Some Girls Bite

Merit is a graduate student in Chicago, and her life is ordinary until a rogue vampire attacks her in the dark. He drinks only a little before another vampire drives him off. That rescuer decides the surest way to keep her alive is to turn her into a vampire herself.

Her rescuer turns out to be Ethan Sullivan, master of Cadogan House. He is tall, green-eyed and four hundred years old, with the charm of someone who has had centuries to practise it. He also expects gratitude from Merit, and obedience.

Merit trades her thesis for a mansion in Hyde Park, where she must learn the habits of a house full of vampires who answer to Ethan. A sunlight allergy complicates her new nights. So does his manner, which grates on her from the start.

Those are the smaller problems. Someone still wants her harmed, and the attack that ended her old life may not be the last. Her first steps into Chicago's nightlife could be the opening skirmish of a war, and this urban fantasy leans toward bloodshed as it goes.