'Firespell' Dark Elite #1 by Chloe NEILL

Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

When Lily's guardians decided to send her away to a fancy boarding school in Chicago, she was shocked. So was St. Sophia's. Lily's ultra-rich brat pack classmates think Lily should be the punchline to every joke and on top of that, she's hearing strange noises and seeing bizarre things in the shadows of the creepy building. The only thing keeping her sane is her roommate, Scout, who keeps disappearing late at night and won't tell Lily where she's been. But when a prank leaves Lily trapped in the catacombs beneath the school, Lily finds Scout running from a real monster. Scout's a member of a splinter group of rebel teens with unique magical talents, who've sworn to protect the city against demons, vampires and Reapers, magic users who've been corrupted by their power. And when Lily finds herself in the line of a firespell, Scout tells her the truth about her secret life, even though Lily has no powers of her own - at least, none that she's discovered yet...

Chloe Neill has already established a name for herself with the Urban Fantasy series ‘Chicagoland Vampires’. Neill continues her love of all things Chicago in her first YA series, ‘Dark Elite’. ‘Firespell’ is the first book in the series, and one hell of an introduction.

Lily Parker’s world has been turned upside down. Not only is she staring down the tunnel of her senior year, with SAT’s and college applications looming... but she’ll be slogging through her final two years in a Chicago boarding school while her parents traipse around Germany. Okay, maybe ‘traipse’ isn’t the right word since they’ll be on a teaching sabbatical, but still! It’s a disaster of epic proportions for Lily, who has to leave her Sagamore NYC home, and say goodbye to her friends and parents. She is losing everything she holds dear, and trading it all in for the elite St. Sophia’s boarding school in Chicago.

It is at St. Sophia’s that Lily meets Millicent ‘Scout’ Green, her strange new roomie and future BFF. Scout isn’t like the other pencil-skirt-wearing, straight-laced Sophia snobs – she has a nose ring, an appreciation for ‘Man vs. Wild’ and a penchant for sneaking out at night for ‘exercise’. Lily follows Scout on one of her late-night ‘exercises’ and discovers something lurking in St. Sophia’s basement. Lily also meets two of Scout’s friends; Montclare private school boys Michael Garcia and Jason Shepherd. This trio of rich-kids claim to be ‘cleaning up Chicago’... but Lily isn’t convinced. And to top off all the weirdness is headmistress Foley making some radical claims about her parents.
The more Lily digs to uncover Scout and St. Sophia’s secrets, the more she discovers they may lead to secrets that are closer to home...

This is an outstanding new addition to the ‘Urban Fantasy’ genre, and YA readership. ‘Firespell’ has heart-pumping action, mysterious monsters and two heroines’s to admire. This is Urban Fantasy du-jour and an absolute joy to read!

I loved the fact that Neill coupled outlandish supernatural monsters with Lily’s more relatable and devastating discovery that her parents have been keeping secrets from her. It really heightened the personal drama, and ensured there was plenty of mystery spiced with the action scenes.

I’d walked into St. Sophia’s thinking I was beginning day one of my two-year separation from people who meant more to me than anyone else in the world – two people who’d been honest with me, even if we hadn’t always gotten along. (I was a teenager, after all.) But now I had to wonder. I had to look back over my life and decide whether everything I knew, everything I believed to be true about my mother and father, was a lie.

The reason ‘Firespell’ works so well is that Neill is writing teenagers as heroes. Adults are side-lined in this book, and the kids take centre stage and battle-glory. At its heart, the ‘Dark Elite’ series will be an exploration of Good vs. Evil – a universal battle set in downtown Chicago, being fought by spoiled little rich kids. Brilliant!

Neill's characters are quick and quippy, throwing around pop-culture references and wry witticisms like they’re in a Joss Whedon TV show. I loved them. Lily and Scout are on the fringe of popularity, they’re hounded by the popular ‘Brat pack’, but they relish the verbal sparring rather than weakened by it. They aren’t mainstream teenagers; they reference Pete Wentz and put-down Blair Waldorf and are utterly charming for their quirkiness. They are the type of characters you wish were real people, so you could call them up and have a good gossipy chat.

There’s also plenty of potential romance to get stuck into, as Michael and Jason present interesting ‘cute boy’ diversions for Scout and Lily. Neill doesn’t give too much up in this first book, but she lays the groundwork for a budding romance that acts as a nice balance with all the monsters and fast-paced action.

If there’s one thing Neill does well, it’s writing secondary characters. In ‘Firespell’ the mean-girl ‘brat pack’ are as interesting as the main characters, and surprisingly enough the ‘bad guys’ prove to be equally fascinating players. Not to give anything away, but I found myself as interested in the head-honcho villain’s back-story as I was in Lily’s – and I hope Neill cultivates those minor plots in future books.

I really liked this book, and look forward to more to come in the ‘Dark Elite’ series. I actually prefer the premise of ‘Dark Elite’ than Neill’s adult ‘Chicagoland Vampires’ series.
‘Firespell’ finishes off on a Grand-Canyon-sized cliff-hanger (dammit!). Book two, ‘Hexbound’, is set for January 2011 release.

