Demon from the Dark (Immortals After Dark Series, Book 8) by Kresley Cole

 

Demon from the Dark didn't start out all that great for me, but once things got going it was pretty much impossible to put down.

The biggest problem with the Immortals After Dark series, for me, is the huge cast of characters combined with the time span between reading the books. I should probably read the series again at some point, because I'm losing track of who is who, what their powers are, what their histories are, etc.

We have story arcs being followed through from several previous storylines in Demon from the Dark, threads that are pretty important when it comes to the events in this book.So, not fully remembering events from previous books was a bit of a problem - I remembered the basics, but not the details.

Things started slowly for me, I think because right away the story starts with two people I've never heard of before. And then once the story moves beyond that and into the present day, the reader is still kind of lost as to what is going on. Nothing to anchor on to, for a while.

At some point we find out enough of what is going on that we can get into the story though, and from there it's an E Ride. However, there are some things that I was fine with while reading the story, but now I'm thinking... really? He'd have gone from wild hellion to mostly civilized that quickly, after hundreds of years? But, the story is so skillfully written that I had none of those thoughts while I was reading it.

Here's the blurb:

A dangerous demon she can't resist...

Malkom Slaine: tormented by his sordid past and racked by vampiric hungers, he's pushed to the brink by the green-eyed beauty under his guard.

A maddening witch he aches to claim...

Carrow Graie: hiding her own sorrows, she lives only for the next party or prank. Until she meets a tortured warrior worth saving.

Trapped together in a savage prison...

For them to survive, Malkom must unleash both the demon and vampire inside him. When he becomes the nightmare his own people feared, will he lose the woman he craves body and soul?

As for the writing elements, the plot is yet another plot of two people brought together under impossible circumstances who come together against impossible odds. It's a very creative plot though, and pretty good, fitting in nicely with the rest of the series. Several things about the story do require the reader to suspend belief where personalities and emotions are concerned, but for the most part it's a good plot. And it goes a long way towards furthering the overall series plot arcs.

The pacing had some serious issues in places, but once I got 20% of the way into it I didn't even consider putting it down. Prose and dialogue were good. Character development was most excellent, and world building continues to be very well thought out with a whole lot of intricate details thrown in to help the world come alive.

The sex in this one was rather hot, too.

• Book Rating:: 8 of 10
• Series Rating: 8 of 10

1. A Hunger Like No Other
2. No Rest for the Wicked
3. Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night
4. Dark Needs at Night's Edge
5. Dark Desires After Dusk
6. Kiss of a Demon King
6.5 Deep Kiss of Winter
7. Pleasure of a Dark Prince
8. Demon from the Dark
9. Dreams of a Dark Warrior (Regin's story, I think) Feb 2011

.

Eternal Kiss of Darkness (Night Huntress World, Book 2) by Jeaniene Frost

 

I've been waiting for Eternal Kiss of Darkness for some time. I mean, really waiting for it. Mencheres fascinates me. The ultimate man of mystery. Right? And all of that power wielded without emotion. Someone that Bones, the ultimate bad ass, is in awe of.  He's supposed to be one of the good guys, but he was still scary.

I was a bit disappointed by First Drop of Crimson, and I was afraid I would feel the same way about Eternal Kiss of Darkness. How do you write a book about a strong man of mystery without blowing the whole reason everyone is fascinated by him? I mean, if you answer the questions, let us get to know him, he's not a mystery anymore. Right? Well, yes. Mostly. But after getting to know him, I still like him. And I have a feeling there is still much we (and Kira) don't know about him. Eternal Kiss of Darkness is much, much, much, better than First Drop of Crimson.

Here's the blurb:

An immortal war has been brewing in the darkness...and now one woman has stumbled into the shadows.

Chicago private investigator Kira Graceling should have just kept on walking. But her sense of duty refused to let her ignore the moans of pain coming from inside a warehouse just before dawn. Suddenly she finds herself in a world she's only imagined in her worst nightmares.

