Review: Glass Houses by Rachel Caine

Glass Houses (Morganville Vampires #1) by Rachel Caine
Format: paperback
Source: purchased
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Date read: 2013

Morganville Vampires
1. Glass Houses - Paperback | Kindle
2. The Dead Girls' Dance
3. Midnight Alley
4. Feast of Fools
5. Lord of Misrule
6. Carpe Corpus
7. Fade Out
8. Kiss of Death
9. Ghost Town
10. Bite Club
11. Last Breath [Serial Killers review]
12. Black Dawn
13. Bitter Blood
14. Fall of Night
15. Daylighters

Rachel Caine
| Website | Amazon |

Synopsis (Goodreads):

It’s a small college town filled with quirky characters. But when the sun goes down, the bad comes out. Because in Morganville, there is an evil that lurks in the darkest shadows—one that will spill out into the bright light of day.

Claire Danvers has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation. The popular girls never let her forget just where she ranks on the school’s social scene: somewhere less than zero. And Claire really doesn’t have the right connections—to the undead who run the town.

When Claire heads off campus, the imposing old house where she finds a room may not be much better. Hew 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...

My Thoughts: It's been a while since I originally read this series and I decided to dive in from the beginning and see how it holds up. No lie, I thoroughly enjoyed myself with book 1. Claire is a smaller, more fragile version of the person she'll become as events shape her down the line. It's really kinda awesome to see her as a smart, innocent girl who slowly blossoms into someone who stands up for the things (and the people) she believes in. I'm talking during the course of this book, here. She goes from the bullied freshman who's younger than everyone around her to someone who's willing to cross vampires to save the people who matter to her. I liked it. I liked revisiting Claire version 1.0. I loved seeing her use her brain and I love that her new housemates aren't intimidated by how smart she is.

So... book one introduces us to the good guys, the bad guys, the homicidal mean girl, the secrets, the half-truths, and the Founder. Vampire politics are mentioned in passing but we don't get to really get a feel for those until later books. There's just SO MUCH FUN going on here. And so much setup for the things that will come later. Honestly, one of the things I love about a reread is that I can see how the groundwork being laid in this book bears fruit in later books.

Overall, this is a fun first installment in a series that just gets better and better as more is revealed. There's death, danger, blood, betrayal, secrets, and some smokin' hot kisses. ALL THINGS I ENJOY! Onward to book 2!