Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Night Shift by Charlaine Harris

Title: Night Shift
Author: Charlaine Harris
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: Midnight, Texas #3 

Hardcover, 308 Pages
Publication: May 3, 2016 by Ace

Source: I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for a honest review.

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At Midnight’s local pawnshop, weapons are flying off the shelves—only to be used in sudden and dramatic suicides right at the main crossroads in town.

Who better to figure out why blood is being spilled than the vampire Lemuel, who, while translating mysterious texts, discovers what makes Midnight the town it is. There’s a reason why witches and werewolves, killers and psychics, have been drawn to this place.And now they must come together to stop the bloodshed in the heart of Midnight. For if all hell breaks loose—which just might happen—it will put the secretive town on the map, where no one wants it to be...


Night Shift is the third and supposedly final book in the Midnight, Texas series. I hope this isn’t the last book because I enjoy the series too much to see it end! Anyone familiar with this series knows that the town of Midnight is a peculiar place and nothing is ever as it seems. What initially drew me to this series was the premise and plot but I stayed for the characters. Harris has created one of the most unique and fun cast I’ve ever read about.

Night Shift takes place approximately a few weeks after the events of Day Shift. The Town of Midnight gets a temporary relief as they plan for their annual Halloween-Samhain celebration at Fiji’s. However, the reprieve is abruptly cut short when the suicide rate sky rockets (before this, it was 0%), occurring right in the middle of Midnight in front of Bobo’s pawnshop. What’s even stranger is, the people committing suicide are ones that aren’t a fan of Fiji, Midnight’s resident witch. Once again it’s up to Fiji and the gang to figure out why the deaths are occurring and put a stop to it before it brings unwanted attention to their little town.

The main plot this time around isn’t as interesting as the first two books in the series. In my opinion, the multiple suicides and the big bad villain lurking underneath the town never really held my attention and the villain wasn't scary. The entire town was on a time sensitive mission but I never felt the urgency of it nor did they apparently. And then when the big showdown finally took place, it was solved so fast I thought I missed it. It was anticlimactic. It literally took two drops of blood and was summed up/solved in four sentences.­ I felt the author rushed the ending and 1-2 more pages could've helped the scene.

Even though the plot was somewhat of a letdown, the characters more than made up for it. As I said before, I’ve stuck around with series because of the wonderful characters. They may all be supes (except Olivia and the Reeds) and hiding secrets but at the core they’re just like everyone else. They want to try to make a decent living, live a happy life and care and protect their friends and families. That might sound boring but it isn’t the case. The people of Midnight make the most mundane of tasks fascinating and you’re never bored. And we finally learn the most in Night Shift about the characters. Prior to this book everyone was an enigma. Readers will learn more about Manfred and his family, what Olivia been hiding and running from, how the Reeds are keeping Madonna’s restaurant afloat and meet a relative of Fiji, other than the ghost of Aunt Mildred.

All in all this was a good conclusion to a wonderful series and everything tied up nicely. I am still crossing my fingers in hope that this isn’t really the end. There is still so much more to explore! In all honestly, I’m not ready to say goodbye to these characters. But if this is truly the end, I am glad that I’ll still get my dose of Midnight, Texas when the show based on the series is aired later this fall. Thank goodness for that. I highly recommend this series to everyone. It’s a light, fun read with the perfect balance of paranormal and mystery.




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