Bite the Bullet by Angela Louise McGurk (Vampire Cohorts #1)
Urban Fantasy
Released: December 12, 2015
Self Published

Reviewed by Mandi

Bite the Bullet is a pretty good start to a new urban fantasy series. I say pretty good because the romance was too inconsistent for me, but let me set-up the story first. Darcy is just a normal human, until she is changed into a vampire without her consent. She wakes up thinking it was all a dream – until she opens her living room curtains and almost dies. Vampires have come out to the public, but it takes consent and paperwork to actually be turned. All Darcy sees are forged documents, and she knows she never gave consent. To further frustrate her, she is told that she must leave her house and go live in the vampire cohort house for the next 3-5 years (until she is deemed safe to be with the public.)

Darcy grudgingly moves in with the cohort. It is here she meets her maker, Conn. Conn is the head vampire – broody, grumpy, sexy. He doesn’t give Darcy a lot of answers, and expects her to follow all his orders. This doesn’t sit well with Darcy but soon a few things come to light that gets everyone on edge. Darcy starts to develop vampire powers that only Master Vampires have. Her eyes go weird, she becomes an empath – and she develops into a vampire far faster than normal. When she starts to learn of a relationship between Conn and her great-grandmother, Darcy starts to realize Conn may not have turned her randomly. When a vampire friend is murdered – Darcy helps Conn track down the murderer and she learns more about her past.

This book has a little bit of a Merit/Ethan feel (Chloe Neill’s Chicagoland Vampire series). Darcy is very stubborn and sarcastic. She is royally pissed about being changed to a vampire against her will and has no qualms letting Conn know this. She doesn’t care that he is the boss or what the consequences will be. I liked Darcy a lot – you can feel her pain about being changed without consent – but she also has a fire inside of her that refuses to die. She makes friends in the house and moves forward with her life. A lot comes at her though – new powers, secrets from her past, torture at one point. Maybe being a vampire gives her new-found strength, but I think she deals with a lot (maybe too much) for one person to handle.

Conn is more of a mystery – told only in Darcy’s point of view, the reader isn’t sure what is going on in his head. He starts off very growly and scary – and this is where the inconsistencies come into play. There is such a divide between Darcy and Conn to start – and that divide goes away rather quickly. I felt like Conn couldn’t decide if he was in love, lust or could care less about Darcy throughout the book. Secrets come in to play later on and you realize his history with Darcy’s family definitely confuses his current feelings for her – but I felt like their relationship pushed forward too fast. Especially on Darcy’s end – she has this huge transformation in her life, and then learns huge things about her family – and she falls in love with Conn – it didn’t necessarily feel genuine to me. Especially being an urban fantasy book where we have more books to come and not a solid HEA yet. I wanted them to have more sexual tension and give them time to be mad and have differences.

That all being said, I do like this author’s voice. The story reads well and there is a lot of action. Maybe some info dumping at times, but the characters are likable. I’ll read book two.

Grade: B-

Side note: Tori read and enjoyed a previous book by this author called, Absolution

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