I first stumbled across Rachel Caine in her Weather Warden series. I've enjoyed most of her work so far. Glass Houses is a fast, fun vampire read. Reminiscent of Charlaine Harris, but thankfully the characters have a bigger vocabulary. If you're a fan of the Weather Warden series, you'll probably still enjoy this work, just be aware the style of writing is different.

I just read this entire book last night. I really liked it except for one thing which I will mention in a moment.

Glass Houses is the story of 16 year old genius Claire. Claire has just started college and instead of sending her to the Ivy League colleges of the East Coast, Claire's parents decide she needs to stay closer to home and enroll her in Texas Prairie University. Claire is used to hostility because of being so different, but the animosity that greets her at Howard Hall is beyond anything she has ever experienced before. In fact, its downright deadly. When she is beaten and shoved down a flight of stairs Claire knows she needs to do something fast. Unwilling to quit school she answers an ad for a roommate at the Glass House. There she meets gothic Eve, slacker Shane and the nocturnal musician, Michael Glass, owner of the house. At first Michael doesn't want Claire to stay because she is underage and the three roommates are all 18 years old. But when he learns of Claire's plight he takes pity on her. Soon Claire learns things about Morganville, the college and its residents, which are better suited to nightmares than the real world. Marked for death and running scared Claire has to use her genius to save not only herself, but her new found friends as well.

This book was very engrossing. Filled with action, mysteries and a bit of romance it compelled me to finish the whole book in one sitting. I really enjoyed all of the characters and Michael's prediciment was especially intriguing. However, there is one thing I really didn't like. To me books should have beginnings, middles and ENDINGS. I realize that this book is (obviously) the first in a prospective series but ending it in the middle of an action scene is frustrating to the reader. Endings should have resolution of a story. You can still hold readers' interests and have them anxious for the next book without resorting to cutting it off cold.

Without a doubt I will be waiting for the next book to come out but I truly hope that the next story is complete in itself.

Under attack by an upperclassman and her cronies, Claire Danvers, a young college freshman, moves into off campus housing with a group of teens that clue her in on the realities of life - and unlife - in Morganville.

Glass Houses had strengths and weaknesses. When a clique of psychotic popular girls is decidedly scarier and far more vicious than the vampires controlling the city, something doesn't seem right. In this, the first installment of a series, the vampires were, unfortunately, very much one dimensional, and aside from Amelie, uninteresting.

Caine did a better job with the heroes. Claire, Eve, Michael and Shane had distinct personalities, a good mixture of maturity and immaturity and enough quirks to make them seem real and likeable. I cared about them, and that drew me into the story.

This was the first book I've read by Rachel Caine, and while I had problems with a few of the characterizations, I found enough to like in this story to want to check out some of her other books.

Rachel Caine fans are in for another rockin' ride in this new series!

Some may be tempted to compare this one to her Weather Wardens books, but that's a big mistake. Each should be read on its own merits, keeping in mind it IS a whole different world and the rules are different. Were I in the right age group for this book I'd likely go nuts over it and be craving another one ASAP. As an adult I'm still nuts over it, but for different reasons.

The characters, especially the brainy, courageous Claire, are very well drawn and likeable for their quirks and shortcomings. Each has a history, baggage, and a unique way of dealing with problems. Young Claire is scary smart in some things, inexperienced in others, and attending college in Morganville, Texas, which has nasty goings on under the surface. Psychotic classmates, sinister cops, and other threats abound in a town where vampires make the rules and unwary humans are there for the taking.

Caine has gone all out on the "What if vampires (the e-vul, bloodsucking, barely controlled fiend kind) designed and ran a town?" It ain't a pretty sight, but it's a page-turning read as Claire and her housemates figure out how to survive. As if classes, term papers, and after school jobs weren't enough on a freshman's plate, the freshman could end up being the meal on that plate!

Think Veronica Mars crossed with Buffy, throw in a gallon of espresso shots to pitch things into high gear and that's what you'll find in Glass Houses. Just like the real world, this one isn't a fair place, and it can get very dark indeed, but you can get past that and thrive if you want it enough and have the support of good friends.

The other plus is the swift, effortless pace of well-executed writing. This is a book you can finish, turn to the front, and read again. That was my favorite kind of book as a teen and still is now. High school and college are long behind me, but Claire's fortune's, tribulations, and will to survive into adulthood take me right back to what it was like when I was her age. She doesn't deal with ordinary bullies, hers are certifiably insane, never mind the vampires and other things lurking about. Caine's characters are pushed to the limit, and just when you think things can't get any worse, they do, but the heroes ARE heroic and do their thing to the best of their ability.

I can't wait for the next one!

I love Rachel Caine's Weather Warden series and was keen to read this, the first in a new series subtitled "The Morganville Vampires". However, this book is VERY different from the Weather Warden series - our heroine is a 16 year old girl going off to College. As an English woman the American college system seems very bizarre at the best of times but Claire's experiences in her first six weeks at her new college in Morganville are even stranger. She's a bit of a brainy nerd and pretty soon falls foul of Monica, the 'cool but dim' girl who, with her acolytes, virtually runs the college. They gang up against Claire and, in order to escape various attempts to harm her, some successful, Claire moves out and starts living in an old house with two young men, Shane and Michael, and a goth girl, Eve. Once there she begins to find out some very strange things about the town of Morganville, its residents and the rules that she needs to know to be protected from the evil things out there.

Claire's discoveries of the strange events that take place in Morganville unfold through the course of the book - she discovers vampires, ghosts, a long-lost secret book - whilst having to deal with injuries, a crush on one of the young men in her house and her parents' protectiveness.

The book moves along fairly swiftly and it's interesting and well-written but I can't give it more than three stars because, for me, it was unsatisfying as it was more a book for teenagers. I'm over twice Claire's age and I just can't identify with her - or even with the setting of the college and the events taking place there. Probably it's great fun for young adults who are interested in the vampire genre but don't want anything too gory or too full of sex. I expected another novel like the Weather Warden series for adults and the information on the book's cover didn't warn me otherwise.