Chloe Neill

Chicagoland Vampires — (2009-2011) Publisher: First in a brand new series about a Chicago graduate student's introduction into a society of vampires. Sure, the life of a graduate student wasn't exactly glamorous, but it was Merit's. She was doing fine until a rogue vampire attacked her. But he only got a sip before he was scared away by another bloodsucker — and this one decided the best way to save her life was to make her the walking undead. Turns out her savior was the master vampire of Cadogan House. Now she's traded sweating over her thesis for learning to fit in at a Hyde Park mansion full of vamps loyal to Ethan 'Lord o' the Manor' Sullivan. Of course, as a tall, green-eyed, four-hundred- year-old vampire, he has centuries' worth of charm, but unfortunately he expects her gratitude — and servitude. But an inconvenient sunlight allergy and Ethan's attitude are the least of her concerns. Someone's still out to get her. Her initiation into Chicago's nightlife may be the first skirmish in a war — and there will be blood.

Some Girls Bite

Merit is a Chicago grad student with a wealthy family she tries her hardest to ignore. One night she’s attacked by a vampire and left for dead, then saved when another vampire, Ethan Sullivan, finds her and brings her over. Now Merit is a vampire whether she likes it or not — and embroiled in vampire politics, again whether she likes it or not. Chloe Neill’s vampires are divided into Houses, which are sort of a cross between corporations, mob families, and frats. Ethan is the head of Cadogan House, and now Merit belongs to it as well.

Merit’s attack is part of a larger pattern of murders, giving Some Girls Bite a mystery plotline, but that aspect of the story is not very prominent. The major focus here is Merit’s adjustment to life as a vampire. Her journey throughout the book is compelling; she starts out feeling sorry for herself and then decides to make the best of her new existence while retaining her autonomy as much as she can. Running alongside this is the adjustment of Merit’s best friend and roommate, Mallory, to the discovery that she is a witch. The friendship between Merit and Mallory is terrific, really fun to read. Neill’s portrayal of female friendship is one of the greatest strengths of her young adult Dark Elite series, and that strength is evident here as well. There should be more urban fantasy heroines with interesting female friends!

While I enjoyed Merit’s character arc, other aspects of her characterization are a little annoying. She’s one of those too-good-to-be-true characters who arrives on the scene and suddenly has more power than almost anyone else and the story’s alpha male instantly obsessed with her. And as for that alpha male, Ethan, he’s hard to like despite his good looks. He’s overbearing in the Jericho Barrons vein, but less mysterious and with his own personal brand of sleaze added. (Seriously, who asks someone to become his new mistress while his current mistress — the one he’ll dump if Merit says yes — is in earshot?) I’m much more fond of Morgan, Merit’s other possible love interest. In a world of angsty, brooding vampires, it’s nice to see one who eats Dagwood sandwiches and razzes Merit about her favorite football team. I’ve read enough urban fantasy, though, to be wary of getting too attached to Morgan. The beta male seldom wins, and often turns out to be a jerk in the bargain. So, since I suspect this is heading in the direction of an Ethan/Merit pairing, I hope Neill does more to make Ethan sympathetic as the series continues.

But though I’m not sold on the male lead yet, and though Some Girls Bite doesn’t reinvent vampires or urban fantasy, this is a fun book as a whole. Despite the violence, the overall feel is that of a light read, with chick-lit overtones and cute dialogue. If you’re looking for a beach read in the urban fantasy genre, Chicagoland Vampires may be just the thing. —Kelly Lasiter

Friday Night Bites

In Friday Night Bites, the second in Chloe Neill’s Chicagoland Vampires series, Cadogan House is in trouble again. The villain of Some Girls Bite has gotten off with a slap on the wrist, and now there’s a journalist threatening to expose some of vampire-kind’s less savory secrets to the public. When the journalist turns out to be an old friend of Merit’s from her high-society upbringing, she is thrust back into the world she spent her human lifetime trying to escape. Then it turns out there’s a traitor in the House…

I love the way Neill approaches the mystery here. Merit may have unusual physical and psychic strengths and several men infatuated with her, but it’s her brain that’s most important in solving this puzzle. Merit’s research skills and love of old books yield some crucial clues, and her ability to put disparate facts together results in a breakthrough in the case.

