Archive for the ‘Lara Adrian’ Category

CAREFUL!! To properly review this book, I had to divulge some spoilers from book 5 – so if you haven’t reached Book 5 yet, do NOT read this.

Book 6 in the series was crazy fun! We had numerous evil villains, a good-guy with a devastating power, a forbidden love affair, and of course, The Order.

The gorgeous and renowned bad-boy, Andreas Reichen (a Berlin Darkhaven leader) is hell bent on vengeance. Having just lost everyone he loved and protected to an attack on his Darkhaven, he is out to destroy his enemy, Wilhelm Roth (the very same man who blood-bonded to the only woman Reichen ever loved, “Claire”).

Reichen has a pyrokinetic power, passed on to him by his Breedmate mother. He can gather enough energy and power to set fire to anything. Unfortunately, due to a past tragedy, he feared his inability to control his powers, and left his loved ones (including Claire) behind. Successfully able to keep the powers hidden for all these years, once his rage finally gets the best of him, he ends up unleashing his fury in death and destruction .

It had been so long since the heat had risen in him, he’d actually been fool enough to believe that he’d driven the heat back for good. But it was still there, banked but smoldering. Waiting for the slightest chance to ignite while he strove to deny it’s very existence.

He had lived a lie for the past three decades, only to have it erupt in his face.

Now he would never be the same. Now Wilhelm Roth’s treachery had reawakened that monstrous side of him. Now grief and anger had invited the terrible ability back into his life, and the fires were always burning inside him.

They were beginning to rule him.

Having destroyed yet another enemy location, he encounters his ex-lover (Claire, Wilhelm Roth’s mate).

She helps calm him back to his normal state and helps him escape from her husband’s Darkhaven enforcement agents (I’d say she tries to “protect” him from the Darkhaven enforcers, but come on, who are we kidding?). Despite his animosity towards her, he realizes she too, is in potential danger (as gunshots fire around them). In his escape, he takes her with him, all the way back to the U.S, to meet with “The Order” (the sexy vigilantes we’ve been enjoying throughout the series).

There are few sweet moments at the compound, including Lucan’s “awakening” as he looks upon his crew and their Breedmates.

Lucan’s heart went a bit tight as he watched his Breedmate smile and fall into an easy chatter with the child and Savannah, who’d been passing a squeaky rubber ball between them, playing a game of keep-away with an ugly little terrier mutt that belonged to Dante and Tess.

The whole scene was unnerving as hell.

Somehow, in the past year and a half, the compound had begun to feel less like a military stronghold and more like a home.

As they remain in hiding, they re-evaluate what went wrong with their relationship, and how they both managed to end up in their current life.

He thought about the abrupt way he’d left thing with her: unfinished, unexplained. He thought about his reasons, ironically none of which mattered anymore. Certainly not after what had happened last night. “I couldn’t stay.”

“You couldn’t even tell me why? One day we were together and the next you were gone without a word.”

“I had things to work out,” he said.

God, he hated that he was still able to feel the punch of revulsion – that had forced him to run away from everything and everyone he knew and loved. After what happened to him the last time he saw Claire, he’d had no choice but to leave her. He hadn’t wanted to harm her, and he couldn’t trust himself to be near her, or near anyone, until he’d managed to control the horrific power that had been awakened in him for the first time all those years ago. By that time, he had already lost her to Roth.

He gave her a negligent shrug. “I did come back Claire.”

“More that a year later,” she replied curtly “Or so I heard, after friends in the Darkhavens told me you had finally turned up, back in Berlin again.” She shook her head, regret shining in her gaze. “I didn’t think you would ever come back.”

“So you didn’t wait.”

“Did you give me any reason to?”

“No,”

True love never dies, and while Claire is blood-bonded to another, in their passion, she allows Reichen to bloodbond with her. Unfortunately, her original bloodbond leads her husband to their vicinity (and because he can feel what she feels, he knows she is with Reichen).

Oh, God. She couldn’t let Andreas know that Wilhelm was in the area.

As much as she wanted his revenge, Claire wanted him alive even more. She could not be a party to his destruction, which was exactly what she was right now, so long as she remained in his company.

She had to get out of Boston.

