Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole

5 reviews

fairypenguin's review against another edition

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2.0

Content Warnings

thereadinghammock's review against another edition

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challenging emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Praise for the IAD series is shouted from the rooftops by so many folks and the bones of the series are pretty awesome, but not gonna lie, this was a rough start for a series for me. Not only was the consent dubious in the best of circumstances, it was outright assault in others. I know the romance genre had come a long way in recent years, especially to move away from these kinds of tropes, but I trusted in my sister and fellow bookstagram readers to get through the most cringe-worthy moments.

I enjoyed watching Emma come into her own over the course of the novel. Lachlan still has a lot to learn when it comes to communication and respect of boundaries, but he started to grow a bit as a character, which was nice to see. I enjoyed the book enough to want to continue the series. Here's hoping the rest of the series can get away from the SA tropes.

Content Warnings

thrabenvaliant's review against another edition

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challenging tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I have issues with this book related to how I like my characters to act and feel. I understand that it was objectively a good book, and I will read more of the author.

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antimonium's review

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adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Starts off rough and has outdated ideas surrounding lack of consent, but after that is a quick read in an interesting universe.

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meggiemine's review

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adventurous dark funny fast-paced

4.0

Reread Review from December 2021

I picked this up to do a quick skim through while waiting for my holds on The Warlord Wants Forever and Dark Needs at Night's Edge to become available. I wanted to refresh my memory about some of the characters/events, since the books in this series overlap timelines. I became so engrossed that I stopped skimming and started rereading in earnest. I think having some idea of where this series was heading made it a much more enjoyable reading experience. So, I'm raising my rating to 4-stars. A couple of thoughts:

These books all have heroine-centric story arcs, which is not what I expected from a series with alpha heroes. In this, Lachlain has been imprisoned and tortured for the last 150 years by Horde vampires. But, the story doesn't focus on his escape and revenge. Instead, his character serves as a catalyst for Emma's character growth. Lachlain is a fairly static character, while Emma a dynamic character and undergoes a drastic transformation. I love the structure of these books - the hero finds his mate (or bride) which sets off a chain of events that ultimately leads to the heroine coming into her full powers.

This is kind of a road trip romance! Lachlain demands that Emma drive him to his castle in Scotland and a big chunk of the book is them on the road and sleeping in hotels.

I am not a fan of the Valkyrie as they were depicted in this book. I very much disliked how they babied and sheltered Emma. And they seemed to overreact to a lot of things. As a group, they're very eccentric and weird. I liked Kaderin in her book and I'm open to changing my mind about them as I progress through the series.

There are elements that may bother some readers, like dubcon and a tortured, violent, alpha hero. (Other content warnings are listed below.) Considering what Lachlain had just escaped from and that he found his mate at the same time, his extreme emotions, unstable mental state, and lashing out were understandable to me. I loved that, through dreams, Emma was able to experience what he went through and come to understand how much her happiness meant to him.

Original Review from March 2021

A Hunger Like No Other is the first full-length novel in the Immortals After Dark series. I have been wanting to explore the paranormal romance subgenre and figured I’d start with IAD since it’s so popular. Lachlain is a lykae (kind of like a werewolf) who has been imprisoned and tortured by vampires in the catacombs of Paris for the past 150 years. Emma is half vampire, half valkyrie and in Paris conducting research in the hopes of finding out the identity of her vampire father. When Lachlain catches a whiff of his mate, Emma, he escapes (by amputating his own leg!) and tracks her down.

Surprisingly I’m giving this a 2-star rating not because there were elements that particularly annoyed me or made me uncomfortable, but just because I found it kind of bland. ‘It was okay’ fits this really well. I started it 2 or 3 weeks ago and read bits and pieces every now and then. Which was probably not the best way to read it. I’ve said before that romances are best when they’re read over a short period of time (like a weekend). So, spreading it out probably negatively affected my perception of this.

There’s a lot of worldbuilding and introductions to characters that I should have paid more attention to. Especially since I do plan to try at least a couple more books in this series before deciding if I want to continue. I was too quick to dismiss all historical romances after trying and disliking Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series a couple of years ago. I don’t want to do the same with paranormal romances and judge the entire subgenre based on this series alone. I’m sure if IAD doesn’t work for me there are other series or authors that will. Crossing my fingers I like the other books in the series better.

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Endnotes

Series: Immortals After Dark #1

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Setting: present day; Paris, France; Scotland; New Orleans, LA

Hero: Lachlain MacRieve, king of the lykae (werewolf)

Heroine: Emmaline Troy, vampire/valkyrie

Tropes/Themes: enemies to lovers, alpha hero, captor/captive, vampires and werewolves, fated mates, road trip, virgin heroine.

Length: 460 pages, 125k words

Read Date: first read - March 21, 2021; second read - December 13, 2021

Heat Rating: Medium-High

Flames: 3🔥🔥🔥

Density: 2.3📑📑📑

Intensity: 4💓💓💓💓

Burn Speed: 5💨💨💨💨💨

Overall: 3.5 (↑4)🌡️🌡️🌡️🌡️

Sex/Kink Notes:

dubious/non-consent, blood play (heroine is a vampire)

Sex Scene Details:

🔥Ch. 2, (I didn’t note the % into the book, but I’m assuming it was ≤ 10%), in the shower, dubcon, fingering, HJ O for him. ❌Ch. 3, noncon cunnilingus while she’s sleeping, she wakes and pushes him away. 🔥Ch. 13/14, frottage while she drinks blood from his neck, he comes in his pants. ❌Ch. 21, interrupted fingering and HJ. ❌Ch. 25, brief, incomplete BJ. 🔥Ch. 26, night of the full moon, cunnilingus (first O for her ever), doggy style, missionary, Os for both.

※ My star and heat ratings are explained → here

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