Lord of Misrule (The Morganville Vampires Bk5) - Rachel Caine

Lord of Misrule is the 5th book in The Morganville Vampire series by Rachel Caine.

Here's what has happened so far
Claire Danvers moved to Morganville to go to college early at 16. After being bullied in the dorms by Monica and her popular friends, Claire moved into Glass House with Michael, Shane and Eve, where she soon discovered that Morganville was ran by vampires. Michael was a ghost and now he's a vampire, Shane is Claire's boyfriend and Eve is her best friend. Shane's crazy Dad turned up and tried to take out the vampires. Claire had to sign herself over to Amelie to ensure protection for her and her friends which resulted in working for Myrnin, a crazy, sick vampire. Eve's brother came back after being in jail and dead girls began to turn up all over the place. Then, Mr Bishop, Amelie's father turned up and took over the entire town.

Lord of Misrule
In the college town of Morganville, vampires and humans coexist in (relatively) bloodless harmony. Then comes Bishop, a master vampire who threatens to abolish all order, revive the forces of the evil dead, and let chaos rule. But Bishop isn't the only threat.

Violent black clouds promise a storm of devastating proportions. As student Claire Danvers and her friends prepare to defend Morganville against the elements - both natural and unnatural -the unexpected happens: Morganville's vampires begin to vanish one by one. Discovering why leads Claire to one last choice: swear allegiance to Bishop... or die. (Taken from the back of the book)

What I thought
What was different with this book was that the four main characters get split up. Usually, they all rely on each other to get through whatever bad situation they are in so this time, emotions are running at an all time high. The goodbye scene happened very early on in the story but I was completely convinced. There is a lovely moment between Michael and Eve but where Claire and Shane were convinced, I was really let down. With everything that was happening, the reality of it was that any of them might not actually survive this time but the emotion in this scene was quite lacking.

I was glad to see that being split up didn't last for the majority of the book though as I would have missed having Shane and Michael around. The banter between the two always adds some much needed humour to a very serious and action filled storyline. Everyone always seems to moan at Shane for having a problem with Michael being a vampire but wouldn't you? I don't think I would care that he was once my best friend, he's still a vampire now so I would definitely be nervous about carrying on living with him.

Claire shows a lot more vulnerability in Lord of Misrule, changing what I thought about her again. As her relationship with Shane grows, she also grows more sure of herself and her feelings and can't help but get annoyed when she isn't sure if he returns them. Claire is even more bad ass in this book which was something that I loved about her. Being separated from her safety net friends made Claire have to branch out and trust some other people who she worked well with. I was glad to see Claire's development progress in Lord of Misrule as it came to a bit of a standstill in Feast of Fools.

Even though Amelie is a huge part of the other books, she doesn't really have much to do. This time, Amelie is a feature character as she tried to rally everyone up to fight against Bishop. Amelie likes to be known are a hard, relentless woman but really begins to show that she cares for Claire in this book. I'm pretty sure that it is only because she needs her for something or other but there was a softness to her character that made me think that she actually cared, deep down.

As always, the story progresses at an extremely fast pace, with something always happening. As the story is told from Claire's point of view, I did wish that I got to find out more about what happened with Michael, Eve and Shane while they were separated because there was only a quick run through of what happened. There is a lot of built up tension and excitement by the time the story comes to an end and I found it truly exciting.

As much as I love the amazing, heart-stopping cliff-hangers, I also hate them at the same time. If I hadn't had the next book sitting there waiting to be read, I would have screamed. Rachel Caine certainly knows how to write an amazing ending to a book and one that will make you need (not want) the next in the series.

Each book in the series has distinct differences from the others but the quality, excitement and romance are always there. Another fabulous book by Rachel Caine. Next in the series is Carpe Corpus.