Friday Night Bites also features a good amount of development in Merit’s personal life. She begins to realize that her ambiguous relationship with Ethan, her position as House Sentinel, and the unusual circumstances of her Change have been setting her apart from her fellow Cadogan vampires; and at the same time, her new life is driving a wedge between her and her best friend Mallory.

Ethan is much more palatable here. The events of Some Girls Bite have left him feeling more vulnerable — and more appreciative of the benefits Merit brings to Cadogan House and to his life. If you thought he was obnoxious in the previous book, you’ll like him better this time around.

Friday Night Bites is another fun installment in an entertaining series, and in my opinion better than the first. I already have Twice Bitten on the way. —Kelly Lasiter

Twice Bitten

Vampire troubles have been all over the news in the last few months. Now the shapeshifters, still in the closet, are debating whether to stay where they currently are and help defend the vamps against possible persecution, or retreat to their lands in Alaska. Gabriel, their leader, doesn’t expect this to be a battle of words alone, and so Merit and Ethan are working as his bodyguards.

Violence does erupt, and Merit learns of a planned hit on Gabriel. Now she must ferret out who is plotting against him and stop the assassination. Along the way, she has to deal with shifters’ prejudice against vamps and vice versa.

Meanwhile, Merit’s relationship with Ethan takes a few steps forward… and a few steps backward. The “downs” are made extra poignant by the fact that Merit is so normal. Her heartache is something almost all of us can relate to, and I love the way she held her head up anyway. As for Ethan, I have to admit that, after an inauspicious beginning, he has grown on me — though there were moments in Chloe Neill’s Twice Bitten when I wanted to shout at him for being an idiot!

Other plot threads include friendship developments (with Mallory and with Merit’s fellow Cadogan vamps) and an invitation that tests Merit’s loyalty to her House.

I enjoyed Twice Bitten, absolutely loved the ending, and admired Merit for her strength in the face of all kinds of challenges. I can’t wait to start Hard Bitten. —Kelly Lasiter

Hard Bitten

The Chicagoland Vampires series started out fairly light and has gradually become darker. The unpretentious, easily digestible writing style is still in effect, and humor is still present, but Merit’s troubles have increased in complexity and the emotional stakes have been steadily raised. Hard Bitten is the fourth in the series and the darkest so far. Chloe Neill brings together a number of previously introduced plot arcs, and all hell breaks loose.

Merit is touched by Ethan’s recent gestures but still wary of him after their breakup in Twice Bitten. She doesn’t have much time for romantic angst, though, because Cadogan House is in trouble. The events of the past few books have put Cadogan, Ethan, and Merit on the radar of both the human and vampire authorities. We’ve been following Merit intimately, so we know she’s been trying her best to solve problems rather than create them, but to the outside observer, it looks like Cadogan is the epicenter of all the drama. The last straw is a super-violent vampire rave that leaves three women dead. Now, unless Ethan gets his House in order, Mayor Tate will have Ethan arrested and Darius, leader of the vampires’ Greenwich Presidium, will place Cadogan in receivership. Merit’s role as Sentinel is to solve the rave mystery and clear her House’s name.

The plot is the type of twisty mystery we’ve come to expect from Neill, with a healthy dose of character development: many of the series’ recurring characters are changing and evolving as a result of the new roles they have assumed. Hard Bitten also revisits some questions raised in book one — why was Merit targeted for attack, anyway, and how did Ethan know to be there? — and provides answers that are sometimes shocking. But the biggest shock is the ending, a huge sucker punch of a development that may also be a cliffhanger.

