjoyed this one! I've loved the whole series so far (though it has had lows as well as highs) and this latest book was a good indeed! It had a cracking twist that had me frantic to know how it all ended and then when I was done I found I was wishing for more! Devastated I have to wait for the next book to see how all the characters will carry on from the mass of events in Last Breath.I think the best thing about this book is all the new developments. Though it may seem to some that the storyline has opened up a whole other can of worms for Claire and her friends to deal with, I actually found myself very glad Rachel Caine hasnt ran out of plot for Morganville.However, I will say there were one thing that only slightly let it down (hence 4 stars). The narration changes. While I think its interesting to hear the voices of other characters in the story (for example Shane who is a great character and its a plus to understand his erratic character a bit more) I felt that the chapters told from Ameile's point of view werent as believable as I would have liked. I just didn't feel they perfectly matched the image Caine has built of her character.Despite this, it was yet another good story for the Morganville guys.

Rachel Caine never fails to disappoint me because the series is truely amazing!This is definately a must read book and is well worth it. Now i have to wait imaptiently for May 2012 for the next one.This book allowed us to read in the viewpoints of Amelie, Eve, Shane and Michael, which were all equally thrilling to read, especially Michael and Shane, well just because ;)Hearing Myrin's voice in the next one would be very interesting, i love him and his character and it would be fascinating to hear what goes on in that head of his.The concept for the plotline of the book was really original - who knew there was something even higher on the predatory rank out there. All i have to say is watch out Morganville.This was the first book out of the series that actually made me bawl buckets. It was emotional whilst being mysterious and adventurous and the humour is always top notch.