Suzanne Collins - Catching Fire

There are no spoilers for the book being reviewed but there may be spoilers for previous books in the series.

Katniss and Peeta are embarking on their victory tour. Having won the hunger games they should be safe but there are rumours of an uprising and Katniss is at the heart of it which puts her in even more danger.

Having finished The Hunger Games I jumped straight into Catching Fire, I wasn’t too sure where it was going to go but was interested to see what would happen to Katniss after winning the Hunger Games and I wasn’t disappointed. The book begins about six months after the events of The Hunger Games.

Again the book was pacy and action packed and I read it pretty much all in one sitting. We saw the return of many key characters and the introduction of some new ones which was interesting. The ending is a cliff hanger so straight onto book three for me. (I’m glad I’m reading them all at once, I’d hate to have to wait for the next one to be released)!

Suzanne Collins – The Hunger Games

Sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen lives in District 12, an area of the country that was previously North America but is now known as Panem. Every year the Capitol run the Hunger Games. A brutal reality TV show where the participants aged between 12 and 18 are picked by lottery from the surrounding districts to compete to the death. The last person alive is declared the winner. When Katniss’ sister is picked to take part Katniss volunteers to take her place and begins the battle for her life in the arena.

I had heard a lot about The Hunger Games so when I saw the books on special offer I bought them and jumped them to the top of my to read list. I read a little bit of YA but not a huge amount. Most of the time when reading YA I personally feel it suffers for it and would be better had it been written as an adult book. With The Hunger Games I would say the opposite is true, it works perfectly as it is and it would have suffered had it been written for adults.

Katniss is an interesting character, flawed but likeable, tough but not without weakness. The other supporting characters are also good, I did find Peeta a little annoying though! The story is fast paced, I pretty much sat and read it in one sitting. I liked the imagery of the future world and the difference in living conditions between the Capitol and the districts.

It's straight on to book two for me, looking forward to finding out what happens!

Rachel Caine – Fade Out

There are no spoilers for the book being reviewed but there may be spoilers for previous books in the series.

Book seven of the Morganville Vampires series. Things seem to have settled down a bit in Morganville and the inhabitants are returning to something resembling normal life. Eve is excited as she is cast in one of the leading roles in the town’s annual play but when one of her co-stars goes missing Claire and her friends need to find her fast. This is not helped by Ada, the vampire computer who has taken a strong disliking to Claire.

This book had a slightly slower pace than the other books in the series so far and it’s a bit more stand alone than many of the other books since the Bishop storyline ended in book six. That’s not a bad thing though it feels like to characters have a chance to get their breath back a bit (but not much, this is Morganville after all!) after the relentless action of the previous three books.

This book sees the introduction of new character Kim, another goth who immediately gets on Claire’s bad side by becoming super pally with Eve and having some kind of history with Shane. It’s interesting to see how Claire reacts.

The storyline was interesting and quite different to the previous books. It’s actually quite nice to be away from the Bishop storyline (even though I did enjoy it). There are some very interesting developments towards the end of the book so I’m looking forward to seeing where they go over the next few books.

Rachel Caine - Carpe Corpus

There are no spoilers for the book being reviewed but there may be spoilers for previous books in the series.

Book six of the Morganville Vampires series. Carpe Corpus picks up a few months after the events of Lord of Misrule. Bishop has taken control of Morganville and life is pretty miserable for Claire and her friends. A small uprising is forming against Bishop but will they be able to defeat him?

This book has been my favourite of the series so far. As normal it’s fast paced and full of action. The battle with Bishop is finally coming to a head and the characters have to go through a lot.

This book sees the death of one of the characters which I really liked as I felt it added to the book. Up until now everyone had been coming out of really dangerous situations pretty much unscathed which was a bit annoying, so I felt this added something to the story and brought back a real sense of danger to the characters because they can die and the author is willing to kill them off.

No Cliff hanger ending this time. I believe this book was originally planned as the last in the series so everything is tied up pretty nicely.

My edition of the book included the short story Murdered Out at the end. The story focuses mainly on Shane and was enjoyable. It’s nice to get a little more insight into Shane without the usual fast pace and huge amount of danger!

Rachel Caine – Lord of Misrule

There are no spoilers for the book being reviewed but there may be spoilers for previous books in the series.

Book five of the Morganville Vampires series. This picks up pretty much where Feast of Fools ended. After the disastrous ball Morganville is in chaos. Bishop in tightening his grip on the town and as if that wasn’t bad enough a lot of the vampires seem to be vanishing.

This is a series that you really have to read chronologically from the beginning. You probably would be able to work out what was going on if you did jump straight in to the middle but it wouldn’t be as good.

There’s quite a lot going on in this book and everyone is split up into different groups with different tasks to do so it’s interesting to see how the characters react to that. Myrnin is still my favourite character and he does some interesting things in this book. I also like Hannah who has a fairly big part in this book. Another cliff hanger ending on this one so it will be interesting to see where book six takes us.

Rachel Caine – Feast of Fools

There are no spoilers for the book being reviewed but there may be spoilers for previous books in the series.

Book four of the Morganville Vampires series. This one picks up right where Midnight Alley ended. Evil Vampire Bishop has come to town and he seems intent on making life difficult for human and vampire residents alike. When a formal ball is held the extent of his evil plans become clear.