I say “may be a cliffhanger,” because I don’t know if Neill will “fix” this situation or if it will be permanent. Genre expectations and a few intriguing hints make me think all is not as bleak as it appears. I look forward to finding out, either way. All I know is that if it’s a cliffhanger, it’s a seriously evil one… and that we’re lucky we only have to wait until November for book five, Drink Deep. —Kelly Lasiter

Hard Bitten

Hard Bitten is the fourth book in Chloe Neill’s Chicagoland Vampires series and I was admittedly at a slight disadvantage trying to pull out the backstory because I haven't read the first three books. Amazingly, this was still a really fun read even though I didn’t know all the details. Chloe Neill knows how to tell a story and even if her subject material is not incredibly innovative, she still manages to keep things moving and make things interesting.

Merit (she goes by her last name) is a good-looking, trash talking, ass-kicking vampire who lives in Chicago. She was involuntarily made into a vampire after being attacked and nearly dying anyway. That is a plus in my book because she valued her humanity. Merit is also the daughter of a wealthy businessman and politically tied in to the city of Chicago. To top it all off, she is romantically involved with the head vampire of the “House” that she belongs to. This is all pretty well-covered ground in urban fantasy.

The Cadogan House, where Merit lives, has been the focus of a lot of violence and turmoil. Much of that has been instigated by the leader of another vampire house and Merit and her off-again boyfriend, Ethan Sullivan, are trying to keep things from getting even further out of control. In order to do that, Merit is drawn into the investigation of the murder of humans by out of control vampires. If she doesn’t get it figured out, her House will be shut down.

This is all good stuff. I like the way that Neill tells the story even if she uses some terms a little too often. Merit is a good heroine and the supporting characters are all pretty well developed, even the bad guy vampires. The best part of Neill’s writing is that she is not afraid to kill important characters! I absolutely love the fact that she is not so in love with her characters that she can’t bear to write one out of the story. For me, what was an otherwise decent, but common, urban fantasy novel became something much better because the author has the guts to make things hurt. —John Hulet

Drink Deep

This review contains a big spoiler for the previous book, Hard Bitten. If you haven’t read Hard Bitten yet, hit “Page Up” now — and then get caught up on the CHICAGOLAND VAMPIRES as soon as possible, because these books are fun!

There’s a more somber tone this time around, though. It’s been a few months since Ethan Sullivan’s death. Merit and Cadogan House are recovering, but both heroine and house are still keenly aware of the Ethan-sized hole left behind. Merit is feeling a tentative attraction toward her friend and partner Jonah, but she’s not sure she’s ready to date again and is still haunted by disturbing dreams of Ethan. Malik has taken over Cadogan House, but a supercilious Greenwich Presidium bureaucrat is making everyone’s life miserable. Public opinion of vampires is at an all-time low. And that’s before Lake Michigan turns black and the sky turns blood-red…

Now, all the supernatural groups are blaming each other, the humans are blaming the vampires, and Merit has to figure out what’s really going on before it gets worse. Because Chicago has seen phenomena like this before. The year was 1871.

Chloe Neill gives us another entertaining urban fantasy in Drink Deep. We get to meet new supernatural characters and groups, and the escalating disasters in Chicago are appropriately creepy. Merit’s emotional struggle is compelling and realistic, as is her interaction with the rest of Cadogan. As the series has progressed, Merit has gone from being rather isolated among the other vampires because of her unusually strong powers and odd relationship with Ethan, to being truly part of the organization and forging strong friendships. In Drink Deep, these friendships are one of the best and most touching aspects, and inspire a great act of heroism by Merit. The humor that has peppered this series is still here too, despite the thread of sadness that runs through the book.

It was clear to me pretty early — maybe too early — who was really behind the ominous events. One great twist I didn’t see coming, though, was the way Merit’s dreams tied in with the rest of the plot.

Drink Deep, whose title could apply to several characters and plotlines in this novel, is another enjoyable installment of CHICAGOLAND VAMPIRES. The ending sets up some interesting conflicts for the next book, and I’m looking forward to it. —Kelly Lasiter