Reviews

After Twilight by Christine Feehan, Amanda Ashley, Ronda Thompson

kathydavie's review

3.0

Amanda Ashley's wasn't bad, could be worth looking into.

Christine Feehan's Dark Dream was intense...can't wait till I read the next one!

brigittewhoa's review

5.0

I initially only bought this for the Christine Feehan novella in the middle, but I enjoyed the entire book.

carlaabra's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Amanda Ashley - 1.5 stars. Instalove between two bland zero personality characters, one an actress for Phantom and the other a 300 year old vampire. The whole thing is formulaic: they get together, he worries he’s gonna turn her and pushes her away, but they’re miserable without eachother so they get back together- rinse and repeat.  It’s randomly mentioned halfway through (and then never again) that the girl’s father could see visions (??) and warned her that if she had premarital sex OR sex with the wrong guy, she would be cursed. Wtf??? Why is the sacred virginity trope a ducking thing??? And something about how there’s a bloodline of people that can somehow magically cure you of your vampirism. I’ll give you one guess for who that bloodline is. Stupid. 

Christine Feehan - 2 stars. Another Carpathian short, I don’t know why I even bother reading Feehan anymore. Sara’s whole family (human) was killed by an evil vampire Carpathian and she’s on the run; Falcon (wtf) is an ancient Carpathian who’s totally emotionless and almost corrupted from killing vampires for millennia. They run into eachother and bam, they’re lifemates, fated to be together and their union will save Falcon from his evil side. Now they (ie Falcon &co) just have to kill the vampire = “tense” action, but Carpathians are basically perfect magic and indestructible sooooo the stakes are not high here. It’s readable I guess but the dialogue is terrible, the characters are flat, everything’s predictable, blabla. Multiple open door sexytimes, it’s whatever. There’s also some weird shit about how as a teenager, Sara found Falcon’s notebook from 1000 years ago (written in ‘ancient languages’ that apparently she can understand) and at that moment magically knew what he looked like and that he was hers. The obsession was to the point where she carried this notebook around everywhere and sculpted a bust of his face that she kept in a little shrine by her bed????? Her “Dark Angel”. Are we taking inspiration from Lionel Richie now?? Come ONNN.

Ronda Thompson- 2 stars. Stephanie is a wildlife documentarian specializing in wolves; Rick is a veterinarian who’s also newly a werewolf. Fated mates. This could’ve been a really fun premise but instead it was predictable and boring. It reminded me a lot of children’s tales (except for the sex) because of how formulaic and *simple* everything was. There’s no complexity. The one saving grace was that the writing was tolerable. And something I hate:

He beauty and the beasted her, ie when they fall in love, he sacrifices himself to save her, and that cures his werewolfism. I want my monsters to stay monsters thanks.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content

satwood24's review

5.0

I only read Dark Dream by Christine Feehan in this book.

dee_dee_reads's review

4.0

#1 Masquerade - Amanda Ashley.

Masquerade didn't capture me fully. Don't get me wrong, it was a lovely story of a difficult love trying to be made real, but something was missing for me. Jason ws the typical tortured soul, making decisions for his innocent lover instead of with her, leaving her 'for her own good'. I did like the twist in the end

Spoiler

the fact that her tears was the key to reanimating him

It was a new angle in the vampire genre (at least as far as the books I've read thus far). It actually reminded me of

Spoiler

Fawkes and Harry in Chamber of Secrets

#2 Dark Dream - Christine Feehan

The healing scene which took place in Dark Dream actually brought tears in my eyes. I felt the wealth of emotion that was poured into the words.

Spoiler

I was worried for Falcon, heartbroken for Sara, felt Mikhail's guilt and the deep connectin of all the Carpathians. "Sara watched the Prince giving his blood, far more than he could afford, yet he waved the others off and gave until he was weak and pale, until his own brother forced him to replenish what he had given. She watched each of the Carpathians, strangers to her, giving generously to her lifemate, reverently, paying a kind of homage to him

Christine Feehan has made me a believer.

#3 Midnight Serenade - Ronda Thompson

At first I wasn't sure if I liked this story or not. Until I found myself so invested in their love. In fact, the most beautiful part of this story was reading the emotions that played through Rick's mind as he decided that he would sacrifice his soul in order to save Stephanie's. I'm now curious to read Call of the Moon to see Jason's own struggle with the curse.

wyvernfriend's review

2.0

Pretty predictable and wouldn't induce me to read any of the three authors.