Review: Hard Bitten by Chloe Neill
| Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance“A Turning Point in the Chicagoland Vampires Saga”
The Download… Straight from the Cover
Merit needs to get to the bottom of this crime, but it doesn’t help that she can’t tell who’s on her side. So she secretly calls in a favor from someone who’s tall, dark, and part of underground vamp group that may have some deep intel on the attack. Merit soon finds herself in theheady, dark heart of Chicago’s supernatural society–a world full of vampires who seem to ready to fulfill the protesting human’s worst fears, and a place where she’ll learn that you can’t be a vampire without getting a little blood on your hands… |
Times are hard for newly minted vampire Merit. Ever since shapeshifters announced their presence to the world, humans have been rallying against supernaturals–and they’re camping outside of Cadogan House with protest signs that could turn to pitchforks at any moment. Inside its doors, things between Merit and her Master, green-eyed heartbreaker Ethan Sullivan are … tense. But then the mayor of Chicago calls Merit and Ethan to a clandestine meeting and tells them about a violent vamp attack that has left three women missing. His message is simple: get your House in order. Or else.
Zelda’s Two Cents…
I would call this a book of change for Merit and the Chicagoland vampires. After three hot hot hot Chicagoland Vampires novels, I feel like Chloe Neill is allowing her audience to breathe a bit with this installment. While it is arguably as action-packed as the previous books, it is very light on the romance side, a bit of a let-down for those of us who’ve grown accustomed to the steamy suspense between Ethan and Merit. Of course, Merit still kicks ass while supporting her House and the well-being of the vampire community as a whole, and there may be some stirrings of a relationship with Jonah around the corner, but one can’t help but feel a little lost without the heat.
As far as the rest of the plot is concerned, old villains haven’t quite disappeared and new villains are seemingly minor. Merit’s best friend Mallory and her boyfriend Catcher only have ancillary roles. The leader of the North American Central werewolf pack Gabriel only shows up once in the entire novel.
All this being said, the ending of the novel packs enough punch to carry the rest of the book on its coattails.
Spoiler Alert!!!
(Continue reading only if you don’t mind spoilers!)
So, yeah…. BIG changes erupt at the end of the book. Such big changes that I didn’t see them coming at all. The first huge plot twist is when Merit is told that her father had commissioned Ethan to assault her and turn her into a vampire as a political ploy. Of course, this throws everything that has happened between Merit and Ethan in the previous books into question and dashes hopes that they will ever be happily in love. Even though Ethan is exonerated in the end for not accepting the proposal from Merit’s father, we still experience the heartache with Merit and it stings. This is also just further evidence that nothing is ever as it seems and calls into question just who in Merit’s life is actually trustworthy.
The second showstopper? Ethan dies! Holy shit, this completely floored me. Whhhyyyy!?!?! I really liked Ethan as a character and was truly hopeful that we would get to see further romancing between him and Merit, but it is just not to be. After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I started thinking about this twist from the author’s perspective and see that it was probably a necessary move in order to keep the plot moving forward in the series and avoid becoming stale. I mean, the push and pull of Merit and Ethan couldn’t go on forever, right? Plus, this now opens the door for many potential plot developments in future books: a real possibility for Merit and the Red Guard, a possible future for Merit and Jonah, the evolution of Cadogan under Malik’s lead… who knows?
Regardless, Neill still has a great story on her hands and I’m looking forward to seeing in what direction she decides to take it. The next installment of the Chicagoland Vampires series, Drink Deep, is due out in November 2011!
Zelda Gillian is a wife, a mother and a lover, likes strong espresso, stiff corsets and never strays far from her Kindle.
