After reading a string of books that left me feeling meh, I turned to Kresley Cole's Dreams of a Dark Warrior and immediately perked up. Cole's stories are peopled with female characters who are strong and funny, just so entertaining. A Kresley Cole book is never dull.
Regin, a Valkyrie and Aiden, a Viking berserker are cruelly torn apart when Aiden is murdered in her arms. But there is a curse that causes Aiden to be reborn over and over again, with no memory of his previous incarnations. He will only regain his memory when he kisses Regin and then he will die again, shortly after making love to her for the first time. See, that's why it's a curse.
This time around Aiden has been reborn as Declan Chase, enemy and torturer of the Lore. And when I say torture I mean things like vivisection on conscious victims. Declan hates anyone and anything that has to do with the Lore. His goal is eradication. Regin recognizes that Declan is Aidan. To stop his barbaric practices she can manipulate him into remembering who is really is but in doing so, she signs his death warrant. Talk about conflict...
There is a dark tenor to this book (Dude! Stone cold vivisection!), that worked for me. It made the stakes really high and kept me riveted to the page. When the hero is a violent, damaged junky, a hearts and flowers story just doesn't cut it.
However, I didn't quite buy the HEA for these two characters. It happened to soon. I think when your lover has perpetuated heinous acts upon your kind, it takes more than a big grovel to make amends - even if he had a good reason to act the way he did. That's the kind of thing that takes time, lots and lots of time.
But, I was entertained by this book. I love Cole's characters and the world they inhabit. I love that the characters are more than humans with magic powers, they have their own morality and sense of justice. This is the 11th book in the series and it is still going strong. I'm already looking forward to the next book in the series.
Grade: B +
Regin, a Valkyrie and Aiden, a Viking berserker are cruelly torn apart when Aiden is murdered in her arms. But there is a curse that causes Aiden to be reborn over and over again, with no memory of his previous incarnations. He will only regain his memory when he kisses Regin and then he will die again, shortly after making love to her for the first time. See, that's why it's a curse.
This time around Aiden has been reborn as Declan Chase, enemy and torturer of the Lore. And when I say torture I mean things like vivisection on conscious victims. Declan hates anyone and anything that has to do with the Lore. His goal is eradication. Regin recognizes that Declan is Aidan. To stop his barbaric practices she can manipulate him into remembering who is really is but in doing so, she signs his death warrant. Talk about conflict...
There is a dark tenor to this book (Dude! Stone cold vivisection!), that worked for me. It made the stakes really high and kept me riveted to the page. When the hero is a violent, damaged junky, a hearts and flowers story just doesn't cut it.
However, I didn't quite buy the HEA for these two characters. It happened to soon. I think when your lover has perpetuated heinous acts upon your kind, it takes more than a big grovel to make amends - even if he had a good reason to act the way he did. That's the kind of thing that takes time, lots and lots of time.
But, I was entertained by this book. I love Cole's characters and the world they inhabit. I love that the characters are more than humans with magic powers, they have their own morality and sense of justice. This is the 11th book in the series and it is still going strong. I'm already looking forward to the next book in the series.
Grade: B +
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