Review: BITING COLD by Chloe Neill

<<This review may does contain some spoilers, especially for the previous books in the Chicagoland Vampires books.>>

Merit--a grad student in English lit who was turned into a vampire against her will and now wields a katana--and Ethan, her sexy and doubly-undead sire, are on the trail of the Maleficium, an evil book of evilness whose powers Merit's former bestie wants to unleash on the world. But Malory isn't the only person who wants to use the Maleficium; so does former Chicago mayor and crazy person Seth Tate. But for what?

The only reason I wanted to read Biting Cold after Drink Deep (review here) was because I wanted to find out if Ethan was a zombie. I was totally rooting for Zombie Ethan. Unfortunately, he's NOT a zombie. WTF? Total wasted opportunity there. I'm still watching him though. You never know.



Now that we have that linchpin issue out of the way, let's move on the actual book. Overall, Biting Cold is actually better than Chloe Neill's last few books in the Chicagoland Vampires series. The beginning, where Ethan and Merit are traveling together to Nebraska, is pretty strong--Merit and Ethan have great chemistry, and Neill really sucks you straight into the story. That being said, even in this part of the book, there are so many things that are just too convenient for belief. Why are Tate and Mallory waiting until after sunset to look for the Maleficium? Considering Merit and Ethan are dead to the world (har har) during the day, wouldn't it make more tactical sense to try to take the Maleficium while they're asleep? And why does Tate announce to them that he's going for the book--just so they have more time to prepare for fighting two sups instead of one? Awfully nice of him.

Also, giant gumby gnomes? Really cheesy.

Then they go BACK to Chicago, and it's kind of like in Pirates of the Caribbean when the pirates go back to the island and you're like, "Uhg, really? You couldn't have just wrapped up this movie the first time you were on the island?" It feels liked the story takes a gigantic step backward, and as if my time has just been completely wasted. Why didn't Ethan and Merit stay in Chicago and phone the fight in? It would have ended exactly the same way if they had.

As I said, Biting Cold is better than the previous two books in the Chicagoland Vampires series--the food mentions are kept under control, there's more of a plot, and the conversations don't run in circles--but I think this might be my last read in the series. It seems as if there is absolutely no character consistency anymore, and they do whatever is convenient for story. As a result, I don't really care what happens to them (except for Morgan, of course). Oh well.

Review: DRINK DEEP by Chloe Neill

Guess what everybody?! I love Ethan now!

Kidding.

Drink Deep is the fifth book in Chloe Neill's Chicagoland Vampires series. Spoiler-free summary: it's about an English lit grad student called Merit who is turned into a vampire against her will, then has to deal with a whole bunch of supernatural drama. In Drink Deep, Chicago is being threatened by an unknown magical force that's turning Lake Michigan black, the sky red, and so on. Naturally, vampires are being blamed for everything, so Merit rides to the rescue.

After Hard Bitten (review here), like most readers I was hoping for some explanation about wtf just happened??? Because wow, that came out of nowhere. Unfortunately, Drink Deep brought on only more head-scratching. All the things that bugged me about Hard Bitten are present in Drink Deep, only they're magnified by the force of Very Weak Plot. After about fifty pages of long, pointless conversations, the obvious villain being obvious, and endless descriptions of eating, I realized that I either had to DNF this book or skim through it like a mutha. I chose the latter, mainly because I was dying to read the ending.

Here are some patterns I noticed while reading:

• Ethan, Gone But Not Forgotten  Hey, did you know Ethan's gone? What are you feelings on that, Merit? We all know how close you two were. I swear to GOD every character has this conversation with Merit at some point in the book. Mallory. Lyndsey. Luc. Dolores Umbridge guy from the GP. Catcher. Jonah. I mean, a conversation reminding us that, yes, Ethan is gone, is one thing; but after the fourth, I started to get a little excitable. And by excitable I mean throwing the book on the floor and running through the house going, "It's happening again! Again again!" and laughing hysterically. It got to the point where I would drink every time the exact phrase "Ethan's gone" appeared in the dialog--and if I'd been drinking something other than water, I'd have gotten really drunk. Instead I just needed to go to bathroom.
  