There’s a lot going on in this book. That’s a good thing. The pace is fast and there are developments to many of the ongoing plot strands. I’m really enjoying the Myrnin storyline, he is a great character easily my favourite. It’s interesting to see how Michael being a vampire is continuing to affect the dynamic of the group

This book ends on a HUGE cliff hanger so it’s pretty much impossible not to dive straight in to the next book.

Rachel Caine – Midnight Alley

There are no spoilers for the book being reviewed but there may be spoilers for previous books in the series.

Book three of the Morganville Vampires series. This picks up shortly after the events of The Dead Girls’ Dance. Claire is now pledged to Amelie, the top vampire in town. Whilst this gives Claire some protection it doesn’t come free and Claire is recruited by Amelie to take extra lessons with a particularly old and unstable vampire. On top of this there has been a spate of girls turning up dead in the town.

I didn’t enjoy this book quite as much as the previous two but it was still pretty good. It was interesting to see how the characters relate to each other now that Michael is a vampire so it’s going to be interesting to see how that effects the dynamic of the group in future. We learn a little more about Eve and her past although I would still like a bit more depth here. Hopefully it will come later in the series.

The best thing about this book is Myrnin, the old vampire that Amelie sends Claire to for extra lessons. He is a great character which we are just starting to get to know. I’m looking forward to finding out more about him and his work.

Rachel Caine – The Dead Girls' Dance

There are no spoilers for the book being reviewed but there may be spoilers for previous books in the series.

Book two of the Morganville Vampires series. This book picks up immediately after the events of the first book Glass Houses. Shane’s Dad and his vampire hunting gang have arrived in town. They are determined to kill as many vampires as possible which causes a great deal of trouble for Claire and her friends.

I enjoyed this book as much as the first one and am looking forward to seeing where the series is going to go. This book had a bit more action than the first one as we know the characters now and are just thrown straight into the story without the need for introductions. The book remained fast paced throughout.

I found it interesting to find out more about Shane and his past. His relationship with Claire really starts to take shape in this book so it’s nice to know a bit more about him. We also have the introduction of Eve’s unstable brother Jason. I’m hoping this is something that will be expanded on in future books as we are given bits and pieces about Eve’s history and it would be nice to learn more.

Not such a cliff-hanger ending on this one but still plenty of questions and suspense to carry over to book three! Looking forward to reading it.

Rachel Caine – Glass Houses

Book one of the Morganville Vampires series. Claire Danvers is a sixteen year old girl genius on and early intake into college having aces all of her high school exams. She was hoping to go to one of the big well known colleges but her parents decided that it would be best if she started off at TPU, a smaller more local college in Morganville, Texas before transferring to a better college further from home when she turns eighteen. What Claire and her parents didn’t know was that Morganville is not like other towns, it is run by vampires and can be a very dangerous place. Bullied by a girl in the dorm Claire moves out of the campus accommodation and into a house with Eve, Michael and Shane, three friends who grew up in the town. Claire soon begins to learn Morganville’s secrets and finds out that it can be a very dangerous place.

I wasn’t sure about this book to begin with. It’s clearly aimed at people half my age which was a little off putting. However, I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and I’m glad I did. If you’re looking for something deep and meaningful or literary genius you won’t find it in Glass Houses, but I read for entertainment and that is exactly what I got.

The characters are interesting. Claire is a small, quiet girl of high intelligence and slightly geeky who seems to have lead a fairly sheltered life. She also seems fairly mature for her age in many respects. Eve is an outspoken goth girl who works in the local coffee shop. Michael is a slightly mysterious musician who only seems to come out at night despite not being a vampire and Shane is a bit of a tough guy who is unemployed. There is also a fairly large cast of supporting characters, many of whom as interesting and I hope we’ll find out more about them throughout the series.

There’s not a huge amount of action in this book, a lot of it is getting to know the characters and the town but it still feels fairly fast paced throughout a lot of the book and that picks up more and more as the book goes on. I was quickly drawn into the story and when it ended I was keen to start on book two.

This was a quick read for me. It’s around 350 pages of fairly large text and I read it in a day. Looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

P.C. and Kristin Cast – Marked

Zoey Redbird is a sixteen year old girl who thinks she is just like any other teenager until one day a tracker comes to her school and marks her. This means that Zoey is going to go through the change and hopefully become a vampire (not everyone that starts to change is able to make it and they die) and she has to go and join the vampire school “House of Night” to learn the ways of the vampire.

To be honest I’m not entirely sure what to make of this book. It was quite compulsive reading, I read it in less than a day, but I’m not really sure why as not a great deal actually happened. I think this book is the equivalent of eating golden syrup straight out of the tin - it tastes nice but it has no nutritional value and too much can leave you feeling a bit sick.

I quite liked Zoey although she was a bit irritating at times with her holier than thou attitude. Some of the other characters may prove to be quite interesting but it’s hard to tell at this stage as there wasn’t much character development beyond Zoey. This is just the first in the series though so I would hope that in future books we find out a bit more about the other characters.

The story is an interesting and different take on vampires. They are rather too light and fluffy here for my liking though. I don’t mind a bit of romanticising vampires (I love the Sookie Stackhouse books) but I do like them to still have that element of danger. The vampires in this book were not at all scary or threatening and I felt a bit disappointed by that.

I will probably read the next book but it’s not one that I am going to rush out to buy immediately.