She had to get far away from Andreas…before the bond she shared directly with Wilhelm Roth betrayed her and led him directly to his death.

While Claire despairs over Wilhelm Roth and makes a few bad decisions, (and really ticks of Andreas – LOVED that scene), we realize that Wilhelm is also involved in Drago’s plot to create and unleash his GenOne’s into society (forever changing the race).

And there is a third battle that rages, the one within Reichen himself. Will he trust himself to live and love again, or will he relinquish himself to his all-consuming power?

While the passion in the story was burning,

“God Claire,” he rasped, the tips of his fangs abrading the tender skin of her collarbone. “Why couldn’t you have just let me go?”

She shook her head, too lost for words or reason. All she knew was the desire she had for this man, this incredible, honorable Breed male who should have been hers. Who might never be hers again, once his search for justice that consumed him finally did take him away from her.

it was the “normal” moments as Claire revisited her hometown that made this couple believable.

Claire said a polite good-bye to her former classmate, and Andreas ushered her outside in an oddly brooding silence. More than that, he seemed downright irritated about something.

“Are you…jealous?”

He snorted. “Please.”

“You are!” Claire threw her head back and laughed. “Oh, I don’t believe this. You walk through a crowd and every head turns, female and male alike. I happened to catch the eye of a harmless old man – ”

“No man is harmless, Claire.”

However, the reasoning for the hatred between Roth and Reichen left something to be desired. Really? All of that death and destruction for something so trivial? The build-up to Roth’s rationale of why he hated Reichen so deeply, had amazing potential (Oh, I dunno, maybe something like…Reichen’s power once devastated someone that Roth loved, or even an “evil-twin” mighta worked), but, no, in reality, the truth was so basic, that, that part of it sort of flopped.

Luckily, the ending does redeem itself, and we are even granted a little twist of doom…Can’t wait to see where the next one leads us (Shades of Midnight: A Midnight Breed Novel – release date: December 29, 2009)

Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope you all got everything you wished for this year (lots of hugs from family & friends, and lots and lots of books!) While I have a quick break from cooking and family, I thought I’d slip in a quick review. I have finished the last two books in the series, and am anxiously anticipating the next in the series coming out at the end of this month.

Book five in the series was my least favorite. While it did help progress the story in the overall war against the evil vampires, the declarations of love between the two main characters felt rushed and unbelievable. Considering the two were absolute strangers, and that “Renata” continuously attacked Nicolai, their quick and unconditional acceptance of one another seemed dubious at best. Mind you, when it came to declarations of love, Nicolai had it, over all the other men in the series, hands down. WOW! If I had actually “bonded” to the couple in this story, I would have absolutely melted over his romantic professions to her.

Nicolai is sent from The Order to Montreal to contact a first generation vampire, Sergei Yakut and warn him of the recent slew of Gen One’s being targeted for murder. Nicolai is attacked by Renata (Yakut’s unwilling servant/Breedmate) and then thoroughly rebuffed by the very Gen One they are trying to warn. However Nicolai eventually manages to garner an invite to stay with Yakut and his crew for one night (to further his investigation). While there, Nicolai uncovers gruesome details about Yakut. A brutal tyrant with a volatile temper, he shuns all vampire laws and partakes in banned human killings for blood. All who serve him (including his Breedmate, Renata) do so through fear. Nicolai also encounters a young child (also a Breedmate) who’s gift is that she is an oracle, and can  show you the future simply by staring in her eyes. To his dismay (and excitement) Nicolai realizes that his future will include an intimate encounter with Renata.

“What you saw was a glimpse of your future,” Yakut informed him. Hem motioned for the girl to come to his side, where he wrapped his arm around her thing shoulders and pulled her close, like a prized possession. “One look into Mira’s eyes and you see a vision of events in your life that are destined to come.”

It didn’t take much to conjure the image back into his head. Oh, hell no, not much at all. That picture was as good as permanently burned into his memory and all of his senses.

Despite his animosity towards the aggressive Renata (her gift is that she can attack vampires mentally, and has done so repeatedly to him), he returns to retrieve her from her dangerous environment. Back and forth, events arise where, one is forced to rescue the other, until the inevitable happens, they fall in love.

