MIDNIGHT MARKED by Chloe Neill is the twelfth book in her brilliant Chicagoland Vampires series. Continuing events from DARK DEBT, Merit and Ethan have to deal with the repercussions of having made a powerful new enemy who wants total control of Chicago. Having already shown his hand and been thwarted by Cadogan, he will stop at nothing to win this time.

MIDNIGHT MARKED brilliant continues the story from DARK DEBT and takes the tension to a new level, with Neill upping the danger. You will know from reading DARK DEBT who the bad guy is, but Neill adds enough twists and surprises that this doesn’t disappoint: there are plenty of revelations in this book, and the ending is brilliantly done and has left me looking forward to the thirteenth book – which I’ve heard (though I can’t find any proof) is the final book in the series. I really enjoyed reading as events unfolded on the page, and I found it difficult to put the book down once I’d started. Merit and her friends have come a long way since they first appeared in SOME GIRLS BITE and this book shows it. The use of humour to break up the tension was brilliantly done, and really added to the reading experience for me.

A lot of the pleasure of MIDNIGHT MARKED comes from the fact that you know something is going to happen you just don’t know when or what. Neill does a brilliant job in keeping the tension up, and slowly revealing what is going on – there are plenty of surprises throughout the narrative, and I really enjoyed reading as things were slowly revealed. There are a few subplots that weave through the narrative, which I think really add to the story; some of which are new to this book and others tie in with things that happened in previous ones.

Merit is, as always, a brilliantly sassy main character. Despite events, she is happy in this book, which was nice. As always I loved the way Neill wrote her friendships – particularly with Mallory – and of course her relationship with Ethan. Ethan seemed more relaxed in this book, and as strange as it is to say I found him to be more charming. Mallory has come a long way and it was nice to read about her easy friendship with Merit. I really enjoyed the return of a lot of familiar faces in this book; Neill wrote the secondary characters brilliantly.

If you have enjoyed the previous books in the Chicagoland Vampires series, then you will love this one too. Neill does a brilliant job continuing Merit’s story, and letting us know once more what is going on in this world. MIDNIGHT MARKED is, as I have already said, a fantastic addition to the series.

Originally posted on TheFlutterbyRoom.

Ah, things are starting to wrap up.  Happily Ever at-least-for-now's are in sight and I for one am going to miss this series after the next and last book.

Merit, Ethan and the rest of the good guys are all gearing up to fight the newest big bad that threatens Chicago (Chicago has been beleaguered by Big Bads - and all in 1 year!!), but they're also busy fighting amongst themselves as we see the inevitable result of putting too many alpha males in close proximity.

I'm being a bit flippant, but really, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, in spite of finding a couple of plot points predictable (the sorcerer, the importance of the symbols' locations) and the use of a deus ex machina towards the end.  I've been in this series from the beginning because of the characters and dialogue; it straddles the genre extremes of darkness and vapid frivolity, falling somewhere firmly in the middle, making for a slightly thrilling, yet fun read.  This makes the weaker plotting a non-issue for me because really, it's all about Ethan, Merit, Mallory (more Mallory in this one - yay!) and Catcher and I got just what I was looking for.

I'm looking forward to book 13 to see how it all ends.

I fell in love with the Chicagoland Vampire series when I read the very first book. Merit is one of my favorite characters in the Urban Fantasy genre and I've loved watching her character grow over the course of the series. Merit has now been a vampire for one year, and she is finally figuring out her place in the supernatural's world.

I love that we got to spend at least a little bit of time with so many of my favorite characters in Midnight Marked. I love that Merit and Mallory are back on track, and totally cracked up about Mallory worrying she and Catcher might have a lack-luster sex life now that they are married, especially when she talks about the number to times per day they are having sex. 

As it's become the norm in the Chicagoland Vampires series, Merit and Ethan and all the vampires in Cadogan House are the ones to step up to not only solve the crimes that occur between the supernaturals, but keep the city of Chicago safe. I know Merit is a member of the Red Guard (RG), but I really thought they had pretty much disbanded since they never really seem to do anything but stay under the radar. I have to say I pretty much cheered when Merit met with the RG and gave them a piece of her mind.

I loved the romance in Midnight Marked so much. The fact that the date night between Merit and Ethan and Mallory and Catcher is at Wrigley Field for a Cubs game made me super happy. I love that Ethan knows Merit so well; he knows that is the one place she hasn't been able to go to since becoming a vampire. I love that even when Merit and Ethan are fighting with each other, they still have each other's backs against anyone else. 

I honestly didn't realize we only have one more book in the Chicagoland Vampires series until I saw it posted on another review. While I hate to see this series end because I love the characters so very much, I also have trusted Ms. Neill since early on in the series to know the characters and their direction. I only hope the wrap up in Book 13 gives me everything I've been waiting for with my favorite characters.

Midnight Marked is a great addition to the Chicagoland Vampires series. I seriously couldn't put the book down and I'm already counting down until we get the epic finale to this series. 

Review book provided by publisher

Adrian Reed is a very powerful man, a very rich man and a man who has dark ambition for the city of Chicago – and Chicago’s vampires

His last defeat was only a setback and his sights are definitely set on Cadogan House. As ever, it is down to Merit and Ethan to respond, to defend their house and the city even as their alliances become ever more strained and outright war between supernatural factions seems possible.

There was a time in this book, about half way through, and I honestly stopped. I put down my tablet and had to walk away a little bit and convince myself to come back. I nearly walked away from the book, the series, deleted it and decided I was done.

