Merit is adjusting to her role as Sentinel for Cadogan House
but it isn't easy with angry humans picketing the front
gates and her Master Ethan Sullivan trying to regain her
trust after breaking her heart. Add in her father being
suspiciously genial, attempts from a secret vampire watch
organization to recruit her, and a visit from a big wig on
the European vampire council and life has gotten pretty darn
complicated.
Then the mayor of Chicago decides to throw his weight
around, threatening Ethan with jail time if he cannot put a
stop to some pretty nasty raves. Not that the mayor is
wrong to be concerned, rumor has it three humans were killed
at a recent vamp party, although the bodies have not yet
been found.
Yet another human-run hate group has formed, this time with
weaponry and mercenaries to back up their twisted beliefs,
and getting in the way of the search for the rogue vampires.
With so much ugliness coming from the humans Merit is
beginning to wonder if she isn't glad to be a vampire after
all.
Neill's fourth in the Chicagoland Vampire series, HARD
BITTEN takes the story of Merit further along the series
arc, adding in a number of surprises and interesting
relationship elements. Like the other books, it is solidly
written, keeping a good balance between the romance and the
action without giving a firm 'happily ever after' ending yet
resolving the big questions in a very satisfying, if abrupt
manner. Plenty of intrigue and unanswered questions remain
for the upcoming book Drink Deep due out November,
2011.
Times are hard for newly minted vampire Merit. Ever since
shapeshifters announced their presence to the world, humans
have been rallying against supernaturals-and they're camping
outside of Cadogan House with protest signs that could turn
to pitchforks at any moment. Inside its doors, things
between Merit and her Master, green-eyed heartbreaker Ethan
Sullivan are...tense. But then the mayor of Chicago calls
Merit and Ethan to a clandestine meeting and tells them
about a violent vamp attack that has left three women
missing. His message is simple: get your House in order. Or
else.
Merit needs to get to the bottom of this crime, but it
doesn't help that she can't tell who's on her side. So she
secretly calls in a favor from someone who's tall, dark, and
part of underground vamp group that may have some deep intel
on the attack. Merit soon finds herself in the heady, dark
heart of Chicago's supernatural society-a world full of
vampires who seem ready to fulfill the protesting human's
worst fears, and a place where she'll learn that you can't
be a vampire without getting a little blood on your hands...