5/5

Dark Elite #2 'Hexbound' - Jan 4th 2011

'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

'Some Girls Bite' by Chloe NEILL

From the BLURB:

First in a brand new series about a Chicago graduate student's introduction into a society of vampires.

Sure, the life of a graduate student wasn't exactly glamorous, but it was Merit's. She was doing fine until a rogue vampire attacked her. But he only got a sip before he was scared away by another bloodsucker - and this one decided the best way to save her life was to make her the walking undead.

Turns out her savior was the master vampire of Cadogan House. Now she's traded sweating over her thesis for learning to fit in at a Hyde Park mansion full of vamps loyal to Ethan 'Lord o' the Manor' Sullivan. Of course, as a tall, green-eyed, four-hundred- year-old vampire, he has centuries' worth of charm, but unfortunately he expects her gratitude - and servitude. But an inconvenient sunlight allergy and Ethan's attitude are the least of her concerns. Someone's still out to get her. Her initiation into Chicago's nightlife may be the first skirmish in a war - and there will be blood.

This is Chloe Neill’s premiere series and latest addition to the Urban Fantasy genre. I loved Neill’s take on vampire politics and feudal structure. Each state in America has different vampire ‘Houses’ – in Chicago there’s Cadogan, Nevarre and Grey – they are similar to sorority or frat houses, even though every vampire associated with the respective houses are not required to live on the premises. There’s lots of vampire political intrigue surrounding the ‘outing’ of the vampire race a few months prior to Merit's turning, which is fascinating.

I also really appreciated the succinct explanation Neill provides for why vampires existence has been so wholly welcomed by the human population. This is a plot footnote present in many Urban Fantasy novels, but never so beautifully explained as in ‘Some Girls Bite’. Merit’s grandfather, who acts as supernatural/human police liaison for the Chicago mayor, tells Merit;

“this is the first supernatural outing in modern history, and it happened in the post-Harry Potter era. In the post-Lord of the Rings era. Humans are a little more comfortable thinking about supernatural beings, supernatural happenings, than they were in the days when witches and vampires burned.”

In some novels the explaining of why supernatural’s are so easily accepted by humans after years of demonizing is long-winded and never really satisfying. Chloe Neill has summed it up beautifully in one paragraph that had me totally willing to believe all of the ‘vampires in modern day’ plot that followed.

I really loved the world Neill created, but that’s about all the enjoyment I got out of ‘Some Girls Bite’.

My main problem was with the main character; Merit, and the fact that she was very, very boring. And her blandness was made excruciatingly obvious by more interesting secondary characters. Case-in-point; her witchy roommate, Mallory. Not only does Mallory have dyed blue hair to counteract her classically beautiful features, but she’s also sassy, fashionable and quick with the verbal sparring. When confronted with an ex Sorcerer who sports a buzz-cut and impressive bod, Mallory is quick to quip about her shattered pre-conceptions of what a sorcerer should look like -

“You know-old. Grizzled. Long white beard. Scruffy robes. Lovable. Smart, but a little absentminded professorish.”

Added to Mallory’s intrigue is her instant attraction to the Sorcerer, Catcher. When we first meet him Mallory comments on his stand-offish persona and hidden agenda – yet Mallory seems to pretty quickly break down his walls and the two of them are firmly in love by books end. For me, that relationship alone would have merited a book in itself.

Secondly, because of Merit’s boring character, I found the attraction between her and Cadogan housemaster, Ethan Sullivan, totally implausible. Mallory comments that;

“…Just being in the same room, you two melt the drapes.”

I, personally, did not read any such drape-melting.

Neill did what so many paranormal romance and urban fantasy writers tend to do – the protagonist and his/her lead having an intangible ‘something’ connection that can’t really be explained but is there regardless so even if the spark isn’t really coming across for the reader, the writer can just fall back on the pretext that these two are ‘fated’. And Neill does just that… Merit and Ethan stare across a crowded room and Merit unsuccessfully explains feeling a little ‘something’ click inside of her. I didn’t buy it, and it didn’t help that Ethan, like Merit, was just a big blob of bland for me. He seemed like a watered-down version of Charlaine Harris’s Eric Northman. Merit comments quite a bit on Ethan’s politicizing and the fact that he will happily sacrifice her for the greater good, regardless of his feelings. There was nothing that stood out about him for me, and the lack of chemistry between him and Merit made for a lackluster pairing.

With regards to Merit – I wanted more backbone. Or a wicked sense of humor. Or a totally klutzy persona that was at odds with her vampire stealth. Instead, Merit is a bit of a Mary-Sue. She’s not just a regular vampire – Catcher reveals that she has more speed, strength and mental barriers than normal vampires, and could possibly one day become a Master vampire herself. Not to mention the fact that the Cadogan Master has his eye on her, when he normally doesn’t take any personal interest in the new initiates.

It all came just a bit too easy for Merit for me to like her. Add the fact that secondary characters were upstaging her personality, meant I wasn’t in the least bit invested in her story.

I don’t know if I’ll give the second ‘Chicagoland Vampires’ book a read, at the moment, it’s not looking good.

1.5/5