“I care,” he blurted out, frustrated at himself for fumbling through the words that he wanted to be perfect for her. “I don’t know how it happened, or what it will even mean to you – if anything – but I need to say it anyway, because this is real. It’s real, and I’ve never felt this way before. Not about anyone.”

While the enemies are rampant in this book, (from Yakut, his son, and those they alliance themselves with, to the true evil that intends to rule all vampires, and humanity), the “good guys” find themselves knee deep in in turmoil, danger, and new revelations.

“We will exterminate you one by one, just as we are doing with the last remaining members of the first generation. Everything is in place, and has been for a long time. The revolution, you see, has already begun.”

One of my favorite moments in the book, actually involved Reichen (from Berlin) and his human (not Breedmate) lover Helene.

They had been lovers for the past year, a casual dalliance that had somehow turned into something deeper if not entirely exclusive. Reichen knew Helene had other men in her life – human men – as he also occasionally took his pleasure with other women. Theirs was not a relationship plagued by jealousies or possessiveness. But that didn’t mean it was devoid of affection. They shared a mutual concern for each other, and a bond of trust that extended beyond the barriers that generally made human and Breed relationships impossible.

It was interesting to see their private moments, and their deep affection for one another, despite their unconventional arrangement. And while things go crazy in Nicolai’s world, Reichen’s proves to be even more devastating.

While The Order discover that those in positions of trust are not always what they appear, they are also surprised by the unlikely support they manage to garner. Objectives and priorities differ for the “good-guys” (Nicolai wants to save Renata, Renata wants to save Mira, and The Order want to save the race), so the ending is actually quite exciting. Who wins? Read it and find out. While it didn’t keep me up reading into the wee hours, it is a great stepping stone for the next in the series (which DID keep me up).

Book four in the series explores acceptance and healing. Focusing on the emotionally and physically scarred Rio, we are lead through his life after his Breedmate’s ultimate betrayal. While Rio’s physical perfection may have been scarred, his spirit and heart have been utterly destroyed.

Promising the Warriors that he would seal off the “Ancient’s” hibernation chamber/cave (discovered in book#3), he also led them to believe he would venture back to his home in Spain for a some time off and reflection. His actual intentions however, were to seal himself into the cave and end his darkened life.

Once a man of an easy going nature, with star-quality good looks, his life lost all meaning once the woman he loved betrayed him and his brethren. Conspiring with their enemy, she was hoping that the leader, Lucan, would be killed in the blast, and that Rio would be injured enough to have to leave the Order. Hoping that they would leave the compound together, for good, her plans fell apart when it was Rio that took the bulk of the damage. Grasping the severity of her actions, she ended her life when Rio denounced her.

An excellent quote I found in book #3 (Midnight Awakening), shortly after Rio’s tragedy:

Elise hadn’t wanted to stare, but the anguish she saw in his face was arresting – even more than the ravaged condition of his person.

“I can’t take away old wounds and scars,” Tess said. “And some of the worst ones a person bears are on the inside. Rio is a good man, but he’s damaged in ways he may never recover from, and there is no Breedmate talent that can erase those kinds of hurts.”

“Maybe Love?” Elise suggested hopefully.

Tess shook her head as she ran her hands under the counter tap and scrubbed up. “Love betrayed him once. That’s what left him the way he is now. I don’t think he’ll let anyone get that close again.”

Unable to complete the task of ending his own life, Rio lived (or merely “existed”) in the cave for a few months. He was starving himself, and going insane from the ongoing headaches and blackouts (as a result of the damage from the attack). On the day he was finally going to end it, he was discovered by a wandering human female (Dylan).

Dylan, on vacation in Europe with friends, ventures into his cave, when a beautiful female ghost begged her to “help him”. Yep, you guessed it – Dylan’s a Breedmate, (unbeknownst to her), and her gift is to communicate with ghosts. While she is severely spooked inside the cave (due to the open crypt, scattered skeletons, strange markings on the cave walls, including one that matches her “birthmark” on the back of her neck – oh-oh!), she proceeds to take pictures. Since she works for a tabloid, she ascertains that the cave could inspire a good “monster” story. While gathering photographic evidence, she captures the angry (and vampire-morphing) Rio in the process. She “high-tails” it out of there, when she realizes there is an angry vagabond (or worse) living in the cave, but he follows her to her hotel room to take her camera and erase her memory.

