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Book Review of Hard Bitten (Chicagoland Vampires, Bk 4)

Hard Bitten (Chicagoland Vampires, Bk 4)
althea avatar reviewed on + 774 more book reviews


I always have this hope that behind a cheesy cover actually lies a rollicking good tale.
Alas, such is often not the case.
I picked this up from the 'free' shelf at work, saying 'ooh! sexy vampires!'
Sadly, it did not deliver.
Firstly, it was strikingly unoriginal. Basically, the author cribbed the whole scenario from Charlaine Harris, just moving the story from the South to Chicago. It's like a True Blood fanfic writer said, "well, while Sookie was having her adventures, this is what was happening elsewhere." Unfortunately, the book lacks Harris' humor and wit.
It's the fourth in a series, and around the first fourth of the book was spent in (re)introducing the characters. It was pretty boring, but I figured that the story had to get started soon... any time now.
When it did, it was a totally forgettable plot that reminded me of an episode of a cop TV show. There was also some lackluster romance. What struck me the most about it, though, was that although there were characters named as vampires, fairies and werewolves, the supernatural aspect was completely unnecessary to the plot. It was almost like, "well, paranormal is trendy right now, so make your characters vampires." You never got a good sense of the characters actually being supernatural, or acting any differently because of it.