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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
Not my favorite of the series.I was disappointed because it was such a slow book to begin with. I only enjoyed the last 66 pages, but even that seemed rushed.Will still continue reading the series , hopefully that one is abit better
http://books-in-a-storm.tumblr.com/post/174153137310/snowflake-book-reviews-title-drink-deep
**Copious amounts of alcohol might need to be consumed in order to get through this book and not lighting it on fire, you have been warned.**
This is basically a rant, you have been warned. Again.
It is like all the air was sucked out of the room, this entire book felt like it was being done in black and white. Let me be honest, I skimmed most of it! I did! EVERYBODY pissed me off in this title, and by that I mean EVERYONE. Mallory was being a bitch from the get go, Merit was being needy and slightly moronic, Jonah kept pushing himself into Merit's eye sight not as a partner but as a lover...
Catcher was being moody, FRANK NEEDS TO BURN IN HELL, Malik was like a ghost, Luc was too busy making out with Lindsay to care the world was falling apart at its core (same for Lindsay, but with Luc), Tate was Tate I mean not much to expect from him other than douchyness, Ethan was gone...
And that is the whole problem wasn't it? ETHAN WAS GONE.
If Chloe Neill wrote this book JUST to show fans how miserable our lives and everybody's lives in Chicago would be without Ethan CONGRATU-FUCKING-LATIONS YOU CONVINCED ME. Me and Ethan may have had our differences, I may have not liked him very much in the past, but god forbid he leaves Chicago again for any reason or circumstance! I will not read a Chicagoland Vampire book in which that man is not present. I fucking refuse. It is like people lost their shit entirely when Ethan left the gameboard, and they just ran around like children without a leader.
Two books ago I was all like "Ethan who?" and now I wont read a Chicagoland Vampire without him in it. My how times change.
Oh and BTW what is the fucking point og the GP? I HAVE NO FUCKING CLUE WHAT THEIR POINT IS? They are basically useless, and my ears perked up at the idea of them just calling it quits and saying bye bye to the organization. Viva la revolusion!
Mallory going all dark is just what the series needed in order to maintain interest. She is basically dark Willow guys! High on Dark magic and ready to ride that high unto new and prosperous plains. She is not the little creative witch with electric blue hair anymore...
Do I love Dark Mallory? Partially, I love she brought Ethan back to life *HIGH FIVE BITCH!* but then she tried to destroy Chicago... Just so she could unite dark and white magic? Simon (what is wrong with him seriously?) is seriously the worst teacher ever and I am appalled at the idea that Chicagoland Vampires doesn't have novellas for every single book concerning Mallory because it seems like a LOT is going on at that house that we are VERY unaware of. Enough that when bad things start to happen you think things escalated quickly, but they didn't! We are just inside Merit's head so much we don't get to be behind the scenes at the Mallory-Catcher abode. Though I guess Novellas between books weren't such a huge thing back in 2011, my how things have changed (and for the better for the most part).
There's like huge gaps in our understanding of the world because of the limited POV, and Chicagoland is a BIG world! LOTS of players, sometimes I find it hard to keep characters in track because there are so many of them! Merit has SO many enemies in this novel I don't know how the girl doesn't throw in the towel. At least Celina is no longer a threat (that we know of?) but she had the new mayor, the OLD mayor, FRANK (don't get me started on Umbridge's twin brother), the GP in general, FUCKING MORGAN, THE ELEMENTS (somehow the elements are agaisnt her, hell the whole city seems ready to consume her soul) and last but not least, Mallory, her ex-best friend.
That's a lot for a single woman to handle, no matter how amazing she is. And Merit is QUITE amazing, she kicks ass like nobody's business and her academic background leaves her with a thirst for knowledge and a healthy curiosity. Which means she gets in trouble a lot, but she is damn good at her job.
FRANK AND MORGAN...
Seriously, Morgan, what is wrong with you? Can't you let things go? What is going ON with Navarre vampires, where are they? Why do they NEVER help? Shit hits the fan and Morgan is just chilling around a bar with a date in hand who has the audacity to stare Merit down like she is anything of a threat! And Morgan has the DOUBLE audacity of telling Merit "You don't waste any time, do you?" when she was just out with a friend (granted it is Jonah but whatevs) getting a drink?!?!
