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

Midnight Awakening by Lara Adrian

MIDNIGHT AWAKENING

Midnight Breed Series
BOOK 3

Dell Books ~ 416 pages
ISBN: 978-0-553-58939-9
First Printing: December 2007

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

From the back cover:

HE HAS RESISTED TEMPTATION FOR CENTURIES, A STONE-COLD WARRIOR WHOSE FROZEN HEART REFUSES TO THAW--UNTIL HER . . . .

With a dagger in her hand and vengeance on her mind, Darkhaven beauty Elise Chase prowls Boston's streets in search of retribution against the Rogue vampires who took from her everything she cherished. Using an extraordinary psychic gift, she tracks her prey, well aware that the power she possesses is destroying her. She must learn to harness this gift, and for that she can turn to only one man--the deadliest of the Breed warriors, Tegan.

No stranger to loss, Tegan knows Elise's pain. He knows fury, but when he slays his enemies it is with ice in his veins. He is perfect in his self-control, until Elise seeks his aid in her personal war. An unholy alliance is forged--a bond that will link them by blood and vow--and plunge them into a tempest of danger, desire, and the darkest passions of the heart . . .

My Thoughts:

I have to agree with Lea, this is most definitely my favorite of the series thus far. After reading the first two books of the series, Kiss of Midnight and Kiss of Crimson, I was really anticipating Tegan's story. Tegan is exactly what the description from the back cover says... A stone-cold warrior. He is the most feared, the most aloof, and to this point the most damaged (if you would call it that).

Tegan suffered the loss of his Breedmate five centuries ago. The loss so consumed him that he almost went Rogue. ***this is not a spoiler for this book, you find out about this in the first book*** Lucan saved him through a long struggle, but Tegan would not allow himself to feel or get close to anyone ever again. He blamed himself for Sorcha's death, as it was his responsibility to keep her safe from all dangers. Reading about Tegan in the previous books you get the sense that there is no emotion what so ever in Tegan. He is a warrior first and foremost. He is a loner.

So when his path crosses Elise's in Kiss of Crimson, he is shocked that he feels anything at all for this lovely Breedmate who has experienced so much. It is four months after Kiss Of Crimson that their paths intercept again. This time Elise is dealing out her own kind of vengeance, which is liable to get her killed. Tegan wants nothing to do with her, but yet for some reason he feels responsible for her wellfare. After a hellacious night he returns to Elise's apartment to check on her only to find that she is suffering from a severe migraine.

He soon finds out that he is not the only one interested in Elise's daily activities. He is now dragging Elise back to the Compound to keep her safe and to share some much needed information she has retrieved.

The emotional rollercoaster that Elise had been on drove her to some really dangerous actions. Her psychic abilities were no less of a danger for her. Knowing Tegan had similar capabilities, Elise basically throws herself on the little bit of mercy one might think to find in Tegan. When this didn't work she finagled her way to Berlin with him.

In Midnight Awakening you see that Tegan is not so emotionally detached as he would like to be especially when it comes to Elise. He tries hard to treat her callously to push her away, and at every turn she is still right there pulling him in deeper. I loved their story!!!

Now in my last little review of the Midnight Breed I mentioned how I was jonesing for Rio's story as well. He surprises us and makes a come back in Midnight Awakening. He is still very volatile but there is nothing that is going to keep him from fighting this war on the Rogues. So up next is Rio's story!

Rating: 5 stars

Breed series by Lara Adrian---Kiss of Midnight and Kiss of Crimson

Prepare for seduction as Lara Adrian unleashes a dark new breed of vampire . . .

Part human, part otherworldly, the Breed has lived among humankind for thousands of years, maintaining a tentative peace built on secrecy, power, and the dark justice carried out by the formidable warriors of the Order.

But now, a blood war within the race is set to ignite. Vampires are going Rogue in startling numbers, feeding without discretion, killing humans in the streets. It is up to the Order to stop the spreading threat of Rogue domination--and in so doing, each of the warriors will be forced to confront private demons, darkest secrets, deepest fears. Some will know triumph, some will know loss, but each warrior can count on one thing: Love, when it finds him, will often come at the worst possible moment, with the least likely woman . . . and it will bring each of these powerful males to his knees.

I have been reading this series by Lara Adrian lately. I read Kiss of Midnight several months ago and apparently forgot to do a "My Thoughts" on it. Having finished Kiss of Crimson last week and starting Midnight Awakening this week I thought that I would do a mini review on the first two books in one post followed individual reviews on the rest of the series.

