O no... I'm starting to get that sinking feeling that happens when you start to fall out of love with a series. I mean, in the beginning I wasn't completely sold on the series because there was a lack of traction. But once the traction caught on... HOLY SMOKES! That was some amazing narrative work. The creative decisions were so bold! I mean she killed off Ethan in book 4! Just like, BOOM! She killed off the main love interest and then found a way to bring him back that totally took me by surprise. The storytelling was so provocative. Now it's just getting predictable and dare I say mundane. 
 Here's the deal: I'm a huge fan of Merit as a character. She's been pretty amazing up until recently. She has such inner strength and great intelligence. I loved seeing her solve the mysteries and being a de facto vampire cop. 
 LOVED IT. 
 That was the main selling point for me. House Rules and the previous novel both felt lacking on that thing I love. I'm just not all that interested in the inner workings of the vampire government and constant stupid relationship drama. I really liked the "detective" aspects of the story and now they're just so... predictable. I don't want to repeat myself over and over anymore so the last thing I'll say is that I think my problem is that I'm just bored and don't want to hear about the same few issues they've been dealing with lately. I want to move on to something else. 
 I don't want to sound like a complete Gloomy Gus. There were also a few things that were great in here too! Merit had some witty one liners in here. Here's one: 
 "Okay, then." 
 Ethan looked at me. He watched me, really checking my mood and whether that "okay" meant okay in the male sense ("okay") or the female sense ("possibly okay; it depends on what you say next"). 
 Here's another good one from the loveable Jeff Christopher: 
 "Let me check," Jeff said. "I can run them through a program that flags image manipulation. Beep beep boop boop." 
 Speaking of the ever charming Jeff we finally get to see what animal he shifts into! (view spoiler)[ HE'S A MUTHA FUCKING WHITE TIGER, YO! It's so dope! (hide spoiler)] Also, the end action sequence was pretty great. I mean it was just full of classic action movie awesome and filled with explosions and rescues and the bad guy loosing and the good guys being all heroic. It was everything I wished the whole book was. Seriously, the last couple chapters saved this from being a complete wash for me! 
 So like I said, I have LOVED Merit and her vampire detective charm for so long. It just seems this major concept is getting a bit flimsy for me as the series progresses. I'm hoping it's just a middle of the road slump and things will start to pick back up again. If not, and this is just how the series is going to be from now on, I just don't think I will want to keep going. Awesome action movie explosions can only go so far.