You dug your own grave man, you are despicable.
As for Frank?
He even starts putting upproclamations house rules to make everybody fail! Rationing blood to make them go crazy, taking away the choice to drink from humans, STRIPPING MERIT OF HER WELL EARNED SENTINEL BADGE? I abhor you.
But then Ethan comes back...
And with his mere existence he manages to make everything better again. Malik comes to his senses and kicks Frank out, Merit is no longer heart broken, and every vampire in Cardogan house is happy.
Enough said.
So yes I got it Chloe Neill, Chicagoland without Ethan sucks, how about you stop killing essential characters now? Okay thanks.
This is basically a rant, you have been warned. Again.
It is like all the air was sucked out of the room, this entire book felt like it was being done in black and white. Let me be honest, I skimmed most of it! I did! EVERYBODY pissed me off in this title, and by that I mean EVERYONE. Mallory was being a bitch from the get go, Merit was being needy and slightly moronic, Jonah kept pushing himself into Merit's eye sight not as a partner but as a lover...
Catcher was being moody, FRANK NEEDS TO BURN IN HELL, Malik was like a ghost, Luc was too busy making out with Lindsay to care the world was falling apart at its core (same for Lindsay, but with Luc), Tate was Tate I mean not much to expect from him other than douchyness, Ethan was gone...
And that is the whole problem wasn't it? ETHAN WAS GONE.
If Chloe Neill wrote this book JUST to show fans how miserable our lives and everybody's lives in Chicago would be without Ethan CONGRATU-FUCKING-LATIONS YOU CONVINCED ME. Me and Ethan may have had our differences, I may have not liked him very much in the past, but god forbid he leaves Chicago again for any reason or circumstance! I will not read a Chicagoland Vampire book in which that man is not present. I fucking refuse. It is like people lost their shit entirely when Ethan left the gameboard, and they just ran around like children without a leader.
Two books ago I was all like "Ethan who?" and now I wont read a Chicagoland Vampire without him in it. My how times change.
Oh and BTW what is the fucking point og the GP? I HAVE NO FUCKING CLUE WHAT THEIR POINT IS? They are basically useless, and my ears perked up at the idea of them just calling it quits and saying bye bye to the organization. Viva la revolusion!
Mallory going all dark is just what the series needed in order to maintain interest. She is basically dark Willow guys! High on Dark magic and ready to ride that high unto new and prosperous plains. She is not the little creative witch with electric blue hair anymore...
Do I love Dark Mallory? Partially, I love she brought Ethan back to life *HIGH FIVE BITCH!* but then she tried to destroy Chicago... Just so she could unite dark and white magic? Simon (what is wrong with him seriously?) is seriously the worst teacher ever and I am appalled at the idea that Chicagoland Vampires doesn't have novellas for every single book concerning Mallory because it seems like a LOT is going on at that house that we are VERY unaware of. Enough that when bad things start to happen you think things escalated quickly, but they didn't! We are just inside Merit's head so much we don't get to be behind the scenes at the Mallory-Catcher abode. Though I guess Novellas between books weren't such a huge thing back in 2011, my how things have changed (and for the better for the most part).
There's like huge gaps in our understanding of the world because of the limited POV, and Chicagoland is a BIG world! LOTS of players, sometimes I find it hard to keep characters in track because there are so many of them! Merit has SO many enemies in this novel I don't know how the girl doesn't throw in the towel. At least Celina is no longer a threat (that we know of?) but she had the new mayor, the OLD mayor, FRANK (don't get me started on Umbridge's twin brother), the GP in general, FUCKING MORGAN, THE ELEMENTS (somehow the elements are agaisnt her, hell the whole city seems ready to consume her soul) and last but not least, Mallory, her ex-best friend.
That's a lot for a single woman to handle, no matter how amazing she is. And Merit is QUITE amazing, she kicks ass like nobody's business and her academic background leaves her with a thirst for knowledge and a healthy curiosity. Which means she gets in trouble a lot, but she is damn good at her job.
