Book Review: “Midnight Bites” by Rachel Caine

“Midnight Bites” by Rachel Caine

Release Date: March 1, 2016

Genre: Pararormal, Fantasy, YA, Fiction

Page Length: 512 pages (paperback edition)

Synopsis:

By day, Morganville, Texas, is just a typical college town. By night, the vampires emerge and take control….

In a town where it’s not safe to be out after dark, student Claire Danvers and her friends have had their fair share of thrills. But Morganville still has a few secrets left to tell.

Now, in this collection, you can venture down the town’s strange streets, revisit all the tales you’ve come to love, and experience six new stories featuring your favorite Morganville residents—both human and vampire…(description from Random House)

Review:

Midnight Bites was such a fun collection of short stories set in the Morganville Vampires series. It included such a wide variety of stories varying from romance to mystery, and like most of the Morganville books they were chock full of action too. There was never a dull moment in the entire collection and I loved how each story focused on a different individual.

Previously, I had never read any of short stories for this series despite being an avid reader of the books for many years. The thing I most appreciated about this the collection was being able to see a more intimate side of the characters I know and love. It gave background stories for how these characters came to be and it also offered alternate perspectives for climatic events that happen throughout the series.

An added bonus to this book is that its set up in chronological order so that the stories follow the order of the series. For those of you who are new to the series or have only read some books, I recommend buying this book and reading the stories along with each corresponding book. There are some spoilery parts in some of the stories in this collection so be fair warned that if you haven’t read majority of the stories like I have, or even all of the books you will probably run into surprises here and there.

My favorite stories in the collection (even though I loved them all) are:

Murdered Out
All Hallows
Grudge
Drama Queen’s Last Dance
Vexed
Signs and Miracle

I felt that these stories were the most exciting and offered the most intimate views of some of my favorite Morganville characters. These stories were also my favorites because while they were action packed, they also answered some questions that have ran across my mind while reading this series.

Sheepishly, I will admit that I haven’t actually finished the Morganville Vampires series yet. I’ve still got three books to go before I finish the novels and mainly I’ve been hesitant to finish the books because I’m not ready to leave these beloved characters behind. Reading this amazing collection gave the chance to be reacquainted with these books I know and love, but it also gave me the push to finish the series. Caine says that she still has some more Morganville stories up her sleeves and will answer even more of those question readers of the series have so I’m looking forward to the next set of Morganville stories she will write.

Final Verdict: