Anthology - Dark & Stormy Knights

A Questionable Client by Ilona Andrews
Kate Daniels is hired to serve as a bodyguard for Saiman. Apparently Saiman pissed off some members of the Russian Mafia by stealing something from them. They want it back and won’t stop at nothing to get it.

This was definitely the best story in this book. I love the Kate Daniels series and it was great to see how Kate and Saiman meet each other before she gets involved in the whole shape shifter world.

Even Hand by Jim Butcher
Johnnie Marcone protects a young woman and a child, who both has escaped some nasty swamp creature. She was captured when she got caught stealing information for her boss. Johnnie isn’t happy about it when he finds out and of course he will take advantage of the situation.

I never read the Harry Dresden books, but apparently this Johnnie Marcone character is from that series. Even though I didn’t know who Harry Dresden was, I enjoyed this short story. Maybe I need to check out the rest too.

The Beacon by Shannon K. Butcher
A hunter tracks down human beacons, which will lure evil creatures called Terraphages to Earth without knowing. He will assassinate them before these creatures’ breaks through the wall, but this time it’s hard. The beacon is a little girl with a beautiful defensive mother.

I know this author and I like her style, so I was happy to see that there was a story from her in this novel. It was good, enough to sparkle my curiosity to find some more books by this author.

Even a Rabbit will bite by Rachel Caine
The last dragonslayer has been summoned to train her last replacement before she can put her weapons away and retire. But the last dragon alive on Earth has some other plans for her and will make her job much more difficult then it should be.

Rachel Caine is already one of my favorite authors and she didn’t disappoint me with this short story. I would have loved to see this story more detailed, especially about the slayers past and the other dead dragons. But we cannot have everything.

Dark Lady by P.N. Elrod
Jack Flemming is a vampire and an investigator. A young woman came to him; she wants his help to clear her fiancés name and to keep her alive, during that process

The story was nice, but didn’t blow me away. I’ve read some other short stories by this author, but I have to be honest I’m not a fan. For some reason those story don’t appeal to me.

Beknighted by Deidre Knight
An artist / painter has to work together with a gorgeous, but dangerous man to free a knight in a painting, who has been haunting her dreams for the past couple of months.

I love Deidre Knight’s books and I enjoy this short one too, but for some reason I miss something. Maybe this story was too short and needed some more background to make it a terrific story.

Shifting Star by Vicki Pettersson
Skamar has been contacted by Zoe Archer, to look into these missing young girls. They both know that the Tulpa is after Zoe’s granddaughter and is now kidnapping young girls who have some similarity.

I shouldn’t read this part because I knew it was part of the Sign of the Zodiac Series and I haven’t read those yet. But I couldn’t resist myself and now I know that I cannot put it off any longer. I need to read the rest of the series soon.

Rockwood & Mrs. King by Lilith Saintcrow
A dhampir vampire hunter helps a young woman, who recently became a widow. Well at least she thinks she was, but now her dead husband comes back from the grave to hunt her dreams. She is about to find out that the world is full of creatures and her dead husband is one of them.

I’m already a fan of Lilith Saintcrow after I’ve read her Dante Valentine series and this story is no exception. The only downside; it was too short, I would have love to see more of this Rockwood and how he was made.

God’s creatures by Carrie Vaughn
Cormac is a bounty hunter, who kills creature for a living. He’s called in when a werewolf is killing some cattle and they want it dead before it will take human lives.

Another short story that’s part of a series, this time the Kitty Norville. Again I didn’t read the series, but I will check it out soon. This story made me curious to see what’s more out there.

Overall this anthology was good, the stories of Ilona Andrews, Rachel Caine and Shannon K. Butcher made it worth reading, and the rest of the novel was okay. I definitely need to check out some of the series.

Rachel Caine - Carpe Corpus

Evil vampire Mr. Bishop is finally in charge in Morganville and that isn’t really a good thing. Donating blood to blood banks to feed the vampires and keeping their secrets was a good thing, because they would protect you against the others, but recently everything has changed. Red Cross doesn’t exist anymore, because Mr. Bishop doesn’t believe in that way.

Claire’s life isn’t going as planned either, her vampire friend Michael is one of Mr. Bishop’s slaves, her best friend Eve hates her since Claire has been giving to serve Mr. Bishop. And Claire’s boyfriend Shane is a prisoner and is facing execution. And besides that all the vampires who became Claire’s friends are missing or are captives of Mr. Bishop.

Claire knows this cannot go any further and needs to come up with a plan to save Shane and Michael. In order to do that she needs Eve’s help and her trust back.

Carpe Corpus by Rachel Caine is the sixth book in the Morganville Vampires Series. Another great book you don’t want to put down, because you want to know exactly what comes next.

Claire is growing up in this series, she has to take adult decisions to make sure her friends and family are save from her enemies. Besides that her friendship and teenage love for Shane is growing into something more.

