Review: Pleasure of a Dark Prince by Kresley Cole

I can't believe it's already Wednesday!! Sigh, work has really been kicking my butt. I had an extremely crappy day on Monday and I've been working long hours... Probably won't be out of work tonight before 8pm either :( Ugh. I hope it gets better starting from tomorrow, because seriously... Work can really suck, I mean beyond words at time :( Also, the weather has really be crap. I mean, I know we were going to pay for the past 2 weeks wonderful weather... but snow, freezing rain and hail? We didn't get much of everything, but enough that it's not very comfortable to be outside...

I've been working on this review for the past few days, but work keeps getting in a way. So hopefully, I can post it up today! :D

Cindy, this is for you :P


Pleasure of a Dark Prince by Kresley Cole
published by Simon & Schuster in February 2010

A dangerous beauty...

Lucia the Huntress: as mysterious as she is exquisite, she harbors secrets that threaten to destroy her — and those she loves.

An uncontrollable need...

Garreth MacRieve, Prince of the Lykae: the brutal Highland warrior who burns to finally claim this maddeningly sensual creature as his own.

Thad lead to a pleasure so wicked...

From the shadows, Garreth has long watched over Lucia. Now, the only way to keep the proud huntress safe from harm is to convince her to accept him as her guardian. To do this, Garreth will ruthlessly exploit Lucia's greatest weakness — her wanton desire for him.

Genre: Paranormal romance
Series: Immortals After Dark, Book #12 (counting novellas)

The Story: Long, long ago, Lucia made the mistake to trust the wrong man and she is still paying the price for it. To survive, Lucia become the follower of Skathi - a goddess that has reluctantly gifted Lucia with great hunting skills, but on the condition that Lucia remains chaste. In addition, every time Lucia would miss her target, she would suffer unmeasurable pain... However, Lucia is in no position to complain as she needs those hunting skills during each Accession  to confront and jail the man that has deceived her. Thus, when Lucia meets Garreth and realizes she is his mate, she panics and flees. Unfortunately, she did not factor Garreth's tenacity. Having finally met his mate, Garreth is not about to let her escape. After a year of chasing Lucia, Garreth finally catches up to her... to find out they're both heading in the Amazonian jungle so Lucia can find an artifact and hopefully changes her life around.

My Opinion: Readers have been introduced to Garreth and Lucia since the very first book of the series, A Hunger Like No Other, and finally, Pleasures of a Dark Prince is their book :D Yay!! Cindy reviewed it when it first came out and it was a keeper for her, so I had high hopes. Unfortunately for me though, I didn't end up liking it as much as Cindy.

What I liked about this book was Garreth. It was fun to discover him, because although we've all been waiting for his book, we've only got a glimpse of him in the past. Really not enough to know his personality, how he would act, what makes him... so this was fun. Garreth was the first carefree hero we've got in this series and he was a great hero. I mean, seriously, he's probably the best well-adjusted man in the whole series: charming, loyal, caring, tenacious and patient. Nobody can really blame him for his attitude when he catches up to Lucia... One lethal year of chasing - anyone's patience would be at an end. In my opinion, Garreth really made the book.

Lucia however was another story. She was too wishy-washy to my tastes and I didn't like the fact that she only showed her vulnerable side to Regin only and put up the strong/brave front. I felt too many of her actions were dictated by the fact that she was a Valkyrie instead of her being herself. It seemed to me that she had a definition of what a Valkyrie was and she tried to impersonate it. It doesn't help that I'm not in love with the Valkyries in Ms Cole's series... I feel they are too high-strung and full of themselves, but that's probably just me. Anyway, I wished she had been herself and would have stood up for herself instead of crumbling under the pressure. For example, when the Valkyries trapped Garreth as an exchange chip, she didn't want to, but she did because of the other Valkyries. Even when they called Garreth filthy names, she went along because Valkyries aren't supposed to like Lykae, even if she doesn't share the opinion. This got better once Lucia and Garreth were alone, but even then, she didn't open up very much to him. I liked the fact that she considered telling Garreth the whole truth, but in the end, she didn't... and it almost cost him his life.

