Biting Cold by Chloe Neill

*SPOILER WARNING: this review contains spoilers for the series as a whole, and because of the way the last book, Drink Deep, ended, it may inadvertently contain spoilers for this book as well. So proceed with caution if you’re not caught up on the series and do not wish to read spoilers.

At the end of the last book, Drink Deep, I was feeling a lot of conflicting emotions about this series. I was happy that Neill brought Ethan back, yet unsure if he was really back, and also a little bit confused as to why she would kill him off only to bring him back again. I was also upset about how things turned out for Mallory and I was a little bit leery about proceeding with the series because I felt like the author just kept taking away core characters in one form or another.

But I’m happy to say that Biting Cold definitely renewed my faith in the series for the most part. While the story didn’t draw me in quite as much as the earlier books in the series, it did feel like the author was re-establishing the characters and setting the groundwork for some big changes; and those changes appear to include a renewed unity amongst the characters, which I was definitely happy to see.

Even though the story didn’t at first grab me as much as I’d hoped it would (especially given Ethan’s return), it did get pretty interesting for me a little more than halfway through the book. At this point the storyline took a turn which I found surprising and unexpected (in a good way).

The only disappointment for me was that this particular conflict was mostly resolved by the end of the book. I had hoped that there would be more of a rollover into the next book to create more of a larger-scale villain in the upcoming books. Even though that doesn’t seem to be the case, I am interested in seeing what develops from the issues revolving around the House in the next book.

Overall this wasn’t my favorite Chicagoland Vampires book, but it was definitely not my least favorite. I didn’t think the story and witty dialog was nearly up to par with the first three books in the series, but it’s a positive step forward after the last two books. Definitely more looking forward to continuing this series now.

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