“Yeah I have them, but here’s where it gets worse, Gid. She’s not the only one who’s seen them. They’ve already gone out via e-mail to the paper she works and several other individuals. If I could’ve contained this by scrubbing her, I would have. Unfortunately, it’s bigger than that, my friend.”

His plans to “off” himself, now bust, he is required to take her back to the compound with him so that the Warriors can interrogate her and track down (and erase the memories of) everyone now involved in her story.

Their forced nearness, along with how well Rio “cleans up”, permits Dylan to re-evaluate the situation at hand, and consider him in a different light. While he avoids her questions (hoping to keep the Breed’s true nature a secret from her), she strong-arms Rio into facing something he wasn’t prepared for:

“What do the markings mean, Rio?” She took hold of his arm. “Tell me.”

He stared down at her fingers wrapped around him. “It doesn’t concern you.”

“Like hell it doesn’t!” she replied, her voice rising. “Why would you have the same markings on your body that are in that cave – on that crypt?”

“You are mistaken. You don’t know what you saw. Then or now.”

It wasn’t an argument so much as a complete refusal to take the conversation any further. And that really pissed Dylan off.

“I’m mistaken, am I?” She grabbed her loose hair and lifted it around to one side of her neck. “Look at this and tell me I don’t know what I saw.”

She bent her head, putting the exposed base of her neck – the patch of skin that bore her unusual birthmark – in plain view to him.

The silence seemed endless.

Then, finally, a hissed curse.

“What does it mean?” she asked him, lifting her head and letting her hair fall back on place.

Rio didn’t answer her. He backed up as if he didn’t want to be near her for another second.

“Tell me, Rio. Please…what does all of this mean?”

He was quiet for a long moment, his dark brows low over his eyes as he stared at her.

“You will know soon enough,” he said softly as he went to the door and stepped outside.

He closed her in, then turned the lock, leaving her in there alone and confused, and very certain that the path her life had been taking had just irrevocably changed course.

The book guides us through the importance of her true nature, how she fits into the Breed’s world…

“Oh, my God!” She couldn’t hold back her laughter. It barked out of her almost hysterically, a flood of disbelief and amusement washing away all her anxiety in an instant. “A vampire. Really? Because, you know, that makes so much more sense than everything I was guessing you might be. Not military, not a government spy, or a terrorist operative, but a vampire!”

… and how Rio might fit in hers.

With the imminent death of her sick mother at hand, she struggles with the option of having to leave her mother for good (to integrate fully in the Breed’s society) or leave Rio for good, while she returns to her old life (memory scrubbed) so that she may be with her mother during her final days.

This is a detailed and drawn out affecting love story but also one of deep emotional turmoil. Rio struggles with re-integrating himself into The Order, accepting what has happened to him, acknowledging the newfound feelings he has towards his Breedmate charge, and his conflict within, to trust love again.

“Goddamn it, Dylan. Why did you come up there?” His hands were firm as he took hold of her upper arms. He gave her a little shake, but he was the one who trembled.

“Why? Why did you have to be the one?”

Dylan’s struggle is not just an issue of acceptance, but an issue of choosing to leave a loved one (whether it be Rio, or her mother) behind.

“So what now, Rio? When are you going to scrub my memory?”

She didn’t hear him move, but she felt the stir in the air as he drew up to her back and his strong, warm hands came to rest softly on her shoulders. “I don’t want to do that, Dylan. For your sake – maybe for my own too – I should erase myself from your memory, but I don’t want that. I don’t think I could.”

Dylan shut her eyes, holding the tender words close. “Then…where do we go from here?”

Slowly, he turned her around to face him. He kissed her sweetly, then rested his forehead against hers. “I don’t know. I only know that I’m not ready to say good-bye to you right now.”

I know there was some action in here somewhere, something about Minions, and Ancients (oooh a crazy scene in chapter 17), bad vampires wanting to take over, and some ghosts with warnings…

“Nightmare scenario, my friend. but it could very well be a solid one”.”

…but I’ll be honest, obviously, I was more taken with the love story then anything else.

