Dark Debt by Chloe Neill

Filed under: 4 Horseshoes, Contemporary, Fiction, Paranormal — Leave a comment

3 September, 2015

From Author’s Website

A vampire never gets old. But neither do his enemies. When a figure from Ethan’s dark past makes a splashy debut in Chicago, Merit and her Master don’t know whether he’s friend or foe. But they’ll have to figure out soon, because trouble is brewing in the Windy City.

At an exclusive society soiree attended by the upper echelons of the human and supernatural worlds, Merit and Ethan barely stop the assassination of a guest. When the target turns out to be a shady businessman with a criminal edge, Merit suspects a human vendetta. But the assassins have fangs….

The connections to Chicago’s Houses go deeper than Merit knows, and even one wrong move could be her last….

My Review:

First a few things about the series. I originally added the first book, Some Girls Bite to my Goodread To Read list in August 2010. I don’t remember who recommended it to me. For some reason, it got lost in the shuffle of life. Recently, I was looking at Goodreads and discovered the book again. But this time I discovered that there was 11 books, and 3 novellas in the series. I will admit that I read the entire series in approximately 14 days (from initial ebook purchase of the first book to my finishing this book). I love these characters. I love Merit almost as much as I love Kate Daniels from Ilona Andrews. I have a feeling that I will be re-reading this series much like I do the Kate Daniels series.

This series is not a romance series. This series is a Paranormal Fantasy series that does happen to have some romance and sex included. But the romance does not drive the individual books or the series.

Now, on to Dark Debt. This was a great book. While the author does give basic background for first time readers of the series, I would not recommend reading this book without the previous ones, especially Blood Games. Of all of the books in the series, this one’s twists and turns are more complicated that involved than previously. Chloe Neill did an amazing job on this book.
As much as I loved this book, I couldn’t give it 5 Horseshoes. There are some continuity issues. One is series related, but the rest are related to this book only. The series related one is about the existence of Incubi. In book 9, Wild Things, one of the supernatural creatures kidnapped was an Incubus. However, in this book, the reader is told that Incubi do not exist and the legend was created as a way to explain the sexual bent that some vampires’ powers take. While it isn’t a big continuity issue, it still bugged me.

The book related continuity issues mostly had to deal with Merit’s wardrobe. While most nights she is dressed in her beautiful new leathers (which actually don’t get mentioned as being her new ones since she was gifted them) there are a few times that she wears the House’s standard uniform, a black suit. There is one scene where she is wearing the suit and ends up chasing a perp. After the unsuccessful chase, there are mentions of her wearing her leathers. Once again, for most people not a big deal, but for me…… I feel that this should have been caught in the various levels of editing that takes place. There are other continuity things but I can’t think of them at this time.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed this book and can’t wait for the next book to come out in March 2016.

I give Dark Debt a 4 Horseshoe rating.