Casee‘s review of Demon from the Dark (Immortals After Dark, Book 10) by Kresley Cole.

A dangerous demon she can’t resist…

Malkom Slaine: tormented by his sordid past and racked by vampiric hungers, he’s pushed to the brink by the green-eyed beauty under his guard.

A maddening witch he aches to claim…

Carrow Graie: hiding her own sorrows, she lives only for the next party or prank. Until she meets a tortured warrior worth saving.

Trapped together in a savage prison…

For them to survive, Malkom must unleash both the demon and vampire inside him. When he becomes the nightmare his own people feared, will he lose the woman he craves body and soul?

Carrow never really interested me as a heroine in this series. She was a peripheral character that I enjoyed, but she was never of any substance. Carrow was the wild child, the witch that always got into trouble. She always got others into trouble too. She was never sorry, never worried. She had an answer for everything. Anti-heroine.

Carrow was kidnapped at the end of the last book. She was taken by a group of humans who are intent on destroying all immortals. To save the life of her niece, Carrow has to go to a demon dimension and lure a five hundred year old demon to a portal. A vemon that is. Half vampire, half demon. A creature that’s reviled even by Lore standards. Not only is her pray a vemon, but he’s also legendary in his dimension for his utter viciousness.

Malkom has been living beneath his mountain for hundreds of years. Since he was turned into a creature so horrible even he can’t barely stomach it. When he senses a portal from another world opening, he goes to do his duty; kill the person entering. Except this time the person entering isn’t a soldier. This time the person that enters is his mate. His very English mate. Since his imprisonment as blood slave when he was a child, Malkom has hated everything English (read: Western). When Malkom finally finds Carrow, they can’t communicate even a little bit. It’s lovely.

They are literally two minutes from falling in lurve when Malkom takes Carrow back to the portal. You see, Carrow was injured. Malkom realizes that he loves the witch and knowing how important it was to her to be at the portal, he takes her there. Waiting on the other side is an ambush. It doesn’t take him long to realize that he has been betrayed yet again. Malkom’s mantra is that you only betray him once. While Carrow hopes to convince him she never meant to let them keep him, Malkom is planning her untimely death.

This book really was fun to read. I hate using such a generic sentence, but it was. When Carrow and Malkom escape, they have to take Carrow’s newly orphaned niece with them. Ruby is seven years old and also a witch. Carrow is now responsible for her and will do anything to protect her. Malkom uses Ruby as a spy and it is hilarious to read about him trying to get information from a seven year old. He’s clearly out of his comfort zone, but he will do anything to protect the wee little witch.

The ending of the book was perfect. Carrow claims Malkom publicly, something that has never happened before. It was one of the sweeter scenes in the entire series. I also enjoyed the cat fighting between Carrow and Sabine. That was good stuff. Regin’s book is next and I can’t freaking wait.

4.25 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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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: