Customer Reviews

Some Girls Bite (Chicagoland Vampires, Book 1)

5 star:		(116)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I'm a first time book reviewer. I usually read a mix of romance, urban fantasy and sci-fi. I bought this book on a whim, based on the reviews I read here. I received it yesterday, and ended up staying up until 2 a.m. to finish it. It was an excellent read, fast paced, good characterization, great plot, I could not put it down. There is a nice balance of humor and lots of sexual tension between Merit and Ethan.

This author and series has a lot of promise and I will definitely buy the next book. If you like Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs or Illona Andrews, then you will like this one too!

Buying this book was a whim, I had never heard of the author and the book itself was actually just lying on a table in the book store. Giving in to the urge I picked it up and began thumbing through the first couple chapters. I was impressed enough that I bought it and promptly went home to settle in with a kick a** vampire novel.

Merit at first seemed to be the stereotypical butt kicking heroine, she was changed against her will and she was a constant source of teenage rebellion and sarcasm for her 'liege' and head of her vampire house. Slowly though the author began to peel back layer after layer of Merit, what the readers were left with was a loyal, surprisingly fast, smart and katana wielding woman who was trying to figure out the balance between her old life, her new life, and where her loyalties stand in this new supernatural world.

Ethan Sullivan was the vampire who turned her, he also happens to be the head of the Cadogan House in Chicago. Ethan is an arrogant 400 year old vampire who wears his confidence and power like a mantle. Merit finds herself drawn to him, and then repulsed by his decisions and 'lording' over everyone under him.

By the end of the book we know Merit is stronger and smarter than the average vampire, we know she choose loyalty above her own wants, and in the end choose to stand with the Cadogan House rather than fight it. I loved Merit the entire book, she was the perfect heroine; Ethan however I was still confused with. I can't decide whether or not I hate him or love him. I can't wait for the next book to see how everything evolves. Trust me this book you need to read, it's cover might scream typical cookie cutter vampire genre but the story itself is anything but.

Must read!!!

I had high hopes for this series, it came so highly recommended, plus it was based in Chicago, so that always catches my eye. Unfortunately, this book just doesn't add up to the hype as far as I'm concerned. First off, getting really bored of the unexplained super chicks. The first page of the book annoyed me because Merit describes herself as one of the most powerful vampires around, and she's not even thirty years old.

Here's my problem with this book in particular.

After trudging through 120 pages, the story progressed no where, really. Merit gets attacked by some random vampire, she's kind of out of it. Another vampire saves her by turning her into a vampire. She wakes up in his club house, so to speak and she's given a quick update and taken home to where her equally ditzy BFF Mallory seems all too excited and happy that her girl friend is now a vampire. First off, that struck me as odd. So very odd that her friend would be so enthused about her being turned and not the least bit concerned by the circumstances that lead her to be turned. The interaction between Merit and Mallory seemed so awkward to me as I continued to read. They both seem so immature and flighty. And their dialogue seemed forced and unnatural. Very unrealistic and childish for people who were supposed to be adults. I also found it silly that she was more concerned about being kicked out of school than being attacked, left for dead and turned into a vampire.

Merit is told to read the "Canon" which is like the vampire bible, and she casually does, not really taking it all that seriously. She is told that within the next 7 days, she will be inducted as a full fledge member of the house so she really needs to bone up on her vampire knowledge. The next night, some unknown "bad guy" throws a rock through Merit's window with a note attached. (ooooooh, scary *rolls eyes*) The note is a "threat" which she and Mallory decided they need to inform Ethan (the head vampire of the house) about right away. Note: Just to show you how stupid these characters are. Merit brings her "human" friend Mallory as her back up in case things go wrong against a house full of powerful bloodsucking vampires. O-kay. The moment she confronts Ethan about the letter, she goes all off on a tangent about being turned into a vampire, as if she had a better option. It was either life or death. Which one is more desirable to you? Actually, you have to read about her moaning and groaning about being a vampire for a good portion of this book, which was really boring to me because it was illogical. Life gave you lemons, make some lemonade, what good it is complaining about something you can't change? I hate books that have characters that do that.

Anyway. She challenges the master vampire to a duel, which he wins... but with considerable effort which made me roll my eyes. What's the point of living hundreds of years, gaining strength and whatnot, if a two day old vampire is almost as powerful as you are? And as the novel continues, Merit turns out to be as powerful or more powerful than all the other vampires. Why?

