**Spoilage**
***3 Stars***
I want so very badly to say I loved the second installment of the Chicagoland Vampires series...but I can't. And I'm more than a bit bummed because of that.
I thought that book two would bring about some ground-breaking character growth and story progression...I thought that Mallory would become more interesting and realize she hadn't fallen in love with Catcher after only a few days of knowing him...I wanted Ethan to rip off his shirt Merit's clothes and have his beastly way with her. I wanted Merit to stop being such an indecisive twit. But I didn't get any of that. And it makes me sad. Mostly because Ethan didn't tear anyone's clothes off. What? I'm entitled to some nudity every few fifty pages.
Merit was doing A LOT of recapping throughout a nice chunk of the book, which prompted me to skim a few pages. I mean, recapping is okay for those people that will pick up a book and read it even though they know it's part of a series and is not book one. But whatevs. I will not let an idiot ruin a book for me.
Ethan and Merit continued their dance of "I like him but I don't want to like him because he only likes me because he doesn't really want to". Which is as crazy as it sounds. What's worse? That's basically their relationship. With the exception of Merit fawning over him one second, calling him leige and pulling her Sentinel rank and just generally kissing his ass, she's almost always bringing up him changing her without her permission.
Merit is amazing at the Katas - something pertaining to the three foot knives they carry belted at their waists. Yeah, I'm not kidding. Merit is sexy, everyone wants to bone her - Even the Mayor of Chicago which, I got the impression, that dislikes supernatural creatures but hit on her when he got the chance. Merit is strong, Merit is impressive....blah, blah, blah. Merit. Merit. Merit.
I'm so bored with Merit. Everything is handed to her. There's no conflict, no growing into her abilities, no trials - well, not any interesting ones, at least. And she's just so hurt because her childhood friend and ex boyfriend doesn't like that she'd become a vampire. Duh.
Your family is all rich and hoity-toity. So are their friends. You've become a mistress of the night - literally.
There wasn't really much of anything interesting going on...Merit went to a few parties with Ethan as per his orders, schmoozed a few of the local rich folks...they "solved a case" which wasn't really a case at all. Found yet another traitor in Ethan's house and a foe from the first book which isn't really such a great foe in the first place comes back. With a vengeance. As if they don't always do that anyway....Merit pushes everyone who actually admits to caring about her away. And I'm like
Which really made me sad. I really did like Morgan. Waaaay more than Ethan's generic laid-back, blonde, cliche'd arrogant and entitled self.
And there's this ridiculous wedge that get's thrown in between Mallory and Merit just for the sake of breaking up their friendship. Methinks Mrs. Neill wants to give the little sorceress and Catcher their own little magical spin-off. I hope not. I doubt I'd read it.