'Friday Night Bites' by Chloe NEILL

From the BLURB:

Ten months after vampires revealed their existence to the mortals of Chicago, they're enjoying a celebrity status usually reserved for the Hollywood elite. But should people learn about the Raves - mass feeding parties where vampires round up humans like cattle - the citizens will start sharpening their stakes.

So now it's up to the new vampire Merit to reconnect with her upper class family and act as liaison between humans and bloodsuckers, and keep the more unsavory aspects of the vampire lifestyle out of the media. But someone doesn't want peace between them - someone with an ancient grudge.

In my ‘Some Girls Bite’ review, I said I had a problem with the protagonist, Merit. I still don’t particularly like her, but she made a Stars Hollow reference that scored some points with me.

I think Merit was really wishy-washy in ‘Friday Night Bites’, particularly in her relationship with Navarre House master, Morgan. Admittedly, Merit knows she’s being unfair toward Morgan and is a little sheepish about her hesitation regarding their ‘relationship’. I can appreciate that while she is wishy-washy, she’s aware of her wishy-washyness. That being said, I understood Merit’s dilemma regarding her feelings toward Ethan and Morgan. Merit is attracted to Ethan, but doesn’t want to be. Merit wants to be as attracted to Morgan as she is to Ethan, but can’t seem to muster the feelings. It’s a pretty common dilemma, and I could relate to the relationship problems Neill gave Merit… even if I’ve never been stuck having to choose between an incredibly sexy vampire Master, and an insanely scrumptious vampire Master.

The thing I liked in ‘Some Girls Bite’ was the secondary characters. Catcher and Mallory, Luc and Lindsey do appear again in ‘Friday Night Bites’, but not enough for my liking. But maybe my disgruntlement stems from my feeling that Mallory’s life is more exciting than Merit’s, and believing there’s more spark between Luc & Lindsey than Ethan & Merit. I’m still not really reading heat between Ethan & Merit. They’re both see-sawing in their feelings toward one another; I can appreciate the ‘will they or won’t they’ element, but when I’m not particularly invested in either character it makes it a little hard for me to care whether or not they get a happily ever after between them.

And as much as I don’t particularly like Merit, I like Ethan even less… which makes their romantic overtures even more awkward to read. He reminded me a lot of Charlaine Harris’s Eric Northman, and I wasn’t all that surprised to read the revelation in ‘Friday Night Bites’ that Ethan was a Viking warrior in his human life.

I think I’m done with this series now. No offense, it’s just not for me. I have become an urban fantasy snob, I like what I like, and I just don’t like Chicagoland Vampires.

1.5/5