Kiss of Death (Morganville Vampires, #8)

by Rachel Caine

Claire Danvers has a few things on her mind. First of all there is the laundry, which is now an unfortunate shade of pink. Then there is her boyfriend, Shane, who is never too far from her thoughts. Finally there is her best friend Eve's relationship problems. As if life as a student wasn't complicated enough, Claire just happens to be studying in Morganville. A town run by vampires.


Trouble seems to follow Claire and her friends like a shadow and tonight is no exception to the rule. They must find the most difficult documents for a vampire to acquire; people passes that will allow 'bad ass' Morley and his friends to leave Morganville. But it's proving incredibly difficult, and with the odds seemingly stacked against them, the biggest question of all is... Will they survive?

• ISBN10: 0606151087
• ISBN13: 9780606151085
• Publish Date: 27 April 2010 (first published 1 April 2010)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 6 April 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Turtleback Books
• Edition: Bound for Schools & Libraries ed.
• Format: Hardcover (Library Binding)
• Pages: 243
• Language: English

Reviews

[Angie]

10/17/15: Rereading!!!

Did I say that Fade Out was my favorite of the series? Actually Kiss of Death is! I loved this book from chapter 1 to the very last page. It has non-stop action and trouble for Claire and Company, and we get a complete change of setting. Claire, Michael, Shane, Eve, and Oliver are taking a roadtrip to Dallas and along the way they get stuck in two tiny towns with some similarities to Morganville. I never thought this group could get into so much trouble outside of their own little vampire town!

When I say non-stop action, I really mean it. Our favorite Morganvillers get into one situation after another during what is suppose to be a simple trip for Michael to record his demon. Of course, things are never simple for them, especially when Oliver has some errands to run for Amelie. Some of their run ins are with humans, other are with other vampires, but all of them cause big trouble. I definitely wasn't expecting what they found in tiny town number two!

I absolutely loved all of the interations between the Glass housemates. Eve continues to be witty and over-emotional. Michael's vampire side is coming out more and more, but he manages to hang onto his humanity. While Shane...well, he's Shane. As for Claire, it's great watching her become more confident. I actually think I like Oliver now. He's still not a nice guy, but I definitely appreciate his presence. I just missed my Myrnin!

This was another amazing addition to the series, and there was no cliffhanger! But things are definitely going to be different for everybody when they cross back into the borders of Morganville.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[Linda]

Excellent! I really love this series. Claire is the best girl-hero ever! She's tough, and she's got mad skills, and she's smart. Of course, she also has the hottest boy-friend :D

[Jo]

Claire Danvers has a few things on her mind. First of all there is the laundry, which is now an unfortunate shade of pink. Then there is her boyfriend, Shane, who is never too far from her thoughts. Finally there is her best friend Eve's relationship problems. As if life as a student wasn't complicated enough, Claire just happens to be studying in Morganville. A town run by vampires. Trouble seems to follow Claire and her friends like a shadow and tonight is no exception to the rule. They must find the most difficult documents for a vampire to acquire; people passes that will allow 'bad ass' Morley and his friends to leave Morganville. But it's proving incredibly difficult, and with the odds seemingly stacked against them, the biggest question of all is...Will they survive? From Amazon UK.

Words are yet to be invented for me to be able to describe how much I love the Morganville Vampires series. Really. This series is just too amazing for words, and gets better with each book. Kiss of Death adds to the awesomeness that is this series.

Firstly, the blurb above and on the back of the book is misleading. The story doesn't take place in one day as it leads you to believe, and getting Morley several People Passes isn't the main obstacle, nor even a small one, exactly, for our main characters. Yet I can understand the reason for the misleading blurb; so much happens in this book, it's kind of hard to summarise without spoilers. So yes, Morley is involved to some degree, but not how you would assume. The main plot thread is Michael is invited by a producer to go to Dallas to record his music, and Amelie grants all four of them - Michael, Claire, Eve and Shane - People Passes to go. Obviously, they are all excited to get out of Morganville, but their road trip isn't as much of a break from the freakiness as they had hoped.

And as I said, so much happens! I think Kiss of Death may be the most action packed of the whole series. Seriously, just when you think things couldn't get any worse for the guys, it does - in bucket loads. The saying "out of the frying pan and into the fire" is a bit of an understatement in this instance. But it's awesome! I know, I know there are going to be at least 12 books in the series, but at some points, I was really worrying for the lives of the characters and sure there were going to some fatalities. Claine is just a mastermind of urban fantasy, and never fails to shock and surprise.

Claire contines to come into her own in this book, showing more courage and spink than you would expect in the circumstances they find themselves in. But we still have the same sarcasm, wit, and humour from all the main characters that make us love them so much. I adore Michael, Eve and Shane, and love how real their voices sound.

Seriously, another brilliant book by Caine. I really can't wait to read what she brings us next in Ghost Town, which will be released in January 2011.

From Once Upon a Bookcase - YA book blog.

[mitabird]

3.5 stars

[jeannamichel]

Rachel Caine just keeps spitting out another book in her series. And I'm eating them up!
This is #8. But this time the series doesn't live up to their namesake- why? The characters are not in Morganville anymore. They are "out there." With Oliver as their escort, the whole gang goeas on a road trip to start Michael's career as a muscian. They can deal with Morganville. Can they deal with the world outside?
This one was much better than the last one. It was nice to have one of the books that changed the setting every chapter instead of having them always be in Morganville, Texas. The beginning was all teen-sickly- whatever nonsense- then it got to the good parts when they left town. One thing they forgot, however, or maybe I missed a whole page was that Claire never asked Shane to come home for dinner, nor did she get a straight premission from her parents that she could go to Dallas. The entire conversation was ignored the whole book. When they were stopped at the ice cream store, the polcie found Claire and Shane in the back seat making out. The whole scene puts it in prespective that she's still underage- I guess I forgot. It also puts you straight that Michael need to be much more careful where he puts his cooler. Shane doesn't know the joy of ice cream and Eve has had way too much sugar. There are more books for me, but I'm not quite giving up on these series yet.