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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
Definitely enjoyable, easily fits into the paranormal romance/beach read category. The writing was well done, and the plot didn't seen contrived - the sexual content was very natural to the storyline (whereas many book in this genre are simply sex scenes with a contrived plot in between). Would recommend to a friend who can deal with VERY racy sex scenes.
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
2.5 stars
Trehan Daciano is a Dacian vampire. Dacia is a realm hidden in mist (so hardly anyone knows where to find it) and Trehan's job, is to hunt down and kill anyone who finds out about Dacia or the Dacians before they can tell anyone about them, or how to get into their super secret realm. Being a Dacian vampire also means that you don't drink blood directly from their victims or some virtuous thing like that, they may even drink only animal blood, it doesn't really come up, but Trehan and his relatives are wicked smug about it. Trehan, one of the princes of the Realm, has lived for nearly nine centuries, and is pretty bored. All he does is read, play with his extensive weapons' collection, occasionally hunt down and with ruthless efficiency kill any threats to Dacia. He and his cousins, all in line for the Dacian throne appear to try to playfully murder one another, but even that seems to be losing its charm.
Then, as he is trailing a demon who visited Dacia and then broke the decree about never leaving, he meets his fated mate (all of Kresley Cole's vampires, and werewolves, and most of the demons have one fated person who they're waiting for, and once they meet them, they can't think of anyone else). Unfortunately she is in love with the demon he is determined to kill, and also the prize in an epic tournament, where the winner gets her hand in marriage, and control of the throne of Abbadon, her kingdom.
Princess Bettina (and yes, she is, at least on occasion, as drippy and dumb as that name makes her sound) is the orphan daughter of the demon king of Abbadon and a powerful sorceress. Unfortunately, her mother was brutally killed by a band of evil winged rival demons (there's a whole host of various demon breeds in Kresley Cole's fictional universe, not all of them unsympathetic) when she was little, and her father died trying to avenge his wife. After a gang of the same evil demons got hold of Bettina, and nearly killed her, her demon godfather and sorceress godmother (who hate each other, but love her) have decided that she, and her kingdom, needs a strong protector, and the best way to find one is to hold an epic tournament, where all the contestants fight in a number of challenges to the death, and the winner gets the kingdom, and Bettina. She is in love with her childhood friend (the one Trehan is there to kill) and hopes that he will enter the tournament, and win, so they can get married, even though her bestie (who's name I seriously cannot remember) only loves her like a sister.
Surprising to no one, Trehan and the best friend both enter the tournament, as do two hundred and something other dudes from various supernatural realms. Will Trehan win the tournament and be able to claim his fated bride? Will Bettina have to watch the man she's starting to have all sorts of tingly feelings for, kill her best friend? Will anyone care by the time they get to the end of the tournament?
I'm not going to lie. I've read a lot of [a:Kresley Cole|4428|Kresley Cole|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1328377628p2/4428.jpg] books. I sort of like the various crazy supernatural races and the extended universe she's created, populated with vampires (both "good" and "evil"), werewolves, vampires, ghosts, valkyries, witches, demons and what have you. The books definitely fit the label of paranormal romance, as central to each book it's all about getting the main couple together. They're also really rather smutty, which I think is one of the main reasons this book was selected as the main read for May in Vaginal Fantasy Hangout, where there's been some complaints that some of the recent books haven't had enough sex.
While [a:Kresley Cole|4428|Kresley Cole|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1328377628p2/4428.jpg]'s Immortals After Dark series currently numbers 12 books (book 13 is out later this year), this is technically the start of a spin off series, about the various branches of the Dacian royal house, which means that each of Trehan's many cousins are likely to get their own stories and fated mates in the next few years. So in theory, it might be a good jumping on point if you haven't read any of the others. Unfortunately for new readers, this book is really rather tedious. The smexy scenes are plenty scorching, no complaints there, but I spent much of the book wanting to slap Bettina senseless, and Trehan isn't much better.