Of course we see the friendship between the four friends tested…again…and for a while you see cracks into that friendship. Michael is one of Mr. Bishop’s slaves, Shane is in custody, Eve is mad at them all and Claire seems to be working for Mr. Bishop. But has Claire betrayed her friends or has she been working behind the scenes to save them all.

I know there is much more to explore in Morganville and the friendship between those four, so I cannot wait for the next novel.

Rachel Caine - Lord of Misrule

Mr. Bishop, the founder Amelie’s father is still around and has huge plans to take over the town. After the huge fight at the ball, he needs to find another way to take control over Morganville, even if that means using his own daughter to get what he wants. But what Mr. Bishop doesn’t know is that Amelie is working behind the scenes urging her people to resist him and keep supporting her.

That isn’t the only problem; it seems that a mystery call goes out to all the vampires and that the youngest vampires are walking into the sun, even when they don’t want to do it. So Claire and her friends are trying hard to rescue the innocent vampires when they can, but also keep an eye on their own vampire friend Michael, who is the youngest vamp of them all.

But Claire has more things on her mind, she has to make one difficult decision and she really doesn’t want to make it, but to survive it all she needs to do this.

Lord of Misrule by Rachel Caine is the fifth book in the Morganville Vampire Series. I cannot tell you enough that this series is fabulous and will make you an addict from the first book.

Morganville is a town where vampires are living freely. Founder Amelie has return to town some time ago and has taken Claire Danvers under her protection. She wants one thing in return; Claire has to work together with crazy Myrnin to find a cure against the madness, which elder vampires are suffering from. In the last couple of months the humans and vamps have finally learned to live with each other in harmony….well until Amelie’s father shows up.

What I love about Claire Danvers is that although she’s young, she’s more mature then the other students of her age. Not only is she’s going to college to get her degree, but after school she’s helping Myrnin to find a cure, to help other vampires from madness…vampires who are slowly becoming her friends.

The friendship between Michael, Shane, Eve and Claire will be tested in this novel; Claire has to make a tough decision. She knows they won’t understand her reasons and that might cost her their friendship.

The books are getting better and better, Rachel Caine cannot write fast enough for me in this series, because I’m already looking forward to the next one.

Rachel Caine - Feast of Fools

The residents of The Glass House, Michael, Eve, Shane and Clair are having visitors. A group of new vampires have come to town and among them is Mr. Bishop, the founder Amelie’s father. He is one dangerous vampire and not one to mess around with. Mr. Bishop wants to take over Morganville and won’t stop until he’s in charge.

So he’s throwing a ball and if you are invited, then you have to attend. Every single vampire in town must bring one human as their guest. Claire knows this isn’t good and she has to find a way to get an invitation so she can protect her friends.

The only vampire she can ask for help is her friend Myrnin, but he’s not mentally well. They have been working on a cure to make him and every future vampire who dealing with the same problems sane again. But will the medicine they develop work long enough for Myrnin to get through the ball or will Claire or one of her friends is killed?

Feast of Fools by Rachel Caine is the fourth book in the Morganville Vampires Series and a great read. I’ve been hooked up on this series from book one. These books are so addicted that when you start reading you won’t be able to put them down until you read the last page.

We all know that Claire Danvers is a college student in this small town called Morganville. She lives in the Glass House with her friends Michael, Eve and Shane. And Shane is becoming more than just a friend. The vampires and humans are living together in peace as long as the humans fulfill their part of the deal.

What I really love about this series is the huge bond between the friends. Even though they don’t always agree with one and others decisions, they always have each others back.

One of the great things about this series is that the books are following each other up pretty good. You don’t have any gab and miss some important information. The only thing I’m not fond off is the growing cliffhangers at the end of each book. It just want you to grab the next book to see what will happen next and sometime we have to wait till it’s released. I really love this series.

Rachel Caine - Midnight Alley

Claire Danvers is in trouble now that she has signed a contract that connects herself to the powerful vampire Amelia, in exchange for protection for herself, her friends and family. Amelia is the town’s founder and one of the scary vampires around. She gives Claire a bracelet to wear so everyone knows she’s under Amelia’s protection.

Claire will do anything to keep the bracelet hidden from her three friends Eve, Michael and Shane, but that isn’t ease because they all living together. But Claire will soon know why Amelia wants Claire under her protection and it hasn’t anything to do with blood donation. Claire will be the assistant to Myrnin, one of the oldest vampires around. He is a brilliant alchemist and scientist but also mentally unstable and very dangerous, so Claire has to watch her back constantly.

These researches Claire and Myrnin do can help the vampire population form insanity, but will Claire help them and betray humankind that way? In the meantime an underground newspaper in Morganville is determined to expose Michael as the newest vampire and kill him for good.

Midnight Alley by Rachel Caine is the third novel in her Morganville Vampire Series and just like the previous two, absolutely fabulous.

