Series: Chicagoland Vampires #11
My Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Sultry Scale: 2 of 5 flames
Pub Date: March 3, 2015
A vampire never gets old. But neither do his enemies. When a figure from Ethan's dark past makes a splashy debut in Chicago, Merit and her Master don't know whether he's friend or foe. But they'll have to figure out soon, because trouble is brewing in the Windy City.
At an exclusive society soiree attended by the upper echelons of the human and supernatural worlds, Merit and Ethan barely stop the assassination of a guest. When the target turns out to be a shady businessman with a criminal edge, Merit suspects a human vendetta. But the assassins have fangs....
The connections to Chicago's Houses go deeper than Merit knows, and even one wrong move could be her last....
For this week's Tuesday Teaser, I actually got the ARC to review from NetGalley. Yay!
The latest installment from Chicagoland begins a new story arc where new baddies and old baddies converge into one threat against Ethan, Merit, their relationship, Cadogen and vampires in general. This is a nice change of pace from previous books where the threats from the supernatural and mundanes tended to be separate aspects of the story.
This book picks up where Blood Games left off... with the hint of Ethan's maker, Balthasar, returning from the (un)dead. The Balthasar character turns out to be more of a threat to Merit, as you will see from early on, he has a scary ability to affect her mind. Of course, this brings out all of Ethan's protective instincts that we know and love. Merit's character is a bit softer and more feminine in this book. And, as much as we love our kickass sentinel, it was nice to see her feel a bit seductive and girly. She got to play her damsel in distress role, but without losing her street cred.
I was happy to see more of Morgan in this story... and it appears the Morgan of old may be making more of an appearance in future books. I am looking forward to this as I have been disappointed in the way Morgan's character acted and handled things after Celina's bad deeds. Though this book does provide insight into the reasons for Morgan's standoff behavior and leadership style. So perhaps Morgan will be able to redeem himself.
And speaking of redemption, we got a sneak peek suggesting that Joshua Merit may actually have a heart under his pompous sanctimonious exterior! His behavior was doubly surprising, and gives us hope for him in the future.
All-in-all, I give this latest story arc a thumbs up. I think it will play out well over the next few books, and I look forward to reading along.
Side note... I have been picturing Ethan as an Alexander Skarsgaard type throughout these books. But Merit refers to him now as a David Beckham look-alike. This brings all new (and yummy) possibilities to the table!
No comments:
Post a Comment