Title: Drink Deep
Series: Chicagoland Vampires #5
Author: Chloe Neill
Publisher: NAL Trade
Publication date: November 1st 2011
Source: I own a copy.
From Goodreads:
Clouds are brewing over Cadogan House, and recently turned vampire Merit can’t tell if this is the darkness before the dawn or the calm before the storm. With the city itself in turmoil over paranormals and the state threatening to pass a paranormal registration act, times haven’t been this precarious for vampires since they came out of the closet. If only they could lay low for a bit, and let the mortals calm down.
That’s when the waters of Lake Michigan suddenly turn pitch black-and things really start getting ugly.
Chicago’s mayor insists it’s nothing to worry about, but Merit knows only the darkest magic could have woven a spell powerful enough to change the very fabric of nature. She’ll have to turn to friends old and new to find out who’s behind this, and stop them before it’s too late for vampires and humans alike.
My Review
**WARNING: CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS**
Well …
Um …
I’m almost at a loss for words. Which is most unusual.
Okay, let me try again.
The entire first 3/4 of this novel just felt … wrong. It had nothing to do with the plot. Nothing to do with the writing. It did, however, have absolutely everything to do with the fact that Ethan was not present.
Every dream she had? I wondered where they were leading. In my head, I thought: she’s never going to bring him back? How the hell can she do that? The dude was nothing but a pile of ashes, for goodness sake. How can she plausibly bring back something like that? And whilst I spent the entire novel wishing he was still around, I also spent the entire novel arguing the point that it would never work if the author did something that bizarre and extreme. And then she did exactly that–which left me in a WTHeck! moment. I still don’t ‘get’ how I’m supposed to accept this as plausible. How I’m expected to grasp the physics of this. I’m almost at a loss. I can only say that Ethan Sullivan had so better rock my world with his presence in the next book–and there had so better be some glitches to his new existence because for it to be otherwise would just be ridiculous–because if he doesn’t, then this move will turn into an epic fail as opposed to total appeasement for the reader.
Oh … and I 100% figured out that Mallory had something to do with all the magical happenings way early on in the book. The only thing I got wrong on that account was who was controlling her. I hadn’t expected it to be herself. Perhaps I wanted it to be Simon. Because I was once again struggling with believability on her sudden power hungriness. Something else that will need a little more depth adding in the next book, I think.
So I’ll finish by saying: Do I jump for joy that he’s back and just be ecstatic compared to the sadness I felt at the end of book 4? Or do I reserve judgement until I’m assured the author can truly pull this turn of events off? I’m currently undecided. What’s your thoughts?
Have you read this title? What’d you think?
Click to see my review of Some Girls Bite.
Click to see my review of Friday Night Bites.
Bringing Ethan back was believable to me b/c over half of the book was dedicated to Merit figuring out who was turning Chicago upside down and why. Mallory was finding ways to extract ALOT of energy from the world (e.g. turning the lake into a power drain) for the purpose of raising her “familiar.” All these events were leading to Ethan coming back. Also, since it’s a paranormal series bringing someone back from death wasn’t that big of a leap for me. And Mallory’s trip to the darkside didn’t seem sudden to me b/c there’d been hints in the earlier books (even more prominent in Hard Bitten).
I guess I just had a hard time suspending my disbelief over something that had been turned to dust being regenerated into something whole (cynic, much?). I’m excited he’s back, though–I just hope there are some glitches along the way to add credibility to it all.
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