Book #140 - Drink Deep (Chicagoland Vampires #5)

Drink Deep (Chicagoland Vampires #5), Chloe Neill
urban fantasy
352 pages
Started 12/24/12
Finished 12/27/12
4.5 STARS

*WARNING* This review may contain spoilers from previous books. 

The only reason I'm not giving this book five full stars is due to a distinct lack of one particular person. Ethan. Freaking. Sullivan. Other than that, once again, Chloe Neill has delivered another fantastic book in the Chicagoland Vampires series.

Merit would really like some time to grieve. Just a few months to wallow and sulk. But, some freaky things start happening in her city - things that do not bode well for the supernatural community. The humans are freaking out, the new mayor dumps her grandfather and to make matters even worse, the GP's receiver is in town and making life miserable for all the Cadogan vampires. So much for wallowing. Merit has to go to work again, and this time with a new partner.

One of the things I love the most about Neill's CV series is the world and how all the different types of supes interact and live together. I've read plenty of books before that had vamps, weres and faeries all in the same place, but these are some of the best. In Drink Deep, we get a view of the elusive faery queen, and man, is she nuts. We also see more of the river nymphs, the lake siren, sorcerers, shifters, and of course, vamps. It sounds like it would be confusing, but somehow, it's not.

Merit is full of her usual piss and vinegar, but the events of the previous book have given her a softer, sadder edge. It's a new side to her. This was a much more emotional book than the previous ones. For both our characters and for the reader. Some events were so frustrating that I wanted to cry from being so mad. Some were so sad that I wanted to cry from being so... well, sad. Thankfully, Neill's characteristic snark and witty dialog were still present to give the reader a bit of a lift from the decidedly somber mood.

After Hard Bitten (Chicagoland Vampires #4), I Tweeted that I didn't know what to do next. Chloe Neill's response was, "Read Drink Deep!" How right she was. It was the cure for what ailed me.