FRANK AND MORGAN...
Seriously, Morgan, what is wrong with you? Can't you let things go? What is going ON with Navarre vampires, where are they? Why do they NEVER help? Shit hits the fan and Morgan is just chilling around a bar with a date in hand who has the audacity to stare Merit down like she is anything of a threat! And Morgan has the DOUBLE audacity of telling Merit "You don't waste any time, do you?" when she was just out with a friend (granted it is Jonah but whatevs) getting a drink?!?!
You dug your own grave man, you are despicable.
As for Frank?
He even starts putting up
But then Ethan comes back...
And with his mere existence he manages to make everything better again. Malik comes to his senses and kicks Frank out, Merit is no longer heart broken, and every vampire in Cardogan house is happy.
Enough said.
So yes I got it Chloe Neill, Chicagoland without Ethan sucks, how about you stop killing essential characters now? Okay thanks.
freaking Mallory... at least Ethan is back
feel bad for Catch though he really like her
feel bad for Catch though he really like her
I want to give this series a fair shake even though I'm disappointed, I think mallory's story is interesting and i hope it keeps developing but i was really hoping Ethan would stay dead, not because i don't like him or anything it just feels like his death should have meant more for the story. Instead its like theres no consequences for his death. It would have been interesting to see Merit go on and try to find her way without Ethan, not forgetting him but moving on. I just think it was a little too easy. But I'm still interested to see where this goes.
I'm behind in this series and not opposed to spoilers so I'll just say that I wasn't in the same boat as the people who were waiting on pins and needles for it to be published after the events of the previous book. It's difficult to review this one without series spoilers. So I'll just say that I continue to enjoy Merit and her adventures in the Chicago supernatural world. I have to admit that I kind of guessed who was behind the big events in this one, but I was wrong about the reasons. Well, at least I think I'm wrong. The plot line is continuing in the next book so we'll see if I'm right after all when everything is out.
One thing I really like about this series is that Merit isn't the antisocial loner that we see so often in UF. I like that she's got friends, family and colleagues that she trusts, confides in and works with. It makes her position as Sentinel more meaningful to me, she doesn't protect people because it's some destiny she can't get out of, she actually likes people. One thing I missed in this book was more of a presence by the shifters. Jeff was around as usual but the past couple of books were shifter heavy and that wasn't the case here. But we finally got to know some of the fae, which revealed some information that could lead in interesting directions. I'm looking forward to the next one because there's plenty of fallout from this one to sort out.
One thing I really like about this series is that Merit isn't the antisocial loner that we see so often in UF. I like that she's got friends, family and colleagues that she trusts, confides in and works with. It makes her position as Sentinel more meaningful to me, she doesn't protect people because it's some destiny she can't get out of, she actually likes people. One thing I missed in this book was more of a presence by the shifters. Jeff was around as usual but the past couple of books were shifter heavy and that wasn't the case here. But we finally got to know some of the fae, which revealed some information that could lead in interesting directions. I'm looking forward to the next one because there's plenty of fallout from this one to sort out.
It takes a lot for me to not like a book. I mean i'm a girl that really liked the twilight series the first time I read it (true, the second time around I couldn't see why, but the point still stands.) But this book had me screaming abuse and throwing it at a wall. Quite literally. I'm pretty sure I scared my flatmate at one point with the string of abuse that left my mouth.
The beginning of the book was promising. The middle maybe not quite so but I persevered. By the end of the book I really wish I hadn't. The scene between Merit and Mallory is absolutely terrible. I can understand a certain amount of hesitation but to drag it out for that many pages is a joke. It was at this point that I threw the book across the room.
But the icing on the cake was the return of a certain character. It was pretty obvious the author was going to find a way to bring them back from about midway through the book but I really hope that I was wrong. I hoped that the author was clever enough not to need to bring them back to progress the story. But alas, it was not so.
And then to allow Mallory to escape? Without a real explanation as to how she escaped? Really? You had to be that predictable and vague?