At the center is Mencheres, a breathtaking Master vampire who thought he'd seen it all. Then Kira appears - this fearless, beautiful....human who braved death to rescue him. Though her burns for her, keeping Kira in his world means risking her life. Yet sending her away is unthinkable.

But with danger closing in, Mencheres must choose either the woman he craves, or embracing the darkest magic to defeat an enemy bent on his eternal destruction.

Who makes an appearance in Eternal Kiss of Darkness? Well, obviously Mencheres is a big part of the action. We also see Vlad a decent amount, and Bones and Cat, of course. As well as a couple of the Law Guardians.

As for the writing elements breakdown: The plot was good, something a bit unexpected that worked well to give a lot of action around the budding romance. The pacing had some pretty big issues for me. Prose and dialogue were very well done, that's never a problem with Jeaniene Frost's writing. Character development was exceptionally well done, and the world building is consistent with what we've learned in earlier stories. There was something that bugged me (a world building continuity thing) when I was reading the book, but I've skimmed back through it to refresh my memory and I can't remember what it was, so it must not have been that big of a deal.

I'm going to give Eternal Kiss of Darkness a 9 of 10. It's a good story, but there were some pretty significant pacing issues, and some issues with the ending. I mean, the ending told us what we needed to know, but it was... well... we never really get to see how the couple interacts in a normal day, when there aren't people trying to kill them. The ending came faster than I realized, and I felt a bit cheated out of seeing what happens when the threat is removed.

Book Rating: Eternal Kiss of Darkness: 9 of 10



I loved the peek we got of This Side of the Grave. It looks like This Side of the Grave is going to happen in the same time frame as Eternal Kiss of Darkness.



Night Huntress Novels
1. Halfway to the Grave (2007)
2. One Foot in the Grave (April 2008)
3. At Grave's End (December 2008)
4. Destined for an Early Grave (July 2009)
5. This Side of the Grave (Feb 22, 2011)


Night Huntress Universe 
1. First Drop of Crimson (Feb 2010)
2. Eternal Kiss of Darkness (July 27, 2010)

Bonds of Justice (Psy/Changeling #8) by Nalini Singh

 

We've met Max before, when he was investigating the missing Shine kids. And we've learned a little bit about the J designation before, the Justice Psy. I had a pretty good idea of how this book was going to play out, and as far as the romance portion, I had it mostly right, minus an important twist. As far as the things happening in the overall world though, there were many surprises.

I will say, once again, that I'm not normally a fan of straight out paranormal romance. The Psy-Changelings series has reeled me in because of the incredible world building, and because of the story arcs that take place as the various couples are coming together. I am glad that I re-read the entire series before Bonds of Justice came out. There is much going on with the Council that I've forgotten about, and a few things I'm not sure I picked up on in my first reading.

As for the main story line in Bonds of Justice... it was okay. Once again we get a twist, an important twist that will be very important in later books when Silence starts to break down on an even larger scale and the.... maybe I shouldn't say that part. Don't want to give spoilers. So, I'll just say that the resistance gets a pretty important chess piece.

This is the fourth Psy female that we've watched break Silence and fall in love with a man. Unless there was some twist to it, I couldn't see how it was going to be that good of a book. Well, this is Nalini Singh, so of course there are twists.

However, I enjoyed Bonds of Justice more for the information we get on the story arcs, not so much because of our couple. And I was annoyed at the end because there are more loose ends after Bonds of Justice than I believe we've ever had at the end of a Psy-Changelings book. We only have four months until the next book, Play of Passion, which will be Indigo and Drew's book. We haven't seen two wolves join yet, have we? We've seen a wolf and psy, and a wolf and cat, but not two wolves.

How do I rate Bonds of Justice? I've been going back and forth on that. On the one hand, this is a very important book in the overall series -- a lot happens outside of the relationship stuff. But, on the other hand, the romance portion didn't really have a whole lot of surprises for me. I won't go so far as to say it was cut and dried, but it followed a very similar formula to the other 'psy female learns how to love' books in the series. I've gone back and forth between a 7 and an 8, and in the end I'm going to give it an 8 of 10. I will leave the series at a 10 of 10 for now, though.

