Cadogan House has just received news that they have been blacklisted by the GP. This means that no other house under the GP may have contact with them or they will receive harsh penalties. Merit and Ethan are drawn into a new mystery when an anti-vampire riot breaks out in Chicago and a business is nearly destroyed by fire. As they try to discover who is behind the riot, another one takes place. This time Grey House is destroyed and their vamps have no place to go. Ethan offers Scott Grey and his vampires shelter, much to the chagrin of the GP. Now Grey House vamps join with Cadogan to ascertain the culprit behind the riots.
I just love this series. I feel like I'm visiting friends when I'm reading one of these books. Of course, these friends always have some kind of turmoil going on. There is always a mystery to solve. There is always someone (many someones) who want to bring them down.
Along with the usual cast of Cadogan vamps, we get to know a little more about Scott Grey and Grey House. We also see the GP's reaction to Cadogan coming to Grey's rescue. I love the vampire politics in this series. I also liked the romance in this story. It's Valentine's Day, but who has time? Merit and Ethan try to make the holiday special, even though they're in crisis mode. What more could you ask for? My rating: 4.5 Stars.
This is the eighth book in the Chicagoland Vampire series. The ninth book will be titled, Wild Things, and is scheduled for a February 2014 release date. This was a decent continuation of this series. I enjoyed the book and enjoyed reconnecting with all these wonderful characters.
Merit is trying to have a reconciliation dinner of sorts with Mallory when an anti-vampire riot starts, and Blood for Yous headquarters is set on fire. Merit is trying to figure out who is behind the riots before they get worse. Of course things get even more complicated with the GP blacklists Cadogan House and declares war on them. Will Merit and Ethan ever get some peace?
There is a lot more about the GP vs. Cadogan House in this book (which I wish would just be resolved). Given the events in this book though, I believe Cadogan Houses problems with the GP are actually starting to escalate. I am a bit sick of this storyline and kind of wish it would just be resolved.
Then of course there is the whole McKetrick storyline, he's still causing a lot of trouble in the background. Of course he is who Merit immediately suspects is behind the riots and the fires, but she is having trouble actually proving it.
The majority of the story involves Merit running around trying to find out who is behind these riots. She runs into a lot of dead ends.
Also Mallory is back in the story some and is more of herself. I liked seeing that she was more in control of her magic and was back to making funny/witty comments. It was also nice to see her and Catcher trying to mend fences.
There were also lots of great fight scenes. Ethan and Merit are in fine form and it was nice to see them working as a team. There are lots of tender moments between the two and I felt like this was the first book where they finally were on more stable ground with each other. It was nice to see.
As with the previous few books, this book felt more like a vampire soap opera than an action packed urban fantasy. I still feel like Neill is floundering a bit with where things are going next.
Despite the above I do really like these characters and thought it was a decent enough story. Its pretty predictable and not as explosilvly entertaining as the earlier books in the series. It was still an entertaining read though.
Overall I enjoyed this book. I love the characters and enjoy reading about them. I am a bit sick of the storyline about the conflict between the GP and Cadogan House and wish this would get resolved so we could move onto something more interesting. I guess I wish the storyline had moved along a bit better in general. However I do love this world and did find the book to be an entertaining read. So, I will most likely read the next book in the series as well. I would recommend this series to fans of vampire urban fantasy, just be aware that the first five or so books are by far the best. The last few have been kind of weak.
