Twice Bitten, by Chloe Neill

A novitiate vampire, Merit, is the Sentinal for Cadogan House, and Ethan is her Master.  But there relationship is complicated, to say the least.  She is given a chance to join an elite group of vampires, but doing so would mean betraying Cadogan House.  Unfortunately, she has no time to ponder it, as she is now responsible for guarding Gabriel, the head of one of the packs of shape shifters.  The shifters are convening to try to determine if they will retreat to their homelands, or stay and defend their fellow supernaturals, the vampires.  Who is targeting Gabriel, will Merit be able to defend him, and will her relationship with Ethan remain strictly professional?

I really really wanted to love this book.  I have heard so many wonderful things about it.  However, this is the third in a series, and I have not had the fortune to read the first two, so reading this was a disjointed experience for me.  There were so many questions I had, ones I am sure the first 2 books address. 

The storyline was good, and the characters that I was able to determine as new characters were very well developed.  However, with the main characters, it was difficult for me to feel any connection to them, because I was missing their backstories.  I also am having  hard time keeping straight everyone's different literary versions of vampire rules.  These ones can eat human food, and blood substitutes, kick some serious butt, and they most definitely do not sparkle.

These vampires do emote, and are pretty darn sexy when they do it.  Twice Bitten brings back the erotic allure of the vampire.  Also, I think it is fantastic that a main female character does so much of the aforementioned butt kicking.

All in all, I think that, at some other time, when I have read the previous books in the series, I would probably really enjoy this book.  But it is not one that can really stand alone that well, so right now, all I can say was it was good enough to make me want to go back and read the first two.  For all the vampire lit lovers out there, you will love this one, as well, I would bet, as the rest of the series.

A review copy of this book was provided courtesy of the author.