My biggest issue with this book however wasn't Lucia, but the sense of deja-vu I had. In my opinion, the premises of Pleasure of a Dark Prince quite resemble the ones of Untouchable, Murdoch/Dani's story published as a novella in Deep Kiss in Winter. Both heroes meet their mates, but are unable to have physical relationship because of the mates' particularities. Both stories back-track to the beginning of the series... I think had I not read Untouchable, I would have enjoyed Pleasure of a Dark Prince a lot more. As a result, I wasn't able to totally engage in the storyline :(

My Grade: C+. I really liked Garreth, but the rest of the story didn't wow me. Also, the similarities with Untouchable really didn't play out in favor for Pleasure of a Dark Prince :( A lot of things are happening, but I don't feel like the series has been advancing. When is the freaking Accession going to happen? We've been on the verge of it for a couple of books already it seems. The ending of Pleasure of a Dark Prince was an interesting cliff-hanger though and will probably incite readers to continue this series.

Hmmm, it's funny how I tend to down-grade the books once I review them in comparison to my monthly list ^_^;

Review: Dark Needs at Night's Edge by Kresley Cole

Hello everyone :D

A quick post to let you know that I've reviewed Dark Needs at Night's Edge by Kresley Cole over at Breezing Through:D My buddy reviewer this time is Rosie from Nobody Asked Me...

Review here.

I'll be reviewing something for my own blog soon :D

Hope everyone is having a nice day!

Review: Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night by Kresley Cole

Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night by Kresley Cole

published by Simon & Schuster in October 2007

Her breathless kiss haunts him.

Bowen MacRieve of the Lykae clan was nearly destroyed when he lost the one woman meant for him. The ruthless warrior grew even colder, never taking another to his bed—until a smoldering encounter with his enemy, Mariketa the Awaited, reawakens his darkest desires. When sinister forces unite against her, the Highlander finds himself using all his strength and skill to keep her alive.

His slow, hot touch is irresistible.

Temporarily stripped of her powers, Mari is forced to take refuge with her sworn adversary. It’s rumored that no one can tempt Bowen’s hardened heart, but soon passion burns between them. Though a future together is impossible, she fears he has no intention of letting her go.

No deed is too wicked for her seduction.
If they defeat the evil that surrounds them, can Mari deny Bowen when he demands her body and soul—or will she risk everything for her fierce protector?

Genre: Paranormal romance
Series: The Immortals After Dark series, book #3

I wasn’t going to buy this book. Really. I read the first two books of the series, A Hunger Like no Other and No Rest for the Wicked, and I have to say something about them bothered me and I didn’t particularly like the main characters for both books… So there, I was going to stop another series. Then, I walked in the bookstore and saw this book almost two weeks before its release date! But no, I said, I was going to stop this series… till I glanced at the price, only 7.99$ Wow, that’s 2$ less than usual… and I also knew that some persons were really anticipating this book (ahem, Cindy) and that this book would be showing up on blogland... and that’s how I ended up buying it.

It was definitively a good buy. Although there are so many paranormal series out there, I liked the world that Ms Cole has created and think it is quite unique. Part of its uniqueness is due to the paranormal beings she chose which includes Valkyries (kind of like Amazon), elves and other creatures that we are less accustomed to see and also the fact that they are all immortals. Because of their immortality, many characters seem to not have adapted to the modern world and so, there is a very primitive feel to the books.

So onto Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night; the story actually overlaps with the timeline of No Rest for the Wicked, which is something unusual, but interesting. Our two main characters, Bowen MacRieve (a Lykae) and Mariketa (a witch) are participating to the Hie, some kind of supernatural Amazing Race. Bowen covets the final prize: a key that allows to go back in the past twice which he would use to go back in time and save his mate, while Mariketa wants to prove herself… See, Mariketa is the Awaited… Awaited for what, no one really knows, but she has incredible amount of power and is a witch of the 5 castes (kind of like branches such as healing branch, warrior branch, enchantment branch, etc.) which is really rare; however, she doesn’t have control over her magic and 99 out of 100 times she uses her magic, she ends up blowing thing. Thus, she wants to prove herself to her coven and her friends that she is worthy to be the Awaited one… The only problem is that the Hie is extremely dangerous, especially when you’re still mortal. See, Mariketa is only 23 years old and she hasn’t transitioned from mortal to immortal yet, but no one knows. So when Bowen traps her along with two demons and 3 elves in a Mayan temple, she’s in big trouble… especially from the incubi that have been jailed there for centuries.