Because Ethan. I am so very sick of Ethan. Ethan makes no sense. Not even the slightest lick of sense. We’ve complained throughout this series that the characterisation of so many of these vampires is ridiculous and doesn’t come close to reflecting their actual age – but this book took it to extreme

Ethan is 400 years old. Apparently. He has led his House for decades, perhaps even centuries and has been the second in command of the House before then. He is ancient. He is a leader of his people. He has shepherded them for a vast amount of time with, presumably, skill and knowledge

And I don’t buy this. I don’t buy that this petulant manchild could possibly have done any of that. If this man were, say, 23, then I would have considered him very immature and needing to grow a lot before being considered a full adult. I would consider him volatile and still very much a teenager. He has absolutely no control over himself, no control of his emotions and is incapable of making reasoned or long term decisions. He acts on impulse, he has no plans for those impulse, no idea what he’s going to achieve, except to constantly dick-measure against every other man. He can be manipulated so easily that there must be 10 year olds rolling their eyes at his behaviour. He spends a ridiculous amount of this book having mighty temper tantrums at others –Gabriel, Reed.

Yes, he has reason to be angry with both of these, but his inability to handle is anger is anything like a sensible manner is ridiculous. He doesn’t direct his anger at all – he just storms off towards the man, launching himself at them in a stomping, childish tantrum of epic precautions. Even when everyone is telling him it’s a bad idea, he keeps going it. He even attends a party expressly to snarl at Reed – he has no plan, he actually has everyone drop the actual important work they’re doing so he can go to a party and snarl at them. HE HAS NO PLAN, he just HAS to indulge his temper tantrum and ego.

This is Ethan. Over and over again. There’s a moment where Merit’s grandfather calls Ethan “son” despite being centuries younger and it works because Ethan is such a complete Manchild.

There is no way, no way at all, Ethan could be this old and this immature. There is no way he could have led House Cadogan for as long as he has and be this childish. The House would have collapsed decades ago, vampires would have been exposed decades ago. He can’t be this much a child and have this much authority and not have had it all blow up a long time before

But, hey, I suppose if Ethan (and Morgan for that matter) are such children it explains why the vampire Houses have so few resources compared to business men like Merit’s father and Arden Reed. Or that could be because Ethan decides to insists he’s “not really rich” while at the same time buying ludicrously expensive sports cars.

Of course, this ridiculous behaviour leaves Merit free to be the sensible one – and make some petty epic speeches to various factions about getting their shit together and helping them. She has an epic moment where she calls other factions out for leaving Cadogan to do all the heavy lifting whenever a supernatural

But why isn’t Ethan making this speech? Sure Merit is cool and skilled and she takes risks that are sensible and brave (and actually have a pay off beyond ego). But why is she the one doing this? Shouldn’t the Master of the House be the one to think like this? Shouldn’t he, the leader, be the one actually leading rather than stomping around and leaving it to Merit to actually get shit done?

Also, there’s something really broken about the time line of this series: because we just celebrated Merit’s anniversary of becoming a vampire. Her one year anniversary.

One year. All of these books have happened in ONE YEAR? Really? C’mon, 5 years would be a stretch!

I am glad I stuck with the book though. Merit is awesome, her friendship with Mallory is excellent. Her work, her dedication and her realising that Ethan is spouting complete bullshit is fun. Even navigating around Berna is awesome. She shows a gazillion times more maturity than Ethan – which is a problem. Sometimes I feel like Merit acts as a go between for all the supernaturals in the city not because she’s just that skilled but because everyone else is such a petulant manchild that only she can get things done and have a conversation without childish dick measuring.

Read More

When MT and I were on our mini-break and I was doing damage in a small UBS in Bright, the owner and I were chatting and she told me she got quite a bit of her stock from a man here in Melbourne, in a neighborhood just 20 minutes from me.  He's only open on the weekends and doesn't advertise - which perversely, made me want to visit his shop.  So I went last Sunday and I figured, while I was at it, it would only make sense to stop at any nearby UBSs too, right?  For comparison's sake...

4 UBSs later... (and 4 parcels in the post)

What can I say?  I came, I saw, I bought.  I'm going to blame mom: she always let me buy whatever books I wanted as a child, you know, to encourage a love of reading. But we lived an hour away from the closest bookshops and the internet didn't exist so she could be magnanimous, little knowing she was creating a bibliophile with a total lack of impulse control.  Love you mom!

I'm not going to do this in two posts, so here are the rest of the books that didn't fit above:  (All the images link to their respective BookLikes pages.)

That last one that looks vaguely Masonic is actually the Folio Society edition of The Scarlet Pimpernel.

I'm a little red-faced over the sheer number of them, so I'm not going to mention them all individually.  I've always wanted a copy of The Canterville Ghost because I loved the TV adaptation as a child.  The Peter Mayle books are follow-ups to A Year in Provence which I liked in that way you like a Food Network show.  Banvard's Folly: Tales Of Reknowned Obscurity, Famous Anonymity And Rotten Luck is the book Paul Collins talked about writing in Sixpence House and the UBS owner said it was really good.

The Holt and Rinehart books are throwbacks to Mom's bookcase and ever since I heard about Agatha Christie going surfing, I wanted to read her autobiography.

Since I've enjoyed Angela Thirkell, I decided to up my game and give Pym a try and the Heyers I took a chance on: I love some of her stuff and others were just... not worth mentioning.  Hopefully I picked some winners.

So...

Total new books this week:  16

Total books read this week:  3

Total physical books on TBR: 217