"Some Girls Bite (#1)" by Chloe Neill

I enjoyed the story, but the sheer "hotness" of every single character was blindingly irritating. It's a standard move in most books about the supernatural (especially vampires) to make all the characters totally perfect, though, so it's hard to fault Chloe Neill -- by definition, vampires are kind of hot -- but she really reminds you of this fact <i>a lot</i>. I liked Merit -- and, in my opinion, it's difficult to write a good heroine that everyone will enjoy -- she's just kind of a sheep-dressed-in-wolves'-clothing-Mary Sue to me. She doesn't come across like a Mary Sue at first because you're thinking: "Awesome, a 27-year-old grad student who loves literature. Unconventional. Total nerd." But then, further into the book, it seems like this girl develops the entire "awesome package" and she sadly becomes this unrealistic "cool" heroine that we all want to be. Ballet skills, which quickly turns into the ability to pick up fighting and swordsmanship in a snap. A brain, which quickly turns into a high-ranked position in the Cadogan House. Just enough of a smoking body and pretty face to attract two sex-on-a-stick vampires. I mean, I didn't get the reviews saying "she has flaws" because from what I saw... she didn't. Again, she's a vampire, so it's not a terrible thing for her to be overly skilled at stuff or really pretty, but it got to the point where I started to be annoyed with Merit's characterization. Though she doesn't use this to her advantage, Merit comes from a wealthy family, so I guess this is supposed to make us sympathize with her, but when you add that to everything else, it seems like it's just another vehicle that drives into the Mary Sue garage (hyuck, hyuck); a girl who comes from a wealthy family, but doesn't associate with them because "they just don't get her," but, hey, people in the story still <i>know</i> she's from a wealthy family, so that adds credence (and an air of admiration for the fact that she wants nothing from her parents) to her anyway. A redeeming factor about Merit, I will say, is she doesn't consistently gripe about the fact that "she's, sigh, whine, <i>so ugly</i>" but, obviously, she isn't because two extremely pretty vampires lust after her. That's standard Mary Sue-isms 101 (and something I <i>hate</i>), so I was happy to find it to be nearly nonexistent.

Ugh, the constant denial of feelings in this book made for some major eye rolling/leg twitching/pent-up energy as I was reading. Like, I enjoy the suspense of the traditional "will they kiss/won't they kiss" scenario, but this was brutal. It almost makes the whole Ethan/Merit relationship less fun.

I saw another review on Goodreads say: "there are too many easy coincidences for the sake of setting up the story." THIS. Merit's bff turns out to be a witch and her grandfather is involved in the major investigation plot-line that develops.

Despite everything else, THE WRITING WAS STUPENDOUS. Chloe Neill really knows her stuff with it comes to descriptive detail. Unfortunately, this is kind of what I thought was the book's general downfall. Because she was so descriptive when it came to Merit, I wasn't able to treat the story like one gigantic ball of fluff. It's serious enough at points that I couldn't write the book off as a good in-between-er only to be enjoyed for its eye candy, action scenes, and slight romance like I can for other YA/paranormal romance. Don't get me wrong, I separate the amazing writing from everything else as it truly is exceptional, but the general tone of the book is hard to ignore. There were times when I found myself squeeing over Ethan and Merit, definitely. Just wanted to throw that in there. And Catcher and Mallory were very hot and steamy as well. :) That added to the fluffy fun-ness of the book.

I definitely suspected the person who turned out to be the villain <i>was</i> the villain, but I'm happy I turned out to be right because I didn't really like this person, haha. I'm looking forward to the next book. I think it has the potential to be really good since it will hopefully have less backstory and more yummy present plot conflict considering the way she ended it.