Wild Things (Chicagoland Vampires, #9)

by Chloe Neill

[Berls]

My Initial Reaction…
Well that was exciting! I can literally feel Chloe bringing this series towards an exciting conclusion, with all the twists she threw in Wild Things. A great read and I look forward to the next several books! Oh and we’re on book 9, so there’s gonna be series spoilers, sorry folks!

The Narration…
Sophie Eastlake has really grown on me – not that she wasn’t good from the start. She was. In fact, as soon as she took over the series, she was a relief. But now, she’s more than that. For me, she’s Merit. She has a kind of sophistication to her voice and pacing that fits the world she’s narrating – Merit is a product of the highest levels of society. The vampires are no slouches either. And really no one in these books is living anything short of a comfortable life, although most are well above that. And there’s something about Sophie’s voice that just exudes that and makes me feel like I’ve been transported to that world. I can’t imagine not listening to this series at this point.

The Characters…
If you’ve followed my reviews of the CHICAGOLAND VAMPIRES series, you know that at one point I loved Ethan. And then he screwed up. Again. And Again. And then I said forget it Ethan, Jonah is way better anyway. And when things started to look like they were going to finally work out for Ethan and Merit, I accepted it, but begrudgingly. And I didn’t love them as a couple anymore. So when I say that I’m back on Team Ethan with Wild Things, you know that saying something.

So what changed? Ethan! Oh don’t get me wrong, he’s still this incredibly gorgeous, irresistible, somewhat infuriating master vampire. But he finally GETS Merit and knows she’s where it’s at. He loves her and knows that that means making her his priority. And trusting her! Finally, Ethan is letting Merit be the kick ass sentinel that he appointed. Sure he’s still protective, but to a normal, “I love you and don’t want you hurt” extent. Not to a “I love you and that means I control you and don’t trust you extent.” So Ethan has changed for the better. What can I say? I guess some guys have to live hundreds of years and die twice before they finally figure out that they’ve got a good thing and how to treat her.

Merit, on the other hand, hasn’t really changed. And I LOVE that, too. She’s still tough and smart and not afraid to make tough decisions she knows Ethan might not like. See, how that worked? She stayed true to who she was and he came around. :)

Another favorite relationship of mine that had gone sour was the one between Merit and her best friend Mallory. I loved Mallory and then she went all evil. Well, she’s been working on coming back the last few books and in Wild Things I feel like she’s finally there. The interaction between her and Merit is almost back to the same wittiness I loved and she’s getting to be pretty kick ass herself, in a non-evil way. So that’s a plus. And she’s healing things with Catcher, which continues to be great.

In these reviews I always seem to spend too much time on the characters, but the thing is, I LOVE the supporting characters in this series. So I’m not going to gush ad nauseum about Jeff and Gabriel, but they were great in Wild Things too. And I’m not going to get overly excited about the brief moments with Malik and her grandfather, that despite being brief rocked. Point is, the whole cast was there and they shined as usual.

The Story…
We pick up Wild Things right where Biting Bad left off. Meaning Ethan’s in trouble with Mayor Kowalcyzk for murder (in self-defense), which spells trouble for the House and for Merit. Thankfully Merit and Ethan flee to the protection of the Shifters – specifically the Breckinridges – in hopes that the Mayor will recognize their political and financial power and lay off Ethan. I got excited about this when I realized that this was going to mean lots of Shifter action (it’s no secret I love the Shifters) and when Gabriel showed up to explain that they would be joining the shifters for Lubricallia (sp? problem with an audio book, you don’t learn how to spell these things) I pretty much yelped. Lubricallia is a magical event and the way Chloe wrote it was pretty awesome. As was the subsequent attack. By…. well you don’t want me to spoil it do you? Point is they get attacked and the gang gets to work – as usual – solving the mystery.

The mystery was pretty good. I’ve gotten used to the way the mysteries work though, so there weren’t many twists or surprises there. Somehow Chloe has managed to bring even more supernaturals into her story. You thought she’d pretty much covered them all, huh? Nope, but now I think she has. That was a lot of fun. And there’s some MAJOR foreshadowing for events to come in future books, courtesy of Gabriel.

Concluding Sentiments…
Wild Things was another fun installment from the CHICAGOLAND VAMPIRES world and I look forward to the next one, due in August.