Book five (next book), on the other hand, was non-stop action and danger, and furthered the over-all storyline of the Breed as a whole. The love story was so-so, but in the grand-scheme of things, the author of the series definitely kicks it up a notch.

My stupid Sony E-Reader decided it doesn’t want to store any new bookmarks, so I’m reviewing this one by ear (and not by earmarks). As I mentioned in a recent review, this book was much better than I expected. Knowing that we wouldn’t be granted the whole “OMG I’m in love with a vampire” fiasco (since the heroine was already a part of their world), I thought there might not be enough tension to make it exciting. Tegan (the hero) however, was just jaded enough about life, to make his venture into love, gripping.

In the second book, we left off with Chase (newly integrated into the Order), desperately in love with his widowed sister-in-law (Elise). Anguished by the death of her son, and crying alone, she was approached and somewhat comforted by the usually unapproachable and bitter “Tegan” (a GenOne Warrior – the best of the best, who had suffered a terrible loss when his Breedmate was killed).

Book three leads into Elise’s new life. She has left the Darkhavens, and has re-integrated into the human world. While she is no longer taking in vampire blood, she has begun to age normally again, and her special gifts have become uncontrollable (she is able to hear the ugliest thoughts of those around her). Using this “gift” to seek out and kill any Rogues and Minions she finds, she hunts regularly, and has numerous successes under her belt. Her health, however is failing her, due to the terrible migraines associated with the evil thoughts that she cannot block out.

Elise was widowed, and the several years she’d obviously gone without a male’s blood – not to mention the damage she was inflicting on herself every day she lived among humankind were starting to take heavy toll on her.

Tegan, out on a Rogue hunt one evening, crosses Elise’s path as she is losing her battle with a Rogue, and rescues her. Following her home, he finds her in extreme pain and turmoil, and spends the evening at her side, easing her pain with a hypnotic trance.

He soon uncovers what Elise has been up to.

“How long Elise? When did you start this insanity?”

She stared at him, her slender jaw rigid. “My son is dead because of the Rogues. Everything I loved is gone because of them,” she said finally. “I couldn’t sit around doing nothing. I won’t sit back and do nothing.”

Tegan heard the resolve in her voice but that didn’t make him any less pissed off about what was going on here.

“How many?”

Tonight wasn’t the first obviously.

“How many times have you done this, Elise?”

She said nothing for a very long time. Then she slowly walked over to the bookcase and knelt down to pull out a lidded crate from the bottom shelf. Her gaze on Tegan, she lifted the top and calmly set it aside.

In the bin were more Minion cell phones. At least a dozen of the damn things.

Tegan dropped his ass onto the futon and raked his fingers though his hair. “Holy hell, woman. Have you lost your goddamn mind?”

She has intercepted a package containing a journal with clues that the Rogue leader, and The Order, would find valuable. Elise, now on the rogue’s hit-list, is taken into Tegan’s protective custody back at the Order’s compound. After studying the journal, they realize that a trip to Berlin is in order, as there are members of the Darkhavens, and a Rogue, to question. Up against the Darkhaven’s upper-crust prejudices against the Warriors of the Order (considered Barbarians), Tegan reluctantly brings Elise with him (as she has connections within the Darkhaven’s elite society).

“A rehabilitation facility?” Elise asked. At Tegan’s nod, she said, “Those places are controlled by Enforcement Agency.”

“So?”

“So, what makes you think they’ll permit you inside? I’m sure you’re aware that the Order doesn’t have a lot of admirers in the Darkhavens. They have never approved of your methods when it comes to dealing with the problem of Breed vampires going Rogue.”

He had to give the female credit: she was up on her politics, and she was right about the Enforcement Agency intending to block the Order’s access to the captive Rogue. Tegan’s call to his old ally in Berlin, Andreas Reichen, had only confirmed what he and Lucan expected. The only way they were getting near Petrov Odolf was through a lot of red tape and bureaucratic bullshit.

Assuming Reichen could get Tegan an audience at all.

Elise knew that too. “I have connections in the Agency. Maybe if I went with you…”

And what happens when a lonely beauty is in close proximity with a handsome and protective but seemingly indifferent Warrior, for days on end, in unfamiliar territory?

