Book 43: Lords of Misrule

I was completely underwhelmed by Rachel Caine’s Lords of Misrule. There was a lot of potential to the book but it never fully lived up to them.

Every author has a book where they just don’t meet your expectations. They either phone it in, they use a novel to set up the next book in the series, or the book wasn’t properly edited. This book seemed to be a mix of the first two problems: a little phoning it in and a lot of rushing to get to the next book.

Lords of Misrule did one of the things that I absolutely hate. The back of the book totally blew the entire story.  I’m all for teasers and pulling in the readers but the cover was a bit much. Mentioning things that happened in the final chapter is crazy.

Lords of Misrule really felt more like a short story that just grew long. I will admit, I got introduced to the Morganville vampires through short stories collections.  The pacing was off. At times a little too extended and other times it just too fast.

The characters were also more like 2 dimensional characters rather than fully fleshed out characters. The best characters in my eyes were vampires who made more of cameo roles: Theo’s family, Myrimn and Michael.  The main characters I actually kinda hated. I thought Claire was petty, Shane was only half there, Eve was meh, and Monica was described as so awful but it was never really shown in the book.  And I don’t buy into the idea that if a series is a young adult series, the characters can be a little less developed when compared to adult fiction.  The fact I couldn’t connect to the characters was tough to believe since in other Rachel Caine books, that’s been her strength and I really liked the short story I read from the series.


Another problem with the book, there was too much talking about actions and not enough showing. It felt like that every time something major happens, it's only talked about or was going on in the fringes. Things really were heated up and we were being told that but the reader wasn't actually shown it. They never knew what was going on with the different vampires as they disappeared, how the humans are really trying to deal with the vampires, or most importantly how the fighting between Amelie and Bishop was really happening. Instead Claire wasn't in the actual midst of those things except for the twister and even then it gets rushed. 

Although the way Lords of Misrule ended and the teaser first chapter to book six, I want to read what happens next in the series. So the book wasn't all bad since it didn't make me say I will never read the Morganville Vampire series.