Other then some minor nitpicks, I read this book full tilt and enjoyed most of the ride. Granted I'm suspicious of Mallory, dislike Morgan, never trusted Celina and was totally on the Ethan train until well that certain scene, but by in large I genuinely liked Merit.

I can't be the only person who kind of thought that folks' reaction to Merit's assault sounded suspiciously like the rape excuses some young women deal with right? I wanted to kick her father's head in until he bled I was SO not cool with his insinuations.

Regardless I have the other books on tap so I'll be reading those too... ( )

There is so much unnecessary bullshit in this book that caused me to drop it the first time right at the start but I decided to try again as I see it mentioned regularly as a good example for many things in reviews about other UF books.
The last time I was too riled up to write down anything at all but this time I will abandon my usual goal to provide a resource for people that try to decide if they want to read the book and write down exactly what frustrated me so much about it.

To me, her instant attraction towards Ethan appeared quite unnatural and I would've been fine with that if the supernatural vampire element played a role in it but that is not the case according to her even though she wanted that to be true to have an excuse at first. I don't understand this decision. The author could've left it open to interpretation instead but she explicitly excludes it as a possible factor.

This book has the annoying habit of making arbitrary rules up that people then somehow need to follow without any possible explanation.
Guns to start with. The whole guns have no honour speel was just ridiculous.
There is no possible justification for century-old creatures to be naive enough to somehow think that anyone would actually honour a rule like that if something important is on the line. Not arming yourself with appropriate weapons is gross negligence at best.
The only reason for that entire farce was that the author wanted sword fights because they are badass but she apparently couldn't come up with a better excuse than this.

While this is technically not a flaw it's something I am tired of reading, namely daddy issues. "He doesn't love me but only exploits me for his own ends and I know it but deep down I want him to love me and I still hope he will show affection eventually sob sob." Yea, I know daddy and momy issues like that are a real thing that is sadly not that rare but it's an incredibly overused troped nontheless. It just got old many years ago especially if it is explored so shallowly like in this book.

Later on, there is this whole favour thing that made me want to hit my head against my desk.
They are telepathically negotiating a trade and she slips up in her thoughts and now is supposedly bound to some kind of favour? The author even states that favours in the vampire world are enforced with "steel" so there isn't some magical vampire bind they can't resist or something. She could've just said "no, wait. You know that isn't what I mean. I will not acknowledge out loud that any such trade was agreed upon. Give me a fair deal or no deal." It's such bullshit it infuriates me to no end and was one of the reasons I dropped the book the first time around. Please at least try to come up with slightly better reasons to force your characters into the position you need for your plot. This is just pathetic.
The supposed political implication Ethan pushes for never come to fruition and it seems like the whole reason for the entire thing was a throwaway side love-interest to spice the obvious final romance outcome with some unnecessary conflict. Maybe for her to finally recognize her true feelings or to have a reason to slow down the development of the impending relationship? I am not sure. Regardless, the entire thing is incredibly cheap and unnecessary.

Furthermore, this entire bullshit charade only reinforces something that already grated on my nerves. While Merit usually seems like she has a strong character with an actual backbone, every time Ethan delivers another dick move, she at first feels betrayed and acts all wounded and pissed but ultimately lets him get away with every single shitty thing he says or does to her and eventually just starts pining after him again. It's just emotional abuse of the worst kind and the book doesn't even try to redeem him for his shit somehow. It's nauseating to read. Goddamit, is an MC with integrity really too much to ask for?

And leave me alone with this bullshit that because he is a few centuries old he doesn't understand feelings anymore. That is one of the worst tropes I've seen in all of fantasy and it's repeated constantly. Jaded, yes, ruthless, yes, uncaring, yes, too retarded to understand human feelings anymore? no. The ability to build and maintain interpersonal relationships is one of the most important skills you can have in almost every situation. There is just no way to forget something like that except if you are isolated for a very long time. Maybe the level of sincereness will shrivel to nothing over time but the insight into human nature only grows over time.

Finally, the admittedly surprising perpetrator will be left alive despite not only having murdered multiple humans consequently endangering all human-vampire relationships, no, she also planned to murder the heads of the other old houses and she will just be left to plot another day? Really? This is so absurd the only possible explanation I can come up with is that these old vampires are all secretly suicidal but are too prideful to end themselves. Yes, the perpetrator just being a henchman for the boss and the boss being another henchman for the bossboss in the next book (or even just the classical puppet master overlord that never gets caught) is a pretty rundown trope by now but even that would've been better than this crap. Yea, those are unoriginal but at least they make sense, unlike this mental gymnastics accident.

This all sounds incredibly negative and those are quite a few pretty big flaws but it wasn't all bad.

The writing itself flowed nicely and felt pleasant to read and the world is pretty interesting.
The only story I've read with a more believably crafted world at the brink of supernaturals going public was Kitty and the Midnight Hour.
While there wasn't enough time to actually explore much depth for most of the characters they felt like real human (or nonhuman) beings.
Except for the admittedly pretty big caveats above, I quite liked the MC. How she struggled to adapt to her new reality and eventually succeeded felt very natural. The author demonstrates that she is able to build complex and nuanced mental landscapes and form actually admirably sharp arguments and critical thinking when the mood strikes her which makes these extremely crude usages of plot devices even more tragic.

