Review - Kiss of Death by Rachel Caine

Kiss of Death (Morganville Vampires, Book 8) by Rachel Caine
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Rating: 3.5 stars
Pages: 348
Genre: Young Adult (Paranormal)

Summary: Vampire musician Michael Glass has attracted the attention of a big- time producer who wants to cut a demo and play some gigs-which means Michael will have to enter the human world. For this, he's been assigned escorts that include both a dangerous immortal as well as Michael's all-too-human friends. And with that mix of personalities, this is going to be a road trip from hell..

Thoughts: I remember reading that Rachel Caine had had a 6-book plan set out for the Morganville series when she started out.  Kiss of Death is book 8 – and her lack-of-overarching-plan is kinda starting to show.

Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed Kiss of Death.  Caine’s verse is as addictive as ever.  I love these characters and their angst – so, really, how could I not enjoy another visit into their world?  But Kiss of Death was definitely a step down from some of the other Morganville books.  If I weren’t such a fan, I probably would have been less than impressed.

Kiss of Death takes place outside of Morganville.  This is a first for the series which had had the characters literally confined to the city in previous books.  Whilst a road trip might sound like a happy-go-lucky time for the gang, things never work out that way for Claire and co.  So, there are plenty of new vamps, some kidnapping and, oh, a car chase or two.

Pretty cool… but also pretty pointless.  Kiss of Death felt very episodic and monster-of-the-week.  A cool monster, sure, but I couldn’t help thinking “… so?”  It was a far cry from the epic cliff-hangers of the first 5 books that literally stopped your heart.

Not to mention the most important failure: the epic lack of Myrinn.  *cries softly whilst wearing vampire bunny slippers*

However, I do have hope for Morganville books of the future.  Fade Out was friggin’ fantastic (and with plenty of Myrinn goodness) and managed to remain self-contained to a single book.



Bottom line?  The Morganville Vampires series is fantastic - I highly recommend it.  That said, Kiss of Death was not it’s greatest instalment.

Note to the UK publishers: Did something break when publishing Kiss of Death?  My cover was in pieces after one light read – not to mention the book was littered with typos.  Not cool.