Even as a sane, self-sufficient, contemporary professional woman, you may find it tricky to explain to friends and colleagues why the idea of a guy hunting you down and trailing you because he’s convinced you’re his life mate to guard – and maybe, um, mark as his by aggressively latching on to your neck from behind in a moment of passion – is really flippin’ romantic.
In all fairness, you can’t blame folks for thinking there’s something off kilter about your world view if you don’t offer all the deets. So include the most important: your fantasy guardian/mate is Lykae, an immortal Scottish Highlander who bears within him the spirit of the wolf, a beast that can rise dangerously, and whose nature causes him assiduously to seek touch, companionship and a surfeit of really hot sex.
Once you get folks thinking – do I really have to spell it out? – kilts, you’re really just a step away from their begging you to rec a book with just such a sexy beast. Introduce them to Garreth MacRieve of Kresley Cole’s much-anticipated “Pleasure of a Dark Prince ,” then hook them on Cole’s wholly kick-ass, genuinely fun and entirely addictive Immortals After Dark (IAD) series.
The Immortals in question range from blood-abstaining vampires to vengeful goddesses and every reincarnation in between. Especially cool are the delightfully bloodthirsty Valkyrie, who often are featured, one of whom leads our Garreth a merry chase.
Lucia the Huntress is the greatest archer in the world, a Valkyrie who’d sooner strike down foes alongside her best pal Regin, than succumb to the hyper-charged overtures of the way-too-alpha-even-for-a-wildly-attractive-wolf-boy Garreth MacRieve. First, he keeps showing up everywhere she’s slaying bad things as if she needs his help and, next, he’s, well, he’s just making her hot.
And that’s a problem for a busy girl like Lucia, because she’s got a big role to play in fated doins that are ratcheting up as a 500-yearly clash of factions of immortals is unfurling. So she can’t be distracted by some big, braw, dirty-brogue-talking enemy of Valkyrie, no matter whether he saved her sisters from death – or looks great in sodden, low-slung jeans.
Yet that’s not what’s really got Lucia in a quandary. At the heart of Lucia’s incomparable strength lies a secret that could harm dreadfully everyone she loves if it’s revealed. And while she would sacrifice her life to save them, she won’t surrender power to anyone simply to spare herself a life of sacrifice.
Valorous heroines and unapologetically alpha heroes are only part of the appeal of Cole’s IAD novels. The reads are humorous in tone, with urban/urbane contemporary trash talk from immortal chicks who keep up with the times, and a quasi-decorous formal diction from the centuries-old males who’re all the sexier for the formality and chivalry they afford the females. Even when the boys’re chasing them down and jumping alpha on their pert little arses.
And “Pleasure of a Dark Prince” not only satisfies your craving for top-shelf reading entertainment, it tees up happenings that kick into overdrive the machinations that are leading to battles royal among immortals-at-large for power – and between your favorite IADs for happily ever afterlife.
Tell us about the fun you had the last time you told a non-romance reading friend about your favorite book or romance-fantasy theme. Why do you like Kresley Cole’s IAD novels and which are your favorites?
Dying for Romance?: Every day this month, meet and swap comments w/a different top romantic suspense author at BN’s Mystery boards as moderator Becke Davis celebrates Valentine’s Day with a Month of Romantic Suspense! Feb: 4 Susan Crandall; 5 Carla Neggers; 6 Mariah Stewart; 7 JoAnn Ross; Val Day Special Guest: Suz Brockmann.
Michelle Buonfiglio writes daily about romance fiction at BN’s Heart to Heart and RomanceBuytheBook.com and Tuesdays at BN’s Unabashedly Bookish. Buonfiglio also authors the popular RBTB NEWs romance newsletter.
Hey, Becke! Have you done a reread of this series yet? I did one not too long ago. The only problem with this book is...it made me go back and start the very first IAD, "A Hunger Like No Other," still one of my fave covers, and another wolfy story, one of Garreth's brothers.
Another thing I love about these reads is that some of the action in each books takes place in "real time" during the same time period and locations. And while other authors have attempted this with varying results and lots of repeated dialogue from book to book, Cole rocks the time layering. If you've read the book, knowing what was happening in another book at the same time is wicked cool. And if you've not read other IADs, they stand perfectly alone; you'll always know what's doing w/out reading any other book.
Have I ever mentioned how much I love the semicolon? Just thought I'd share that with you. Though so many folks disagree on it's usage...
Aaaaaaw, Michelle, all I can say is Mating Bite - do I have to add anything to make myself understandable? 
Don' tell me you've already read POADP - I'm becomin' really jealous right now!
AHLNO is still my favourite book in this series - not only because of the mating bite (which is excessively featured in this one, I might add) but because of the development of Emma and Lachlan's relationship. I've never more enjoyed the coming-to-understand-one-another in a book so much. And I have to say that I loved all of the books in that series equally (which had never happened to me with a series before!) except the last one which I loved a little less than the others but only because I couldn't bring myself to really like Sabine until the end of the book, but that's just my personal opinion - Rydstrom was HAHAHAWT!
I totally agree with the time layering - I mean, POADP kicks off even before AHLNO, doesn't it? I'm normally getting very impatient with books and their storylines when I know what is going to happen from earlier books but with KC's novels it doesn't bother me because she very elegantly tides the different plots together without the reader's hearing too much of the other stories which doesn't remind me that some things I already know haven't even happened by now ...
Okay, now, what a strange long sentence is that? Am I making sense? Well, not important, at least I know what I want to say! *g*
All in all, can't wait for POADP (I'm in some kind of verra bad reading slump atm and I hope KC will cure me from that - if she can't, nobody can!) and my next mating bite experience. I'm a weirdo, I know, but I can't help it! *helpless shrugging*
~LisaK
Hi Michelle!
Fun discussing romance with a non-romance reading fan? You're joking right? There is no such thing for me. I've tried it several times and it doesn't work. No one wants to hear anything about romance at all. It doesn't matter if it's Historical, Contemporary or Paranormal. My friends don't care! They all just shut up. They don't ask any questions and are not remotely interested.
It's the reverse. When they speak about what interests them, then I'm there. I guess I'm just that type of person. That's why I'm on message boards and in book clubs. That way I can discuss books with people who get what I'm talking about and get me and why they interests me. Because they like books for the same reasons that I do.
I used to hide my book covers, so no one could see what I was reading. That was ages ago. Now, I could care less. For the very reason, that I don't hide them anymore is why I get asked questions about them now. What are you reading? Is it good? Whose the author? I almost want to scream! Leave me alone!
But, being the model of decorum that I am, I answer the questions. I even give a little synopsis of the story. And of course, the next thing I hear. I might be interested in reading that. Can I borrow it when you're finished? I gently refrain from a flat out, big NO! I explain why I don't lend them.
There is only one people in RL that I genuinely love discussing books with. My cousin. She and I discussed books during the holidays and I took her some books that I no longer wanted. She was thrilled to get them! I was happy to give them to someone who would appreciate them as much as I did.
Kresley Cole's IAD series is absolutely wonderful! I've been waiting for Garreth's story as well. I became intrigued with him in A Hunger Like No Other. I actually thought his story was next. I can't wait to read it!
My favorite so far is A Hunger Like No Other. I've only read three, but I find that one is the best so far.
Princess, there's not a time that I don't hear Kresley Cole's name that I don't fondly think of you.
