Lord of Misrule by Rachel Caine

I must admit that I had my doubts about this book when it arrived in my mailbox early last week. It's not that it's YA as I lurve me some YA. It's not that it's Paranormal, anyone who has ever read this blog or my posts from d&D knows that. What gave me pause was the whole Book Five thing. Now again, don't get me wrong, I love series, but I was leery about starting this one on the fifth book, especially in a series that so many friends of mine have already raved about. Crazy I know, I started Evanovich with TO THE NINES and I didn't come to Charlaine Harris until CLUB DEAD, of course I immediately ran out and bought the earlier books in those series and haven't missed one since, but I wasn't sure that could happen again, I mean, hello, did you read yesterdays posts, remember me? The newly cynical reader? But alas, it would seem that my bank account is going to be missing the exact dollar amount it would take to buy four books. Sigh. I think the publisher may be on to something - wanna sell lots of books? Give away one in the middle of a series, trust me if it's as good as this one, the rest of the books in the series will be bought up at lightening pace.

Lord of Misrule The Morganville Vampires-Book Five by Rachel Caine
(BCC)

MORGANVILLE TEXAS. JUST SOUTH OF NORMAL.
In the college town of Morganville, vampires and humans have coexisted in (relatively) bloodless harmony...until the arrival of Bishop, a master vampire who threatens to put the evil back in evil undead and smash the fragile peace. But Bishop isn't the only threat...

Violent black clouds promise a storm of devastating proportions. As student Claire Danvers and her friends prepare to defend Morganville against the elements- both natural and unnatural - the unexpected happens: Morganville's vampires begin to vanish one by one. Discovering why leads Claire to one last choice: Swear allegiance to Bishop ...or die.

Sounds good, right? Well, that would be because it is. Now, since the author is obviously a doll, there is a THE STORY SO FAR... chapter, which does a fairly good job of giving a quick rundown so that the "new to the series" reader (me) can follow along. Of course this pre-book rundown is only a couple of pages, so I was still lost on a bunch of points.

Basically, from what I could gather, there was a vampire that founded the town of Morganville, Amelie. Now, in Morganville vampires and humans co-exist. It's a safe haven sort of town for vampires, and some or most of the humans there pledge their allegiance to certain vampires and are then under their protection (? - if you've read the series and I'm botching this up but good let me know). Bishop, Amelie's dad has come to Morganville and now wants to take it over and make sure that vampires really do rule and only humans who are a walking vending machine (they actually use this term in the book) will be allowed.

Of course, Amelie is not going to go down easily, and Claire along with her best friends Eve and Michael, as well as her boyfriend Shane are all willing (if not so calmly) to help stop Bishop from taking over.

Also from what I can ascertain is that Claire, though in college, is actually only 16 or 17. It was also clear that Claire was vital to the vampires, but I was never really sure why they needed her alive and protected so badly. There is some sort of disease floating through the vampire community, and Claire seems to be helping to find the cure, and by her age and the fact that she's in college it's obvious she's extremely gifted. However, I also got the impression it was more than just her mind that had the vampires so keen to keep her around. It also seemed hinted at that her boyfriend Shane may have more to him than even Claire knows. Hence me gonna go buy the other books in the series.

Anyway, we follow Claire as she and her friends race against time to save Morganville from total destruction. But all Hell's breaking loose, some of the humans have decided they think it would be a good thing if the fighting vampires killed each other off, and they're more than happy to help speed that along any way they can, and a monster of a storm is heading right towards Morganville with more than enough power to destroy the town on its own. Before long it's clear that Claire can't really trust anyone, because friends could turn out to be enemies and enemies may very well turn into, if not friends, allies.