Elise looked at him in silence, hearing his words, yet uncertain he could actually mean them. Did he really mean to say that he cared for her?

His fingers were a feather-light brush against the dull throb of her bruised cheek. “I do care,” he said, a quiet reply in answer to the question he’d read with his touch. He brought her under the shelter of his arm, just holding her, his thumb idly stroking her arm. “With you, I think it would be too easy to care too much, Elise. I’m not sure that’s a risk I can afford to take.”

“You can’t…or you won’t?”

“There’s no difference. Just semantics.”

Sparks fly, heated kisses are exchanged, and emotions roil…Copious amounts of exhilarating yet maddening sexual tension and resistance will torment you.

“Tegan, please…don’t.” Elise sighed, closing her eyes as if she knew the direction of his thoughts. “Don’t do this if you don’t mean it. Don’t touch me like that if you don’t…if you don’t feel it.”

He lifted her chin, tenderly sweeping his fingertips over her petal-soft eyelids, compelling her to see him. They opened slowly, dark lashes framing pools of beautiful light amethyst.

“Look at me, Elise. Tell me what you think I’m feeling,” he murmured, then bent his head to hers and pressed his mouth to her parted lips.

The passion burns with every (and I mean EVERY) encounter. This book is hot and heavy from the start (there’s an early and wonderfully titillating scene where Tegan donates some blood to strengthen Elise). Even without the intention to bond, it’s hot…but how could one resist bonding to someone like Tegan? Impossible!

What else is neat? A change in the evil plot! Bigger, crazier, and more abysmal than anyone had envisioned. Memo to the Order: Don’t sweat the small stuff…cause, the Rogues really are just “small stuff”…

I’m really loving this series. It was a great choice following my Dark-Hunter marathon. I feel like I’m smack-dab in the middle of the Black Dagger Brotherhood world, again. While the stories, characters and situations are different, the “feel” of this series is similar (and very well written). From the Warriors, the villains, the vampire society and politics, and of course, the passionate encounters, if you are looking to read a series like BDB, this is it!

Book two is essentially Dante’s book, but he shares it with a new character (”Chase”), and I enjoyed their two stories unfolding at the same time.

Dante is severely injured in the beginning of the book (hunting Rogue vampires). He crawls to a nearby veterinarian clinic (late after hours), but realizes that the veterinarian (Tess Culver) is still there. While she is startled by his intrusion, she quickly realizes that he is bleeding severely and tries to help him. Dante, unable to heal without blood, (and knowing there is only one way for him to recover) bites her.

“Shhh…” Warm air skated across her neck as he spoke in a low, pained rasp. “I won’t…not going  to…hurt you. I promise…”

Tess heard the words.

She almost believed them.

Until that split second of terror, when he parted his lips and sank his teeth deep into her flesh.

While she lays still enthralled from his “gentle” attack, he notices the “Breedmate” mark on her hand, and realizes he has just bonded her to him.

She was a Breedmate.

And with her blood now pulsing within him, Dante had just completed one half of a solemn bond.

By vampire law, she was his.

Irrevocably.

Eternally.

The very last thing he wanted or needed.

After trying to explain his situation and the fact that she was now his  (yeah like that was going to go over well), he realizes, in her panic, that she has somehow contacted the police, and he needs to hightail it out of there. Deciding to approach her at a later time, he quickly erases her memory of him.

Meanwhile…back at the Batcave, (teehee!)…

Attempting to uncover the reason for the recent vampire disappearances (all young males from the vampire society – the Darkhavens), Dante is paired up with Agent Sterling Chase (a Darkhaven law enforcement agent). While their personalities clash at first, they eventually come to respect each other. Realizing that the young males are taking a new street drug called “Crimson”, they uncover that these vampires are turning Rogue from the drug. Chase has personally involved himself in this case, as his nephew is one of the males that have mysteriously disappeared. Deeply in love with his dead brother’s widow (she is a Breedmate that refuses to bond with any other male), he promises to bring her son home.

This story leads us though Dante’s and Tess’s relationship (from his jealous realization that she might be involved with another man, to his provocative, insistent and downright steamy pursuit of her – woooo there are some very steamy moments)…

“You’re mine, Tess” Dante moved over her, kissing a path from her lips to her chin, then along her throat, to the soft skin below her ear. She smelled so good. Felt so good against him.

