No Rest for the Wicked by Kresley Cole

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My most anticipated book for the Love in the Night Readathon was No Rest for the Wicked. This is the third book in Kresley Cole's immensely popular Immortals After Dark series. This covered the remaining prompt Bite Me as well as Unique Paranormal, Eat Her Out and Diving Deep. For Fall In Love this worked perfect for the prompt Romance Series with 3+ Books. For Color Me Romantic I applied this to the Red prompt (passionate or intense character). Also I used this for Bang in the Night for the prompt Full Moon on the Cover or Stepback. I chose Anytime (I'll Be There) by Frank Sinatra from his Reprise Rarities Volume 4 album for the theme song.

Sebastian was turned into a vampire against his will by his brother when he was dying. Since he was free to leave his brother's oversight, he's been alone and brooding. Sebastian has always always felt separated from those around him, even as a human. When Kaderin shows up at the request of the local village to take care of the "nearby vampire," she is stunned to find Sebastian not fighting for his life and allowing her to make the killing blow uncontested. When he bloods her, Kaderin starts to feel feelings for the first time in centuries. When he forces his way into a special race that happens every 10 years, he finds ways to support her whether she wants it or not.

Oh my gosh. This was so great and why did I wait so long to get back into this series? Okay, I know why. I was nervous about getting sucked into the long running series and losing time to read my "assigned" books. Back to Kaderin and Sebastian though. I absolutely adored Sebastian with all of my heart and he is definitely my favorite hero in this series so far. There was something just so endearing about him and he hit all of my buttons. He's a sexy vampire, is super protective of his lover, can get a little nasty in the bedroom and also has that awkward/not-good-with-girls vibe. He just really did it for me and is going to definitely be hard to top. No to say I didn't love Kaderin, but because the premise of her character was that she was just experiencing feelings for the first time in forever it was hard to be on her "team" at times. It was especially hard for me when she clearly didn't want to kill Sebastian, but she was also stringing him along or intentionally saying things to hurt him that I didn't like. I understand her dilemma though because she was in huge vampire wars and vampires killed her two sisters. It was just hard because I understood and got 100% why she was doing what she was doing, but the Sebastian fangirl in me just wanted to shake some sense into her.

If there was one downside for me, it would be dealing with the race. This was a fun paranormal twist on Amazing Race combined with National Treasure and I loved it! I just wanted to see more about some of the "legs" and was surprised how much time we spent with Kaderin and Sebastian during the downtime between rounds. I also wish that we saw a little bit more of the other competitors, but mostly I wanted more when we did get to go with them on a hunt for a treasure. Everything was just done super quickly for the most part and I wanted a little more for the beginning races. The specific hunt was only really drawn out if there were complications or the final one. There could've been at least one early on that was easier to complete, but there could've been a lot of steps or something. I used to be obsessed with Amazing Race though, so I'm not surprised. I do think that a couple books later on the series do deal with the race as well, so we'll see what happens!

I'm so happy to finally get back into this series and I'm hoping to get at least two more books in the series read by the end of the year (one a month). Maybe if I spread it out like that it'll help me get through it a little quicker. No matter what I definitely need to scoot Immortals After Dark up my priority list for sure. I can't wait to see who's book is next (and will wait until I start it and avoid any blurbs or spoilers as much as I can).

Have you read No Rest for the Wicked?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: No Rest for the Wicked, Kresley Cole, 5 stars, 1 day, Paperback, 356 pages, published in 2006, traditionally published

The Warlord Wants Forever by Kresley Cole

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When spinning my wheel for the fourth book of the Love in the Night Readathon, it landed on IAD. That is short for Immortals After Dark, a series by Kresley Cole. I read the first book, A Hunger Like No Other, not too long ago and wanted to continue the series. I was thinking of starting the 2nd book, but decided to go with The Warlord Wants Forever. It is listed as 0.5 of the series. I am using this book for the host favorite prompt.

I have to say, before we get too much farther in, I did feel like I got more from this book reading it after the first. There wasn't quite as much world building, so it was helpful that I understood more of the rules and terminology before reading this. There is a little bit of explanation so you could go in blind and still understand the basics. I do have to say though that I understood the connection between Myst and her Valkyrie sisters better because I read the A Hunger Like No Other first.

Our heroine is Myst, one of the Valkyries we met in the first book. She is commonly used as bait for the various plans they execute. She is at a stronghold of Demetrius and Ivan's and is watching as the other vampire faction (led by Kristoff) is attacking. Myst is drawn to the made vampire Nikolai Wroth, a famous warlord from back in the day. He ends up coming across her and after some baiting and sexy times between the two, Myst escapes with her sisters after "blooding" Nik. Basically she started the vampire mating bond to become his Bride, but leaves him unfinished. Poor Nik is left in a highly aroused state for 5 years and can only find completion with Myst. 

We have a time jump and come to "modern day" (when A Hunger Like No Other is set) and he finally finds her in New Orleans. Nik ends up kind of kidnapping her after breaking the chain around her waist. Now comes the issue that I've seen a lot of reviewers have with this book. If someone else has the chain, Myst has to do what they say. I was intrigued, but didn't take issue with how things evolved. Yes, Nik had some learning to do about what exactly a "women's role" is from his time as a human in the 1700s. He also is dead set that Myst is his mate, blood bride and the only woman for him. Yes he sometimes goes about things wrong, but I do want to say that it came from his insecurities. He was so nervous that if he let her go again, she would leave him, again. That was actually Myst's plan. To seduce him into giving her back the chain and then leaving. I did feel like Myst was a little over the top sometimes and very defensive. It was nice how they evolved and grew together. I feel like it gave a really nice base for their relationship once the misunderstanding was worked out. 

They both were hurt and lashed out. My really only downside was that this was longer. It didn't feel rushed to me at all, I just really love her writing and the world she's built. I definitely want to try to read at least one book in the IAD series a month moving forward. Especially since this readathon got me out of my only historical binge. I'm also really excited to see what happens with Nik's brothers.

Have you read The Warlord Wants Forever?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: The Warlord Wants Forever, Kresley Cole, 5-stars, 1 day, paperback, 188 pages, published in 2006

A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole

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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