There is very little actual tension in any book that features fated mates. They have to get together. In most of Cole's books, I can at least have fun seeing how they get to the point where they do accept that they're meant to be together for all eternity (yeah, cause all her characters are supernatural beings who live forever - at least at by the end of their respective books). In this book, I mainly finished so I could cross off one square of my Book Bingo card. It doesn't help that the book is nearly a hundred pages longer than your standard Cole book, so there were more pages to get exasperated with the main characters in. One of the few saving graces, is that there are some cameo appearances by characters from earlier [a:Kresley Cole|4428|Kresley Cole|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1328377628p2/4428.jpg] books, most notably [b:Lothaire|10790516|Lothaire (Immortals After Dark, #12)|Kresley Cole|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1366322959s/10790516.jpg|15702803], who is also a long lost Dacian cousin. If you've read his book, you also know who ends up on the throne of Dacia. Lots of people don't like him, here he threatened to smack some sense into both protagonists and I applaud him for it.
Trehan Daciano is a Dacian vampire. Dacia is a realm hidden in mist (so hardly anyone knows where to find it) and Trehan's job, is to hunt down and kill anyone who finds out about Dacia or the Dacians before they can tell anyone about them, or how to get into their super secret realm. Being a Dacian vampire also means that you don't drink blood directly from their victims or some virtuous thing like that, they may even drink only animal blood, it doesn't really come up, but Trehan and his relatives are wicked smug about it. Trehan, one of the princes of the Realm, has lived for nearly nine centuries, and is pretty bored. All he does is read, play with his extensive weapons' collection, occasionally hunt down and with ruthless efficiency kill any threats to Dacia. He and his cousins, all in line for the Dacian throne appear to try to playfully murder one another, but even that seems to be losing its charm.
Then, as he is trailing a demon who visited Dacia and then broke the decree about never leaving, he meets his fated mate (all of Kresley Cole's vampires, and werewolves, and most of the demons have one fated person who they're waiting for, and once they meet them, they can't think of anyone else). Unfortunately she is in love with the demon he is determined to kill, and also the prize in an epic tournament, where the winner gets her hand in marriage, and control of the throne of Abbadon, her kingdom.
Princess Bettina (and yes, she is, at least on occasion, as drippy and dumb as that name makes her sound) is the orphan daughter of the demon king of Abbadon and a powerful sorceress. Unfortunately, her mother was brutally killed by a band of evil winged rival demons (there's a whole host of various demon breeds in Kresley Cole's fictional universe, not all of them unsympathetic) when she was little, and her father died trying to avenge his wife. After a gang of the same evil demons got hold of Bettina, and nearly killed her, her demon godfather and sorceress godmother (who hate each other, but love her) have decided that she, and her kingdom, needs a strong protector, and the best way to find one is to hold an epic tournament, where all the contestants fight in a number of challenges to the death, and the winner gets the kingdom, and Bettina. She is in love with her childhood friend (the one Trehan is there to kill) and hopes that he will enter the tournament, and win, so they can get married, even though her bestie (who's name I seriously cannot remember) only loves her like a sister.
Surprising to no one, Trehan and the best friend both enter the tournament, as do two hundred and something other dudes from various supernatural realms. Will Trehan win the tournament and be able to claim his fated bride? Will Bettina have to watch the man she's starting to have all sorts of tingly feelings for, kill her best friend? Will anyone care by the time they get to the end of the tournament?
I'm not going to lie. I've read a lot of [a:Kresley Cole|4428|Kresley Cole|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1328377628p2/4428.jpg] books. I sort of like the various crazy supernatural races and the extended universe she's created, populated with vampires (both "good" and "evil"), werewolves, vampires, ghosts, valkyries, witches, demons and what have you. The books definitely fit the label of paranormal romance, as central to each book it's all about getting the main couple together. They're also really rather smutty, which I think is one of the main reasons this book was selected as the main read for May in Vaginal Fantasy Hangout, where there's been some complaints that some of the recent books haven't had enough sex.