Dante groaned, his nostrils picking up the sweet perfume of her arousal. Lust made his gums ache with the stretching of his fangs. He could feel the sharp points coming down, throbbing with the steady beat of his pulse. “You are mine. And you know that, don’t you?”

Although her voice was small, little more than a breath of air rushing out of her lungs, Dante heard her plainly, and the word went through him like fire.

She said yes.

…their discovery of each other as people, their sweet, almost normal interactions and her eventual realization of exactly who she was falling in love with.

Their bittersweet story entwines with Chase’s desperate heartache for the love of a woman who may never see him as anything more than a brother.

He loved her now as always.

It shamed him, how much she affected him. Just thinking of her, his skin felt tight and warm. She made him burn inside, and she could never know the truth of that. She would despise him for it, he was sure.

From the mystery of the drugs, the Rogues, Tess’s special gifts and haunting past, and Dante’s horrifying visions, you will be thoroughly entertained! Your nerves will be on edge as the tale spirals into an exciting ending that will have you reaching for the next book in the series!

Oh and let me tell you…Book three (my review coming next) rocked my world! I thought it wouldn’t, for a few reasons, specifically, because I always love the moment when the clueless human realizes she is in love with a vampire (that scene never gets old). In book #3, the heroine is a Breedmate that was brought up in the Vampire society (so I was already frowning at the potential lack of excitement)…and really, Book# 1 was so good that I still re-live it in my memories, so how could any book live up to that one? But book# 3 proved me wrong, and addicted me to this series like a Rogue on Crimson! <—–see what I did there?! Haha I’m so clever I amaze myself sometimes… 

Hot! Hot! Hot! Loved this one, and it succeeded in giving me butterflies in my stomach! Books that can do that are my favorite. This book was fast paced enough to not be boring, but reined in enough to allow us the opportunity to savor each romantic encounter, so that the developing relationship felt real. It started off in lust, escalating to a near uncontrollable passion and had the perfect amount of tension and resistance (and the hero resisted for good reason).

Gabrielle Maxwell, a successful artist/photographer, was celebrating at a local Goth club with friends. She unwittingly sees a group of rogue vampires attacking a human in a back alley (rogues are vampires that kill indiscriminately). Capturing their image on a camera phone, she escapes to the nearest police station to report the murder. Laughed out of the station (the pictures don’t show much of anything, and really? Vampires?), she is promised that an officer will check in on her later, to make sure she is ok.

As the evening progresses, she is visited by Lucan Thorne. Posing as an officer, but actually a vampire warrior, he witnessed her, “witnessing the Rogues” and is there to take her camera phone into “evidence”. Unable to deny their obvious attraction to one another, their encounters quickly heighten to passionate liaison. About to take her blood in a moment of ecstasy (not to worry – Lucan is not the “killing” kind of vampire – just a little nibble here and there ), he recognizes the ”birthmark” hidden on her neck.

And in an instant before his sharp teeth penetrated her fragile skin, his keen vision lit on a tiny birthmark just behind Gabrielle’s ear.

Nearly undetectable, the diminutive mark of a teardrop falling into the cradle of a crescent moon made Lucan rear back in shock. The symbol, so rare among human females, meant only one thing…

 Breedmate.

He withdrew from the bed as though touched by fire, hissing a furious curse into the dark. Hunger for Gabrielle still pounded through him, even as he grappled with the ramifications of what he might have done to them both.

Gabrielle Maxwell was a Breedmate, a human gifted with unique blood and DNA properties that complemented those of his kind. She and the few numbers like her were queens among other human females. To Lucan’s kind, a race comprised solely of males, this woman was a cherished goddess, giver of life, destined to bond in blood and bear the seed of a new vampire generation.

And in a reckless lust to taste her, Lucan had nearly claimed her for his own.

While she is unaware of the birthmark and it’s meaning, he realizes he just came close to bonding them as a pair.

Circumstances quickly indicate that Gabrielle is in danger of the Rogues, including their leader (a powerful first generation, Vampire – hellbent on starting a vampire war).

“What will you do with her, Lucan?”

