Title: A Hunger Like No Other (Immortals After Dark, Book #1)
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Author: Kresley Cole
Publisher: Pocket Star, Mar 2006
Source: Kindle purchase
Rating: 3
Sexy Rating: 5
Description from amazon.com:
A mythic warrior who’ll stop at nothing to possess her . . .
After enduring years of torture from the vampire horde, Lachlain MacRieve, leader of the Lykae Clan, is enraged to find the predestined mate he’s waited millennia for is a vampire. Or partly one. This Emmaline is a small, ethereal half Valkyrie/half vampire, who somehow begins to soothe the fury burning within him.
A vampire captured by her wildest fantasy . . .
Sheltered Emmaline Troy finally sets out to uncover the truth about her deceased parents — until a powerful Lykae claims her as his mate and forces her back to his ancestral Scottish castle. There, her fear of the Lykae — and their notorious dark desires — ebbs as he begins a slow, wicked seduction to sate her own dark cravings.
An all-consuming desire . . .
Yet when an ancient evil from her past resurfaces, will their desire deepen into a love that can bring a proud warrior to his knees and turn a gentle beauty into the fighter she was born to be?
**
This was a re-read for me. I first read this book and several more in the series back in the day when I was just getting off the Twilight series and looking for more paranormal romance books. I vaguely remembered that I liked this one and not so much the rest of the series. Frankly I can’t remember why. However, times change and so do my tastes apparently.
Although this book is well written by accomplished author Kresley Cole, the characters are so cartoonish as to be beyond even paranormal reality. The world she creates is intriquing and very scary but it is very difficult to like any of the characters that populate that world. The group of Valkyrie women that Emmaline grew up with is violent and a bit crazy. The Vampires are divided into two factions, The Horde and The Forebearers, the former violent and murderous, the latter not so. The Lykae are werewolves who are obviously very sexually aggressive and search for their one true mate. There are more paranormal and supernatural beings in this book who play minor roles. There is an appendix in the back of the book to define each of these beings.
The hero, Lachlain, is not so heroic since Emmaline is actually the one who dispatches the bad guy. The love story is not so much about love as possession. The protagonists call it love but it never actually looks like anything other than obsession and compulsion.
The author has a recent release, LOTHAIRE, about a character that is mentioned in this book. I’ve a mind to read that book to see if Ms Cole has adopted any more politically correct stances in this series since its start seven years ago.
I do recommend this book for the amazing action scenes. This is the kind of book that induces heated discussions. For that it probably should rate a 4-star rating from me.
La Deetda Reads 