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The first paranormal I've read this year was for the Smart Women Read Romance podcast's exclusive patreon review. The theme this month was vampires and the winning book was A Hunger Like No Other. This is book 1 in Kresley Cole's long running, highly popular Immortals After Dark series. I have read Kresley's historicals before, but hadn't quite jumped into IAD yet. Partially because it's such a long series. Also because I knew I would enjoy them and completely get sucked into reading this and nothing else. That would lead me to kind of disregard some of my book club and buddy reads I've been looking forward to. When I was mostly reading paranormal and fantasy a few years ago, I was already sucked into other long series (like Patricia Briggs') and wasn't quite ready to add another. But now, the time has come.
This romance is between the Lykae (think werewolves) king Lachlain and half-valkyrie half-vampire Emmaline. Lachlain is chained up in the catacombs and has been tortured (killed over and over by fire, but not quite completely so he constantly regenerates) and one day smells his fated mate. He finally finds the strength to escape since he's been looking for his mate like 1200 years. He ends up having to "cut" off (really maul) his lower leg on one side and crawl his way out. This scene completely made me cringe; I don't do well with gore. After a little bit of time he tracks her down and pretty much kidnaps her to get back to Scotland (they're in Paris).
I really enjoyed the feel of the world that Krelsey is creating. It feels paranormal, but yet different than the typical feel. Already I am enjoying the mix of Valkyries and werewolves and vampires and I know that there are other mythologies that Kresley weaves in through the series. While some might find Lachlain's alphaness too much, it really "floated my boat." I love the alphaness and I feel like with it being paranormal and a fated mate situation on top of Lachlain being tortured the last 150+ years it felt natural for their characters. Despite this being their romance, it also felt more focused on Emma finding herself. Emma did frustrate me a little towards the last 30% of the book, but I understood her decisions. I also really enjoyed how Kresley laid little hints of future books throughout.
I do have a little bit of a mention, if you have read or are starting to read Immortals After Dark as well, there is a great podcast called Fated Mates. Their first season was focused on IAD and goes in depth for each book. I actually started listening to the podcast over a year ago, so while I hadn't read this series yet, I know a good chunk about it going in. Fated Mates is hosted by historical romance author Sarah MacLean and romance critic Jen Prokop. They have great banter and I've really enjoyed listening to their podcast. Now that I've actually started reading IAD, I plan to go back after each book and listen to it's corresponding episode.
I definitely plan on continuing the series, but want to try to space them out a little and not go on a complete binge. I also know that even though there's been 17 books released plus a novella, Kresley has switched to independent publishing and had some personal things happen. The last book released was in 2017 and the 18th book was supposed to come out in summer 2020, but has been postponed. I have a lot to get through, but if it seems like the next book will get a new release date, I might start getting through them quicker.
Have you read A Hunger Like No Other?
Bookishly Yours,
Stasi🍎
STATISTICS: A Hunger Like No Other, Kresley Cole, 5-stars, 2 days, paperback, 360 pages, published in 2006
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