This time the concern was coming from Gideon’s direction. “We can’t very well leave her topside for the Rogues to find her. She’s certain to have gotten their attention when she snapped these pictures.”

“And if the Rogues should realize she’s a Breedmate…” Dante added, his trailing comment drawing grim nods from the other warriors.

“She’ll be safest here,” Gideon said, “under Breed protection.” Better still, she should officially be admitted to one of the Darkhavens.”

“I know the protocol,” Lucan growled. He felt too much anger at the thought of Gabrielle in the hands of the Rogues, or those of another member of the Breed if he were to do the right thing and send her off to one of the nation’s Darkhaven sanctuaries. Neither option seemed acceptable to him at the moment, thanks to the streak of possessiveness that was burning his veins, unbidden and unwanted.

Even though he craves Gabrielle, and can’t seem to stay away from her, his duty and only reason for living, is to lead and protect the Breed. Being the oldest and strongest in the lineage, he refuses to become encumbered and weakened with debilitating feelings of love and worry.

“Trust me, I have no interest in binding myself to this woman or any other one.” He ground out a furious curse. “I’m a warrior. My first – my only duty- has always been to the Breed. There’s never been room for anything else. As soon as I secure a place for her at one of the Darkhavens, Gabrielle Maxwell is gone. Forgotten. End of story.”

This whole section is extremely exciting, as Gabrielle learns of Lucan’s true nature, and that of her own.

“You’re a monster, Lucan. My God, you’re something out of a nightmare.”

Lucan eventually takes (forces?) her into his custody, bringing her to the warrior’s headquarters.

“The best place for you now is with us, where the Breed will protect you as one of our own. We have a secured compound in the city. You can stay there to start.”

She frowned. “What, you’re offering me the vampire equivalent of the Witness Protection Program?”

“It’s a bit more than that.” He turned his head, looking out through the windshield. “And it’s the only way.”

As her feelings for Lucan deepen, and she bonds with the other Breedmate females in the establishment (wives of the other warriors), Lucan struggles with his own personal demons, and denies her the love she seeks from him.

And therein lies the fun! While this is a typical theme in most of these romantic paranormals, the writing in this one made it so that I could actually feel their turmoil, and understand their sentiments.

Gabrielle was an interesting heroine, as she ran through the very human gamut of feelings, trying to figure out whether “he just wasn’t that into her” to realizing the deep underlying meaning of his resistance of her. Oh the head games…

Personally there were times where Lucan would have had me screaming in fear and running away to save myself. However, with Gabrielle, even when she feared him, even when he warned her to run from him, she stayed by his side, trusting that he would never harm her…

“I trust you,” she told him, her dusky eyes darkening with passion as she slowly withdrew her finger from between his sharp teeth. “And I want you. Every part of you.”

… although occasionally, I found her a little too insistent – you’ll see… Guess that’s what it takes to make one a “Breedmate”

Lucan played the alpha male beautifully. He is strong, abrupt and much too commanding for our modern standards (he did make my jaw drop a few times with his “overlord attitude”). It was all still kinda sexy…Unemotional on the exterior, but deeply sentimental and protective. I mostly loved everything about Lucan:

“You’re the only one,” he said thickly, giving her the honesty in return for the trust she had given him hours before.

Gabrielle would be the last female he’d bring here too.

He couldn’t imagine having anyone else in his bed, now. He would never permit anyone into his heart again. Because he had to face some hard facts, here – that’s what he’d done. For all his careful control and years of self-imposed solitude, he had let his emotional guard slip, Gabrielle had filled his void like no other ever could again.

One minute he unleashes his passion for her, and the next he reels it all back in, reminding her that once she is out of danger, she will be moved into a vampire community where she can bond with an appropriate mate (since returning to her old life would be preposterous at this point).

He opened the door, about to walk out.

“You have found your destiny, Gabrielle. Just like I said you would. I never told you it would be with me.”

Ooooooohhhh that was COLD!! Tell me you’re not dying to read this and find out where it’s going after a line like that!

Danger from enemies, from lovers…danger even abounds from those that you wouldn’t expect (a few interesting twists). While action and peril are the “gist” of the story, the burning passion between Gabrielle and Lucan, is the heart of it.