• Food  I love food as much as the next person, but the food mentions are getting out of control in this series. I don't know what a "red hot" is, but I do know I don't need to read about them every twenty pages. In previous books, the noshing was amusing because it highlighted that Ethan was 1. a prig, and 2. not of this century. Now it feels more like these novels should be renamed Caroline Merit: No Reservations.
• Jonah  As we all know, I'm not a fan of Ethan (see here and here and also here), but he did make the books interesting. He had personality. Jonah, Drink Deep's boy toy du jour, has ZERO personality. I liked him better when he was all grumbly and hated Merit. Does she HAVE to be attractive to every single person with a penis she comes across?
  
• And speaking of characters...  Inconsistency much? It seems like there have been major personality transplants in some of these characters. Take Morgan, for example--he's supposed to be the nice guy option, or at least he was in Some Girls Bite (review here). Now he's being described as having "the attitude of a sulking, bitter teenager." Say what? Mallory, Merit's practical bestie, is suddenly a raving lunatic; and Ethan was apparently off on a retreat to pick up male sensitivity in the twenty-first century. It seems like there are a lot of changes with the characters, but not much development leading up to it.
  

As for the ending, I've read other reviews where it was said the reunion between Merit and Ethan felt emotionally distant. I actually disagree with that; I thought Neill did a good job with the emotional aspects of Ethan's return. But it did seem like Ethan came back to life--if you know what I mean--awfully quickly. Like, aren't there tests someone can do? Take his blood pressure? Once again there wasn't much of an explanation for what happened, but everyone seemed to accept Ethan as hunky-dorey and move on. Basically, that feeling of wtf just happened???? Still having it.

Am I going to read the next Chicagoland Vampires book? Of course! I need to find out if Ethan starts hungering for brrrraaaaiiiiiinnnssss. I hope he does.

Interview: Morgan Greer from Chloe Neill's Chicagoland Vampires series

A visual approximation of Morgan via models.com

To celebrate the release of the fifth book in Chloe Neill's Chicagoland Vampires series, I invited Morgan, the head of Navarre House, over to my blog for an interview. Bonus: this is the first time I've ever interviewed a vampire! (I think...) Check out Morgan's answers and be sure to enter the giveaway at the end of this post!

TBFB: Hi, Morgan! Thank you for talking with me today. You're my favorite character from the Chicagoland Vampire series.

Morgan: Wow, thanks. That's pretty high praise. Especially since everyone is all atwitter about other vampires these days. *Grumbles*

TBFB: Are we going to see more or less of you in Drink Deep?

Morgan: *Scowling* I wouldn't call Drink Deep my high point as a character; Chloe didn't exactly give me a lot of screen time. On the other hand, I have my hands full with all this supernatural weirdness in Chicago and a House to run. Celina was head of Navarre for a long, long time. I'm still playing catch up in a lot of ways.

TBFB: In Hard Bitten, many readers felt like you betrayed Merit. Would you agree?

Morgan: *Paling* Like I betrayed her? Did she act honorably toward me when she was dancing with Ethan? Sneaking around with him after promising--in front of her entire House--to allow me to make a claim? I was humiliated by that, you know. As for betraying her, I act in the best interest of my House. *Shrugs* I guess she can interpret it how she wants.

TBFB: Speaking of interpretation *obvious segue-way*, do you think Celine's actions will help Navarre House in the long run?

Morgan: Celina was a great Master. I'm not saying she's perfect, but look at the status of our House. We're the oldest House in the country, the most prestigious. We have the largest private art collection, an historic home, and we're incredibly financially stable. It's easy to make Celina the fall guy when you don't want to look at your own problems.

TBFB: Moving on to something more personal, are you happy you were changed into a vampire?

Morgan: *Pausing* I'm glad to be alive. I didn't always appreciate that, but I do now. But do I wish I'd had all the information when I made the decision to join the House? Yeah. Yeah, I do.

TBFB: What is the one thing you admire most about Merit? About Celina?

Morgan: Merit always thinks she's doing the right thing. She has a certainty about that that's admirable, even if she's wrong. Celina puts her House first, even if it doesn't reflect well on the other Houses.

TBFB: Thank you so much, Morgan! One last question: have you ever thought about using your vampire powers to help the Cubs win?

Morgan: I have not. But now that you mention it . . .

As part of the Drink Deep blog tour, Chloe Neill is offering a giveaway for a swagpack of Chicagoland Vampires-related material. To enter, fill out the form below, or click here.

Book Review: HARD BITTEN by Chloe Neill

WORST. ENDING. EVER.