He tries to bring some commonsense to Merit's rationale when he tells her he didn't have a better option but to turn her and for her to think about what the next 7 days mean. Oh, I almost forgot to mention at this point, not to be outdone, we discover Mallory is a very powerful witch, like level four which is the most powerful. It was so convenient and clichéd. I should also mention that Mallory didn't know about any of this before hand, but the vampires could sense her power. You'd think with how excited she was about Merit being a vampire, she'd be equally excited for her own sudden fortune, but no, she pouts and doesn't even bother to ask any questions like "How?" or "why" or anything at all. She just stays silent till she gets home and goes into her room to pout some more. Now I ask you... WTF?

These characters engage in activities that seem like so much more time has passed, but you have to remember it's only been a few days. Merit begins her training with teacher Catcher Bell, and I'm sorry, I couldn't take this character seriously as much as I tried, because I hated his ridiculous name. Catcher is also the person whom Mallory is instantly drawn to and he also tells her what level witch she is and how her witchery has been used in the past without her knowledge. This was done to pacify the reader like me who may ask "how come she didn't know she was a witch with all this so-called "unstable" power coursing through her. I still ask that, because Catcher begins to train Mallory too, in between their sex romps and he goes on to stress just how unstable and dangerous her power is if uncontrolled. You'd think she would have noticed something at SOME point in her twenty something years on earth, such as things around her going berserk. But apparently, her power ONLY became unstable and chaotic once it was revealed she had any power at all.

Another vampire is also interested in Merit, the same one who OWNED the very nightclub Merit and friends were kicked out of the night before. Merit goes on to describe this character as "boy" several times which kept throwing me off, cause I didn't know if he was a boy or man or some kind of manboy. Later you find out the "boy" is three times Merits age. How insulting it must be for him to be considered a "boy" do you think? That's just one example of the under developed characterization and childlike-minded dialogue the characters communicated with.

Another reviewer mentioned that this book felt like the author was a young adult writer and decided to take a stab at writing for adult, but kept forgetting to up the age mentally for her characters. I'd have to agree. Ultimately the characters were boring, their conversations were boring, the threat of the plot which at some point seems to disappear in the story only to reemerge here and there in the novel was boring. And the entire world seemed very blasé about vampires being exposed seeing that it was only two months since they came out the coffin. Also not realistic.

I don't get the praise this series received, I don't get the praise twilight received. But I'm starting to think the people who enjoyed this book, also enjoyed Twilight and other YA novels.

This wasn't for me.

I heard about this book from another vampire series blog. The editor review was interesting so I picked it up on a Thursday night and could not put it down for 2 days.

The books starts with Merit, the main heroine's initiation into "vampiredom". Merit is a 27 year old grad student who is attacked by a rogue vampire. Before she dies, she's "saved" and turned by a master vampire of one of the four Chicago Vampire Houses.

The book follows her journey in discovering her new life as vampire and how she copes with that. From discovering her new physical skills, telling her family and friends she's a vamp and coping with being a member of a very structured vampire society.

I literally laughed out loud in several parts of this book. For example, the lead heroine is sent home with a "Vampire Canon" to help introduce her to the vampire life. The author describes wonderfully the feelings of hurt and lost of the main character as she enters her new immortal life that she did not consent to. It contains some surprising twists and turns too.

Great plotline, very witty and funny writing. The story moves along quickly and the its contains some steamy love scenes and relationships.


I highly recommend this book. The next book is due out in October 2009. I hope Ms Neill has secured this series for at least 10 books.

Perhaps I am over the age for reading this series?

I keep having a strong impression this series is intended for the very young adult 12-14 year olds, readers who have only a vague idea of the real world and real interaction between people in the grown up world.

The female protagonist Merit appears to be a likeable enough person and Ethan Sullivan master vampire of Cadogan House has some appeal. There is a fair amount of action too. However the personalities of Merit, Ethan and other supporting characters kept falling flat for me. There is a sense of characters not fleshed out. The interaction and dialogue between characters appear to something out of a hip college TV series. One may argue that as Merit is a grad student and her world may be fairly insulated. That same excuse cannot be applied to Ethan Sullivan or the other vampires who have lived for hundreds of years. The vampire houses were reminiscent of college frat houses not populated by drunken jocks but by responsible hip young adults who happened to be vampires.