Book Rating: Bonds of Justice: 8 of 10
Series Rating: Psy-Changelings: 10 of 10

We know we get Indigo and Drew's story next in Play of Passion, and then (finally) we get Hawke's story. Hawke's story has been building for a while, and I'm starting to think that Hawke's book is going to be a little like Archeron's book - Hawke is almost god-like as far as the pack is concerned, and his story has been built up for so many books that there are going to be a lot of expectations about it. Archeron didn't disappoint, I have high hopes that Hawke's book won't, either.

I've got a lot of thoughts about Kaleb after reading Bonds of Justice. I won't give spoilers, so all I'll say is that I'm pretty intrigued, and I hope we aren't teased much more in Play of Passion.

Here are the books in the Psy-Changeling series:

1. Slave to Sensation
2. Visions of Heat
3. Caressed By Ice
4. Mine to Possess
5. Hostage to Pleasure
6. Branded by Fire
7. Blaze of Memory
8. Bonds of Justice
9. Play of Passion (11/2/10) 

.

Hostage to Pleasure (Psy-Changelings, Book 5) by Nalini Singh

 

We've met Dorian before, and we probably know him better at the start of his book than we've known anyone else when their book began. We know he's latent, that he can't shift into a leopard, and we know that he's a Sentinel in spite of the fact that he's latent. He's never let not being able to shift into leopard hold him back, he's been the textbook over-achiever to compensate for it.

Hostage to Pleasure picks up soon after the events of Mine to Possess, and continues a major storyline started in Mine to Possess.

I mentioned before that, after watching three couples join where one person is Psy and the other is a Changeling, I wasn't sure how many more times that type of pairing was going to work in this series. We have another such coupling in Hostage to Pleasure, but there is an extra twist thrown into the mix that helps the story along.


Here's the blurb:

As the deadly Psy Council tightens its grip, a rebel Psy scientist finds herself at the mercy of a changeling who has sworn vengeance against her kind...

Separated from her son and forced to create a neural implant that will mean the effective enslavement of her psychically gifted race, Ashaya Aleine is the perfect Psy--cool, calm, emotionless...at least on the surface. Inside, she's fighting a desperate battle to save her son and escape the vicious cold of the PsyNet. Yet when escape comes, it leads not to safety, but to the lethal danger of a sniper's embrace.

DarkRiver sniper Dorian Christensen lost his sister to a Psy killer. Though he lacks the changeling ability to shift into animal form, his leopard lives within. And that leopard's rage at the brutal loss is a clawing darkness that hungers for vengeance. Falling for a Psy has never been on Dorian's agenda. But charged with protecting Ashaya and her son, he discovers that passion has a way of changing the rules... 

After reading the blurb, I did not think I was going to like Hostage to Pleasure very much back when it first came out. It is not my favorite book in the series, but it is still a very good book. The blurb doesn't hint at the extra twist, and I won't either, as it's a major spoiler. Suffice it to say that it adds to the plot, and adds to the emotions, and it gives this coupling enough of a difference that it is not "same thing, different book".

As to the specific elements: we pretty much knew the plot of this book before it was released, but the extra twist saves the day. It's a good single book plot, and the series arcs are also still going strong. Pacing is okay in this book, not great, but not a problem, either. I can't imagine ever saying anything negative about prose or dialogue if Nalini Singh has written it, no exceptions to that here.  I think the characters were mostly already developed before the beginning of Hostage to Pleasure, and the further development mostly went where I expected to go as the book progressed. World building for this series continues to be awe-inspiring.

Hostage to Pleasure receives a 9 of 10 from me. The series is at a 10 of 10 after book 7, and I'll keep it there as I re-read each of the books in the series.

Book Rating: Mine to Possess: 9 of 10
Series Rating: Psy-Changelings: 10 of 10

Here are the books in the Psy-Changeling series:

1. Slave to Sensation
2. Visions of Heat
3. Caressed By Ice
4. Mine to Possess
5. Hostage to Pleasure
6. Branded by Fire
7. Blaze of Memory
8. Bonds of Justice
9. Play of Passion (11/2/10) 

.