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…

I find that I’m still struggling to decide how much I like this particular series. As a fan of the Sookie Stackhouse series, there are moments where I just want to scream or throw these books at the wall and then there are moments when I really appreciate the series.

On the plus side, I really enjoy the fact Harris has put more focus on all of the town’s residents as opposed to just one character. I didn’t really mind the single character development in the other series, but I find it’s easier to become invested in the town as a whole when there are multiple characters being highlighted. I also like that she has continued to feature new and different supernatural races in her books. I love the world building and even enjoy seeing the characters from the Sookie Stackhouse series making appearances.

As for the plot, I found it to okay. There was a good premise and idea behind all of it, but I felt like it all began to unravel the further you got into the book. Even the ending felt as if it had haphazardly been thrown in, almost as if it had been forgotten. Truthfully, as much as I enjoyed having all of the characters being developed, there was a lot going on and it probably needed better focus on one or two things, instead of everyone’s business. In fact, Olivia’s mess of a back (half) story weighed down the book.

Now the bad. Consistency and continuity has been a problem for the author for the decade or so I’ve been reading her work. The truth is, if she didn’t link the Midnight, Texas series to her other series, this wouldn’t be such an issue. When an author creates a series and establishes rules about supernatural races, it’s really difficult not to get confused and upset when they break canon. For example, in this series Lemuel is a psychic vampire who also can sustain himself with human blood. It’s crudely explained as him being a “rarity”, but the truth is, if the series weren’t tied to the others, he could just be what he is. Also, Joe and Chuy are angels and claim to be fallen angels… umm… I read the other series, Angels are not working for a higher entity in that series, but are Fairies who can in a sense be “promoted” after so many years of good deeds. And don’t even get me started on how were children in the other series develop normally and yet, suddenly weretigers mature in their first year of life. So that means Sookie possibly hooked up with a toddler or first grader? And what about Fiji’s sister not knowing about weres? Um… the weres came out before Quinn’s son was born, so that just completely destroys that plot line.

I know this seems like I’m being nitpicky, but I can’t help it. Don’t make canon rules if you are going to turn around and just spit on it a few books later. I’m sorry, but I’m not sorry. Canon is canon.

Was the story terrible? No. Was it the best book in this series? No.

Sadly this series would be way better if there was no link to the other series. As much as I enjoyed having Quinn and his son appear in these books, there are too many contradictions to the established world they are supposed to live in. And I’m sorry, I’m not buying that everyone in Midnight, Texas is the exception to every rule.

Reviewer’s note: I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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