If you've never picked up the Chicagoland Vampire, series you really should. This is book five in the series. Ms. Neill was just contracted out for five more books, I believe. So lots of fun to be had. You follow the lead character in the book, Merit, from her transition from an Academic to a unwilling vampire soldier. She's smart, she's funny and can kick ass. One thing I really love about this series, is the pace. It has a lot of banter and is loaded with edgy quips. It keeps you on your toes.
Let me tell you a little about Merit's world. She has an awesome best friend (blue hair and all), an adorably loving grandfather, her relationship with her parents is strained (Chicago nouveau riche) and of course a hunky male lead. I'm not here to review the other books, because that would take forever. I'll just give you the short run of it, I loved them. I'd give them between and B+ and an A.
Ahoy, Avast (other pirate speak) There be Spoilers Ahead.....
Book 4 in this series left me distraught. I was in tears and quite upset at where she left the series. Killing a main character (not Merit). How could you? If it had been a paperback book I was reading and not a nook, that book would have been tossed across the room. No Lie. I was iffy about this book. What if my heart was still broken months later and she has done nothing to heal those wounds for me?
It was like going somewhere that you knew you run into an ex. You have to go to that place, but you would rather not. That was the type of hesitancy I had before diving into this book. OK maybe not that much, since I did read it at 1am (as soon as the book was downloadable). But for dramatics, think I was having some existential crisis over it. Okay?
Well Merit is on the mend. She's doing her thing, she's.... well she's hanging out with Jonah, another vamp a lot. She's avoiding some other vamps and just existing. That was the book for me, she was just there. The pace was not what I was used to from Ms. Neill. I'd like harangue her and bitch about that... But I can't. I understand the purpose of this book. This book is what happens after closing a big arc. she had to give Merit time to heal a bit, get her bearings and start in a new direction.
Which is exactly what this book has done. We are introduced some new issues, resolved some old and given a new big bad. I wasn't surprised with the big bad, she's been
foreshadowing it for a while.
that is on thing I'm sort of "eh" about. Her foreshadowing. She does it too much. Give the reader some credit. There's a difference between leading someone to water and ya know, water boarding them. Just sayin'.
Back on topic, the heart break is resolved. When I first read the book, for that right there I was willing to give her all the accolades in the world. You brought back my favorite male lead (yes over Vampire Eric) from the dead. I was content. But giving a starving person a single oreo, isn't the same as buying them groceries for a whole month. The momentary joy/elation I had from that revelation (that was foreshadowed to hell btw) was fleeting. It doesn't really change my "meh" about the rest of the book.
While I did have one emotional "Yippee", that was about it. I get it, this book was needed. We have different villains, hunky Ethan back, the house starting back to some normalcy, and Merit is on a new mission, with Ethan (squee) by her side.
I give this book a B-.