The friendship between Shane, Michael, Eve and Claire is strong, but Shane has a hard time dealing with the fact that Michael was turned into a vampire. But he is trying real hard to come to terms with it.

Eve’s evil brother Justin is back and is determined to get his revenge on her for turning him in and he found a perfect way to do just that, by dumping a dead body of a young girl in the backyard of the Glass House. So the suspicions will be on Shane and not him.

Of course the series wouldn’t be complete without Monica Morrell, the bully who messes around with Claire when she first started school. But now Monica wants to be on Claire’s side and we all know that doesn’t sound good.

This Young Adult series is one of the best in that genre and I’m pretty sure I would love all the other books next to come. I cannot wait to see what will happen with the four friends and their families.

Rachel Caine - The dead girls' dance

At the end of Glass Houses we had an awesome cliff-hanger and the story begins exactly where they left off. Claire, Shane and Eve are in shock what Shane’s father and his fellow vampire slayer have done to Michael. Shane’s father returned to Morganville after a disturbing phone call of his son, but he is there for one reason only; to kill as many vampires he can find and nothing or anyone stands in his way.

Shane lost his sister a few years ago during a fire, his mother wasn’t able to life with it and died shortly after that. Shane and his father blame the vampires for this event and have been planning for revenge ever since. Shane returned back to Morganville so he could give the inside information to his father, but living with Michael, Eve and Claire change his mind, but the mistake he made is already to late and now Michael has to pay the price for it.

The four young people realize that the problems Shane’s dad is causing will jeopardy their protection of the Founder. The rules are simple if they’re involved in killing vampires, the protection is gone and they all will be shooting ducks for some of the vampires who want them dead. When Shane is accused of killing one of the vampires, it’s up to Claire and Eve to find the real killer and save Shane.

The dead girls’ dance by Rachel Caine is the second novel in her Morganville vampire series and definitely a fabulous one.

The friendship between Shane, Michael, Eve and Claire is getting stronger by the minute, no matter what happens to one of them, the others are there to pick up the pieces. We even witness a romance between Shane and Claire, although Shane knows Claire is young and under age, he cannot ignore his feelings for her. So they are taking baby steps to give their growing love a chance, but it’s hard when most of the town is hunting you.

I love the fact that bully Monica is getting a little of what is coming to her, when she turns up at the other end of the table and is the victim for once. And if it weren’t for Claire and her friends, this could end up real bad for her.

Another great aspect of this series is that the books are following each other up pretty well, it’s better to read this series in the right order, or otherwise you’ll be missing some crucial parts of the storyline.

At the end Rachel Caine ends with a huge cliff-hanger, leaving readers panting and begging for the next novel. I have to say one of the best Young Adult novels I’ve ever read and I’m definitely going to read the rest of the series.

Rachel Caine - Glass houses

Claire Danvers is a sixteen year old teen and a freshman at college. Although she’s very young her parents decided to send her to school in Morganville, where she is living on campus. Popular Monica and her followers have the picks on Claire to the point that bullying Claire almost kills her. So Claire is determined to find an off campus apartment and she believes to have found the right place in Morganville. The three roommates reluctantly accept Claire even though she is underage. But when they discover who is bullying Claire, they cannot let her stay at campus. From her roommates Claire discovers that most of the town is under protection and control of vampires, but not their house or the people living inside.

Because the house has powerful protection of its own, it keeps the vampires out and the roommates save inside. When Claire returns to classes the attacks of Monica doesn’t stop, she even sends her vampire friends after Claire. But Claire gets help from her roommates, Shane hates Monica and he knows that with Michael unavailable during daytime he is the right choice to keep her save. Even Eve is determined to protect Claire from the bullies. Claire discovers that the vampires are looking for an ancient book, so she is determined to find it and trade it for her and her roommate’s safety.

Glass houses by Rachel Caine is the first novel in her Morganville series and I have to say I like it. Rachel Caine created a world full of powerful vampires but with a reality so you can relate to it.

Claire is a sixteen year old girl, who starts as a freshman at a new college. She’s smart, skip a class so she is the youngest of the class and when she made a correct to Monica about something they handle in class, she’s the target of this bully. From that moment Monica and her followers are making Claire’s life a living hell. So when they abuse Claire almost to dead, Claire decide to find a living place outside the campus and she finds with Michael, Shane and Eve. When Claire discovers vampires are for real and that they are living targets at night, she is determined to find the one thing they wanted the most…an ancient book. That special book has to make sure she and her roommates are safe from all the threats in this town.

But that’s not all what Claire discovers, by accident she discovers Michael’s big secret and why he’s keeping this from his roommates. She has to promise not to tell anyone, but can she keep this secret.

With a little cliff-hanger at the end this author lures you back to the second novel and find out what will happens to Claire and her friends.