Revew: House Rules by Chloe Neill

House Rules (Chicagoland Vampires #7) by Chloe Neill
Publisher: Gollancz
Publication date: February 14th, 2013
Number of pages: 352
Format: Paperback
Purchase: Amazon | The Book Depository

In a city full of vampires, trouble never sleeps.

At the tender age of 27, Merit became a sword-wielding vampire. Since then, she’s become the protector of her House, watched Chicago nearly burn to the ground, and seen her Master fall and rise. Now she’ll see her mettle—and her metal —tested like never before.

It started with two . . . Two rogues vanishing without a trace. Someone is targeting Chicago’s vampires, and anyone could be next. With their house in peril, Merit and her Master, the centuries old Ethan Sullivan, must race to stop the disappearances. But as they untangle a web of secret alliances and ancient evils, they realize their foe is more familiar, and more powerful, than they could have ever imagined.

Chloe Neill sure knows what appeals to readers. This may be the seventh book in this series, when I believe it was originally meant to be 3-4 book series, but I still love this series to death (no pun intended.)
As expected by the end of the previous book, the Cadogan House are pulling away from the GP and standing on their own two feet as a united house. Not everyone is pleased. When the GP arrives early, Ethan starts to become suspicious as to the reasons why and fears there is something more going on than they are let to believe.
Not only does he have to deal with the GP, newly-returned Lacey, but he and Merit find themselves getting involved in the disappearances of some young kids-vampires who have gone missing, possibly dead. It's just a matter of whether they can find out who is kidnapping these vampires before it's too late.

There are other things going on. It's a full house and Ethan and Merit try to find time for each other amongst everything they find they have issues they need to deal with between themselves; such as Merit's secret that she has involved herself within the Red Guard and that was something she had yet to reveal to Ethan. That was always a secret that I knew would come out at some point, and when it finally does it's pretty much the reaction I expected, yet I didn't expect. But nothing is ever hunky-dorey when it comes to our favourite characters, so of course they have to deal with the drama that appears in their lives.

In this book we also see more of the shifters, who have taken Mallory in --- who is someone we see a little of, though I wish it was more  of. I hope to see more of her friendship-as it starts to repair---  with Merit in the following books, along with her relationship with Catcher, which is one of the things I adored about the early books of this series.

There are many hilarious lines that come with this series, and some of my favourite ones come from Gabriel. Here is one when they are playing cards ---  strip poker?

“Can I ask about the shirts?” I asked, taking a seat beside Mallory. “Or the lack of shirts?”

“You may not,” Christopher said.

“Yes,” Gabriel mocked, “she may. Once again, the whelps have lost their shirts, Kitten. Literally and figuratively.”
Derek grumbled something unflattering.
Gabriel gave him a quick and withering glance. “Pipe down, or I’ll challenge you again, and we both know how that will work out.” He began flipping cards across the table, creating a seven-card pile for each of us. “The name of the game is Nantucket.”

Though this book was clearly a filler, but I feel we need them from time to time. We can't have every book action-packed, we need others for character and romantic progression. Also so there can be added plots and things, so I have no doubt the next book will bring things up to notch.

Rating: 4.5/5