CBR4 Book 5: "Lothaire" by Kresley Cole

Page count: 506 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Date begun: January 15th, 2012
Date finished: January 16th, 2012

This is the 12th book in Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark series, and hence will make very little sense to anyone who hasn't read the earlier books in the series. While each book centers around a new couple, by now the paranormal soap opera that is these books has become so complicated, that it won't make a lot of sense or be half as much fun to read, unless you have the requisite back story. So go check out one of the earliest books, like A Hunger Like No Other or No Rest for the Wicked instead.

Lothaire, the titular "hero" of this book is known as the Enemy of Old to creatures of the paranormal Lore in the Immortals After Dark, and has been an antagonist to several of the previous heroes and heroines in the series. Feared and hated by pretty much every faction of the Lore, due to his ruthlessness and the huge amounts of bargains he's struck through the millennia. As one of the oldest vampires alive, all that drives him is his quest for revenge. Before she died, he promised his mother he would become king over the two main vampire factions, and avenge her. He finally has the means within his grasp.

Elizabeth Pierce finds herself on death row after a demonic goddess possessed her and made her commit brutal murders. Lothaire springs her from prison as she is about to be executed, as he needs the aid of the vampire deity inside her to fulfill his plans. While he finds Elizabeth's form pleasing, he needs the brutal goddess to take up permanent residence inside her, and that means that she has very little time left to live.  At first she fears the vicious vampire, but she finds herself fascinated and drawn to him, and as she is only 24, Ellie doesn't really want to die. She'll have to use the only thing available to her, her looks and sensuality, to try to sway Lothaire into sparing her.

Lothaire has a lot of Old School romance tropes, and I can see that a lot of people might be bothered by how quickly Elizabeth falls for Lothaire, who is a ruthless killer and borderline insane. Having spent five years on death row, she is then trapped in a luxurious apartment, being taunted and belittled by him for her background, lack of refinement and general weakness as a puny human, constantly compared to the murderous deity that possesses her and falling short. Lothaire can't harm her, as he needs her body as a vessel for Soroya (the disembodied vamp goddess), but he threatens the lives of her mother, brother and extended family, and is generally an autocratic, condescending asshole. Yet she finds him deeply fascinating and devastatingly sexually attractive, snuggling up to him one minute and screaming "I hate you!" the next.

Still, as always, I found this installment by Kresley Cole incredibly entertaining, and had no trouble suspending my disbelief and just going along for the ride. The fated mates always work out in the end, no matter how impossible the journey to the HEA seems. She writes highly enjoyable banter, steamy sex scenes and it's fun that she's now working her way through some of the darker, more dislikable characters in her extended universe. Wonder what will be next?

CBR3 Book 18: "Dreams of A Dark Warrior" by Kresley Cole

Publisher: Pocket
Page count: 528 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Date begun: March 11th, 2011
Date finished: March 12th, 2011

This is the ninth book in the Immortals After Dark series, and it will make very little sense to anyone who hasn't read quite a few other books in the series. The book references events in two of the previous novels, and if you're bothered by spoilers for this or any of the other books, you probably want to skip this review. If y4ou're interested in picking up the series, the first book is A Hunger Like No Other.

Declan Chase works for an organization calling themselves the Order, who capture and experiment on supernatural beings in brutal and torturous ways to try to find their weaknesses and develop improved weapons for humankind. When he was 17, a gang of viscous supernatural creatures tortured and killed his family, and left him heavily scarred both physically and mentally. He was saved by an officer of the Order, and has devoted the whole of his adult life to hunting down and eradicating as many supernatural beings as he can. Declan is unaware that he is the reincarnation of a Viking berserker, who died a thousand years ago, shortly after consummating his relationship to the valkyrie Regin the Radiant.

Now he's been sent by the Order to capture her, and take her to their hidden island stronghold. He can't understand why she appears to recognize him just before he incapacitates her, and why he's inexplicably drawn to her, even knowing that she's not human. Regin is shocked to realize that the man who died in her arms a thousand years ago, and who's reincarnated three times to find her and reunite with her, only to die shortly after, is now a brutal and hateful man, completely consumed by his disgust for all creatures of the Lore, whether good or bad. The facility she's been locked up in is full of supernatural beings of all races, and as they are mostly immortal, the Order won't hesitate to vivisect them and then put them back together to find out what makes them tick. But if Regin can make Declan remember their shared past with a kiss, the curse that has taken him from her four times before, will cause his death.

