Holly

There are several interesting plot developments in the 3rd book of the Morganville Vampire series, but (maybe it's because I've read the first three books in less than 3 days) the premise is beginning to pall. Also, the main character is starting sound like an extremely whiney, sixteen year old. Maybe she has been all along, but by the end of the third book it's beginning to bug me.

And SERIOUSLY??!, what the hell do you not understand about NOT GOING OUT OF THE HOUSE AFTER DARK??? REALLY??! Is a run to the convienence store for gum really that important? Especially since by the third book there is definitely a pattern being established; namely, you go out after dark, something horrible happens. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

For a NancyDrewGirlGenius, Claire can be phenomenally stupid at times. It makes me want to smack her and force her to watch 24 hours of horror movies back-to-back so she will get a clue. Anyone who has ever watched an episode of Scooby Doo knows that you never go down to the basement in your underpants, never leave the closet door open when you turn out the bedroom light, never go out into the woods after dark, never open the door to a stranger who's carrying a chainsaw, wearing a mask, or is a leprechaun, and never split up.

Still, I bought the fourth book. We'll see how it goes.

This is our book club's selection for October, so I'm going to keep my opinions to myself until then.

Even though I'm not a big fan, every so often I venture into the genre of romance. On a friend's recommendation, I picked up “Nobody's Baby But Mine”. Hey, I'm open minded. I'm willing to give it a shot. You never know, right? People tastes change.

I finished all 350+pages the book to find that... uh... nope. Still don't care for it. I still prefer a plot that has a romantic interest as a subplot. Romance as the entire focus for a book just doesn't carry a story for me.

I was surprised by “Hold Me Closer, Necromancer”. Quite frankly, going in, my expectations weren't high. In fact, this book had been teetering mid-way through the stack of TBRs for a while.

When I finally picked it up, I nearly set it down again permenantly when I realized Sam's (main character) full name was Samhain. I sneered in disgust. The author hadn't even done their research. As any good Gael will tell you Samhain is not pronounced “sam-hane”, more along the lines of “sah-win”.

Sorry to be such a pronunciation snob, but that sort of crap bugs me.

Fortunately, before I could throw the book across the room the author redeemed themselves with a plausible explanation in the next paragraph. At that point I gave up the struggle and let myself become completely engrossed.

Sam is a loveable slacker - a skateboarding college dropout working the fast-food career track. That is, until he has a run in with the local necromancer at which point Sam's entire life goes from meh to worse in the space of 48 hours.

One of the other reviewers said they pictured Sam looking like Llyod Dobler from the 80s movie Say Anything, and now I can't get the visual out of my head. Slap a hoody on him, give him a skateboard, put him in Seattle, and pit him against an evil-dead-raising SOB, and you have Sam LaCoix.

I'm looking forward to reading more about Sam and crew. If the first book is anything to judge by, it's going to be an interesting ride.

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