Midnight Rising by Lara Adrian

MIDNIGHT RISING

Midnight Breed Series
BOOK 4

Dell Books ~ 400 pages
ISBN: 978-0-440-24444-8
First Printing: April 2008

Available formats:
Mass Market Paperback
Bookclub Edition Hardcover
E-book

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From the back cover:

IN A WORLD OF SHADOWS AND DARK, CONSUMING HUNGERS, DESIRE IS THE DEADLIEST WEAPON. . . .

Fueled by pain and rage over a shattering betrayal, the warrior Rio has pledged his life to the war against the Rogues. He will let nothing stand in his way--least of all a mortal woman with the power to expose the entire vampire race. But now an ancient evil has been awakened, and a stunning darkness is on the rise.

For journalist Dylan Alexander, it began with the discovery of a hidden tomb. Suddenly she is at the center of a gathering storm of violence and secrets. But nothing is as dangerous as the scarred, lethally seductive man who rises from the shadows to plunge her into his world of dark desire and endless night. Here she is powerless to resist Rio's touch, even as she uncovers a shocking link to her own past. Now Dylan must choose: Leave Rio's midnight realm, or risk it all for the man who has shown her true passion and the infinite pleasures of the heart . . . .

My Thoughts:

Rio has suffered a tremendous loss and betrayal at the hands of his very own breedmate. In loving Rio and wanting to keep him to herself she betrayed the Breed to Marick, the Breed enemy. When her plans fail to kill the leader of the Breed Warriors and severely injure Rio she takes her own life. All of this happens in book one. Rio is scarred over half his body and has some major head trauma going on. He suffers black outs and fits of rages. He fears that he is no longer useful to the Breed Warriors and is more of a threat to everyone around him. The pain he has suffered has drained his will to live.

He screws up his last mission and now must rectify his actions. He has allowed a reporter to see the crypt that he was to destroy. Dylan is not only a reporter, but a breedmate. The Warriors have to retrieve the pictures she took and lose her story before it goes to press. They have given her the choice of entering into the Breed life through one of the Dark Havens or returning to her life without any of the knowledge she has come to over the last few days. Her connection to Rio is not as strong as the connections between the previous couples. She has an outside life that she is not ready to leave.

The connections between Rio and Dylan are slow to form. I was eagerly anticipating the reading of Midnight Rising. I don't know if my anticipation got the better of me, but Midnight Rising moved way too slow in the first half of the book. I was sorely tempted to put it down several times, but my desire to see Rio get his happy ending won out every time. I wanted to see how Adrian was going to spin the story for the next books in the series. What trouble is going to befall the Breed now that Marrek is out of the way, but this too moved extremely slow. The last half of the book did move at a better pace and eventually kept me wanting to finish this series. I decided however to wait a little while before venturing into the next book Veil of Midnight.

Rating: 3.5 stars