Juicy Review of Chloe Neill's Chicagoland Vampires: Go Team Ethan!

Book:              Some Girls Bite & Friday Night Bites

Author:           Chloe Neill

Publisher:       NAL

ISBN/ASIN:   0451226259 (SGB), 045122793X (FNB)

Rating:          Five Stars

Well thank you very much Chloe Neill for breakin’ my insomniac barrier! It’s all your fault and Ethan’s that I for the first time EVER read straight through the night. I’ve read to 3, even 4 am, but never all the way through. I blinked once when I realized that that alarm clock had gone off at 5am, and I hadn’t slept a wink, and my Kindle was glued to my hand.

See…I was up late trawling through Kindle reads last night, ignoring my review pile next to me (happens a lot) and I noticed Some Girls Bite flash up as a recommendation and wondered out loud to no one in particular, “Hey, why haven’t I read Chloe Neill yet”? (Roxy Le Kat raised her head at that question, looked at me as if to say Well, why haven’t you?) and promptly returned to her feline dreams. This epiphany occurs now and again with authors I am just discovering…and I just surrender. Little did I know that I would be a fully immersed in Neill’s world with nary a complaint. And yes, right after Some Girls Bite, I devoured Friday Night Bites whole.

The Chicagoland Vampires have all the hallmarks of a great read, and you won’t be disappointed, guaranteed. The adventure won’t end once you pick up the book, its one of those stories that sticks with you. Sometimes you don’t know what exactly you are getting when you pick up a book. Readers will feel they know the characters, all of them. We have become intimately acquainted with Luc, Catcher, Jeff, and the rest of the Ombud team, have laughed at the banter between Mallory and Merit, and have come to know Morgan and Ethan. This is the type of story that I look for, crave for, with all the elements of believable world building, infused with hot action, thrilling scenes, and sensual play between quite a few incredibly smokin’ characters. Some Girls Bite, and Friday Night Bites are all that and more.

Neill is a “dangler”, taunting us with a hot romance between Ethan and Merit with a lure that even the best of soap opera writers would be envious of. Morgan, as the other man always peripherally there will definitely keep us guessing what really lies in Merit’s heart.

While readers like myself, will definitely read on to find out if “it happens” between Merit and Ethan, or even with Morgan, we are also willing tourists in her world exploring her secondary characters, the plots, the conflict, and what motivates them all in this rich paranormal romance soup. I loved the vampire house hierarchy, the rules of the Canon; and the political intrigue. Chicagoland and its characters have a solid foundation.

Even Neill has made the great “revealing” believable noting that there were difficulties in the beginning, when vampires first emerged into society. This is one of my sore points in paranormal romance and urban fantasy…some authors describe this transition into human society as a mere footnote, a whitewashed event that just happens. A reader is supposed to just accept it. Not! Some fictional events, no matter how well crafted, need to be rooted in some kind of reality. Personally, I have always believed that if a great revealing were to have occurred, it would be as Missy Jane described it in They Call Me Death, i.e. a full-scale war with a clear line of demarcation between humans and Supernaturals.

And yes, Neill is alluding to something wicked coming their way. War is in the air, and sides will be chosen. I have my spot reserved on the Good Ship Cadogan and look forward to July’s release, Twice Bitten to see how our warriors and lovers fare in the impending battle!

Go Team Ethan!