Eternal Kiss of Darkness by Jeaniene Frost

Title: Eternal Kiss of Darkness

Author: Jeaniene Frost

Release Date: July 27, 2010

*If you have not read all the previous books in the Night Huntress Series this might contain spoilers*

An immortal war has been brewing in the darkness…and now one woman has stumbled into the shadows.

Chicago private investigator Kira Graceling should have just kept on walking. But her sense of duty refused to let her ignore the moans of pain coming from inside a warehouse just before dawn. Suddenly she finds herself in a world she’s only imagined in her worst nightmares.

At the center is Mencheres, a breathtaking Master Vampire who thought he’d seen it all. Then Kira appears—this fearless, beautiful…human who braved death to rescue him. Though he burns for her, keeping Kira in his world means risking her life, yet sending her away is unthinkable.

But with danger closing in, Mencheres must choose between the woman he craves, or embracing the darkest magic to defeat an enemy bent on his eternal destruction

Summary from Goodreads.com

My Review: This is the latest spin off book from Jeaniene Frost in her Night Huntress World and it is focuses on Mencheres.  In all the books we have seen him in the past, he seems to be sad and unhappy with his life.  I guess I never really thought about it before, but he has been alive for thousands of years, most of them he spent married to a woman who hated him.  If that wasn’t bad enough, she also tried to kill him and his line out of fear.  This resulted in him having to put actions into place to kill off his own wife and now the guilt he feels is overpowering him.  He has thousands of years of blood on his hands, no wife, and while he is surrounded by people who respect him, there is not really a whole lot of love in his life.

Enter Kira, she happens to stumble upon Mencheres being attacked by ghouls (though she does not know that) and tries to help him.  She ends up getting hurt in the battle and Mencheres has to heal her, during the process Mencheres also realizes she has seen to much and takes her with him to wipe her memory.  This turns out to be a problem because he cannot seem to do it and so Kira stays with him a while.  While time goes by Kira’s attraction to Mencheres grows and soon she finds she may not want to leave even if she can.

The emotion that took me by surprise the most in this book was Mencheres’ sadness, well really it is depression.  It is always present as the book evolves and he is constantly trying to talk Kira out of being around him.  He feels like his life has been to full of pain and suffering and he does not deserve her in his life.  Kira does not want to hear it though, she is judging him for what he is now, not where his past actions led him.  Which you have to admit is a lot easier said than done.  That is how people should look at others, but it rarely actually happens.  It is almost a blessing that she did not know Mencheres before though because she essentially gives him a clean slate to start over with her.

I love Kira, she is tough, strong willed, and not afraid to fight for what she wants.  She is also not afraid to stand up for Mencheres which is a rare event in the vampire world.  He has made a lot of enemies and not everyone trusts him.  Even some of his closest friends throw insults his way.  They are probably meant to be in jest, but they still affect him and Kira sees it.  She does not care about what they think they know about him because she has undying faith in him and she is proud to stand by him.  I found that quality in her quite admirable and it was refreshing to see Mencheres get a fair shot at things.  Sure, he has done a lot of things in his past, but doesn’t everyone deserve a second chance?  I think so, and that is what Kira is for him.

Bones and Cat make a couple brief appearances in this one, which I love.  I also liked seeing Cat and her brief interaction with Kira.  Cat is one bad a$% chick, if I ran into her I know I would be intimidated.  But Kira holds her ground with Cat and does not seem to be intimidated at all.  It was quite impressive and knocked Kira up a notch in my book.  I hope we get to see her again in the future Cat and Bones stuff.  Oh, even Vlad comes into play a couple of times, I miss that guy.  I know he is supposed to be scary and what not, but he is one of my favorites.  I hope we get to see a spin off book with him in it because that would be really interesting.

Overall, this book was fantastic.  I loved getting to know Mencheres better and I feel like I understand him more now.  In the past books I have not really taken to him, but this book changed my mind.  Once again Jeaniene has managed to keep me completely engrossed in her world and I loved every minute of it