Midnight Breed Series
BOOK 1

Dell Books ~ 432 pages
ISBN: 978-0-553-58937-5
First printing: May 2007

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

From the back cover:

INSATIABLE DESIRE. ENDLESS SEDUCTION. ONE TOUCH IS JUST THE BEGINNING.

He watches her from across the crowded dance club, a sensual black-haired stranger who stirs Gabrielle's deepest fantasies. But nothing about this night--or this man--is what it seems. For when Gabrielle witnesses a murder outside the club, reality shifts into something dark and deadly. In that shattering instant she is thrust into a realm she never knew existed--a realm where vampires stalk the shadows and a blood war is set to ignite.

Lucan Thorne despises the violence carried out by his lawless brethren. A vampire himself, Lucan is a Breed warrior, sworn to protect his kind--and the unwitting humans existing alongside them--from the mounting threat of the Rogues. Lucan cannot risk binding himself to a mortal woman, but when Gabrielle is targeted by his enemies, he has no choice but to bring her into the dark underworld he commands.

Here, in the arms of the Breed's formidable leader, Gabrielle will confront an extraordinary destiny of danger, seduction, and the darkest pleasures of all . . . .

My Thoughts:

Gabrielle is a photographer trying to break into the Art world. She has a few very close friends and no family. One night after the opening of her Art Showing her friends drag her out to a club. Leaving early, she witnesses a brutal attack on a man in an alley and starts snapping pictures with her cell phone. The police thinks she is crazy, so she is a little surprised when Lucan shows up at her door questioning what she saw that night dreadful night and requesting to take her phone down to the station.

There is an intense pull between these two. And Lucan has given himself the task of making sure no harm comes to this startling beauty, especially once he finds out that she has been stalking several Breed and Rogue locations. Gabrielle also has the mark of a Breedmate. Very few women carry this mark, but those that do are made especially for the Breed.

Kiss of Midnight really sets up the story line for the rest of the series. You are introduced to the major players of the Order and the Rogue leader. I guess this could be the reason it moved slowly for me or it could be that I was also reading the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. There were a lot of things happening in Kiss of Midnight... betrayal, forgiveness, and the uncovering of a long held secret.

Rating: 4 stars

KISS OF CRIMSON
Midnight Breed Series
BOOK 2

Dell Books ~ 416 pages
ISBN: 978-0-553-58938-2
First Printing: June 2007

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

From the back cover:

BONDED BY BLOOD AND DARK SECRETS, THEY ENTER A PLACE OF DANGER AND INFINITE PLEASURE . . . .

He comes to her more dead than alive, a towering black-clad stranger riddled with bullets and rapidly losing blood. As she struggles to save him, veterinarian Tess Culver is unaware that the man calling himself Dante is no man at all, but one of the Breed, vampire warriors engaged in a desperate battle. In a single erotically charged moment Tess is plunged into his world--a shifting, shadowed place where bands of Rogue vampires stalk the night, cutting a swath of terror.

Haunted by visions of a dark future, Dante lives and fights like there is no tomorrow. Tess is a complication he does not need--but now, with his brethren under attack, he must shield Tess from a growing threat that includes Dante himself. For with one reckless, irresistible kiss, she has become an inextricable part of his underworld realm . . . and his touch awakens her to hidden gifts, desires, and hungers she never knew she possessed. Bonded by blood, Dante and Tess must work together to thwart deadly enemies, even as they discover a passion that transcends the boundaries of life itself . . . .

My Thoughts:
Kiss of Crimson started out with a bang, I couldn't turn the pages fast enough to find out what was going to happen next.

Dante seeks a safe haven in the clinic that Tess runs after being attacked down by the river. Tess falls asleep at her desk and is awakened to Dante's not to subtle attempts at finding anything to help him. She walks in on him and knows that she should be calling the police but that part of her that wants to help heal can not turn away from him.

Dante realizes too late that Tess has the mark of a Breedmate. Now he has irrevocably bound them together, forcing her into a position that she may not want.

Dante is on the trail of a drug dealer and it leads right back to Tess. The drug Crimson is proving to be lethal to the Breed and someone is distributing it at the Raves that these young Breed frequent. The Order must get the drug producer and dealer before Boston is infested with more Rogues than they can handle.

In Kiss of Crimson we are showed a little more of the warriors Tegan and Rio. Tegan is the warrior that everyone makes a B-line to avoid. Rio experienced some very tragic stuff in Kiss of Midnight. I can't wait to really delve into these two warriors and find out how they will be healed of their demons.

Rating: 5 stars
(Fall 09 Challenge)