Dreams of a Dark Warrior (Immortals After Dark 11) [Paperback]

I was lucky enough to receive a free advance copy of this book from the publisher. I read the whole thing in two sittings. It's the same Kresley Cole style that you would expect if you have read the previous 10 books.

Dreams of a Dark Warrior is Regin's story with Aiden the Beserker and, timewise, it runs exactly alongside Carrow's story and Lucia's story in the previous 2 books. There is a lovely prologue that explains how Regin and Aiden's fateful relationship first started; the story continues with the occasional flashback to one of Aiden's many reincarnations.

This book is more plot-heavy than many of the others. There really is a lot going on. There is Regin's incarceration by the Order and her attempts to escape and get to Lucia, Aiden/Declan's personal struggle with his past and his present plus a swiftly developing side-story about Lothaire.

The reasons that I have gone for 4 stars and not 5 are to do with the characters. I have always loved Regin; she's impetuous, sassy and often rude, but ultimately loyal to her loved ones. In this book, due to her situation, we don't get to see as much of her sassy side as I would have liked. In addition, Declan is a pretty hard sell as the hero. The book is as much about his redemption from a truly awful incarnation of Aiden, as it is about Regin finding a way to be with her cursed mate. Kresley Cole does manage it though, in the end. It's just that when comparing him to Malkom in the last book (who made my heart go pitter-pat), Declan just didn't quite match up.

Still, definitely buy this if you are a fan of the series because there is a lot going on here. Plenty of passion, lots of action/adventure and as usual, Ms Cole is setting up for the next few books :) Lothaire is definitely headed for one; I always suspected that he might have a greater purpose than it first appeared and that he might be a tiny bit misunderstood. This book has brought my suspicious mind to a fever pitch! I am a big fan of Lothaire after finishing it, and I vote for him to star in Book 12 please ;) There's a little setting up for Ulliam MacReive the werewolf and also for Natalya, a new character, a member of the dark fey and not forgetting Lanthe and her mysterious relationship with Kronos...

Buy it!

Oh my my what can i say.

I received this a few days ago and picked it up to read this morning and literally could not put it down.

It is the story of Regin the radiant, a Valkyrie, and sister to Lucia and Nix who we have all read about in previous stories.

It does cover a lot of old ground though, for all the people that have read the previous books Demon from the dark, and pleasure of a dark prince, you will know that Declan Chase hunter extrodinaire, kidnapped and trapped and tortured immortals inside a prison under directions from the order from which there is no escape. Solid steel walls, bulletproof shatter-proof glass, and magical torques around their necks to dampen their abilities.

In those books we were introduced to the facility and what went on there, and so to some extent we have read the story before, twice actually but that doesnt matter, it does run concurrently alongside the previous 2 books.

However this is totally Regin and Declans story, and so you do see things from a different perspective, but at times i was reading and thinking, well i already knew that why do you need to go back over it, but a lot of authors do this, maybe to get us to associate with the stories again, after all it is rather long between releases, but for me that was the only downside.

Declan Chase is hot, scorchingly so in fact and i imagined him to be a bit like Henry Cavill on Steroids, dark hair, amazing body, soulful eyes, and haunted, but beautiful.

Regin is a total contrast, tiny, long blonde hair, petite, i imagine her to be a bit like Reese Witherspoon, sexy and sassy.

They seem to be the perfect match or are they ?

The attraction and sexual tension between these 2 characters is off the charts, even from the very beginning of the story, the pages seem to burn in my hands it was that sexy, but towards the end oh my the sex scenes were written in such a way you think why cant my sex life be that good, it is always better in literature anyway lol.

I wont bore you with a synopsis, for fans of the series you already know Kresley's style of writing and im sure you will love it.

Just one thing to note, the epilogue seemed to suggest that this was the end of the line for these books, it gave a very clear description of future generations of Regin and Declan stories so im confused as to whether this was the final ever book.

I think it certainly is the end of the line for these 2 characters, and maybe Kresley has had enough for now.

I really hope not, i do believe there are many more stories to tell, personally i would like to read about Thad and his rare hybrid condition, Natalya the poisonous Fey, Uilleam and Munro Macrieve, sexy hot werewolves, what more could a girl ask for, and Nix and Lothaire certainly have a past and a secret that i would ove to read about, in fact i can envisage a rather large love triange between Natalya, Nix and Lothaire which would make excellent reading.