I'll more than likely read the next book, for the sake of carrying on the series, but if it's anything like this book, i'm going to have to move this series to the trash pile.
The beginning of the book was promising. The middle maybe not quite so but I persevered. By the end of the book I really wish I hadn't. The scene between Merit and Mallory is absolutely terrible. I can understand a certain amount of hesitation but to drag it out for that many pages is a joke. It was at this point that I threw the book across the room.
But the icing on the cake was the return of a certain character. It was pretty obvious the author was going to find a way to bring them back from about midway through the book but I really hope that I was wrong. I hoped that the author was clever enough not to need to bring them back to progress the story. But alas, it was not so.
And then to allow Mallory to escape? Without a real explanation as to how she escaped? Really? You had to be that predictable and vague?
I'll more than likely read the next book, for the sake of carrying on the series, but if it's anything like this book, i'm going to have to move this series to the trash pile.
This was the book I was worried about. I know what happens at the end of it too, so I thought that this book would just drag on and on.
Good news is that it didn't. We get a healthy amount of dealing with the issues of the last book. But, we also get more introduced into the supernatural world. There is still some action and fighting, but I definitely think that this book is focused more on development. Developing the characters and the world that they live in.
Definitely is keeping my interest! This is as far as I've gotten into this series in the past so I'm very interested to see where things go!
Good news is that it didn't. We get a healthy amount of dealing with the issues of the last book. But, we also get more introduced into the supernatural world. There is still some action and fighting, but I definitely think that this book is focused more on development. Developing the characters and the world that they live in.
Definitely is keeping my interest! This is as far as I've gotten into this series in the past so I'm very interested to see where things go!
This is going to be a difficult book to review without revealing spoilers, but I am going to try my best so bear with me! However, I will point out that there may be spoilers from previous books in the series. If you haven't read the series I would recommend not starting by reading this review.
I flew through this book. I got it in the mail yesterday and started reading it immediately when I got home from work and I finished this morning in a power read before I went to work.
There was so much anticipation for this book after the last installment released in May [bc:Hard Bitten|9581001|Hard Bitten (Chicagoland Vampires, #4)|Chloe Neill|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1308350414s/9581001.jpg|12773071]. I think that people's theories and expectations were going off in so many directions that no matter what Chloe Neill released it would not live up to everyone's expectations. Hence, why there have been a few mixed reviews about this book. I have to say that while not everything happened the way I would want them to happen I really liked the way this book turned out. True, there are things in the book that made my heartbreak and things that made me cringe and things that made me happy, but that was the purpose. Chloe Neill executed everything very well. And this book sets up things for the next installment Biting Cold [bc:Biting Cold|11746102|Biting Cold (Chicagoland Vampires #6)|Chloe Neill|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1316664429s/11746102.jpg|16695709] in August '12.
This book is different than the previous books and it's something that started at the end of Hard Bitten. This book just seemed more somber and tense. I didn't find as many witty jokes and sarcastic remarks as I did in the previous books (especially the first three). They were there don't get me wrong and I think when I do a re-read (muchly needed after the way I flew through this book) they will stick out a little more, but I think the series is growing more mature and this installment shows that it's starting to take a darker turn. I hope that this doesn't cloud the rest of the series and is just part of the story arc started in this book.
As I said this book seemed very tense. Everyone was on edge after Ethan's death and you could literally feel it in the pages. I think that's a real show of Neill's writing that she's able to convey that much emotion across the page. Merit most of all is mourning Ethan's death and I appreciate that Neill took the time to let Merit grieve. I've read posts on this book and there were a few people who noted that not many authors show grieving. Something bad happens, it's acknowledged, and then people move on. I liked seeing how, even though she was grieving, Merit was really trying to function again in the House. It showed a different side of her strength, but it was exactly what the character would do. Merit remained very true to herself, the character we've grown to love throughout the series, in this book and she couldv'e had a reason to act out of character (the loss of Ethan) it would have been a viable excuse (not one I would have condoned), but she stayed Merit. I liked reading through Merit's though processes on the things going on in her life. How she openly acknowledges (to us and a few in the book itself) that she misses Ethan and he's the reason she's down. It was nice to see her acknowledging her feelings for him (sadly he's not there), but that was something she didn't have the courage to do previously. It's one of those situations where she understands what could have been but now it's been taken from her.
