Merit has been a vampire for only a short while, but she’s already seen a lifetime’s worth of trouble. She and her Master, centuries-old Ethan Sullivan, have risked their lives time and again to save the city they love. But not all of Chicago is loving them back.
Anti-vampire riots are erupting all over town, striking vampires where it hurts the most. A splinter group armed with Molotov cocktails and deep-seated hate is intent on clearing the fanged from the Windy City come hell or high water.
Merit and her allies rush to figure out who’s behind the attacks, who will be targeted next, and whether there’s any way to stop the wanton destruction. The battle for Chicago is just beginning, and Merit is running out of time...
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Guys, I'm really sorry. This book didn't really make me angry, it just made me sad (okay, it made me a little angry). I love Merit, you know I do. This is one of my all-time favourite series and I guess up until now I had this misguided notion that Chloe Neill could do no wrong.
Well, I was wrong.
It started off okay, with all the usual snark and humour. However, it took me forever to get into. There was just no action! Even when something was supposedly happening, no one did anything! There were these riots going on, and they were meant to be the main drama source for the book, but here's the thing: nobody cared. Everyone just sat around making jokes that weren't that funny and having endless meetings that yielded no results.
The lack of action was something that lasted throughout the entire thing. I don't even think there was a climax to this book. And while, yeah, there was a sex scene thrown in there for the hell of things, there was no overall breaking point where I went "Whoa, what's going to happen?". It was like a whole book made out of filler chapters. It was a filler book in the series.
Surprisingly though, that wasn't even the worst thing. Merit seriously let me down in this book. Despite being the heroine of the story, she wasn't very heroic. Remember guys, that she was named Sentinel in the very first book, because even though she was only a two-day old baby vamp, she nearly managed to catch Ethan, Master of the House. Well, in this book she manages to get taken down by a human (one lone human!) at least three times!!! I swear, every time I flip a page, Ethan is saving her from something. And you know, I wouldn't be so put out if this was consistent with her character, but up until now she's been taking down vampires, werewolves and - wait for it - freaking angels!
Wait, there's more. I think Neill was trying to show everyone how bad-ass Ethan has gotten, ever since he came back to life. However, she's showing it by making him do stupid things. Now, Ethan prides himself on not being stupid, but he is constantly rushing off into battle when they have not one, but two teams of guards there (Grey House joined the fun), and his House is on two separate hit lists! Both the GP and the city want to annihilate the House, and he's leaving it practically every second page to go put himself in danger and save Merit's ass. Not cool, Ethan.
I could go on for a while, listing all the things that made this book "Bad", (OH, the puns, the puns) but I think that what I have here is enough to make my point: filler book. To be fair, there were some good things: the banter was great; Ethan and Merit were all lovey-dovey; and we got a great scene with Scott (Master of Grey House) and his human girlfriend Ava. (She had kids and they were adorable!)
Having said all I needed to say, I know this: I still love the overall series, I still think Chloe Neill is a talented author, and though I wouldn't recommend Biting Bad, I will read the next book in this series (and hope that it's better than this.) For me, Biting Bad was:
Two hats. It just didn't cut it for me.