While [a:Kresley Cole|4428|Kresley Cole|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1328377628p2/4428.jpg]'s Immortals After Dark series currently numbers 12 books (book 13 is out later this year), this is technically the start of a spin off series, about the various branches of the Dacian royal house, which means that each of Trehan's many cousins are likely to get their own stories and fated mates in the next few years. So in theory, it might be a good jumping on point if you haven't read any of the others. Unfortunately for new readers, this book is really rather tedious. The smexy scenes are plenty scorching, no complaints there, but I spent much of the book wanting to slap Bettina senseless, and Trehan isn't much better.
There is very little actual tension in any book that features fated mates. They have to get together. In most of Cole's books, I can at least have fun seeing how they get to the point where they do accept that they're meant to be together for all eternity (yeah, cause all her characters are supernatural beings who live forever - at least at by the end of their respective books). In this book, I mainly finished so I could cross off one square of my Book Bingo card. It doesn't help that the book is nearly a hundred pages longer than your standard Cole book, so there were more pages to get exasperated with the main characters in. One of the few saving graces, is that there are some cameo appearances by characters from earlier [a:Kresley Cole|4428|Kresley Cole|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1328377628p2/4428.jpg] books, most notably [b:Lothaire|10790516|Lothaire (Immortals After Dark, #12)|Kresley Cole|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1366322959s/10790516.jpg|15702803], who is also a long lost Dacian cousin. If you've read his book, you also know who ends up on the throne of Dacia. Lots of people don't like him, here he threatened to smack some sense into both protagonists and I applaud him for it.
I love and found the main character's jewelry/weapon/design skills unique. The main male was a little to Alpha. I knew how it would end but I mostly liked the twists and turns throughout the book to get to the ending. I like the tournament that added good fight scenes. I love the elaborate world but to throw in random slang or pop culture from our earth world sometimes was jarring. I also was taken out by the last complication Trehan had during a battle. It seemed so, sweep under the rug, problem solved. The nicknames where a little repetitive. Fun read. I like the writing style. Think I will try one of Cole's other series.
Hmm. Not sure what to say about this one. I'm hovering between a 3 and 4 star rating, but having given it a few days to think about, I think it's more deserving of the 3. It was a quick and easy read with lots of sexy times, which is what you want from a VF book, I guess. But there were a few things the bothered me about it. It was a little predictable. I didn't really like the main character - people give Bella from Twilight shit for being so dependent on a man (deservedly so), and I don't think the main character in this book was really any better. Not only did she seem to need a man's protection to get her own courage, she also pined over that idiot Cas so much that I wanted to slap her. I wanted to slap him, too. I liked the main male protagonist through most of the book, until he went crazy at the end. I probably wouldn't read any others in this series, but would probably still give other Kresley Cole books a go.
There are some books you don't know why you didn't like. This book is that for me.
To be clear, Trehan is my fav and I would read this for him alone bc he is gorg.
But everything besides Trehan was just quite boring imo and didn't do it for me. I had to fight to get to the end and then skimmed the ending pages. Which, if I'm not 100% into reading the happy ending I toiled 400+ pages for, I just can't rate the book well even if my love for Trehan is endless.
To be clear, Trehan is my fav and I would read this for him alone bc he is gorg.
But everything besides Trehan was just quite boring imo and didn't do it for me. I had to fight to get to the end and then skimmed the ending pages. Which, if I'm not 100% into reading the happy ending I toiled 400+ pages for, I just can't rate the book well even if my love for Trehan is endless.
While this is listed as 12.5 for the IAD series, it was really an intro to the new series Dacians, which looks really interesting based on the intro into Lothaires family, the Dacianos. Personally, I can't wait to read more about Stelian; he seems really interesting.
Meh. Not as bad as other romances (Porn for Women) I've read for the VF group, but still fairly awful. The plot was too predictable. I won't be reading any more by this author.
Okay, dang it! I really am going to take a break now that I've finished all the IAD books prior to [b:Sweet Ruin|24002318|Sweet Ruin (Immortals After Dark, #15)|Kresley Cole|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1430651869s/24002318.jpg|43602301]. I know if I don't, I will be very sad when I have no more IAD books for at least another year. Feel free to point and laugh when I fail miserably within the next few weeks.
