I still hate Ethan.
In the third Chicagoland Vampires book, our heroine, Merit, spends most of her time exploring the world outside Cadogan vampire house--she's invited to join the Red Guard, which is kind of like the Praetorian Guard of the vampire world; and she is further drawn into the world of the shifters, who are meeting in Chicago to decide whether to face the coming war as allies of vampires, or retreat to their isolated base in Alaska.
As for Merit's love life, with Morgan (sigh) out of the picture, you can guess who takes lusty center-stage: the master with the mostest, Ethan. I'll let you read the book to find out what happens there.
Twice Bitten is better than its two predecessors in the series, Some Girls Bite and Friday Night Bites, which is saying a lot. The story moves along very quickly and there aren't a lot of lulls in the action. That being said, I did start to get bored in the middle--mainly because of stupid Ethan. If I never have to read him whining about his responsibilities to Cadogan House blah blah blah again, I will be more than happy. In the previous novels I found him annoying; now he's just boring. Yawn.
In her review of this novel, Colette from A Buckeye Girl Reads reminded me that I asked Chloe Neill about Merit's fascination with the tale of Tristan and Isolde and whether it would have any bearing on the story. At this point, I'm not sure how it could, unless there's a more interesting love interest waiting in the wings for Merit, or Morgan is still a possibility. If you're not up on ye olde Arthurian tales, Tristan and Isolde is a tragic love story. Isolde is betrothed to King Mark, who lives in a far away country. The king asks his nephew, Tristan, to escort his fiance to his kingdom so that they can get married; on the way, the two youngsters fall in love. Although Isolde still marries King Mark upon her arrival, she can't help her love for Tristan, and they continue their affair. Inevitably the king finds out, however, and while he forgives Isolde, Tristan is banished from the kingdom.
Isolde shouldn't be confused with Iseult, whom Tristan marries after his banishment because he likes the similarity of her name with Isolde's.
So if the books at all mirror this legend, wouldn't you think Morgan is Tristan? Because Ethan is definitely the king, and he did ask Morgan to "escort" Merit around before she moved into Cadogan House.
That's really all I have to say about Twice Bitten, other than wonder exactly how long this series is going to go on for. If there's going to be a huge war between sups (supernaturals) and humans, and Merit is going to save the Apex's son, then that's a looooong stretch of time. And while I do really and truly enjoy these books, ever since Anita Blake, I've been leery of long-running series. I don't want to be borrowing these novels from my mom ten years from now and reading about how Merit's slept her way from Chicago up to Milwaukee, okay? Let's keep the love interests to half a dozen at most.
Anyway. You should read these books. The end.
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