As always with Kresly her writing is superb, you cant fault her characters or her stories, they transport me into worlds i wished i lived in.

For all the people that have come across this book and never read any of the other i am going to list them in order here so you may read them in order, it really annoys me that Amazon dont already do this

1. Playing Easy to Get (Immortals After Dark 1)

2. Hunger Like No Other (Immortals After Dark, Book 1)

3. No Rest for the Wicked (Immortals After Dark, Book 2)

4. Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night (Immortals After Dark, Book 3)

5. Dark Needs at Night's Edge (Immortals After Dark)

6. Dark Desires After Dusk (Immortals After Dark)

7. Kiss of a Demon King

8. Deep Kiss of Winter (Immortals After Dark 8)

9. Pleasure of a Dark Prince (Immortals After Dark 9)

10. Demon From the Dark (Immortals After Dark 10)

Very highly recommended ...

Yep that's right I have not only blessed this book and series with five stars but now it has in my estimation reached epicness and I don't see that changing any time soon. This is the longest yet and even though its time-line overlaps with Lucia's and Carrow's book, every page counts. This is one intense book and very addictive. There is a lot of story here and some great new characters, Natalya the dark fey was a highlight and we also saw a little of Uilleam. Unfortunately there was no development on Lanthe and Thronos, considering where we left them I'm in agony to find out what happened.

We've been teased with Regin and Aidan's story since book two and finally we get to see in the substantial prologue how Regin first met her perfect blond Viking Berserker...and how he dies before reaching Ohalla - a Berserker's only hope of immortality - gifted by Woden when they win their 200th battle in his name. Tragically for Regin that's just the beginning of her grief because his death also marks the beginning of a terrible curse which resurrects Aidan's soul only for him to die when he finds and remembers Regin again. This has happened three times when we meet Regin in this book desperately trying to re-unite with Lucia to help her in her quest to kill the terrible Cruach.

Though we know that Regin never meets up with Lucia, instead she finds herself in the same isolated prison for immortals as Carrow. I was insanely excited to read this book when in the previous book a recently vivisected Regin hits us with the bombshell that the newest reincarnation of Aidan is Declan Chase, the Magister responsible for her capture and torture. I really wanted to see how Cole would pull this off...The mentally unhinged soldier of the mysterious Order of humans, which have been kidnapping Lorean's to experiment on, submitting them to heinous tortures before executing them is her Aidan? Riiiiiiiiiiiight. He is seemingly the antithesis of Aidan; a black haired, tormented, drugged-up, messed-up Irishman who Regin has little problem seducing into remembering who he is knowing that this will lead to his death and her freedom.

What I really loved about this book was that it wasn't really about Aidan and Reginleit, it's about Declan and Regin. Declan isn't the evil unredeemable character he is introduced to us as, instead he is a complex character who became soulless and hate filled through decades of suffering, torture, lose, drug abuse and brainwashing. His fight to overcome these things was probably the most captivating aspect of book for me, does he atone for years of monstrous deeds? No but this book isn't about that, it's about both Regin's and Declan's struggle with the past, realising what they want and having the strength to see it through. Though being happy to commit genocide is perhaps not the best quality in a hero but Declan really isn't much of a hero to anyone other than Regin. She's his dark obsession, the only thing that eases his anxiety induced by previous lives clamouring for attention and it's her which makes him want to fight his brain-washing to be a better man. Although it makes sense that before he knew her he would seek to numb his pains by seeking revenge for what was done to him and his family by evil immortals and taking drugs, it bothered me a little that he never really seemed to acknowledge that not all immortals are evil or feel any deep remorse for his actions to anyone other than Regin.

Declan does seem to get more page time than Regin, which makes sense given how much we need to soften towards him. Don't get me wrong Regin is still very much the outrageous, funny, larger than life Valkyrie we've seen previously and Cole does a good job developing her, her turmoil over all she's been through with her berserker is heart-wrenching (there might have been tears) but she says it herself she doesn't do introspection and I felt like there was something missing in her emotional development with Declan towards the end.

All-in-all this is a great read, like all the IAD books its incredibly addictive reading, an intense, sensual and dark romance. I'm already obsessing over the next book which is out Jan 2012 and is Lothaire's and his mysterious bride. I knew who would make sense and who I really wanted it to be but after getting into his head -which we get to do a lot in this book and which proved very intriguing and amusing - it looks like that's not going to happen. I'd like to say that I'm less excited for his story but who am I kidding! Cole you tease!