Glass Houses (The Morganville Vampires #1) By: Rachel Caine (Book Review)

 ***This review will contain spoilers***

Summary:

College freshman Claire Danvers has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation. When Claire heads off-campus, the imposing old house where she finds a room may not be much better. Her new roommates don't show many signs of life, but they'll have Claire's back when the town's deepest secrets come crawling out, hungry for fresh blood. Will she be able to face the town's terror or will she drown like everyone else?

This is exactly what I needed right now in my life! I have read books from this series at least over a decade ago at this point and I remember loving them back then. I have been in such a reading funk these past few years trying/soldiering through Hamilton's Anita Blake series that I'm making a shift for the remainder of this year and I am happy to say this decision is already proving to be the best one. I ended up reading Glass Houses within 4 days. Granted this book has less than 300 pages but with my crazy work load and comparing it to how long reading an Anita Blake book would take I would say this is definitely a lot quicker than normal. It just goes to show when you're are reading a book from a good author it doesn't take long to devour a book. 

I was a bit worried I wouldn't like this book as bunch as I did when I was a teenager but I'm happy to say Caine has a great way of writing the point of view from a sixteen year old's standpoint without making it seem childish/immature. I still very much enjoyed the book this time around and I cannot wait to read the entire series. As I am writing this I am waiting on an order for Midnight Bites which is the anthology for this series containing all the short stories pertaining to Morganville and it's citizens. 

Throughout the book, you could see how timid Claire is and how she isn't very sure of herself but she gradually becomes more assertive and is finding her voice. I love the dynamics between Claire and her newfound roommates Michael, Eve and Shane. The Glass house was first a place for Claire to crash while she sorts her problems out involving Monica and her homicidal behaviour but then they all bonded so much and really once you go through hell together it pretty much solidifies the bonds of friendship. They all mesh really well and I love just to what length they are willing to go to help each other out. I wish my college experience was like this minus all the near death experiences of course. 

One thing that I have loved about this story so far is that despite this being a series on vampires Claire isn't some love sick vampire groupy. Nice having some variety in the vampire space for once. Instead Claire has this new developing relationship with her roommate Shane. Curious to see just how much these two grow together over the next few books. 

Michael Glass is such an interesting character including the house. Oliver attempted to turn Michael into a vampire and instead the house 'protected' him and instead of being a vampire he's a ghost that is only physical at night. Tie that in with the fact that Amelie, one of the oldest if not the oldest vampire made that house and essentially, confirmed that the house has supernatural properties. 

The last few chapters were exhilarating and nerve-racking with all the vampires and human servants trying to break into the house to retrieve a special book that holds the key to making vampires. Amelie saved the day and the entire house is under her protection. I'm curious to find out more about her and how vampires came to be. However, Shane’s dad as well as some of his biker buddies came in and the book was left on a major cliffhanger with Michael getting murdered by them but how do you kill a ghost?…

Rating:

If it wasn't obvious this is going to be 5 stars on 5! Rachel Caine (may she rest in peace) had such a knack for writing and obviously quite talented that she got me back in the grove of reading. This book goes to show just how much talent she has to be able to keep the story moving along and developing such an amazing world in under 300 pages. I can't wait to sink my teeth into the rest of this series.