We get to see a couple other sups in this book most notably the Faeries and a Siren (sort of connected to the Nymphs who also make an apperance). I would have liked them to have been more integrated into the story. Hopefully in further installments in the series, we will learn more about them kind of like with the shifters. We heard about them in the first book. The second we got a closer look and then their story took front and center in book three. So maybe it's only a matter of time.
Without giving too much away I will say that there are a lot of questions answered from previous books, backstories told, and decisions made. Now, while I say that a lot of questions are answered there's also more questions posed, but Neill needs to keep us guessing and asking questions so we come back to the series (now extended to 10 books!). I will also say that ending events being what they are, I was really happy with the way things turned out and I can't wait to continue to read this fantastic series. Until Then!
I flew through this book. I got it in the mail yesterday and started reading it immediately when I got home from work and I finished this morning in a power read before I went to work.
There was so much anticipation for this book after the last installment released in May [bc:Hard Bitten|9581001|Hard Bitten (Chicagoland Vampires, #4)|Chloe Neill|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1308350414s/9581001.jpg|12773071]. I think that people's theories and expectations were going off in so many directions that no matter what Chloe Neill released it would not live up to everyone's expectations. Hence, why there have been a few mixed reviews about this book. I have to say that while not everything happened the way I would want them to happen I really liked the way this book turned out. True, there are things in the book that made my heartbreak and things that made me cringe and things that made me happy, but that was the purpose. Chloe Neill executed everything very well. And this book sets up things for the next installment Biting Cold [bc:Biting Cold|11746102|Biting Cold (Chicagoland Vampires #6)|Chloe Neill|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1316664429s/11746102.jpg|16695709] in August '12.
This book is different than the previous books and it's something that started at the end of Hard Bitten. This book just seemed more somber and tense. I didn't find as many witty jokes and sarcastic remarks as I did in the previous books (especially the first three). They were there don't get me wrong and I think when I do a re-read (muchly needed after the way I flew through this book) they will stick out a little more, but I think the series is growing more mature and this installment shows that it's starting to take a darker turn. I hope that this doesn't cloud the rest of the series and is just part of the story arc started in this book.
As I said this book seemed very tense. Everyone was on edge after Ethan's death and you could literally feel it in the pages. I think that's a real show of Neill's writing that she's able to convey that much emotion across the page. Merit most of all is mourning Ethan's death and I appreciate that Neill took the time to let Merit grieve. I've read posts on this book and there were a few people who noted that not many authors show grieving. Something bad happens, it's acknowledged, and then people move on. I liked seeing how, even though she was grieving, Merit was really trying to function again in the House. It showed a different side of her strength, but it was exactly what the character would do. Merit remained very true to herself, the character we've grown to love throughout the series, in this book and she couldv'e had a reason to act out of character (the loss of Ethan) it would have been a viable excuse (not one I would have condoned), but she stayed Merit. I liked reading through Merit's though processes on the things going on in her life. How she openly acknowledges (to us and a few in the book itself) that she misses Ethan and he's the reason she's down. It was nice to see her acknowledging her feelings for him (sadly he's not there), but that was something she didn't have the courage to do previously. It's one of those situations where she understands what could have been but now it's been taken from her.
We get to see a couple other sups in this book most notably the Faeries and a Siren (sort of connected to the Nymphs who also make an apperance). I would have liked them to have been more integrated into the story. Hopefully in further installments in the series, we will learn more about them kind of like with the shifters. We heard about them in the first book. The second we got a closer look and then their story took front and center in book three. So maybe it's only a matter of time.
Without giving too much away I will say that there are a lot of questions answered from previous books, backstories told, and decisions made. Now, while I say that a lot of questions are answered there's also more questions posed, but Neill needs to keep us guessing and asking questions so we come back to the series (now extended to 10 books!). I will also say that ending events being what they are, I was really happy with the way things turned out and I can't wait to continue to read this fantastic series. Until Then!