Book Review #8 Kiss of Midnight by Lara Adrian

[amergina]

Book: Kiss of Midnight Author: Lara Adrian 432 Pages Short Thoughts: A paranormal romance that reminded me a lot of my super secret indulgence... sheikh romances. It was hot in places, and interesting in places, but it also drove me up a wall in a lot of places.

From the cover:

He watches her from across the crowded dance club, a sensual black-haired stranger who stirs Gabrielle Maxwell’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. . . .

Vampires are the new alpha-male in romance novels... and this book *is* a romance novel, not an urban fantasy with romantic overtones. Vampires (unlike normal guys) are allowed to be dark and brooding and powerful, and rich and from another (wonderful and magical) world, which is why this book reminded me so much of sheikh romances.

The basic plot-line of a sheikh romance is that a western woman gets swept of her feet or pissed completely off (or both) by a dark, muscular, handsome rich prince from some (non-existent) enlightened and yet exotic Middle-Eastern country where they have all of the neato things about the Middle-East, but none of the scary stuff, like religion. They hate each other, they're hot for each other, something drives them together, and wham! True Love Forever.

Pretty much, this book follows that pattern (which at its barest bones, is the romance trope). Gabrielle is an up-and-coming (and stunningly beautiful) photographer. Lucan is an ancient (like 900 years) Breed Warrior, a vampire who hunts down vampires that have gone rogue and are wantonly killing humans. He falls for her, but cannot commit because he's a warrior and that's his number one priority. He's not about to tie himself down with a mate. She falls for him and discovers that he's a blood-sucking monster... or so she thinks.

Turns out these vampires are noble and fabulously wealthy and only drink the blood they need to survive. They don't need to kill and can wipe the memory of those that they feed on (or, if they want to kill, they just feed on bad guys.. drug dealers, the like). They also can procreate, the old fashion way, through sex, but only with a few select women whose DNA is compatible with them. These woman are breedmates, and the vampire who drinks from a breedmate is bound to her forever. (By feeding her his blood, the vampire keeps the breedmate eternally youthful.)

Guess what Gabrielle is. Yup.

The vampires don't have it easy, though. They are in constant danger of giving into bloodlust... the overwhelming urge to just keep drinking, to be a scourge on humanity, to become a rogue vampire. And none are more venerable than Generation One vampires.

Guess what Lucan is. Yup. That's his weakness. He's *this close* to losing it and giving into bloodlust.

Oh, yeah, the vampires are all descended from The Ancients, these beings from outer space. Yeah. That bugged me. I mean, it's an ok plot device: have a race that needs to feed on humans fall to earth and start a vampiric breed, but... but... Gen One vampires like Lucan, who are more than 900 years old, how did they *know* that their father was from another world? When he knew his father, people didn't have the concept of "another world" or "aliens" or "space ship". Those are modern concepts, not something you'd encounter or *understand* in the 1100's. These beings would be considered devils.

So, I kept trying to figure out how *they* figured out that the Ancients were crash-landed aliens... Maybe that's my scifi/fantasy background for you. It just didn't work for me.

And really, my first thought upon reading that plot device was: Vampires from outer Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaace! And then I couldn't stop giggling.

Overall, the plot was fine. It kept me engaged. The sex was pretty hot. Lucan was good and hunky. Gabrielle was dumb in places, but mostly so Lucan could rescue her. I mean, the heroine has to be in mortal danger at some point... and if you're smart and cautious, you just don't get into those situations where the bad guy kidnaps you.

I did get annoyed by one aspect of Lucan that were entirely writing-based. Lucan's voice in the beginning of the novel as an old-fashioned feel to it, how he phrased things, the way he spoke, which makes sense for someone 900 years old. But by the end of the novel, that was completely gone, and he spoke like some bulking guy out of a modern street-warrior scene. The shift was drastic and noticeable. I wonder if it was one of those things where the author changed her mind about how she was going to voice him, then didn't do a good enough job of going back and cleaning up the earlier chapters.

I also found the other breedmates (ugh. I hate that word.) kind of shallowly characterized. But that's also an aspect of this kind of romance, I think... the non-heroine women characters kind of act as a plot device to calm the new girl, and show her around the fabulous new world she's fallen into, and to tell her that the men that make up this world are fine. Really, this part reminded me *so* much of the sheikh romance, as there's always a bunch of *other* western women who have been swept up into this magical world, and they befriend the heroine and introduce her to all of the wonders this new life has to offer. I suppose they're a kind of chorus, in a way.

In addition to the romance plot between Lucan and Gabrielle, there was a sub-plot of a brewing war between the good vampires and the rogues... someone is organizing the rogues (who are usually just chaotic bloodsucking fiends). Some of the good guys die, there's a betrayal, and a foil for Lucan.

The subplot was interesting enough that I'll probably read the next in the series. This one, I'd give it a 3 out of 5 on a good day and a 2.5 out of five on a bad day.