When storm meets war the end result is so terrifyingly fantastic, that I was sitting on the edge of my seat unable to tear myself away until the very end where I was left panting for more. Caine has crafted a universe that is so well built that while reading there is no doubt in your mind that this place and these people really do exists. Caine has found a new fan and cheerleader in this reader, and I look forward to catching up with this series and continuing to follow it until the end. I expect I'll also be buying Caine's other series, but I think I'll start that on Book 1 (unless of course, some one *hint, hint* wanted to send me, oh I don't know, and autographed complete set *BG*).

Go get the book if you're a fan of the series, I really think this is one book you'll not want to miss. For those of you who have yet to start the series, I really do suggest starting with Book 1 (Glass Houses) just so you don't have as many questions as I did/do. Plus, we can go on that particular reading journey together!

But just in case you have any doubts, let me share with you a small bit of one of my favorite scenes from the book:

Shane said, "Some of those same people killed your son."

Theo looked at him with calm, unflinching eyes. "And without forgiveness, there is never any peace. I tell you this from the distance of many centuries. My son gave his life. I won't reply to his gift with anger, not even for those who took him from me. Those same poor, sad people will wake up tomorrow grieving their own losses, I think, if they survive at all. How can hating them heal me?

Take Care

Cynical Reader and Go Buy This Book

You may have noticed that I've been eerily silent all over the blog-o-sphere lately and I apologize for my silence, I sincerely do, but please give me this chance to explain with this handy-dandy little list.

• I've been busy: Well, duh. Who isn't these days, right?
• I quit smoking so I don't have as much time to read: Bear with me here, I didn't smoke in the house, I would go outside, so when I had a smoke break, I had a book in my hand. It really did make reading so much simpler. Now I feel kind of guilty if I just sit down and read.
• I've been sick and so have the kids: This is all true, but of course, not for the entirety of the past few months that I've been MIA.
• I have been uncommonly addicted to the aps on MySpace and have been spending way too much computer time on them when I should be doing other things: This one, unfortunately, is true. Thankfully, my addiction is waning and I'm able to tear myself away from them fairly easily.
• My schedule at work has been way wonky and is causing me all sorts of stress: Very true, but thankfully, we're getting a bit of a schedule worked out and I should have my afternoons free to clean house and blog.

"Cynics are made, not born."

And while all of these are true, they aren't the real reason. No, the real reason is that I've went from Rabid Reader to Cynical Reader.

I haven't always been this way, but I've noticed that for the past several months I look at the books I'm reading with more harshness than before. When I used to be able to fall in lurve with a book fairly easily, I've gotten to where it takes an author working their ass off to make me enjoy the thing. I mean, the book has to bring its A-Game if it wants me to even like it a little, where as before, I was a pretty easy sale.

Will this help me as I begin to pick up the blogging reins again, or will it hurt me? I actually kind of liked the old Reader me and while it took me a while to come to terms with new Reader me, I think I may like this side of me too. Only time will tell if this will make me a better book blogger or worse. At first, I thought I was maybe just in a funk, but when my standard cure for that didn't work, I realized it was something else, something was shifting in my reading life.

And while I can attribute my cynsism to a few key aspects, I can't really pin point when the change occurred. So, bear with me these next few posts as I find my new voice to go with this new view.

I've also realized that with the job and kids, my writing, and oh yeah, those darn MySpace aps, I can't do this blog completely alone, so I've asked a friend of mine to chime in every once in a while, she's graciously agreed, and Jenny will be joining me here on Novel Reads very soon. I'll have a formal introduction in a few days.

I will say this though, I'm not completly unable to enjoy books, it just takes me a little longer to finish them. I'm not quite finished with Lord Of Misrule The Morganville Vampires-Book Five by Rachel Caine (started it Sunday, it's out today) and I'm totally diggin' it. I'll blog it tomorrow, but it was released today, GO GET IT! I really think you'll enjoy.

Take Care

Breaking Radio Silence

Will be back live shortly. Things have been insane around here, but hopefully will be normal soon. Here's a short video for the book I just finished.



See ya soon.

