Casee‘s review of Pleasure of a Dark Prince (Immortals After Dark, Book 9) by Kresley Cole.
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.
THAT 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.
FINALLY.
I love Kresley Cole’s books (only a few exceptions) and her IAD series is one of my favorites. The only thing I didn’t like about the series was that the timeline in all the books in concurrent. So basically you’re reading about the same time period, but with different characters. Since the first book, it’s all about the coming Accession. All of Lore knows that this one will be a big one. In this book, the overall storyline finally moves forward as the Ascension gets closer. That was almost as exciting as finally getting Lucia and Garreth’s book.
When the book starts, Garreth still thinks that Lachlain is dead. Soon after he sees Lucia, he realizes that she is his mate. What he has been hoping will happen for centuries is now within his grasp. The only problem is that Lucia is a Valkyrie. Valkyrie’s and Lykae’s don’t exactly mix. Still, The Instinct is strong in Garreth and hopes to claim Lucia as his mate on the very day he meets her.
Lucia was only sixteen years old when she made a vow to Skathi, Huntress of the Great North. In exchange for being pure in mind and body, she would receive incomparable skill with the bow and arrow. It would also be her duty to make sure Crom Cruach–the demon that tricked her into giving up everything–didn’t rise up at the Accession. Lucia’s life is going along just fine when she meets Garreth. She’s never claimed not to be a woman and Garreth brings out everything womanly in her. Which is rather unfortunate.
When Lucia leaves New Orleans, Garreth follows thinking that he would return with her in no less than two weeks. In fact, more than a year goes by before Garreth even gets a chance to prove to Lucia that he would be a good mate to her. He doesn’t know anything about her past and he doesn’t understand why it’s so important to her that she have her skill with her bow and arrow. He can take care of Lucia, so why is she fighting it?
This book really illustrates the talent that Kresley Cole has. Late in the book, Garreth thinks that Lucia is dead by his hand and turns fully Lykae. In that form, there is no human thinking involved. Only an animal that is crazed and will kill anything that it deems a threat. There are few authors that can move me to tears. Kresley Cole is one of them.
Beyond the moving ahead with the arc of the series, Lucia and Garreth are what made this book great. They are two beings that have been alive for centuries. They each have their own way of doing things and compromising is extremely hard for both for them. Neither thought that they would find the love they did. At the end, both of them have to fight hard for what they’ve both waited so long for.
4.5 out of 5.
This book is available from Pocket. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
The series:
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