Rachel Caine - Bk 7 Fade Out (2009); Bk 8 Kiss of Death (2010)

Every so often there comes along a book series that you yearn for during the yearly wait for the very next book. The Morganville Vampires series isn't it. It's just nice vampire fluff without all the angst and yearning of the ever-so-lame Vampire Diaries. There's a teensy bit of lame teenage love, but mostly the characters are just trying to survive in a vampire town, cut off from the rest of the world. But don't think they're trying to escape. People don't escape from Morganville. The town even has it's own B-grade University and all the people who live there, well they're blood donors - literally. Every human allies themselves to a vampire protector, who keeps them safe from other vamps and expects them to go to the blood bank once a week to make their payment. Welcome to Morganville, town like no other American town... except maybe Washington or Hollywood.

I do enjoy the books. They're nice easy-on-the-mind relaxation. They're in my library section of books to go to when life has kicked me to the curb again and I just don't feel like crawling back out yet. It's good to have some comfort in a mad world and vampire novels are as far from reality as you can get. I find them addictive and I feel betrayed when they suck - no pun intended.

Book 7, Fade Out, was good. It's hard to explain any of the plot without giving the fun away. Basically the teens of Morganville find themselves up to their armpits in angry murderous vamps when a historical documentary of the people of Morganville goes really really wrong. It was fun and not overly predictable. You knew the baddie was up to something, but you just didn't know what or who else was helping or whether this was the end of the vampire's Morganville secretly-coexist-with-humans project.

Book 8, Kiss of Death, happened, so obviously Morganville survived to bring forth new horrors on its humans. Why don't they just run away? They can't. They're all tagged, like a psychic microchip. Anyone who tries to run is hunted down and killed. But in this book the four main teen characters do get to leave for a week. When Michael finally lands a recording contract in Dallas, Eve, Shane and Claire tag along for the fun - under the watchdog gaze of vampire second-in-command Oliver - not the nicest companion for a roadtrip. Then the fun begins, because the world and Morganville are two very different places. Just because you can survive there, doesn't mean you know anything about surviving outside it.

So put on some fluffy vampire bunny slippers, grab a nice cup of tea and curl up somewhere warm to enjoy the fun of the Morganville Vampires series. If you like friendly non-gore non-horror vampire books, these shouldn't be missed.

Kelley Armstrong - The Summoning (2008)

This is book 1 in a new supernatural teen series. Armstrong has written many books for adults, my favourite is Exit Strategy with an ex-cop hitwoman dispensing justice for a fee, (the book reads better than my blurb does), but this is her first foray into teen literature.

The main character, Chloe, has just turned fifteen, she's also just gotten her period, and that seems to have triggered something in her mind because now she see's ghosts, she talks to ghosts, she has to defend herself against the nastier grumpier ghosts - and it's driving her mad. Because ghosts don't exist, right? But for Chloe they're very real and her abilities, along with a group of teens who also have different supernatural abilities, have gotten them all locked up in Lyle House. This isn't your ordinary teen home and living there will be deadly.

I really enjoyed this book and I'm about to read the second in the series. It's a nice comfy read. There's no real tension, just curiosity over how they'll survive and what Chloe really is. It's a great teen book, the perfect blend of supernatural and teen lifestyle.

Lili St. Crow - Betrayals (2009)

This is the second book in the Strange Angels series. The first book was Strange Angels and there's a third book coming out this year. It's also St. Crow's first foray into Teen novels. She's written many books for adults, my favourite being the Dante Valentine series, under the name Lilith Saintcrow.

I really enjoyed Betrayals. It fleshed out the many questions left from Strange Angels. It was more of a fill-in-the-blanks novel than a forwarding plot. But, the first book left so many things unanswered that this was necessary. St. Crow tells us more about the orphaned Dru and her past - we learn about her mother and her legacy. It was good to finally understand what Dru is and what she'll become. Too many questions for too long makes things hard to follow. But, St. Crow kept the suspense just long enough. It's a light novel - no deep and heavy themes. The characters are interesting, but not overly brilliant. You don't feel sucked into their world, like you MUST know what happens next and you feel exhausted by the end of the novel. It's just a fun book without any pressure.

So if you like werewolves, vampires, half-vampires and other things that go bump in the night - this book is for you. It's a dark and dangerous world, but done well for a teen audience.