Review - The Dead Girls Dance, Morganville Vampires Book 2 by Rachel Caine

Claire has her share of challenges. Like being a genius in a school that favors beauty over brains; homicidal girls in her dorm, and finding out that her college town is overrun with the living dead. On the up side, she has a new boyfriend with a vampire-hunting dad. But when a local fraternity throws the Dead Girls' Dance, hell is really going to break loose.



Claire Danvers got accepted into college early, and thought her biggest problems would be keeping up with the mountain of school work she would surely get and trying to fit into a world most people would think she was too young for. Too bad for Claire, these were the least of her worries, because she chose the wrong town. You see, Morganville is the one town in America that is run by the undead, and by the undead, I mean vampires.


The story picks up right where Glass Houses ended. Michael Glass is a dead heap on the floor. Claire, Eve and Shane have no time to grieve or worry because Shane’s father is back in town. This doesn’t seem all that bad, does it? Well when your father is a kick ass vampire hunter on a war path of destruction, all kind of trouble will surely ensue. This trouble is more than the guys can deal with and they find themselves right in the midst of a very messy and violent battle. Plus, Michael has to deal with his own issues, but will the choices he makes change his life for the best or the worst?


I read the first Morganville vampires book, Glass Houses, a few months back and found the plotline to be a little dull for my taste. I like fast paced books chocked full of action and tortured characters, so I was reluctant to carry on with the series. After speaking to Jenny, over at Wondrous Reads about these books, I decided to give the series a shot, and I wasn’t sorry. For fans of vampires and hot boys, which is mostly every girl in the world, you will love these books and I can’t wait to read Midnight Alley.


The story moved at a rate fast enough to keep me on the edge of my seat, and the plot was full of twists and turns I never saw coming. I was shocked most of the time at the direction Rachel went with the book, because some of the events I never in a million years thought would happen. For instance, Amelie, Morganville’s founder and most powerful vampire. All the occupants of the Glass House find themselves under her protection, which means they can go back to normalcy. But how can they possibly do that when someone or something wants them all dead, and not dead in the good way.


I feel like I really got to know the characters a lot more in this book, I got to unearth Shane’s tortured past and Eves family life before the Glass House, both of which were real eye openers. Plus, there is a lot more romance and steamy scenes in this installment, overflowing fill sexual tension. Well Claire isn’t even legal yet, so how do her and Shane deal with the way they feel for each other? You’ll have to read it and find out!


Shane is my favorite male character in these books, in Glass Houses I was leaning more towards Michael, but he shines in this book. Drop dead gorgeous, and can make a mean chilli; what more could a girl want. I love him and wish I could pull him right out of the book and install him in my house as a permanent fixture. If any of you have any ideas how I would accomplish this, just drop me an email.


For me, Rachel proves in this book that she is the master of action and suspense, and can write some seriously hot characters. Dead Girls’ Dance was so fast paced I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. I am now a fully fledged Morganville fan girl and can’t wait to follow their story right until the very end.