Liviania’s review of Dreams of a Dark Warrior (Immortals After Dark, Book 11) by Kresley Cole
Paranormal romance published by Pocket 15 Feb 11
Kresley Cole introduced the story of Regin and Aiden at the beginning of her Immortals After Dark series, so I had a number of expectations when I started Dreams of a Dark Warrior. Cole does a good job of meeting those expectations in an unexpected manner by first revealing how little other characters knew about Regin’s ill-fated romance and proceeding from there.
Declan Chase is the hero of the story, not Aidan the Fierce. He’s Aidan’s reincarnation, sure, but he’s also his own person. It took awhile for me to warm up to Declan. He survived his family’s gruesome death by a group of Immortals, which caused him to hate all immortals and work with the Order to capture and study them. Preston Webb, Declan’s boss in the Order, helped to foster that unthinking hatred. Even with believable motivation for his actions, it’s hard to feel sympathetic for a guy who can’t see that torturing a sentient being is wrong. Declan also takes a lot of drugs, since he’s actually a berserker rather than a human. (I didn’t have a problem with the drug use, but I know that sort of thing bothers a lot of people.)
Regin is fun as always. Dreams of a Dark Warrior offers new perspective on how Regin became the person she is, but her character doesn’t make any big changes. She’s a fount of hilarious and deadly bad attitude. She doesn’t lightly forgive Declan’s actions, either. (Luckily, he does not directly torture her as implied in Demon from the Dark. That definitely wouldn’t be forgivable.) For me, Regin carried the romance. She found the things in Declan worth saving. Cole made it work and I’m not surprised that she did.
There are some excellent action scenes in Dreams of a Dark Warrior, mostly involving the immortals’ escape from the Order’s compound. It could seem redundant, since the same events were described in Demon from the Dark, but Cole shifts the focus enough to keep them fresh. She reveals quite a bit more about Lothaire’s motives, and his team-up with the good guys works since he’s still a backstabber and opportunist. He has an interesting chemistry with Regin’s young male cellmate who will hopefully show up again.
The bits that crossover with Pleasure of a Dark Prince are more awkward. Regin, being Lucia’s sister and best friend, is quite eager to help her throughout most of the book. The plot works if you’ve read Lucia’s book. If you haven’t, it is probably awkward to have the heroine be so concerned about a problem that she won’t solve. While Immortals After Dark fans will enjoy Dreams of a Dark Warrior, it’s not as friendly to new readers as most books in the series.
It took me time to warm up to Declan, but I was still satisfied with Regin’s romance. It was slightly disappointing after the high of Demon from the Dark, but Cole has yet to write a truly disappointing book. As is, I’m waiting on tenterhooks to know whose story is coming next. (And will Nïx become an actual goddess?) (Also, will the covers go back to having color? As awesome as the black and white looks, it makes it even harder to differentiate between the books.)
Grade: B
Read more reviews using the Immortals After Dark series tag.
Summary:
HE VOWED HE’D COME FOR HER . . .
Murdered before he could wed Regin the Radiant, warlord Aidan the Fierce seeks his beloved through eternity, reborn again and again into new identities, yet with no memory of his past lives.SHE AWAITS HIS RETURN . . .
When Regin encounters Declan Chase, a brutal Celtic soldier, she recognizes her proud warlord reincarnated. But Declan takes her captive, intending retribution against all immortals—unaware that he belongs to their world.
TO SATE A DESIRE MORE POWERFUL THAN DEATH . . .
Yet every reincarnation comes with a price, for Aidan is doomed to die when he remembers his past. To save herself from Declan’s torments, will Regin rekindle memories of the passion they once shared—even if it means once again losing the only man she could ever love?
Read an excerpt here.
Other books in this series:
I didn’t even notice the covers didn’t have color – how observant am I? But what drives me nuts – sorry, “cray-cray” – is how similar the titles are. I double-dog dare her to have a title next that doesn’t include the words “dark” or “demon”.
I loved the book. I was growing very tired of the series, but this book was excellent. The last two barely kept my interest, but this one was a page-turner. I didn’t have a problem with Declan – he went through some bad things, believed some lies, based his life on them, it happens. I felt he redeemed himself. Regin was a delight. Very funny lines. All in all, I will re-read this one. I might even reread the previous two first, how successful of a series is that?
I love how everybody has different favorites in the series. But it’s natural that different books work better for different people.
And don’t forget to ban words she’s used at least twice, like “Wicked,” “Winter,” and “Kiss.”
I kinda like the black and white headless covers – but as long as there aren’t any more like Wicked Deeds… I’m good. Man, that’s ugly. 😉
I ended up liking Declan but not as much as some of her other heroes. Regin is always fun though.
Here’s a question – how do you hear her name in your head? Ray-gun (heh, ray gun!!) or Ree-gun or Ray-jheen or something completely different? To me it’s Ray-gun.
I love the way they look . . . I just have trouble quickly picking out which is which.
Yeah, I ended up liking him, but it just took longer than usual. No matter how well I understood the character, it took awhile to form an emotional connection.
I read Regin as REE-gun . . . so, like you but with a long e instead of a short one.
Liviania, Lothaire’s book is up next, with a tentative pub. date of Jan. ’12 (a whole year away!). No word on his heroine yet, except that she’s so evil she even gives Lothaire pause!
Oh, and I hear it as REE-gun, with a long-E, too.