A Bookworms Haven

Title: King of Darkness

Author: Elisabeth Staab

Release Date: Februrary 1st, 2012

Genre: Adult Paranormal Romance

ETERNAL COMMITMENT IS NOT ON HER AGENDA…

Scorned by the vampire community for her lack of power, Isabel Anthony lives a carefree existence masquerading as human—although, drifting among the debauched human nightlife, she prefers the patrons’ blood to other indulgences. But when she meets the king of vampires this party girl’s life turns dark and dangerous.

BUT TIME’S RUNNING OUT FOR THE KING OF VAMPIRES…

Dead-set on finding the prophesied mate who will unlock his fiery powers, Thad Morgan must find his queen before their race is destroyed. Their enemies are gaining ground, and Thad needs his powers to unite his subjects. But when his search leads him to the defiant Isabel, he wonders if fate has gotten it seriously wrong…

Summary from Goodreads.com

My Review: King of Darkness is the first book in a new series from Elisabeth Staab. It focuses on Thad, the king of the vampires, searching for his mate to help him rule. When he finally finds her, the situation she is in is the very last one he ever expected. I did not quite see it coming either and loved that the first chapter we get with this couple was filled with humor and unexpected situations.

I like the idea behind this book and the direction the storyline was heading, but it felt like something was missing. I think it was the emotional connection between Thad and Isabel that was lacking the most. Once I did get to know Thad and Isabel better, I grew to like them, but it did take a while. I think that this story has a lot of potential; I just wanted more of an emotional connection. This was one of those books when the characters leap in with lust and grow to love later. Their dialogue also seemed to be a little inconsistent. The way they spoke did not always line up with their actions and it was almost like two different characters words were coming out of the one characters mouth.

There were also multiple storylines going on in this book and it took me a little while to adjust. Being a lover of paranormal romance, I know that multiple stories go on at the same time, but there are at least five going on in this book and at times it was a lot to take in. I did get into the swing of it eventually, but just a heads up that you will have a couple of people’s fates running through your head as you read this book. I am sure getting into the heads of both Anton and Tyra will help set up their book since we already have a connection with them from this one. I am interested to see where their story will take them, especially since they are on opposite sides of this war.

Overall, I am intrigued by this world, but I am not in love with it. I wanted to connect with Thad and Isabel more and I just didn’t. When the next book comes out, I will give it a try and just hope for more of a connection. Since we do get to see so much from Anton and Tyra and this book I think I will enjoy their book more. I would read a couple other reviews or read a few of chapters before you give this book a try to see what others think and get a feel for the multiple point of views.

FTC: Thank you to the publisher for letting me read this ARC through NetGalley.

Title: Eternal Captive

Author: Laura Wright

Release Date: February 7th, 2012

Genre: Adult Paranormal Romance

*If you have not read Eternal Hunger (review here) or Eternal Kiss (review here) this may contail spoilers*

Since feeding her his blood, Lucian Roman has struggled with his obsession with Bronwyn Kettler-fighting an uncontrollable desire to kill her, if he has to, and the vampire she has sworn to wed. But when a dangerous enemy threatens Bronwyn, only Lucian can save her life. Even if it means sacrificing his own…

Summary from Goodreads.com

My Review: Wow! I am struggling with words for this book. It was just so awesome; my heart was going a mile a minute for the last fifty pages! Alright, I am going to try and calm down and put my incoherent excited squeals into actually words, haha. So, we are back with the Roman brothers and I will admit that this is the book I have been looking forward to the most. Lucian has always commanded my attention whenever he was mentioned and I could not wait to see what trouble he was going to get into! I started it one night hoping to get about halfway through and I ended up consuming the entire thing in one sitting. I could not do anything else until I read every single word.

Onto the characters, let’s talk about Lucian, shall we? I really liked the other two brothers, Nicky and Alex, but I LOVED Lucian. He is such an obnoxious, arrogant, pompous jerk. You would think those would be bad qualities, but not when it comes to Lucian. He manages to spin those normally negative qualities into something incredibly lovable in spite of his rough demeanor. I don’t know how Bronwyn resisted him for so long because I know that could not have been easy. Out of the three brothers Lucian’s journey is the toughest. He is sure he will be the breeding male and that thought terrifies and torments him. My heart broke for him when he thinks he is never going to have love for himself and yet he desperately craves it. Bronwyn is just as tormented trying to guard her heart from someone that will never have a true mate, but fails miserably. It is impossible not to feel for these two and pray that they find a way to be together.

The plot in this story was addicting! I was going to read until I found a good stopping point for the night, but that never happened. There is so much going on and so many stories that tie into this one that I could not bear to part with it. So many lives are affected in this book and Laura does an amazing job of developing the characters so you care about what happens to each and every one. Lucian and Bronwyn’s journey has so many twists and turns that I did not see coming and it kept me on the edge of my seat. There is not a dull moment with the action or the romance and Laura’s writing just keeps getting better with each book.

The secondary plots in this story are equally intriguing. We get to see brief glimpses into the mind of the villain, which I always find fascinating, Synjon, the paven Browyn is set to marry and we get to see what Gray and Dillon have been up too. Synjon is a character I did not expect to like since he is in direct competition with Lucian, but he grew on me as the story progressed. He is a puzzle and has a tragic past that helped me empathize with him. I cannot say too much more about him without spoiling things, but I am desperately hoping we get to see more from him. The way we left him at the end of Eternal Captive was heartbreaking and I would love to see his story develop further. As for Gray and Dillon, wow! There is a huge revelation about her and I am hoping that she and Gray will get their own book so we can see this explored further as well.

The only thing that caught me off guard was the ending. It just happened so fast, I did not realize things would wrap up that quickly. I just wanted there to be a little more detail there, but overall the book was still fantastic. It could also be that I was reading so quickly the resolution just snuck up on me. Either way, it did not at all dilute my love for this book.

I could keep going on about all the reasons why I love this book, but instead I am just going to tell you to go read it. I dare you to try and read this book without finishing it all at once. I don’t think it is possible actually, it is just too good. So, what did we learn from this review? Go read this book and if you have not read this series, then go to your bookstore, find Eternal Hunger and start! Or download it to your e-reader immediately! Got it? Good!

FTC: Thank you very much to the publisher for sending me this book to review.