I enjoy the Immortals After Dark series, and while there are similarities in the books, and they reference a lot of characters throughout the series, it's always interesting to see the pairings that Kresley Cole come up with. Several times, her two lovers are very different and frequently start out antagonistic towards each other, only to end up true mates. Declan Chase is possibly the most "villainous" of all her heroes so far - a man who has captured, tortured and killed hundreds and possibly thousands of creatures from the Lore, not all of them evil vampires or demons. He injects Regin with a painful poison while questioning her, and has no problem having people she considers friends or allies sent to hell dimensions or vivisected, then sown back together. As his family was brutally slaughtered, and he himself barely survived, then he was adopted by a military order and brainwashed further, it's understandable that he's so fiercely opposed to all things supernatural, and Cole doesn't excuse his actions. He's probably the most tortured of the heroes so far.

Regin's faithful berserker has been referenced in quite a few of the other books in the series, and it was very cool to finally see how their relationship started, and find out about the other incarnations of her Viking warlord, Aidan the Fierce. As a supporting character in previous books, it was never really emphasized just how much living for over a thousand years, reuniting with her lover every few hundred years or so, only to have him die from her again straight after, would suck for her. While she seems flippant and carefree, in effect being widowed four times in the space of a millennia would be pretty gruelling. Then to realize that in his most recent incarnation, the man is more of a monster than many of those he has devoted his life to hunting, can't be an easy thing.

They don't have an easy way to a happy ending, but it's a very entertaining one to read about. There are some pretty cool supporting characters, and I continue to be intrigued by Lothaire, the evil vampire and Enemy of Old, who Cole keeps throwing teasing hints about, and who's a fascinating antihero just waiting to happen. The big battle between the good and evil factions of the Lore is clearly coming closer, and I can't wait to see who the next lucky couple in her books will be.

CBR2 Book 29: "Pleasure of a Dark Prince" by Kresley Cole

Publisher: Pocket
Page count: 448 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Date begun: February 16th, 2010
Date finished: February 18th, 2010

Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark series is one of my true guilty pleasures. The books are pure fluff, with absolutely no literary substance whatsoever, but I greatly enjoy them, they're a supernatural soap opera. The more books one reads, the more characters one is introduced to, and it is really only a matter of time before the central characters get their own book and romance.

Kresley Cole's books feature a number of supernatural races. There are the valkyries - who are born when warrior women near death are blessed by Odin and Freya and saved by them (I never quite figured out how this made them pregnant). So each valkyrie sort of has three parents. They are extremely fierce warrior women, attracted by riches and shiny things, and when they get angry or excited, lightning strikes. There are also various demon races, good and bad vampires and werewolves. Pretty much all the races in Cole's world have one fated mate. They know instantly when they meet said mate, and will do anything to get said person, even if all sorts of complications ensue.

In Pleasure of a Dark Prince, the Scottish werewolf Garreth MacRieve finds out that his fated mate is one of the valkyries, Lucia the Huntress. Lucia is a legendary archer and was granted her awesome archery powers by wowing to serve the goddess Skathi, and staying chaste forever (due to a really unfortunate first time when she was 16, this did not seem like a difficult promise). She hardly ever misses a target, but if she does, she experiences great pain. Garreth is overjoyed when he finds his mate, but Lucia is not happy. If she gives in and has sex with Garreth, she will lose her archery powers - and these are essential to save her from a really unpleasant fate (going back to that nasty event when she was 16). She needs to find an arrow that can kill a God, and get rid of the source of all her nightmares.

After chasing her for a year, Garreth finally catches up with Lucia on a riverboat going down the Amazon river. They are stuck together, and clearly absolutely mad about each other. Having learned from his brother and cousin, Garreth is determined not to force Lucia into the mate bonding, and Lucia keeps trying to hold him off, as her chastity is necessary if she wants to keep her powers.

Having found the other two books of Cole's with werewolf heroes a bit less enjoyable (partly because of the truly awful faux Scots brogue she insists of having them speak with) than some of the other installments, I was not sure what to expect from the seventh entry in her series. The book also confused me to begin with, as timeline-wise it starts before the events of the first book. The events that happen "one year later" are after the events that have already taken place, however. Both Garreth and Lucia are likable characters, who actually communicate fairly satisfyingly once they are trapped on a boat together. Yes, many of their problems could be solved if Lucia would just come clean with Garreth, but when he does find out most of her dark secrets, he deal much better with the truth than many other romance heroes would. A very enjoyable read.