Last Breath, by Rachel Caine
Last Breath, by Rachel Caine
Book 11 – Morganville Vampire series
Reviewed by Saluki
With her boss preoccupied researching the Founder Houses in Morganville, student Claire Danvers is left to her own devices when she learns that three vampires have vanished without a trace. She soon discovers that the last person seen with one of the missing vampires is someone new to town-a mysterious individual named Magnus. After an uneasy encounter with Morganville’s latest resident, Claire is certain Magnus isn’t merely human. But is he a vampire-or something else entirely?
Last Breath is the latest installment in the Morganville Vampire series. If you haven’t started reading this series, all I can say is go by all the books now because once you start reading it, you won’t want to stop. In a nut shell, this series revolves around four roommates and their lives in the vampire run town of Morganville, Texas. It is a paranormal romance with a dash of action and mystery, well written characters, and a plot line that manages to keep you coming back for more. I will try to keep the spoilers at a minimum, but proceed with caution.
As with most Morganville books, there is lots going on in this installment. Shane is trying to make up for his bad behavior towards everyone, Michael and Claire are planning their wedding (which the humans and vampires of the town is against in equal numbers), and Morganville is once again on the brink of collapse. The one difference in this situation is the fact that Morganville could actually cease to exist if this crisis isn’t managed. Oh, and something very crazy happens to Claire – and when I say crazy I mean CRAZY. It would be a pretty big spoiler, so you’ll just have to read the book to find out what I am talking about ;)
Crisis in Morganville is nothing new, but author Rachel Caine turns it up a few notches in Last Breath. Not only are Claire, Shane, Michael and Eve all struggling with some pretty heavy personal issues, Morganville is also being threatened by a force that even has Amelie running scared. Vampires are disappearing in Morganville, and until a visitor comes to deliver a one word message to the Founder, no one seems to have any idea what is happening. When Claire and her roommates learn the truth, it is up to them to find a way to contain the problem and somehow find a way to get Amelie to fight for the town she loves.
One change in this book from past installments is the fact that it is told from more than just Claire’s POV. The author did let us into Shane’s mind in Bite Club, but in this one she expands even further with more characters getting a chance to tell the story through their eyes. I did enjoy getting a chance to hear the book in the “voice” of characters besides Claire. I know it helped me understand the other characters better, particularly Amelie.
I also really love how the characters continue to grow and evolve with each book. Sometimes the growth comes in fits and starts, and there is often two steps forward and one step back, but isn’t that how all of us grow? Rachel’s characters are people that seem so very real, which is one reason why I love this series so much. I can imagine being friends with them – I can relate to their struggles to fight their inner demons and be the best people they can be.
The author also gives us quite a bit of history into vampires and the town of Morganville itself. We finally found out why Amelie built the town in the middle of the desert, when sunlight is deadly to her kind.
There were a few weak points, such as the time spent on Michael and Eve’s wedding at the beginning of the story. I don’t think it was a big enough sub-plot in the context of the book to have been given as much time as it was. I also don’t understand why Michael and Eve were so hell bent on having their wedding when relations between humans and vampires are so unstable in Morganville. Eve is young, so I wasn’t sure why the rush to get married.
I was also a bit taken aback by Claire’s situation and how it was resolved. I don’t want to spoil the book for anyone, so I will leave it at that. It seems that the author wrote the resolution to get the ending she wanted without looking at the situation in context of the series as a whole. It all just seemed a bit too convenient to me.
This isn’t a complaint, but a warning. The ending leaves you hanging, which is also somewhat of a departure from most Morganville books. The only saving grace is that that next book in the series comes out early next year, so I only have a few months to find out what happens next.
Overall, I give this book three and a half out of five moons.
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