Take Care

Marta Acosta Contest

My review of The Bride of Casa Dracula will be posted tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy this wonderful book trailer that the extremely talented Marta Acosta made for her newest release. Once my review goes live, there will be 1 day left to enter the contest. All you must do is leave a question for Marta in the comments of one of these posts and you're entered. I will then gather all the questions, send them to Marta and randomly pick a winner. The winner will be announced when I post the interview with Marta.

In the meantime, check out some of these other reviews of The Bride, trust me, you're gonna want this book!

Bitten By Books

Amberkatze's Blog

the book girl

Darque Reviews



Take Care

Update

I'll be back tomorrow. I've been sick lately and today was Bear's birthday. I'm gonna hit the hay right now but will post a review tomorrow. Sorry for the radio silence.

Novel Chats - Part ?

Nightwalker by Jocelynn Drake

If ever there was a BCC that did the worst possible job in describing the book within, the BCC on this book would be it. I almost didn't buy this book and I would have been missing out. Thank goodness for other online review sites though, because I went ahead and bought it and fell in love. There are several reasons I'm not doing a full post on this one, 1) the books been out a while and everyone seems to have already read and reviewed it because 2) the book has hit the lists and doesn't actually need my little bitty help in getting word out. I did want to chat it though, because I really enjoyed Drake's style. Her writing had a very poetic quality to it, that under most circumstances would bore me to death or have me rolling my eyes, but in this instance captured my imagination. Drake used beautiful prose to build a very convincing world with real characters I can't wait to read more about. This one gets a very solid A.

fringe benefits by Valerie Frankel

I was a bit slow in picking this book up, as it is Book 4 in a series I had never heard of. However, once I did pick it up, I really enjoyed it. I found it easy to follow the story line and grasp relationships. Since fringe is YA, I tend to look at these a bit different, and as far as my would I pass this on to the young women I know to read test, the answer is, probably, once they hit a certain age. While Adora Benet was a nice change from some of the superficial teen queen of some YA novels out there, she still spoke way too freely about sex with her boyfriend, and hey, I'm not dumb, I know this happens, but as a mother of young children I shudder to think about it. Other than that, I adored this strong willed young character and enjoyed watching the world through her eyes as she spent a summer separate from her friends and faced some very life altering situations. I give this one a very solid B.

Cutting Loose by Susan Andersen

I've been a fan of Andersen for some time. I love the way she can take a storyline that's been done over and over again, and make it seem new again. I love how her characters seem so real and how she's always been able to draw me into their lives and seriously care about them. But Cutting Loose just really fell short for me. It's only been a few weeks since I read the book, and I can't really remember much about it except for my great disappointment in the heroine. In fact, I remember thinking that the wrong name was put on the cover of the book, so disappointed in CL was I. All of the reasons I have come to enjoy Andersen were absent in the writing of this tale, and I found myself disliking just about every character in it. I know that I will not like every book a favorite author pens, but more times than not I can find something redeeming in the pages, but this was a not time. I can only hope that the next book of the Sisterhood Diaries is back to the Andersen I've grown to love. This one gets a D.

Don't forget my contest right now, just look for the link over in the sidebar for details.

Take Care

Marta Acosta Contest

Egads! Has it really been a week since I blogged last? Sorry, really sorry about that. However, it would seem that when a person quits the smoking habit, they lose half their brain. I have no attention span right now, my house is getting cleaner and cleaner, and my Books That Need Reviewed Before I Totally Forget What They Were About list is getting larger by the minute. But at least my health is going to benefit!

Anyway, I think I've finally come down from the smoke-jones enough to blog regularly again. I haven't forgotten my contest, so let's officially kick it off now. Those that have already entered, don't worry, you're still good.

Marta Acosta has this wonderful book trailer for her first book Happy Hour at Casa Dracula. I'm also gonna post this handy little linky loo to my "review" of the same book.

So, get those questions left in the comments and help me give Marta a great interview!



Take Care