Ultimately the book seem plastic and pretty superficial ... like I said it could have been a posh vampire TV series with college setting subsequently transcribed into a book. Usually books tend to be much richer in content, which is then lost during the filming process. This book was written as if it was filmed....

I finished the first book and struggled through the second book, to give this series a fair chance. The second book is written in the same vein.

Lord, I couldn't even finish. I couldn't bare it. Esp. after just finished the solidly written Kate Daniels Series by Ilona Andrews (go..read...now...esp Buffy fans).

I felt like this was written for underestimated young adults.

Why are these 28 yr. old WOMEN (Merit the MC & Mallory her BF - who are working on a dissertation & in advertising respectively) describing these vampires who are double, triple & quadruple their own ages as "boys"??

As in ...."I'd assumed there'd be time for boys after" or, "Before that moment, before watching him walk toward me, I'd been a normal girl. If I saw a boy I found attractive, I might smile. I might, on the rare occasion, say hello or give someone my phone number. I wouldn't say I was forward, but I made a move when I was interested. But something about this boy, maybe mixed with the fact that I'd recently become a vampire, made every molecule in my body tingle."

Merit is not a girl & these men are certainly not boys.

It's just....IDK, staggeringly immature writing.

Speaking of immature - Merit, Malloy, Mallory's boyfriend...yeah all very shallow so far. Unrealistically drawn with overplayed convenient responses & excuses to people & situations which actually don't make sense.

***SPOILERS***

Mallory's reaction to Merit becoming a vamp is basically - "So cool! You're a vamp!" & this is b'c she's a huge fan of all things paranormal & studies it obsessively. However, when she finds out she is the highest level of witch out there, her reaction is so underwhelming I was left scratching my head.

The lack or originality in creating Merit's entire environment is just plain poor (meaning - Merit's way too convenient life).

So uh lemme' see.... the Master of one of the most powerful houses happens to be there when she's attacked, thereby saving her life & turning her. OK I can buy that for the setup of the book but then it gets absurd.

Apparently, she is very strong for a newbie - everyone can tell she is going to be extremely powerful. Her roomie ends up being the highest level witch. Her "liege" is Mr.Darcy style reluctantly yet heavily attracted to her in spite her challenging him off the bat in front of the whole house. Then soon after - offers her the job of being his consort.

Oh yeah...her gramps is like this head honcho for the supernatural on the down low & hooks her up to train w/a major sorcerer & shifter. Of course she's good looking...can control her hunger...

Come on! Give me a break.

Bottom line is I'm finding it flat & extremely played out to the point where it's borderline book throwing material b'c the triteness is that irritating & really...there's no excuse for it.

I can tell the author is trying really hard to create something snappy & current but I'm finding it really amateurish b'c she's so obvious about it.

Not only that, but sometimes I feel like I am reading about 28 year old's w/the mentalities of vapid 16 year old's b'c they're still trying to rebel & prove points to whomever cares enough to actually pay them attention. It's all over the place. One moment Merit is throwing a tantrum irresponsibly & the next she is being Yoda-like with her advice. Mallory has blue hair b'c she's trying to prove that's she's something beyond classically pretty...huh? Cue the eye rolls.

I didn't have the patience to deal with it. Too many books to read.

You know how when you're reading a book and you're totally engrossed in the "world" written by the author? That's how much of this book was for me, with a few exceptions. I thought the characters and plot were pretty well developed; however, there were a few things that jarred me out of the book's world and back into my own head. That's the reason I've given this review only three stars. It was stuff like having vampires come out 8 months ago, and Merit's sidekick Mallory (who followed the coming out avidly) state in one scene that they didn't know anything about vampires a month ago. Or in another scene, Merit is describing the vampires in the room and she states that Luc is the only one wearing jeans, only to state one page later that Peter was wearing jeans. I know this may seem like trivial stuff, but it was enough to pull me back into my own reality when I've really been enjoying someone else's "reality".

I'm very hopeful for this series, as I enjoyed the dialogue and writing style. I think the author did a good job of putting me in the thick of the action, and she wrote the primary character very well, so that I could empathize with the changes she was going through. I liked Merit's pragmatic take on the hand she's been dealt. Sure, she had a few uncertain moments, but in the end she did the equivalent of shrug her shoulders, buckle up, and move on to be the best Vampire she can be. I truly appreciate that, and I hope she doesn't go back to wallowing / waffling in the second book.

