Some Girls Bite (A Chicagoland Vampires Novel) by Chloe Neill

This is a fun light read that shamelessly builds on the modern vampire cliche / fad of True Blood.  Vampires have had a big "coming-out" and announced themselves to the world.  The protagonist Merit is a romantic-lit grad student who's rejected her family's political connections and gets unknowingly turned into a vampire to save her life.

These aren't twilight vamps who get all sparkly in the sun - these vampires have a pretty standard set of restrictions and powers, but apparently each vamp is judged in three stats - Phys, Strat, and Psych (author's abbreviations not mine). 

The main gal Merit happens to somehow be a Master-level vamp in Phys and can resist strong Psych.  Regardless of the rpg stat breakdown, this is a good light read that when it ended I immediately ordered the next book.  If urban fantasy - heavy on the vamps, but with magic, shapeshifters, politics, and romance - if your thing, then I recommend giving this book a read.

Overall Rating: 4 / 5

The Summer Tree (The Fionvar Tapestry: Book One) by Guy Gavriel Kay

The Summer Tree takes five college students in Canada and transports them to a foreign world where each becomes vitally important parts in a struggle against an ancient and oppressive evil. That being said, I constantly felt like I was being raced through all the history and modern politics of the foreign world without ever getting a chance to just absorb it. New and different aspects of the mythos were just thrown at you and moved on without giving you the chance to get your feet back under you and really understand what was going on.

It wasn't until I finished the book that I had any desire to read the sequel. And that desire mostly stems from the fact that it ends on a huge cliffhanger without any real resolution of the conflicts that had been established.

Overall Rating: 2/5

Purpose

I am starting this blog to share reviews of books and show series that I'm reading or have read. Being recently graduated, and now have a lot more time on my hands and have gone through probably 20+ books in the least month or so. I don't think I'll be keeping up quite that pace, but I should still hit about two books a week. The books I pick come from Amazon suggestions, random ones I find, or suggestions from my brother, but if anyone has one they'd like me to read, I'm more than willing to be the guinea pig before you go and buy a particular book.

A little about me:
I grew up reading fantasy novels from when I was very young.  My father reads them, as does my older brother.  I was reading Margaret Weis an Tracy Hickman when I was in the fifth grade.  I reread all the Robert Jordan books when a new one comes out.  I've read a lot, I read fast, and I'll read just about anything. 

I'll go through periods when I'll reread all the books I used to take on vacation growing up (The Lioness Quartet, The Prodigal Sorcerer, ...), or I'll go off on a hard sci-fi binge (David Weber, Elizabeth Moon), or I'll pick a different subset and try and rundown a bunch like it.  So, I may glut this blog with a bunch of urban fantasy novels for a few weeks then switch tacks completely and review Incarceron.  Regardless, I hope that my thoughts and comments can help someone find their next book.