Dark Needs at Night's Edge by Kresley Cole - Book Review

 

Dark Needs at Night's Edge by Kresley Cole
Publication date: April 29, 2008
My rating: 4 stars

I knew it!

I knew the author was capable of writing a great romance if only she leaves sex out of the equation!

This book just proved it to me and here I am squealing at how amazing it was! Kresley Cole, it’s such a shame you don’t do it more often, because now I finally know you have it in you.

I always knew she was a good author, her writing was always addictive and her world-building was always exciting, however it kept being constantly ruined for me by:

1) Abusive alpha males.

2) INSTA LUST INSTA LUST INSTA LUST INSTA LUST all around, the characters literally having sexual encounters the second they meet each other, and constantly are either having sex or thinking about having sex with each other or doing sexual things to each other from literally the SECOND they meet.

3) They never even have meaningful conversations to get to know each other and, oh, I don’t know, FALL IN LOVE? At the end of the day I always feel like her characters fell in lust but never believe it when they’re supposedly in love considering every time there was a problem between them they just had sex or really they only just found each other sexually in love and not emotionally/mentally so.

And of course, it is often made even worse by characters keeping secrets from each other for 90% of the book so they literally really never get to know each other until the last minute.

This book though? Not at all like that!
Why, you ask?
Well, because the hero and heroine couldn’t touch each other AT ALL! Heroine is a ghost so… all they could do was… talk to each other. Look at me fangirling about how sexy it is for characters to get to know each other/have meaningful conversations/fall in love with each other’s personality first.

I also absolutely adored both of our protagonists, especially Neomi. I loved how crazy Conard was and how Neomi was balancing him, I loved how he was more on the villainous/crazy side because I love seeing those type of characters falling in love and oh it was glorious!

Honestly, KresleyCole, why can’t all your books be like this one? :’)

Beth Crowley - Perfect Doesn't Last

“I’d planned to kill them, too.” When Néomi glared up at him, he raised his chained hands.
“Past tense. See? Already I’m improving.”

 

Lothaire by Kresley Cole - Book Review

 

Lothaire by Kersley Cole
Publication date: January 10, 2012

My rating: 3 stars

Spoilers are marked in purple.

I, eh… don’t even know how to feel about this book 😂

It’s like I both loved and hated it.

On one hand, I literally could not put it down, I was ADDICTED it was an all-consuming madness, I read it in one day nonstop. All of the events were just too exciting, I could not stop reading from start to finish. And of course, I adored Elizabeth - THAT GIRL ROCKS, she’s sooo freaking good. And I also loved the villain as a love interest trope.

On the other hand, I wanted to PUNCH the villain of a love interest in the face. He… wow… I can’t even. He’s a piece of work, that’s for sure.

I was also disappointed with the separation arc between them and that it was resolved too quickly and without us getting more time with them as a couple, I felt it was rather frustrating and that we needed more there.

And another thing that kind of ruined the romance for me was how Lothaire basically couldn't accept Elizabeth fully as his Bride/Queen until he turned her into a vampire + couldn't fully accept her as an equal until she nearly decapitated him. For reference, just look back and Neomi and Conard's book and see what a TRUE immortal/mortal pairing is like, how it never seems Conard wants her as an immortal because he can't accept her as a human, how they BOTH want to be together forever. So yeah, I feel like the author could have done that part better because she's done it fantastically before.

Breaking Benjamin - Dance With the Devil

“Admit it, love, you like it when I'm a little bad....”

 

Shadow's Seduction by Kresley Cole - Book Review

 

Shadow's Seduction by Kersley Cole
Publication date: February 28, 2017
My rating: 2.5 stars

Spoilers are marked in purple. 

The way I see it, the reason this book flopped is because Kresley Cole didn’t seem to write it in her usual style. By which I mean there didn’t seem to be much thought to the characters background and everything just felt rushed.

The book isn’t as long as her usual books, it’s closer to a novella than a novel so that’s probably why it’s like that, but still it’s a shame because I think there was a lot of potential there with the characters, they just weren’t fleshed out.

I'm sad to rate this book 2 instead of 3 stars because overall it was a nice story and I thought it was very sweet at the end, it's just that it felt like there was something missing here.

I did realize two things as I was reading this book:

1) I'm excited for Kosmina's story!

2) Lothaire really does ONLY care about Elizabeth, doesn't he? What he did in this book made me gasp and realize yet again just what an evil psycho he is.

Go - McClain Sisters

“Dacians consider Trehan the kingdom’s sword, Viktor its wrath, Stelian its sentinel, and Lothaire its cunning. Our people see Mina and me as the beating heart of Dacia.”

 

No Rest for the Wicked by Kresley Cole - Book Review

 

No Rest for the Wicked by Kersley Cole
Publication date: October 31, 2006
My rating: 3 stars

The last third of the book won me over!

After my dire experience with the previous book in the series - Oh, you know, the usual "I want to shove the "hero" off a cliff and get the heroine to safety" - I was hesitant to continue with this series.
Yet I decided to give it another try because I was intrigued with the world Kresley Cole has created and I can't deny her writing style is quite addictive.

