Dreams of a Dark Warrior (Immortals After Dark, #11) by Kresley Cole Review

Kresley Cole has done it again!! She turned an entertaining, interesting and strong female character into one that was annoying and dumb.

Dreams of a Dark Warrior is about Regin and her ‘mate’ Aiden who is cursed to reincarnate again and again and then die just after he remembers their shared history. So this time, he is reincarnated as Declan Chase, an abhorrent human (with repressed Berserker tendencies) Who has made it his life’s mission to imprison, torture and kill creatures from the Lore. He has no qualms about killing mothers in front of their children and then abducting said daughter and using her as leverage to get another Lorean to do his bidding. Yeah, he’s a real softie.

In the Immortals After Dark series, the Valkyries are my favourite (breed?)and like I mentioned in another review, these women are great as secondary characters but, in their own book, they are woefully lacking. They are weak and borderline doormats (when it comes to ‘their man’) (even that makes me want to throw up!) So, here I was, hoping against hope that Regin would be different. Alas, that didn’t happen. She spent most of the time obsessing over the latest incarnation of Aiden (who was a vile and evil ass****) She kept trying to remind him of their love which of course did not work. When she finally made up her mind to try and kill him so she and the other Loreans could escape, even that didn’t happen because she had second thoughts. But then Declan had a change of heart (after torturing Regin and her friends) and when there was a mass break out (no thanks to him) he decided to jump into the fray and try and save her (which would not have been required if he had left her alone to begin with)

Once, they got out of the facility, it wasn’t long before Regin realised what a tortured soul Declan was and immediately felt sorry for him and then fell in love and forgave him for everything he had done. UGH!!! Which reminds me, I didn’t like Aiden much either. Both Aiden and Declan were annoying male chauvinist pigs! I would have been much happier if Delcan had died. As it was, I could not stomach seeing Declan and Regin together (it was bad enough to almost give me an upset stomach!)

The only silver lining was the secondary cast. Natalya was fun and Thaddeus was okay and then there was Nix, who was still incoherent, barely lucid and yet (or perhaps because of it) easily the most entertaining person in the entire book.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that Regin forgave Declan because that had always been the predetermined conclusion.

Pleasure of a Dark Prince (Immortals After Dark, #9) by Kresley Cole Review

Every once in a while I like to torture myself by reading books where I know I will pretty much hate the primary protagonists. So I picked up Pleasure of a Dark Prince expecting just that so I was a little surprised to find that I didn’t absolutely hate Lucia and Garreth.

As usual, PoaDP was absolutely frustrating at times and needlessly long (it could have been substantially shorter and perhaps better for it) but I managed to finish and didn’t hate it as I had the previous books in the series.

Yes, Lucia and Garreth did their yes and no dance for most of the book and of course they ended up together. That’s the other thing, the series is painfully predictive which makes me wonder why even bother reading the initial bit especially since none of it will matter? They huff and puff and make all kinds of stupid decisions, all in a bid to ignore the other person but as the reader, you always know how it’s gonna end. So, it’s no surprise and nor is it satisfying.

The main characters, Lucia and Garreth were ho-hum.. Some of the secondary characters were entertaining though like Nix and Regin. I always reading about these two mostly because they are irreverent and just plain fun. Regin’s book is coming up and I am almost dreading that because these women are often the most pathetic in their ‘starring vehicle’.

The big bad that everyone (read Nix) kept talking about was also very disappointing and unimpressive and the end (as I mentioned earlier) was also predictable. The problem with a formula-based series is that there are no stakes when as the reader, I already know how things are going to wrap up.

All in all, it did not make me want to slash my wrists but it didn’t excite me either. Now, onto the next…