If I could give this book 10 stars I would. The book is so ridiculously action-packed that it's almost a parody of the genre. There's absolutely nothing predictable in this series. The time-shifting, history-changing events make my head spin, and I wasn't always entirely convinced that they were logical. But Karen Chance writes some of the best characters ever and the heroine continually surprises me. Every time I think Cassie is going to stay put and try to figure out what's going on, she runs off on another mad adventure. But she's not one of those heroines who runs around doing stupid things so that you're constantly cursing their thick-headed impulsiveness or their lack of self-preservation. 
 Cassie is a charming heroine and so is her side-kick Billy. Her relationship with Rafe, a sort of adoptive vampire father, is sweet and only gets better as the series progresses. But the best thing about this series is Mircea, who is my all-time favourite hero in this genre. (Jeaniene Frost's Bones is a close second.) He's the slickest operator ever, and downright scary when crossed, but he also has a sweet sentimental side that the reader sees better than Cassie herself (especially in the 2 Midnight's Daughter books which intersect with this series) that make you root for Mircea. And he's sexy as hell, though I don't know whether that's because of or in spite of his clothing fetish. 
 If you're reading this book for the first time, pay close attention to Pritkin, who turns into a major character in the second book of the series (to the extent that there's whole Team Pritkin set of fans). It's fascinating to read the first book knowing that he's going to develop in that direction, because in the first book he mostly acts as a device for Cassie to indirectly explain to the readers the logic of vampire feeding and vampire sociality.