In book four of the Chicagoland Vampires series, Cadogan House and its fearless leader, Ethan Sullivan, are under threat from politicians local and abroad: Mayor Tate is threatening to arrest Ethan if he doesn't put a stop to dangerous blood raves, and the Greenwich Presidium (kind of like the vampire UN) wants him to mind his own biznas or they're going to take over his House. With Ethan stuck between a rock and a not-so-comfy place, it's Merit to the rescue, hitting the streets of Chi-town in search of raves, drug dealers, and her arch-nem, Celina. Unfortunately, Merit forgot to bring along the little grey cells, so things aren't going so well!

The first half of the book was pretty boring. Nothing happens and I think Merit spends like eighty pages driving around Chicago and talking on her cell phone--that's what it felt like, anyway. Also, there are very drawn-out scenes involving food, which don't seem to have a point. Then she goes to a rave and the plot starts picking up, but the sense making does not.

Here's the thing: there are a lot of convenient plot device (CPD) moments in this book, most of which involve the characters acting inconsistently. Merit's supposed to be really smart, and she has been in the previous books, but in this one she bumbles into offices with no plan, talks without thinking, doesn't listen to her instincts, and generally acts like a dope; and all of this inevitably contributes to the conclusion of the book. Merit's not the only one suffering from alien body syndrome, either: in Twice Bitten, she and Ethan slept together, but then he was like, "Office romance is bad news, babe," and she was all, "NEVER TOUCH ME AGAIN." In Hard Bitten, Ethan wants Merit back, I'm not sure why exactly; and in the interim he's somehow gone through a total personality makeover, where he's not a snobby prig and is actually... um, kinda nice. And sweet. *chokes* Even Merit thinks at some point, "Maybe people can change." Um. Maybe. But probably not people as old as Ethan is. And probably not that much. Did he take a Male Sensitivity in the 21st Century class or what?

Then there's Mayor Tate, who acts like a character straight out of a Spiderman comic; Morgan, who betrays Merit's trust for no clear reason; Celina, who is definitely out of character; Jonah, who conveniently develops the hots for Merit; Paulie, who is ridiculously forth-coming... need I go on?

Now, you all know I'm not a fan of Ethan (see this post, and this one, and also this one), so I'm not against Merit having another romantic interest (Team Morgan! The scene where he took his shirt of=priceless), but the ending of this book took me completely aback because there was absolutely zero set-up. There wasn't even foreshadowing! For four books I saw this series as heading in more or less a certain direction, but now I have no idea. And as a reader, I don't like feeling left out to sea with no idea where a story is going.

What Chloe Neill did at the end of this novel was very gutsy, and I commend her for that. But things like this require at least a little set-up, or your audience gets angry and stops trusting you as a story-teller. On the plus side, I still want to find out why things happened the way they did, and hopefully the next book, Drink Deep, will answer a few--or more than few--questions.

Musical notes: "Judas" by Lady Gaga

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Twice Bitten by Chloe Neill

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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Musical Notes: Twice Bitten Edition!

Musical Notes is a semi-regular feature here at Truth, Beauty, Freedom, and Books, where I talk about how my reading inspired what I listened to.  This last week I read Twice Bitten, and there was a lot of music I listened to that related to that book.  So let's get to it!

My Man

For some reason, this song kept running through my head during the first half of the book.  I don't think Merit is quite this bad when it comes to her relationship decisions... close, but then that's just me.

Hungry Eyes

This is for the lauded Chapter Eight.

Stalker stalkery stalk.

So What

Possibly one of the greatest break-up songs ever.  Merit definitely needed a dose of this in the middle of the book.

Caroline, No

I can't tell you why I picked out this song because it would be spoilerage, but I think it fits the end of the book for both the mood and the lyrics.

What have you been reading and listening to this week?

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Chicago 4.0 by Chloe Neill + Giveaway!

Chloe Neill, one of my favorite writers, is releasing a new book in July.  To help spread the word, I asked her if she'd write a guest post about some new Chicago locations we'll see in Twice Bitten and other future releases (note:  all the photos above were taken by Chloe herself).



Hello, everyone! I'm writing this from the Loop neighborhood in downtown Chicago, just across from the Chicago River and a few blocks from Lake Michigan. I'm in town for today's 25th Annual Greater Chicago Food Depository Hunger Walk--and I'm proud to say we've raised over $1,800 to date!

