- Genre: Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy
- Series : Immortals After Dark #1 and #3
- Publisher: Pocket Star Books
- Pages: 322
I’ve been super wary
of paranormal romance. I’d been buffeting different paranormal romance novels and they just weren’t working for me. I tried Nalini Signh’s Archangel series and a few Harlequin paranormals but couldn’t see the them through
Then I remembered two years ago I listened to and really liked Krelsey Cole’s debut YA novel Poison Princess and decided to check out her long-running Immortals After Dark series. I started
by reading the intro novella The Warlord Wants Forever and was just not feeling it. I didn’t like the mate-bonding trope, the mythology and the terms were really confusing and the snarky sassy female character seemed obnoxious.
The Warlord Want Forever was about Myst who is a Valkyrie,
A race of thousand year old female half-gods that hunt natural-born vampires. Myst bonds with a Forebearer named Nikolai, a human turned vampire, and becomes his bride. I found Myst to be annoying and childish and the hero , Nikolai Worth, to be way to grabby and blurring the lines of consent . I thought I was done with this series.
But. . . The synopsis for the
third book, No Rest For The Wicked, intrigued me( I skipped the second book, I’m not a werewolf person), and wow am I glad I gave it a second chance.
What’s odd is this book has very similar plot points as the novella, but it just worked better here. Sebastian (Nikolai’s Brother ) was turned
into a vampire, ashamed by his new form he has isolated himself in his family home for 300 years. That is until a Valkyrie, Kaderin, who has been cursed not to feel is sent to kill him. Instead, she discovers she is his bride and he has the ability to make her feel again.
Kaderin bolts upon this realization. She has better things to do and doesn’t need the distraction. Every 250 years she competes in the Talisman Hei, an Amazing Race style race held by a goddess, this year the prize is a key that can send the user back in time. Something she desperately needs to fix a terrible incident from the past
Yes, it’s a supernatural Amazing Race I was totally in.
Sebastian isn’t letting go that quickly, he is determined to fix himself up and learn more about what life as an immortal is like. I liked that Sebastian is
smart and resourceful. He also makes the point of wanting to earn Kaderin’s respect and attention by
helping her on the race.
What I liked about Kaderin is her commitment to winning the Talisman’s Hie (for the fifth time). She lets her snarkiness out in little burst so it came off as less obnoxious as Myst. While she is usually out during her own thing, she does let herself rely on her half-sisters when she needs advice.
The plot was filled with so much tension and slap-slap-kiss-kiss. As a reader, you are rooting for Kaderin in to win the
race as well as for the romance. I also like how Kadrein and Sebastian are both self-aware of the mate bonding and understand the line between lust and love.
The last few chapters are intense but I won’t pretend like it didn’t confuse me. The book’s ending is also a little open-ended so I hope Kaderin and Sebastian will show up in another book.
Like I said earlier, the mythology and glossary for this world was hard for me to
keep track of, but in this book Sebastian is new to the immortal
world, so he serves as a great reader-avatar and that helped me get an
understanding
I was a little kerffufled when Myst and Nikolai from the first book showed up, they just aren’t my favorite couple.
With a large series like this there a some wink wink nudge
nudge at the other books and I know I want to read Reign’s book, so I will dive in and out of this series. Also the 16th book will be about the missing Valkyire’s Queen who has quite the back-story, so I may have to read all the books to catch up!
Sidenote
Yes, I know the covers have changed… I don’t like the new covers.