Quote-Tastic: Midnight Marked by Chloe Neill (@chloeneill)

Midnight Marked

Chicagoland Vampires, #12
Chloe Neill

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: New American Library/Berkley Publishing
Date of Publication: March 1, 2016
Number of pages: 384

Available at the following retailers:
Amazon     BN    Kobo     OmniLit

As the Chicagoland Vampires series continues, Merit and Ethan find themselves in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, where winning may require the ultimate sacrifice...

A vampire’s grudges don’t stay dead long...

Merit is one of Chicago's most skilled vampire warriors; these days, she doesn't scare easily. But she and Master vampire Ethan have made a new and powerful enemy, and he won't give up until he owns the Windy City.

With his last plan thwarted, he's more determined than ever to watch Cadogan burn. Ethan has put the House's vampires on high alert, but their enemy will stop at nothing, including pitting vampire against vampire...

In this deadly game of cat-and-mouse, the stakes are life or death—and winning might mean sacrificing everything...

For the last couple of books, there has been this running gag, where Sullivan acts like he is about to propose to Merit, ie going down on one knee, asking her questions that begin Would you...? It's gotten to the point even the shifters are in on it. With only one more book in the series, Sullivan is going to have to eventually pop the question... The only question is when? ;)

Quote: 
We’d worked hard to make allies of the North American Central Pack. Yes, the shifters were in mourning and entitled to their feelings. I just wished they hadn’t been so negatively directed at us.

Chin up, Ethan soothed as we made our way to the bar, where a short woman with bottle‑ bleached hair flipped through a magazine She looked up, gave us a once‑over, and slapped the cover of the magazine closed with a powerful thwack that made some of the shifters sit up and take notice.

Steady, Sentinel, Ethan said.

I could be steady; I was trained for it. I just didn’t want to be on the outs with Berna. She was pushy, abrasive, nosy, and had a wonderful hand at grilled meats. I liked her a lot.

“What is this?” she asked, in a voice heavily accented with Eastern Europe. Her eyebrows, slender drawn‑on arches, were furrowed with irritation.

“Gabriel asked us to come by,” Ethan said.

But Berna dismissed the sentiment with a swat of her hand. “No. This.” She pointed an arthritic finger back and forth at us. “You must be marry.”

“We must be merry?” Ethan asked, obviously confused.

But I understood exactly what she meant.

“We aren’t Twilight, Berna.” She had a thing for the books, and seemed to think— or maybe hope —that Chicago’s vampires had something in common with the fictional ones.

She made a pfffing sound. “Vampires. Sparkle. If you are in love, you marry. This is life. This is way.”

“Ah,” Ethan said , his lips spreading with amusement. “I do intend to make an honest woman of her.”

Review: 

What does it say when you switch to print on the second to the last book in a series?  That's right, all the other books I listened to in audio format. Why switch now? Because I really didn't want to wait for the audio version at this critical point in the series. Second to the last book people!!  Things are heating up and near the final climax of the series. Who has time to wait? Not me, that's for sure.

Big things happened in the last book. The reveal and demise of Sullivan's creator Balthazar (who turned out to be an imposter), finding out about the Circle and Adrian Reed, Merit developing some serious issues with the Red Guard, and finally Merit and her dad starting to have a better relationship. I mean, he gave up his big Tower plans to help out Merit. That's some love there.

So what does this book bring? More of the same, but at the next level. What?  You thought I would give spoilers? Shame on you for even thinking that. Midnight Marked celebrates the one year point since Merit was turned into a Vampire and not only shows us how far she has come, but hints at where she is going. I can't say enough good things about this book. I gave it 5 stars because it was everything I could have hoped it would be. Now just begins the agonizing wait for the final book.

Thanks to Netgalley and NAL/Berkley Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book.

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