I'm also here to location scout for the next Chicagoland Vampires novel--the follow-up to July 6's TWICE BITTEN--which will be released in July 2011. During my last scouting trip, I visited Ukrainian Village and checked out church architecture, and did a bit of scouting through Wicker Park and down Damen Avenue. You may recall that Mallory's house is a Wicker Park brownstone, and a good chunk of TWICE BITTEN takes place in Ukrainian Village, including a church modeled after St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church.

This time, I'm mostly scouting locations in the Loop, looking for some interesting sites for both the Dark Elite and Chicagoland Vampires series. St. Sophia's, the boarding school in FIRESPELL, is located just north of the Loop on Erie, so I'm looking into locations in which it might be interesting to host future Dark Elite events. I'm very excited about the Rookery, which has a fabulous exterior and gorgeous interior. I also love the industrial look of El track struts, and can only imagine vampirish things occur there.

I also got to pay my first visit to Chicago's amazing Harold Washington Library, with its gorgeous stone facade and owls perched on the corners. It's also ginormous, and the 9th floor hosts an amazing indoor "Winter Garden" space with a greenhouse cage-like roof.

[Little known fact: In the first draft of SOME GIRLS BITE, Ethan and Merit met for the first time outside the library. She was brooding over the fact that she wouldn't be able to visit the library during business (daylight) hours. He feared she'd expose herself to the sun waiting for the library to open, and came to her rescue. It was so NOT appropriate for their personalities.]

I also got to pay a visit to the fabulous Field Museum--Chicago's natural history museum. The Field Museum will play a key part in a future Dark Elite novel, so I wanted to get a look at the space and a feel for interesting scene possibilities--including the totem pole section of the Ancient Americas display. Truth be told, I also wanted to get a look at Sue, the Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton. Tres cool!

Also on the agenda for this trip: Another visit to Hyde Park and the University of Chicago, some purchasing of Blackhawks goods (!!!), and a little more Wicker Park action. It's amazing how much you can cram into a trip if you plan carefully. :)

Well, that's all for now. I've got to grab my maps and hit the road again. Thanks for reading today!


Thank you so much, Chloe!  I loved your "deleted scene" from Some Girls Bite, although dying to get into the library is going a little far even for me. ;)


Chloe Neill is offering a copy of Twice Bitten to one lucky reader of this blog! Just leave a comment on this post (make sure to include a valid e-mail address), and I will pull a name randomly.  US & Canada only; contest ends Sunday, June 27th, at 6 PM EST.

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Chicagoland Vampire Series by Chloe Neill

Find these books at an independent bookseller near you (via IndieBound).

This is a great, fun new UF series with a lot of wit, humor, action, and romance.

Merit is a grad student in Chicago studying romantic literature like Tristan and Isolde, when her life is completely changed by a random attack on campus.  Instead of letting her die, Ethan, the leader of Cadogan House, changes her into a vampire without asking her permission.  Suddenly Merit has new powers, new responsibilities, and is forced to abandon the life she chose to make something out of one that she didn't.

I read both these books with Colette from A Buckeye Girl Reads as part of our bookclub, Romance Readers Anonymous.  I really enjoyed both books--the second more than the first, actually--but it's difficult to explain why.  They aren't perfectly plotted, but they do have something that makes them alchemically enjoyable.

The first book starts off fairly slowly, as Merit is being stubborn in accepting the fact that she's been changed into a vampire.  She wants desperately to hang onto the remnants of her old life, including her roommate, Mallory.  Unfortunately, she finds out even the people she holds dear and beloved at not what they seem.

Then she suddenly has a moment with Ethan, and the book really picks up from that point.  There's also Morgan, a vampire who's part of Navarre House.  I'm not going to go into these two guys a lot, because I feel like I've already beaten the point to death, but let's just say I am Team Morgan all the way.

Anyway, the real appeal of these books in Merit's relationship with Morgan and, I admit, Ethan.  Every book has a mystery (which I won't go into for fear of spoilage), but that seems to be kind of incidental.  In the second, I saw most of the plot twists coming a mile off--yet I didn't really care because I was enjoying reading about Merit and the other characters so much.

Another appeal is Merit, who is bookish and geeky (yet another protagonist who reads) and romantic; but suddenly finds herself with amazing athletic abilities and attracted to Ethan, who is definitely not the most romantic guy on the planet.  To say the least.  Merit doesn't truly know herself now that she's a vampire, and that makes for some very interesting reading and problems for our heroine.

