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A review by chelseaj91
Dark Desires After Dusk by Kresley Cole
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Overall, this was pretty middle of the road for me.
While the idea on Cade finding his mate and her being someone he couldn't actually have (he thought), had potential, I feel like this spent far too much time with him going "I messed up last time so I have to turn her over and even though she's mine I'm going to do it" and there wasn't really enough struggle(?) for him to figure out what to do. Why his end plan wasn't his plan from the moment he realized Holly was his fated mate doesn't make sense for what we know of his character. Even if he was wrapped up in his guilt over losing Rothkalina, I just feel like he should have been focused on finding a way around actually turning her over before he came up with his plan.
Holly was decent, but I felt like her resistance to Cade was there just until it wasn't. There was a little development and her going "I wonder?" but it felt like she went from "I'm only doing this because you were right that I want experience" to "I'm doing this because I want YOU really fast. It also felt like her OCD kind of disappeared for a while in the middle/last 1/3 of the book because it wasn't relevant(?). There were a handful of comments referencing it...things like Cade making sure all her food was prepackaged or how he'd open all her drinks without touching the rim, but up until Nix took her to the house, where she reveled in all the 3s and multiples of, it just seemed like it was pushed to the background when it had been so present earlier in the book. I guess that could be partially due to trying to show her Valkyrie/Fury nature taking over (or having been the "problem" all along) but I feel like we needed a little something to explain rather than just going with it.
This is nothing against the content of the book itself, but this edition had something happen during printing and it seemed like the printing was duplicated but it was duplicated slightly off so several pages looked blurry. Made it very difficult for me, personally, to read because if I did it for too long, I'd either start skimming to get past it or I'd get a headache. Made it difficult to fully enjoy things.
While the idea on Cade finding his mate and her being someone he couldn't actually have (he thought), had potential, I feel like this spent far too much time with him going "I messed up last time so I have to turn her over and even though she's mine I'm going to do it" and there wasn't really enough struggle(?) for him to figure out what to do. Why his end plan wasn't his plan from the moment he realized Holly was his fated mate doesn't make sense for what we know of his character. Even if he was wrapped up in his guilt over losing Rothkalina, I just feel like he should have been focused on finding a way around actually turning her over before he came up with his plan.
Holly was decent, but I felt like her resistance to Cade was there just until it wasn't. There was a little development and her going "I wonder?" but it felt like she went from "I'm only doing this because you were right that I want experience" to "I'm doing this because I want YOU really fast. It also felt like her OCD kind of disappeared for a while in the middle/last 1/3 of the book because it wasn't relevant(?). There were a handful of comments referencing it...things like Cade making sure all her food was prepackaged or how he'd open all her drinks without touching the rim, but up until Nix took her to the house, where she reveled in all the 3s and multiples of, it just seemed like it was pushed to the background when it had been so present earlier in the book. I guess that could be partially due to trying to show her Valkyrie/Fury nature taking over (or having been the "problem" all along) but I feel like we needed a little something to explain rather than just going with it.
This is nothing against the content of the book itself, but this edition had something happen during printing and it seemed like the printing was duplicated but it was duplicated slightly off so several pages looked blurry. Made it very difficult for me, personally, to read because if I did it for too long, I'd either start skimming to get past it or I'd get a headache. Made it difficult to fully enjoy things.