I am convinced the author has the potential to write on a much higher level than this but when you can land international bestsellers with this level of polish why try. I can't even really be mad about it considering how incredibly successful this series apparently was. Supply and demand and all that. ( )

You know... I really didn't think I would like this. I did. I read the series straight through until I felt like the characters were getting cardboard and forgettable and dropped it. Took a number of books for it to get there.

Not bad. ( )

Love the book. will definitely continue with the series. Merit is a wisecrack. she is hilarious at times. As always with those kind of books, there is at least 1 guy in the picture. I am still not sure what to think of Ethan Sullivan. He certainly seems to have presence. We will see. ( )

I came across this series while re-shelving books at work one day back in December. I cut my reading teeth on Bram Stoker’s Dracula many moons ago and am always drawn to vampire books. Not that I read many of them these days, but Dracula remains one of my favorite books and I re-read it every couple years. Salem’s Lot is another great vampire story. I enjoyed An Interview with a Vampire when Anne Rice was all the rage. More recently I even gave The Twilight series a try, but stopped after the first book. I’m just not a fan of the romantic and/or blatantly sexual vampire story. I like my vampires to be mean and horrific, perhaps a teensey bit sympathetic, but not over-sexed lover boys (or girls) who ooze sexual tension all over the place and exist in a world that lacks a philosophical framework for their existence.

The bookstore where I work shelves Some Girls Bite in the sci-fi/fantasy section, others may shelve it in romance as its often categorized as paranormal romance. What caught my eye was the Chicago setting and I added it to the books-to-read-list in my mind. My memory was jarred last week when I saw it again on display at my public library. I put aside my misgivings about the “smokin’-hot sexual tension” one reviewer praised on the back of the book and took it home.

The book starts with an interesting buzz: a graduate student of English, Merit, is attacked by a vampire while walking across campus late one night. Her original attacker is scared away by Ethan, a kinder, gentler vampire who is the Master of the second oldest vampire house, Cadogen House. Merit is offered the opportunity to become a member of Cadogen House, but she’d have to swear eternal obedience not only to Cadogen House but also specifically to Ethan as her new Lord and Master. Ethan is “smokin’ hot” but he’s arrogant and may have had a secret agenda for turning her into a vampire. Is he a good guy or a bad guy? Even if he is good can Merit stomach swearing absolute obedience to some guy she’s supposed to consider her Master? He saved her life by making her an undead. But most vampires are “made” only after giving their consent. But he didn’t have time to get her consent; he had to save her life. But why did he happen to be in Wicker Park at the University of Chicago campus at the exact moment Merit was attacked when his house is in Hyde Park? Does it have anything to do with her father’s connections? Merit is pretty much estranged from her father, but daddy is a big wig in Chicago. We don’t find out the answer to these questions; at least not in book one.

The Chicagoland Vampires are the first in the country to “come out” and make their existence known to humans. Eight months before Merit is turned into a vampire, Celina Desaulniers, the smokin’ hot she-vamp master of the oldest and most powerful house, Navarre House, held a press conference to announce the existence of vampires. After months of panic the humans are settling down. The mayor even has a liaison officer to keep the lines of communication open between the vampires and other supernatural populations. What humans don’t know is that not all vampires are nicely tucked into official Houses that control their vampire natures. There are also rogue vampires who swear no allegiance to a house. Ethan thinks Merit may have been attacked by a rogue vampire and two more women also die around the time of Merit’s attack. The two victims look very similar to Merit. It seems Chicago has a vampire serial killer on their hands.

Merit struggles to come to terms with the loss of her life as a graduate student, her new vampire identity, and has just days to decide if she’ll swear eternal loyalty to Cadogen House and Ethan. She has the support of her best friend and roommate, Mallory, her grandfather, and a couple of new friends as well. She also has to learn about vampire culture, get trained in the art of vampire sword fighting and using her new powers. On top of all that, Merit has to deal with the sexual heat created by all the “smokin’ hot” vampire boys. Meanwhile, the serial killer is out there, the rogue vampires are feeling left out, the vampire Houses are starting to bicker and the other supernaturals in the city—wizards, shape shifters, water nymphs—are buzzing with tension.

I recommend Some Girls Bite to fans of paranormal romance. The Chicagoland Vampires novels are a series that Twilight fans can grow into. Hardcore vampire fans who prefer more traditional horror probably won't be interested unless they want to check it out for the Chicago location. I should add that the only other paranormal romance or romance novel that I've ever read was Nalini Singh's Angels' Blood
(recommended by a friend who's an expert in romance books) which seemed to be more suspense/urban fantasy than romance, even it if is shelved in the romance section at my bookstore. Some Girls Bite was a quick, fun read, but it did drag in parts. Merit's sassy-ness spills over into bratty-ness at times and she seems rather immature for someone turning 28. I liked the world that Neill attempts to set up, but she does do more telling rather than showing at times, particularly when trying to portray tension between characters. That said, I do plan on reading the second book in the series, Friday Night Bites. The third Chicagoland Vampires Novel, Twice Bitten, is due out on July 6, 2010. Chloe Neill has a fresh voice and a fun imagination. I look forward to seeing how she'll develop as a storyteller. ( )