Anyhow, I really enjoyed the book and look forward to the next one. I just hope that the flaws that slipped through in this book are caught in the next one.

How could this have gotten so many good reviews?? I bought the $12.00 Kindle version, even though I usually don't buy Kindle books that are that expensive because it got so many good reviews, and I like vampire stories. I was very disappointed, though. If I had bought the actual book, I could have taken it back, at least.
First off, the writing was very immature. Everything was too simple, which made it unrealistic. The characters' personalities were too simple, their emotions too simple, the story was too simple. Everybody, not just the vampires, were unrealistically beautiful. It came across as a young adult book. It was also VERY cliche. The author brought nothing new to this genre. The book's ridiculous cover with what looks like a twelve year old girl on it really does reflect the writing.
Secondly, the characters themselves were a problem. I cannot express how TIRED I am of the potential "love interest" men being patronizing bullies, while the main woman character acts submissive to them. Ethan constantly talked down to her, and she just took it. And when she finally did mouth off back to him, she immediately apologized. This happens in so many books, that it makes me sad. Come on, lady authors, get some self-esteem! Don't make your heroines spineless and submissive to jerks! I mean, when Merit told her friend that Ethan said he didn't like her, but wanted her to be his own personal whore, her friend asks her if she is flattered. Really??? I wasn't aware we were living in medieval times. I thought this was 2011. My mistake. What girl wouldn't be flattered by such an offer? It wasn't just Ethan and Merit, though, that had this kind of relationship. Almost all the female and male characters came across like this. It's just sad and disappointing that such backwards thinking is still prevalent today.
I didn't even make it halfway through this book, and I usually can finish any book, even if I don't like it. I may try to finish it later, and if I do, I'll update this review, but I don't see that happening any time soon. I would NOT recommend this book.

I'm a Kindle user and find it rather sad that the publisher demands more for the Kindle version. It actually cost much more money to put it out in print version. I won't be buying these books until the publisher wakes up and smells the coffee.

Before I go into this review, I'll be honest and say I'm far more interested in wolves in every television, movie or even book that there are vampires, werewolves and even witches. However, I thought it was kinda cool to browse around for something to read and see so many references to Chicago so I picked it up. My interest in vampire stories has increased (courtesy of "Twilight"), so why not?

Cons: The author spent far too much time describing people's physical features. It got old quickly. Yes, we realize Ethan has green eyes, Mallory has blue hair, Merit likes wearing double tanktops and Catcher has a nice body. You only need to say it once, maybe twice. By the third time, it's like, "Ok, seriously, stop." There seemed to be a special thrill in the transition of Merit's outfit from totally not caring about fashion (although she seemed to admire everybody else's clothes and endlessly talked about this ninja outfit she was proud to sport) and her high ponytail. I honestly felt like I was reading Cosmo several times. I just wanted to get to the plot, and it definitely wasn't the constant PDA scenes with Mallory and Catcher. That comment about what he does with his tongue was way too much information.

The problem I had with this book was that it spent so much time talking about Catcher and Mallory and not enough time with readers getting to know the vampires. We got an overview. We heard a bunch of complaining about Merit's father and plenty of adoration for her grandfather, but this book might as well have been called "Some Girls Bite But Would Rather Be Taught by Witches." Catcher was the main character, not Merit. Hold the book and flip the pages. You'll see Catcher's name more than anybody else's just from a glance. I wasn't interested in Catcher's character at all, but I was definitely taking notice of Jeff. Problem was I didn't know much about Jeff, besides being a shape shifter and a computer programmer. Catcher seemed to be talked about more than the male interests in the book--Ethan and Morgan. The villain who caused all the ruckus was about as obvious from the beginning of the book as the villain was at the end of the book; I'd actually be more surprised if ANYBODY was surprised.

Pros: Jeff. I liked every single scene with Jeff. Other than that, nobody really caught my interest.

I think if the book didn't spend so much time trying to convince us that the main character was such a rebel and so over fashion, I might've been able to deal, but the focus (although she was a vampire) was too much about outside crews. I wish the energy for character development would've focused more on some of the other vampires, outside of making them sideshows (ex. Luc and Lindsey). It felt more like she joined a college club than it did a vampire house.