Hard Bitten: A Chicagoland Vampires Novel (Chicagoland Vampires, #4) by Chloe Neill

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've noticed that a lot of readers seem to fall on either side of the spectrum of love or hate for this one. Myself, I'm definitely leaning toward love, but there were some major bumps along the way. Hard Bitten is the fourth in the series and Merit is settling in as much as she can into her role as vampire and Sentinel of the Cadogan House. Unfortunately there are some nefarious characters that aren't about to let her rest on her laurels. Add in a dose of extra awkwardness whenever Ethan enters the equation and you have….well, you have something somewhat interesting.

It's been established by the author that vampires as a group are very political and love intrigue, alliances and the sort. We definitely see that side here. Sure Merit spends some time "investigating" the raves we learned about in the previous book, but most of the plot is about maneuvering correctly between the people of Chicago, its mayor, and the GP which governs the vampire houses. We see the relationship is very tenuous at times, but I'm not a PR person and it wasn't interesting for me to listen to Merit wax philosophical about the various repercussions of different plans of action.

To be honest it was the very end that got me or more specifically, the last couple of chapters. Normally this wouldn't be enough to redeem a book in my eyes, but DAMN this was an awesome ending. I can see two totally different camps of readers forming based on this one event. If you like safe status quo and familiar plots then you won't like it, but if you like a little shock and awe every now and again I think it may work. Don't worry it's not the end of the world, dear readers, it's just an author not taking the easy way out. I will definitely be reading the next.

Copy Soure: Ebook Purchased