Glass Houses by Rachel Caine

First of all, I must say that I am angry. Today, I visited my friendly Books-A-Million in the hopes of purchasing Carpe Corpus, the sixth book in the Morganville Vampires series. But alas, it was not to be. In fact, none of the bookstores in my area carried it. So I came home from my long, pointless search with a heavy heart and ordered it online, now having to suffer through the three to seven business days until I have it in my greedy little hands. So in the meantime, I will simply review the rest of these awesome books in one of my favorite series.

Glass Houses, the first installment in Rachel Caine’s Morganville Vampires series, is the perfect start to this thrilling set of novels with its original plot line, well-developed characters, and unique portrayal of vampires. Claire Danvers, a 16 year-old super-genius, has graduated from high school early and is more than prepared to head off to MIT. However, her slightly over-protective parents don’t want to see their baby daughter move so far away since she will be two years younger than the other students. So instead of moving her halfway across the country, they settle for the small, safe town of Morganville, Texas, where Claire will attend Texas Plains University. Her parents probably had the right idea…except that Morganville is anything but safe.

Shortly after her enrollment in TPU, Claire discovers that dorm life is not all it’s cracked up to be. After being beaten and having her life threatened, Claire must find a new place to live if she expects to survive the year–so she moves into the Glass House with the mysterious Michael Glass, the straight-forward Shane Collins, and the Gothic sweetheart Eve Rosser. There, she realizes that Morganville is secretly controlled by vampires who co-exist with humans (well, sort of), using them as puppets and pawns, almost like pets.

But when Claire winds up on the wrong side of the vampires, Shane will risk his pride and dignity to save her life.  But when she lets her feelings for Shane rise to the surface, Claire will risk her own life to save them both and gain the protection of  one of the top vampires.  But what unfolds as Claire tries to make the bargain for her life and Shane’s will leave all the members of the Glass House in terrible danger.

Honestly, I can’t believe the Morganville Vampires series is not more popular than it is. Caine’s brilliant character development and playful dialogue distinguish each character as unique with his or her own set of beliefs–the calm and collected Michael; the feisty and loyal Eve; the stubborn, caring and super-smart Claire; and of course, Shane, the sharp-tongued slacker with a lion’s heart.  Furthermore, Cain masterfully weaves in each characters’ past experiences, which has molded them into the characters as we see them in Glass Houses.  This series has quickly become one of my favorites and is so enjoyable,  I could read each novel again and again. If you haven’t already indulged in the Morganville Vampires series, I encourage you to take the plunge and start reading. I will be counting the days until the sixth novel, Carpe Corpus, arrives in my mailbox!