Black Dawn by Rachel Caine

Title:  Black Dawn

Author:  Rachel Caine

Genre:  Young Adult/ Urban Fantasy

Publisher:  Penguin Australia (Publisher)

Publication Date:  1st May 2012

ISBN:  9781921880148

Stand alone or series:   The Morganville Vampires #12

Pages:  516 pages

Book Received from:  Penguin Australia (Publisher)

First Lines:  It would have been better if he'd screamed.  Michael Glass didn't scream.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE PREVIOUS BOOKS

Synopsis:
When a tide of ferocious draug, the vampire's deadliest enemy, floods Morganville, its eclectic mix of residents must fight to save their town from devastation.

Chaos has taken over the quiet college town of Morganville as the threat of the of draug rapidly spreads with the help of the city's water system. Whilst most of the locals have already fled, student Claire Danvers and her friends Shane, Eve and Michael choose to stay and fight.

Things take a turn for the worse when vampire Amelie, the town's founder, is infected by the master draug's bite. Unless Claire and her friends can find an antidote to save Amelie and overcome the draug, Morganville's future looks bleak . . .

My Thoughts:
I've read many series over the years, some very fantastic, some that lose a little bit of the wow the further in I've read, but The Morganville Vampires series just seems to keep getting even better.  I've never found a more awesome cast of characters than the ones that appear in each book Rachel has created.  Even the bad guys are intriguing!

Black Dawn picks up a day after Last Breath finishes and without even trying I'm sucked back into the world of Claire and her friends.  There's no picking up the last book to see what happened last for me.. This is whammo back to familiar ground.  And I loved it.

Things have gone from bad to worse for the gang with the draug.  Again Rachel has told the story from multiple viewpoints, the main being Claire's.  I love how she has introduced glimpses into the other characters heads and to differentiate between the main character and the others she has used first person.  Its an awesome way of making sure the main character stays just that!

The stakes are higher than ever for the vampires and the other side of both vampires and humans come out when pushed to the limit.  I was very surprised by a few characters actions but majority of the others were to be expected.  

I didn't expect to be so attached to certain characters up until the point that their lives were in danger.  Amelie was a prime example.  While I won't go into any detail, I felt despair at her decline in the book and prayed that they'd find something to help her.  Shane was another who I didn't realise I loved so much either.  It shows how well Rachel has done with the characterisation, when I'm sitting on the edge of my seat cheering on a bunch of fictional vampires and humans.  I did even get a strange look from people around me when I let out a happy cheer.  Yes, I may be a little TOO into these books but then again.. thats okay!  It doesn't help that I've met Rachel Caine and she's such an awesome woman!

All in all, another fabulous book in The Morganville Vampires series.  Oh!  How I wish the next book was here already!!

Fave Line:  Romantic love is an illusion, invented by poets and purchased by fools.  I told you, and Michael, what was necessary at thetime to make you understand that my goal was not to seduce him, only to... help.