I’m not going to go into more details about the plot although I want to. All I have to say is that I really enjoyed the book, especially the beginning. The storyline was interesting and clever. I also enjoyed the characters of this book a lot. We’ve already been introduced to Bowen in the previous book… he’s a bitter and violent Lykae, having lost his mate and all. He’s also ruthless, dominating, violent… and it works. I mean, I wouldn’t want him as my mate, but I understand where it comes from. First, he’s lykae… he’s also lost his mate and has lived hundreds of years of celibacy. However, we see him soften up a little throughout the book and I’ve come to like him. As for Mariketa, I really enjoyed her. She’s fun, witty and tough, but not too tough. She’s able to handle herself against Bowen, which, seriously, is admirable. Bowen and Mariketa match well also, even if they are very different, and their relationship is like a roller-coaster. Like Rosie said, seeing the issue of age (1400 y.o. vs. 23 y.o.) being addressed was also interesting... The secondary characters were well developped and recurring characters appeared, all without taking over the books.

My only complaint is when Bowen finally considers that perhaps Mariketa is his mate, he finally gives in and want to have sex with Mariketa... I found that part draggy. Also, I didn't really care for the sexual tension and sex scenes. I don't really like Ms Cole's sex scenes; I think it's because they also somehow feel primitive... not in a bad way, but just not my style. That aside, the beginning and ending of the book were strong with a good plot and characters, so it made up for it.

Grade: B+

October TBR challenge

Well I wanted to read this book for the October TBR challenge and well, I did... altho it's already November, I think that no one would mind... anyway, here it is:

Title: No Rest for the Wicked

Author: Kresley Cole

Year published: Oct. 2006

Why did you get this book? Personally, I have no idea. Maybe because I was giving a chance to the series.

Do you like the cover? I like the colors, but I could have passed on on the models :P

Did you enjoy the book? It was meh... I was expecting a bit more from the sneak preview, so I'm a tiny bit disappointed.

Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again? Nope, the author wasn't new to me. I've read the first of the series which was No Hunger Like Mine, or something like that...

Are you keeping it or passing it on? Not sure yet. probably keeping it till I have no more space and have to cut down on my books.

Anything else? I bet you actually dying to know more... so here it is... My formal review:


No Rest for the Wicked by Kresley Cole: 2.5/5

Sebastien Wroth was turned into a vampire 300 years ago by his two elder brothers, because well, Sebastien was dying and his brothers didn't want him to. Angry at his brothers to have gone against his will, Sebastien has been sulking in one of his castle in Scotland and is awaiting death. Finally, appears Kaderin, a Valkyrie whose sole purpose in life is to kill vampire. Sebastien believes that he can die, but Kaderin hesitates... and suddenly, both characters get a bad case of lust, because apparently, Sebastien's Bride is Kaderin. Once a vampire finds his Bride, he can "lives" again, but well he's still dead. Anyway, Bride are important to vampires... Well it seems that Sebastien is not the only one affected by their connection, as Kaderin, in the presence of Sebastien, starts to feel again (see, she was turned emotionless by the Gods)... so Kaderin runs away. Sebastien pursues her and finds her at the Goddess Riora's temple where the creatures of the Lore (the otherworld) have gathered to participate to the Hie. The Hie is a competition among the representants of each race and basically, Riora gives a list of objects she wants and an amount of points that go with the task and well, the first 2 to reach 87 points get a place in the finale and the winner gets a price. Kaderin has been winning the competition for the last 5 times (the Hie happens every 250 yrs). Anyway, Kaderin and Sebastien both participate: Kaderin is even more eager than previous years because this year, the price is a key that allows to go back in time and as a result, she could save her triplet sisters and avoid a 1000 years of guilt, and Sebastien, to win the key and give it to Kaderin. However, another dangerous participant is present this year, Bowen, a werewolf, who wants the key to bring his mate back to life.

So yeah, sounds exciting? Not really. I guess the author wanted Sebastien to be a tortured hero, but his characterization doesn't turn out so well. Actually, I guess my problem is that this story is so deja-vu... it's been written and you don't bring anything new to it. It's nice to see other creatures aside from vampire, werewolf and witch, but I find the Valkyries not very interesting... Bunch of hyper girls that want to look tough. Kaderin wasn't an entertaining heroine either and I actually thought that the plot was weak and boring. So yeah, I don't know what to do anymore with this series? Give it another go or not... I guess not.