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Drink Deep by Chloe Neill

Drink Deep picks up two months after Hard Bitten. Cadogan House is just starting to recover and get back in the swing of things but the House is in turmoil, with the changes Ethan’s death/ murder caused and the GP spy. Needless to say the Cadogan vamps haven’t had time to mourn their master’s passing peacefully, but when are things peaceful in Chicago for the Chicagoland Vampires. If it’s not one group it’s another and Merit is the only one who can fair it out.

This time though Cadogan has their hands tired as the GP’s flunky is watching every move and reporting back very thing they do. And it’s not always the truth meaning Cadogan’s heads are literary on the chopping block, which never bodes well when things go hay-hire in Chicago. Of course the GP never thinks the vamps should get involved in anything that the humans see as a problem, even when they blame the vamps. Thank goodness Malik and Scott Grey don’t see the city of Chicago the same way.

Cadogan and Grey House, Merit and Jonah work together to figure out what is happening to their city. Jonah, you may remember is the captain of Scott Grey is guards, and his one of the RG = Red Guard. If Merit point the RG he would he her partner, and with the Cadogan House down a house guard they teamed up when Merit would investigate issues outside the house. He also helped with some training. We find out some interesting tidbits on John in Drink Deep, that explains some of his issues with Merit in earlier books. Personally I like when we find out personal tidbits about the characters it make them seem a little more real and their attitudes justified.

This novel is mostly about Merit’s growth as a character. She’s growing as a vampire, a person, and in her role as Sentinel with Ethan gone. In this book Merit really gets to become her own person, outside of Ethan’s power. We also don’t see Catcher or Mallory’s influence over Merit as other books have had. I really liked the independence Merit exerted. We see the Merit we loved from the very first book as she stands up to the GP spy as well.

New and old characters that Drink Deep introduces, I’ll start with old, as I’ve said we see Malik. He’s the new Master of Cadogan. We see our favorite cowboy Luc, the former Captain of Cadogan’s guard and new second. Kelley, Juliet, and Lindsey are all with Merit as the remaining guards of Cadogan House. Margo makes an appearance, but it’s not a happy one. When Merit is dreaming we see snippets of Ethan. I obviously can’t answer your big question, that’s considered a spoiler and you know I don’t put those in… Back to our favorite characters or maybe not. 🙂 Grandpa/Chuck Merit is back and he actually has some trouble in this book, and with Chuck we have his office, Jeff, Catcher and Marjorie. Jeff has to work his magic with the Nymphs again, but this time the fight is over something bigger than a guy. Yes we have Mallory, but she’s not the Mal we love and this time we even get her teacher Simon, who Catcher doesn’t like. Because of the dark magic issue that started in Hard Bitten there is still a lot of stress and tension with Catcher, Mal and Merit. Those issues don’t go away in Drink Deep and you could say some of them are bigger within the pages, especially with Mal’s testing going on during this book. Others characters we love to hate, Merit’s father makes an appearance, he’s actually helping the city at the time. Mayor (former) rate, he’s in jail, but Merit speaks to him a few times, and we see Morgan. The appearances/visits with Mayor Tate are interesting frustrating and informative in ways that you’re not sure what Chloe is going to do with him. But you know Tate is playing chess with Merit in some way. He’s either the black king, or bishop and she’s the white queen. Tate will play this game out as far as he can. One Another important character is MacKetrick who is now working with a new character, the new Mayor. We also had the GP spy/receiver, Frank Cabot, who wants to take down the Cadogan House and vamps of Chicago.

Drink Deep is full of mystery and while many readers want events to happen in a different order the story wouldn’t have worked any other way. Merit needed to make her way in the world and in the way this book was written she was able to do just that. Also some aren’t happy with the turn of events of character actions which I don’t understand you could see that something might change with the character, power does change people. So I’m not sure why people are upset about this bump in the road. The other issue I don’t get is that people aren’t happy with the ending which ended but it leaves you ready for part of the plot for the next book. Many books have done this over the years and it doesn’t upset me, it just makes me want the next book. I guess don’t like pretty little bows when it comes to books.  😉

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