Midnight Alley (The Morganville Vampires #3)

I rarely re-read a book; my thoughts are that there are some many books to read and so little time to read them that you shouldn't waste time reading something twice. Only this series pulls you in and when a new one is released you can't help but re-read the previous one so you don't forget any of the important details! This is another wonderful book in the series.

Reader reviewed by Lexie

Spoilers for book 1 (Glass Houses) and book 2 (Dead Girl's Dance).

Since
I'm assuming y'all read Book 2 by now I can freely say that I hated how
Shane acted throughout much of the book. I understand that he was under
pressure and that he was mentally, physically and emotionally beaten
down by his dad, but I'm not sure that excuses all of his jackass
behavior. Unfortunately if I thought he would improve in this book I
was obviously mental. His attitude in general is horrific for much of
the book and his attitude towards Michael in particular is worthy of a
quick slap upside his head with a frying pan. I wish I was joking.

The
troubles for Claire and Co. just keeps coming. Yes they successfully
saved Shane and stopped his dad from making a mondo-mistake...but the
trade off was Michael is now a full fledged Vamp, Claire is pledged to
Amelie and the part of the town that didn't already distrust and
dislike Shane now has joined the other side. Not to mention Eve's
brother Jason is still creeping (literally) around the town, Oliver has
a score to settle, Amelie's independent study for Claire is this side
of crazed and oh yeah Monica seems to think that Claire is the newest
coolest toy in the whole wide world.

I still contend that
Michael and Claire's chemistry is better then either Eve/Michael or
Claire/Shane. They just...get one and other, understand almost
immediately if something is wrong. True that was hampered by Michael
going vamp (though a more gorgeous vamp you'll never meet apparently),
but the two connect. Its hard for me not to see that romantically
(especially as Claire seems apt to calling him gorgeous every little
while).

Amelie proves to be more then her mettle in this book.
Cracks appear in her demeanor and Claire is quick (unfortunately) to
pick up on those cracks. Despite what is said I think Amelie does have
a sort of fondness for Claire, though I fear its the sort that one
feels for their pet goldfish. Two new characters are introduced in this
book, well technically one because the other sort of showed up in Book
2, and both are dangerous. On different levels however and both are
connected to Amelie. Oh and the reappearance of two other characters is
less welcome.

I think the most interesting addition is Myrnin, a
very old vampire friend of Amelie who studies alchemy and is losing his
mind. Has been for years upon years. A well guarded secret even amongst
those she trusts, Myrnin alternates between utterly charming (in a
crazed manic sort of way) to cruel, dangerous and manipulative. He's a
wonderful character though! He's never completely sane quite frankly
and even when he's mostly sane he's really not. A true mad genius.

The
end, as usual, leaves us with a tasty predicament for the Glass House
residents specifically and Morganville in general. Its ends like these
that make me happy I waited till I had a good chunk of the series to
read at once. I don't know if I would like having to wait.

((reprinted with permission from author))