Though I can't say I like this series yet, I was definitely more comfortable with the Hero this time around - finally, someone with some manners. Heck, compared to Lachlain, Sebastian is practically a saint. The Hero and Heroine still obviously frustrated me at times but at least their relationship felt waaay more realistic than that of the couple in the previous book. It just flowed more naturally from lust to love. I still don't like insta-lust though, it still bores the heck out of me so during those insta-lust moments I was dozing off. Welp.

The last third of the book, though! I loved the whole thing that went down! 

Alan Walker ft. Walkers - Unity

“Don't stop kissing me, vampire, or I will kill you.”

 

A Hunger Like No Other by Kersley Cole - Book Review

 

A Hunger Like No Other by Kersley Cole
Publication date: March 28, 2006

My rating: 2 stars

Spoilers are marked in purple. 

Edit: The hero really is VERY problematic. Very, very much so. I'm aware that this type of... "hero" seems to have been pretty popular back when this book came out but it doesn't mean I can just shrug it off. This book's "romance" is abusive and the two stars are for the addictiveness and the heroine alone.


I have to admit, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this book.

On one hand, it has insta-lust in it and insta-lust makes me a) bored out of my mind and b) roll my eyes repeatedly. Insta-lust is why so many popular romance books were ruined for me.

Yet on the other hand… despite the insta-lust the heroine actually DIDN’T entirely give into the hero’s demands and sexual intentions immediately, and heck she's actually the only reasonable person in their relationship by literally being all “dude, I’ve only known you for a week, can you CALM DOWN?!” I applaud, though eh I did stop my applauding short since she did actually eventually give in to his crazy demands without him actually changing his ways or groveling enough at all, but hey she went FURTHER than 90% of the usual heroines so she gets my appreciation.

In general, I really liked Emmaline and found her to be a great heroine!

If anything, it was the hero who ruined it for me. And because I liked Emma I actually wanted her to end up with someone else.
Oh, I’M GLAD she stood up for him and reminded him how abusive and unreasonable he was being, but it did not atone for his abusing ways at all to me. He was way too forceful and sexually demanding on her even when he did try to tone it down and be “gentle” - yeah, that didn’t work except for maybe at the very end.

I honestly felt like the only reason Emma even “gave him a chance” was because the mating magic messed with her head and kicked all her well sounded reasons on why she should do things her way and not his way out of her head.
Poor Emma, that mating magic gave her Stockholm syndrome.

Well this book did come out in 2006 and back then I think abusive lunatics in romance were all the rage (?) I say think because I was 8 back then so I wouldn’t know, but it’s something I observed from reading the “older” romance books from back in the early 2000 - I didn’t finish a lot of them for that reason, I couldn’t stand the abuse from the so called hero!

At the very least here the heroine actually acknowledges it and stands up to herself much more than you usually see in those situations but it was still the reason why I didn’t love this book - the hero ruined it for me, simply put.

I loved the heroine, the plot/writing was fast paced and engaging, world building was great, so basically I blame the hero in my dislike.
So now I'll try to read more in this series hoping for heroes who are, eh, not Lachlain.

Ryoshi - Strategy

“Was it just her, or did lovers look more adoringly at each other in this city? Especially in the springtime.
'Die, bastards.'
She sighed. It wasn't their fault that they were bastards who should die.”

 

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi - Book Review

 

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi
Publication date: January 15, 2019
My rating: 2 stars

I guess it just wasn't for me.
Don't get me wrong, I can see what's to like about it, like the banter and characters, but overall it was just kind of underwhelming.

I did like how they were already a team and acting like a group of friends/family. Severin obviously cares dearly for them and that was sweet.

Zofia being Jewish was nice (Yeah, I'm saying that because I'm Jewish myself. I don't usually see Jewish characters in the books I read - literally the only one I can think of is Simon from TMI - so that was nice!).

Let's talk about Hypnos, shall we? a.k.a the only character I fell in love with in this book. Someone needs to protect Hypnos, THAT BOY IS SO PRECIOUS 😭 He's funny and lonely and enthusiastic and I love him, he's the best, he just wants friends and he's like a puppy whenever someone is nice to him and I LOVE HIM.

Fancy Toys - LBLVNC & THROVN feat. Riell

“What would friendship entail?”
“Well, on Wednesdays, we sacrifice a cat to Satan.”

 

The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall - Book Review

 

The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall
Publication date: January 13, 2015
My rating: 2 stars

Well this was kind of a throwback to the olden days of YA 😂
You know, when you got your average/ordinary YA girl protagonist who turns out to be some sort of Chosen One and also finds herself in a love triangle between Mr. Nice Guy and Bad Boy.

I'll be honest, this book was... not interesting.
The protagonist, Avery, was bland, Mr. Nice Guy, Jack, was boring, and even Bad Boy, Stellan, was disappointing.

And the plot?
The plot is… kind of ridiculous. It was this mix of secret societies and sort of fantasy that was somehow supposed to mix with conspiracies/treasure hunting in a contemporary setting with historical fiction background so… yeah, weird.

I also really did not appreciate the sexism in the secret society.

Usually, I try to find at least one thing to hang onto when I read a book, be it the romance, a certain character, the plot. Here... I got nothing. Welp.

World's Greatest Battle Music Ever: Orion

“The thing is, being lonely is like walking in the cold without a coat. It’s uncomfortable, but eventually you go numb. Once you get used to not being lonely, though, the shock of going back is like having your down comforter yanked off at six o’clock on a Minnesota December morning.”