I really like these books and I can't wait for the next book to come out.  I definitely think Chloe Neill has created a great series.

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Interview with Chloe Neill + Giveaway

Last week, Colette from A Buckeye Girl Reads and I had a smack-down with Mandi from Smexy Books over who the best hero from Chloe Neill's Chicagoland Vampires series is (naturally I won ;). Today, Colette and I are interviewing Chloe for our book club, Romance Readers Anonymous.



The Chicagoland Vampires series centers around Merit, a grad student who is turned into a vampire without her consent after a vicious attack. So far there are two books in the series, Some Girls Bite and Friday Night Bites. Twice Bitten, the third book in the series, will be released in July.

Colette's Questions:

1. What made you decide to have the series set in Chicago?

I wanted to set the series in a city that was generally familiar to people, but which hadn't been overly done before in the vampire genre. And you can't beat the food and politics in Chicago!

2. Did you have to do any research for the books? If so, what kind of research did you have to do?

LOTS of research. I research a little bit of everything along the way, from information about Chicago (food, geography, architecture, politics, neighborhoods), to magic, to feudal customs, to the French Revolution. I try to infuse the books with factual details to give them context.

3. Do you follow any kind of writing schedule? Do you watch any tv or listen to music to help you write?

I have a day job, so I usually have a minimum per-day word count unless I'm on an editing deadline. Usually the television is on something like Discovery or the Travel Channel while I write.

4. How did you come up with the idea of vampires being in different houses?

I wanted allegiances and alliances to be a crucial element in the story, so I used the House ideas to give the vampires something to root for (their own House) and "enemies" to root against (the other Houses). Humans have baseball and football, so I figured vampires needed teams of their own.

5. I loved how you mention Eureka and Gilmore Girls in the same sentence in Friday Night Bites! Are you a TV science fiction and Gilmore Girls fan? (Am I wrong to think that I see a little Lorelai Gilmore in Merit?)

Thanks! I watch a lot of sci fi (including Eureka), and I LOVED Gilmore Girls. I think Merit has a little Lorelai and Rory in her. Especially the snark.

6. Will Ethan and Morgan have competition for Merit in the third book?

Sorry--can't answer that one. You'll have to wait until July!



Tasha's Questions:

1. Merit's favorite story is that of Tristan and Isolde. Is that a foreshadowing as to how her own story will wind up?

Sorry--that one's a spoiler, too! I will say that I include very few random red herrings in the novels, so if something's in there, there's usually some reason.

2. Is Merit related to the shifters somehow?

Not that I'm aware of.

3. I was a little unclear about the status of the vampire in Merit at the end of Friday Night Bites--is it normal for the vampires to feel separate from their vampire natures like that?

It is very unusual for a vampire not to feel fully and completely connected to their vampire. Merit only knows that it feels "wrong," which is why she's so hesitant about raising the issue to her friends and colleagues.

4. Do vampires have pets?

Absolutely. I think Merit would enjoy having a dog. Problem is, there's no one to take it out if it needed to go out during the day.

6. What is your favorite pizza place in Chicago?

I recently had pizza from CRUST in Wicker Park, and it was fabulous! Four stars.

7. I love the inspiration boards on your website! Do you have one for Friday Night Bites that you're planning on posting?

Thanks! The SOME GIRLS BITE board was actually prepared by Anne Sage of design blog The City Sage. I haven't had time to prepare any inspiration boards beyond the smaller FIRESPELL board, and I didn't even keep a file of materials for Friday Night Bites. I do have some images for TWICE BITTEN, but since the vampires are pretty consistently living in the same House and wearing the same outfits (ditto for FIRESPELL), I only really need one inspiration board per series. :)



Thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions, Chloe! Plus, Chloe is generously offering a signed copy of Firespell, the first book in her new YA series, to a lucky commentor on this post! I will chose a random winner later this week. CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED


*Please note that the links to books on this post are Amazon Associate links.

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Battle to the Death

Today I'm fight--uh, I mean, respectfully discussing--who is the better man for Merit from Chloe Neill's Chicagoland Vampires series with Mandi from Smexy Books and Colette from A Buckeyegirl Reads.  In case you couldn't guess, I am totally Team Morgan.

To read our catfight lively debate, go to Chloe Neill's blog, The Daily Snark!  And stay tuned for an interview with Chloe by me and Colette, coming next week.

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