Night Shift

I'm a big fan of the Midnight, Texas series. Just sorry that was the last one in the set. Now there will be a very long wait for whatever Charlaine Harris does next. I love the new characters introduced in this novel, and the growth of relationships among all Midnight regulars. This was my favorite series after the Harper Connelly stories. I hated that that one came to an end as well.

This is the third in what is labeled a trilogy -- but I hope there are more books to come about the tiny town of Midnight, TX. The characters are delightful, original, complex, and I truly cared not only about what was going to happen to them, but how they would feel about it all. Most characters have something extraordinary or supernatural about them, but there are a few simply human folk, and for the first time in my life I wished I could live in just such a tiny town in Texas. Like all the great writers of genre fiction, Ms. Harris forms her disparate characters into a family, and we feel happy to know them.

Having just finished reading this book, I am extremely upset with Ms. Harris. I did not want the book to end. It was so good that I'm upset that it's now finished.The third book in the Midnight, TX trilogy, this is probably the best. I love the way it ties in to characters from other series. There's Quinn from several Sookie Stackhouse novels, the Dallas vampires from the second Sookie book, Barry (in the 2nd Midnight book) also from the second Sookie book, Manfred from the Harper Connelly series, and Bobo from the Shakespeare series. (Forgive me if I've forgotten any others.) As a serious Harris fan, I enjoy the links.Characters introduced in the first 2 Midnight novels are further developed here, and we finally get some back stories and explanations for all of the characters. I had been wondering what exactly Joe and Chuy were, and Ms. Harris defines them well here.But from the closing of this book, it seems very possible that this is the last of this series. I hope not. I've enjoyed the Midnight series more than any of the other series. But if it is the last, I'll just have to go back and read these over and over.

I quickly sped through the finale of this trilogy once it arrived in the mail. However, this was mostly to get to the end of the story rather than through any great love for the world or the characters. On the one hand, I am very satisfied with how some story lines concluded, such as the explanation for the hotel renovation and the purpose of the Reeds in Midnight.On the other, however, this series jumped from murder mysteries solved by the town's supernatural residents to demon wackiness awfully quickly, and the jump in this final book was a bit jarring.It also seemed like a lot of interpersonal character development was shoe-horned in as plot devise (such as between Olivia and Lemuel) or as convenience to tie things up (such as between Fiji and Bobo). Manfred, on the other hand, basically gets everything handed to him on a plate throughout the entire book, which was also less than satisfying.While I've been sitting on the first novel in the Sookie Stackhouse series for years, I'm not in any hurry to read it. I have nothing but appreciation for an author who has achieved as much success as Ms. Harris, but her writing style of third-person omniscience is continually jarring to me. Her ability to tell a story is superb, and I appreciate her unique characters, but I need a bit of a break before going back to her writing mechanics.

We are back in Midnight, our town of misfit paranormals. We don’t have big groups of one certain type of supe, they seem to be individuals who have all come to seek sanctuary in this little town in the middle of nowhere.In Night Shift, we are introduced to a possible reason that the supes are drawn here. Being as that Midnight is on a crossroads, of course there is going to be some mysterious, supernatural surprise.It seems like Fiji is the main focus of this book. We do get parts from the other characters, some relating to the overall crossroads plot. Others to do with our mysterious Olivia. Even those parts, however, have Fiji playing a big role. We see big changes in her throughout the book as she comes into her own witchy ways and it is fun to see. I did enjoy seeing a certain male realize his mistakes, despite goofing up and making things worse for himself.Olivia has always been curious to me. She is human in amongst all these paranormals, and is in fact committed to Lemuel. She has a lot of secrets though. So far, she has always gone out of town to take care of the deeds or work she has to do. But her previous life catches up to her in Night Shift. She is a Midnight citizen though, and they will back their own. I was surprised at the deception a couple of the citizens had been playing. I would never have guessed from the way their roles were played throughout the series.The solution to the evil approaching Midnight was a little strange for me. But hey, it just fit with the quirkiness of the story. I just can’t help but thinking “poor Fiji”. She stepped up to the plate though and helped save her fellow citizens!I thought Night Shift was pretty exciting with all it’s twists and turns. The characters are so deep, and hold so many little quirks that you can’t help but be more and more curious about them. This series has become intrigued me more with each book.

Overall I loved these three books. I did feel the need to take a star off this one because the entire book is building up to a big showdown at the end. But while the build up was entirely successful for me the conclusion was not. I don't want to add spoilers but I was expecting the other Midnighters to have more of a role in the Boss Battle. Which is a pity because I loved this series and it was disappointing to have it end with a jar.

I read the first one in this series and couldn't put it down so I brought the second and third books. This third one in the series is a little far fetched however story wise but I still enjoyed the story and seeing what happened. I felt like I knew the characters and wanted to see what happened. Wish there were more in the series! I liked the author's Sookie Stackhouse books so wanted to try one of her other series and glad I did. I like Charlaine's writing style.

sweet little story, cosy tellings of goings-on in the hamlet for weirdos...lots of emphasis on sex, especially the ritual loss of virginity for a woman (why does that matter? strange?) and being chubby/round/pleasingly plump (as if that MEANT anything...why?) ....but a pleasant, mildly amusing read, with a few delightful characters, and some not so much fun...the plot reaching its expected end, all the couples paired off, the HEA achieved...short, not deep, but ok...a bit boring in its predictability...

Loved this book. However you must read crossroads and a shift first. It wrapped everything up added a few more characters though did become a little over the top fanatical towards the end. Great characters, quick storyline.

A crisis is coming to Midnight and everyone will have to co-operate to over come it, especially Fiji and her familiar Mr Snuggly. In the process secrets are are revealedThis feels as if it may be the final book in the series but I hope there will be more.