Tuesday, April 1, 2014

PARTING WAYS AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: MIDNIGHT ALLEY (Morganville Vampires, #3) by Rachel Caine




Title: Midnight Alley
Series: Morganville Vampires, #3
Author: Rachel Caine
Publisher: Signet
Publication Date: October 2, 2007
Genre: Young Adult
Reviewed by: Angie Edwards
My rating: 2/5

SUMMARY

Claire Danvers's college town may be run by vampires but a truce between the living and the dead made things relatively safe. For a while. Now people are turning up dead, a psycho is stalking her, and an ancient bloodsucker has proposed private mentoring. To what end, Claire will find out. And it's giving night school a whole new meaning.




REVIEW

After finishing Midnight Alley, it’s hard to imagine that I loved the first book in the Morganville Vampires series with my entire being. As someone who no longer read books featuring vampires, werewolves, and such, I was actually surprised that I enjoyed the first novel in this series so much. I was positive at the time that this was one series I was going to finish in no time. Alas, the second book was disappointing, but the third book turned out to be a complete fail.

The two things that made me despise Midnight Alley so much are: Shane, Claire’s love-interest, and the narrator of this audiobook. Shane annoyed me in the first book, even more so in the second, and was simply infuriating in this one. I honestly don’t know what Claire sees in him other than him apparently being “hot”. From my point of view I don’t care how “hot” a guy is. If he’s moody, aggressive, insulting, egotistic, judgmental, and short-tempered, his “hotness” isn’t going to matter anything to me. I can’t stand men who have all those traits. Shane is all that, and it grated on my nerves. To top it off, I then have to sit through pages of Claire lusting after this loser.

The audiobook narrator (Cynthia Holloway) was just as annoying. She made Shane sound even more irritating than he already is. Michael is one of my favorite characters in this series, but the narrator made him sound…dense. She really isn’t good with different voices and intonations.

The plot itself had a few new elements, and I specifically enjoyed the Merlin addition, but overall it didn’t differ much from the previous book. It definitely didn’t have the suspense, the sinister feel, the mystery, or the excitement which made me fall head over heels in love with the first book. Everything felt watered down. You’d think Claire would have more of a backbone by now, but she’s hasn’t matured as a character in any way. I’m sorry to say, but Morganville and I are parting ways. If there exists a possibility that Shane will be leaving the series in the next book, I might consider continuing this series. Heck, I even like cruel Monica more than I like him. Yes, I’ll be reading Rachel Caine’s other books, but for me it’s adios to Morganville. Good riddance and good luck.




PURCHASE LINKS



ABOUT the AUTHOR


Rachel Caine is the #1 internationally bestselling author of 15 novels in the young adult
Morganville Vampires series. The first novel, Glass Houses, was named to the prestigious Texas Library Association’s Tayshas Reading List. She also wrote the powerhouse urban fantasy Weather Warden series, as well as the Outcast Season series, set in the universe of the Weather Warden novels.

Her novels have been published in more than 20 languages around the world. She has been awarded both a Career Achievement Award and a Pioneer Award in Urban Fantasy from Romantic Times. A former professional musician, graphic artist, web designer, and corporate communications executive, Rachel finally left the business world in 2009 to devote her time completely to writing. She and her husband, award-winning fantasy artist R. Cat Conrad, live in Fort Worth, Texas.



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