I really enjoyed this. Trehan was a great hero, Morgana was hilariously bitchy, and I loved the addition of Bettina's uncle Raum, and Salem, her foul-mouthed sylph servant. I'd love to see Salem get his body back and discover why he's cursed. I wonder if Hag can help?
If Cole does continue on with the Dacian series, I will read and hope she continues to keep it as a companion series to the IAD. Just imagine, we can have 'very special' crossovers from time to time :)
Bettina was a good character as well, if not my favorite heroine of the series. She had a lot of growing up to do and was probably the most emotionally immature heroine we've had so far and definitely one of the youngest chronologically. She was only 22 (a baby in the IAD) and she had been sheltered all her life. The one time she did strike out on her own she almost died, hence her PTSD and her well-meaning, but old fashioned uncle deciding to step in and get her a husband through a medieval-like tournament for her hand. I could smell Nix all over that mess from the get-go. Once again she's being "cruel to be kind" and getting all her chess pieces in order for the Accession.
I didn't see Bettina as being as flip-floppy as some reviewers have. She was in a tough spot with that tournament. Frustrating to the hero and the reader or not, I could understand Bettina's confused feelings for her childhood friend, Cas. As Salem pointed out, he was gorgeous and one of the few males the sheltered girl had ever been around on a regular basis - of course she had a crush on him. Even when she did begin to realize that he was only a friend, she still didn't want to see him die. Rock meet hard place.
I also completely sympathized with Bettina at the end when Cas and Trehan were in a pissing contest and she was just trying to keep everyone safe and happy. Of course everything backfired when their almighty male pride came into play. I guess it is best to never get in the middle of a dog fight, but how are we supposed to know how they think.
I liked Caspion and had a feeling that he might make a good hero eventually, but wondered how Cole would make it possible without skipping a century or two into the future. After all, he's still very immature in this book. But, I think she set that up nicely with his little trip to the hell dimension where time moves much slower. He can now be gone for a mere month or two and come back much older, wiser, emotionally damaged and ready for his own story :) Maybe he could be paired with Lothaire's silly cousin after she gets back from her own adventure "infiltrating" the nymphs in NOLA.
Re: the audio. Robert Petkoff rocks. It's really pointless to keep saying it. Now he's added a Cockney accent to his repertoire :D
I really enjoyed this. Trehan was a great hero, Morgana was hilariously bitchy, and I loved the addition of Bettina's uncle Raum, and Salem, her foul-mouthed sylph servant. I'd love to see Salem get his body back and discover why he's cursed. I wonder if Hag can help?
If Cole does continue on with the Dacian series, I will read and hope she continues to keep it as a companion series to the IAD. Just imagine, we can have 'very special' crossovers from time to time :)
Bettina was a good character as well, if not my favorite heroine of the series. She had a lot of growing up to do and was probably the most emotionally immature heroine we've had so far and definitely one of the youngest chronologically. She was only 22 (a baby in the IAD) and she had been sheltered all her life. The one time she did strike out on her own she almost died, hence her PTSD and her well-meaning, but old fashioned uncle deciding to step in and get her a husband through a medieval-like tournament for her hand. I could smell Nix all over that mess from the get-go. Once again she's being "cruel to be kind" and getting all her chess pieces in order for the Accession.
I didn't see Bettina as being as flip-floppy as some reviewers have. She was in a tough spot with that tournament. Frustrating to the hero and the reader or not, I could understand Bettina's confused feelings for her childhood friend, Cas. As Salem pointed out, he was gorgeous and one of the few males the sheltered girl had ever been around on a regular basis - of course she had a crush on him. Even when she did begin to realize that he was only a friend, she still didn't want to see him die. Rock meet hard place.
I also completely sympathized with Bettina at the end when Cas and Trehan were in a pissing contest and she was just trying to keep everyone safe and happy. Of course everything backfired when their almighty male pride came into play. I guess it is best to never get in the middle of a dog fight, but how are we supposed to know how they think.
Re: the audio. Robert Petkoff rocks. It's really pointless to keep saying it. Now he's added a Cockney accent to his repertoire :D
3.5 stars
Another good book in the series but not one of my favorites.
Another good book in the series but not one of my favorites.