"I'm not a vampire. I'm Merit."
That line—or something close to it—hit me somewhere around hour three, and I had to set down my stylus because god, the identity crisis in this book. Merit is trying so hard to hold onto who she was before she got turned, and Chloe Neill keeps threading that tension through every interaction she has with her old-money family, with Ethan, with the whole vampire political machine that wants to swallow her whole. I was working on a rebrand for a boutique hotel and honestly the parallels between Merit performing for Chicago's elite and me trying to make a mid-tier hotel look like it belongs on the Amalfi Coast were... uncomfortably on point.
When Your Telenovela Has Fangs and a Trust Fund
Okay, so here's the thing about Friday Night Bites as a sequel—it shifts the lens from "oh no I'm a vampire" to "oh no, vampire politics are basically high society galas but with blood." Merit gets sent back into her wealthy human family's orbit to play nice and prevent a media disaster around these Raves (mass feeding parties, very messy, very not great PR for vampires). And the family dynamics? The strained relationship with her father, the way she code-switches between Cadogan House vampire and Chicago socialite daughter? Abuela would have loved this one. She would've been sitting on the couch going "Esa familia tiene secretos" and she would've been right.
The Ethan and Merit slow burn continues to simmer in this book in a way that had me staring at my ceiling at 1 AM. Neill does this thing where Ethan will say something commanding and Master-of-the-House and then Merit pushes back and there's this crackling moment where neither of them blinks. The chemistry is chef's kiss. But it's also frustrating—in a good way, in a "just KISS already" way, in a telenovela way where you're screaming at the screen. There's a scene at a charity event where Ethan puts his hand on the small of her back and the way Merit's internal monologue goes haywire over it? My heart. MY HEART.
The mystery around the Raves and who's pulling strings to destabilize vampire-human relations keeps things moving, and the cast expands nicely—Mallory, Merit's best friend, gets more development, and there's a shapeshifter situation brewing that promises interesting things for later books. Neill is clearly building a universe here, book by book, and this second installment feels like the connective tissue between setup and payoff. Untamed gave me that same feeling of a series finding its legs mid-stride, that sense that the author knows exactly where she's taking you even when the characters don't.
The Narrator Situation (We Need to Talk)
So. Cynthia Holloway. Listen, I wanted to love this performance. I really did. But here's the problem: I genuinely could not tell when Merit was speaking out loud versus thinking internally. There's no shift in tone, no slight change in delivery—it's the same flat register for dialogue and internal monologue, which in a first-person urban fantasy is a huge issue because Merit spends a lot of time in her own head. Ethan's voice and, say, Luc's voice started blending together by hour five, and I had to rewind more than once to figure out who was actually talking.
It's not that Holloway is terrible—she's consistent, her pacing is fine, she doesn't stumble over the supernatural terminology. But for a book that lives and dies on the emotional tension between characters, I needed more. I needed the vocal equivalent of what Neill is doing on the page. When Ethan is being imperious and Merit is being defiant, I want to hear the friction. Instead I got... the same temperature for everything. Like someone reading a really good book report about feelings instead of actually feeling them.
I will say—and this is me being fair—she grew on me slightly compared to the first book. Slightly. Like going from a 2 to a 2.5. Diego jumped on my desk during one of the Ethan scenes and honestly his judgment-filled stare captured more emotional range. (I'm kidding. Mostly.)
This Book Felt Like a Friday Night You Don't Want to End
If you loved Some Girls Bite and you're invested in Merit's world, this is a solid continuation. The vibes are immaculate—Chicago in this series feels alive, the vampire house politics give just enough Game of Thrones energy without drowning you in lore, and the Merit-Ethan tension is the kind of slow burn that makes you hug a pillow. But I'd honestly recommend the print version over audio, or at least going in knowing the narration is serviceable rather than special. If you're someone who needs distinct character voices—and if you listen 6-8 hours a day like I do, you do—this might test your patience.
Who should grab this: Anyone who likes their vampires political, their romance slow, and their heroines stubborn. Fans of Ilona Andrews or Patricia Briggs will feel at home here.
Who should skip: If you're audio-only and flat narration is a dealbreaker, maybe grab the ebook instead. Your ears will thank you.
