Bite Club by Rachel Caine

Bite Club (Morganville Vampires, Book 10) is the latest in the Morganville Vampire series.  I really love this series and I finished it in about 24 hours :)  In Bite Club (Morganville Vampires, Book 10), Shane gets involved with a new gym promoting martial arts training and winds up in over his head.  Claire, Michael, Eve and the usual suspects all have to fight to get him out of trouble before Amelie exterminates everyone involved in a secret that threatens to expose Morganville.

In many ways, this installment felt like the middle of a trilogy or something.  The main story line was basically resolved by the end, but it left open a lot of unanswered questions and possibilities.  Some old villains resurface, including Gloriana from the short story Drama Queen's Last Dance, found in Eternal: More Love Stories with Bite.  While the vampire-related dramas seem to come to some conclusion, the human dramas seem to be building up.  Claire and Shane's relationship is strained by the end of the story, and Michael seems to be harboring doubts about Eve.  I strongly suspect that in the next Morganville Vampires book, the main focus will be on the relationships, with vampire enemies falling second.  I could be wrong, but that's how things felt to me at the end of Bite Club (Morganville Vampires, Book 10).

Overall, I enjoyed this book.  The characters are very interesting and it's been nice seeing how they have developed over the course of the series.  Claire, in particular, seems to really come into her own strength in this story, although at the cost of some of her innocence.  Shane seems to find more of his inner demons, more than he is truly able to explore in this story.  As I said, the ending of this story really leaves a lot of emotional issues unresolved--I hope that there is some closure in the next installment Last Breath: The Morganville Vampires due out in November 2011.

Eternal: More Love Stories with Bite

Eternal: More Love Stories with Bite is the follow up to yesterday's review of Immortal: Love Stories With Bite.  P C Cast has gathered another group of talented authors in a collection of vampire-related stories.  Claudia Gray, Rachel Caine and Nancy Holder also contributed to the first anthology, with Lili St. Crow, Heather Brewer and Jeri Smith-Ready rounding out the group. 

The anthology opens with "Bloodshed--A Story of Evernight" by Claudia Gray.  I've stated previously that I had not read the Evernight series, but this second short story from the series has me curious.  Patrice, from the short story in Immortal: Love Stories With Bite, is in love with a human who is being shipped overseas during WWII.  She finds out that he has been captured and is being held prisoner by the Nazis.  She goes to Europe to rescue him, but ends up with a lot more than she bargained for. 

The next story "Say Yes" by Lili St. Crow is a fascinating tale of a girl whose image of herself as being in the background of life leads her to take action that she seriously regrets later.  She truly can't believe that she is special enough to have been chosen over her popular friends and betrays someone who could have been important to her.  I'd love to see what happens to her after this story, but couldn't find any hint of a connection to this story in any of the books on Lili St. Crow's website.  Although, I do think I'll be looking into adding some of her work to my to-be-read list.

"Letters to Romeo" by Nancy Holder is an interesting twist to Shakespeare's classic tale of star-crossed lovers.  Romeo hasn't died, he is a vampire who has waited  for 700 years for his Juliet to return to him.  He believes he has found her in a 15 year old girl from Florida, whom he plans to turn in order to spend eternity with her.  But, the tragedy of his tale still clings to him...

Heather Brewer's "The Other Side" tells the story of Tarrah & Cody, lovers who are kidnapped and held together in a small room while awaiting their captors.  The twist at the end was one I didn't see coming though, and the 'myths' mentioned in her story are really interesting.

Two of my favorite authors round out the book:  Rachel Caine and Jeri Smith-Ready.  Rachel Caine provides another story of the Morganville vampires with "Drama Queen's Last Dance" or, as I like to think of it, All About Eve.  Eve is what brought me to the Morganville vampires series, having read
"The First Day of the Rest of Your Life" in Many Bloody Returns.  This time a new vampire in town has her sites on Michael, and Eve, despite being told by everyone that it's lost cause, is determined to break Gloriana's spell.  Eve is an awesome character, strong and self-confident, but still showing some of the normal insecurities of being young.  This story is a great showcase for her character.

"Thief" by Jeri Smith-Ready has me chomping at the bit for the next WVMP book!  The story introduces us to Cassie & Liam, who are "Irish Travelers" and I believe Cassie is a relative of Ciara from the WVMP series.  However, as highly as I recommend the WVMP series, you don't have to have read it to enjoy Cassie's story.  Cassie and Liam are engaged and inseparable.  Unlike most Traveler girls, Cassie is in love with her betrothed.  Her father wanted her to be happy and promised her to Liam, despite his disabilities.  Unfortunately, her father is dead and her step-father is threatening to tear Cassie and Liam apart by promising her to another.  Cassie is determined to be with Liam no matter what, even if it means being dead to her own family.  "Thief" is listed as a tie-in story to the WVMP series on Jeri Smith-Ready's website and I can't wait to see how she and Liam fit into Lust for Life, due out in fall 2012. 

I've mentioned before how much I love anthologies:  I get introduced to new authors that write about a subject I'm already interested in reading and I get little tidbits to tide me over until the next offering in a series I enjoy.  Eternal: More Love Stories with Bite provides all of this in some really cool vampire stories :)