Veil of Midnight
Midnight Breed Novel, Book Five
by Lara Adrian
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Veil of Midnight is the fifth book in the Midnight Breed Series, and as a Vampiers series, I have to say this is the longest and best series I have read. Typically with a Vampire series, I get bored with it after a few books because it is always the same and yet this series has kept me guessing, it has followed different characters each time, but brought back familair loved characters too and kept me wanting to read more.
Veil of Midnight follows Nikolai on a misson that brings him into danger with an older Gen One Breed male and as he witnesses the cruel and inhumane ways of this male, he meets a woman, a Breedmate, who know nothing of the Breed except what little she was exposed to with the older cruel Gen One, and he has the task of explaining that the whole world is not like that and that there is a whole world of Breed out there completely different.
Reneta is a Breedmate, and she has only known the cruelty of the Gen One male that controls her. She wants to escape, but has no idea how, and is not sure what to make of Niko, he is so different than t=what she is used to, but at the same time she feels she can trust him.
Mira is a little girl, also a breedmate, caught up in this whole story, used as a plaything by one male and a pawn by another. The only person who cares for her is Reneta, and she has promised to take care of Mira, now Reneta must look to Niko to keep her promise.
It is a completely different story, yet at the same time, the same major fight is at the root of this story and they same things are going own but in such a different and unquiet way that it feels like a whole new story in a whole new setting.
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Lara Adrian
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/Lara_Adrian
Website Link: http://www.laraadrian.com
Midnight Breed Series
0.5 A Touch of Midnight
1. Kiss of Midnight My Review
2. Kiss of Crimson My Review
3. Midnight Awakening My Review
4. Midnight Rising My Review
5. Veil of Midnight My Review
6. Ashes of Midnight My Review
7. Shades of Midnight My Review
8. Taken by Midnight
9. Deeper than Midnight
9.5 A Taste of Midnight
10. Darker after Midnight
11. Edge of Dawn
11.5 Marked by Midnight
12. Crave the Night
12.5 Tempted by Midnight
Dragon Chalice Series
1. Heart of the Hunter
2. Heart of the Flame
3. Heart of the Dove
Warrior Trilogy
1. White Lion's Lady (currently free on amazon.com as a kindle download)
2. Black Lion's Bride
3. Lady of Valor
Midnight Rising
Midnight Breed Novel, Book Four
by Lara Adrian
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Midnight Rising is the fourth book in the Midnight Breed series. I have to admit up front at this point, after having read and reveiwed three of theses books, and starting this fourth, that I really like this series. I like the overall concept of the Vampire, yet not undead, a living being that reproduces and is in all rights a being much like a human, just other worldly. In this series, there is never the making of a new vampire, only a minon, and that process, while we find it still happening was outlawed as inhuman. So we find that they are cultured and normal and living within what are the normal perimeters of human life, and that appeals to a great deal of people.
Once again this book follows the Order on their never-ending missions to stop those out there that want to take over and get rid of the human race or at the lease enslave them. At the end of the last book, we found them in a border mountain not far from Prague where they found the hibernation chamber of an acient one that had already been awakened and removed. Rio; poor battered, bruised, and unstable Rio asked to stay behind to close up the cave and the rest returned to Boston.
We have to return to the first book to pick up Rio's story, on a mission one night Rio took the majority of an attack only to return badly injured and barely alive to find out that his Breedmate Eva had sold the Order out to force him to leave the Order, which Rio would not do, so he denounced her, and she killed herself. This left Rio in and even worse state of mind than state of body. We worked for a year, through the books to recover enough to be able to go on the final mission of book three with them. But still, he was not all well.
In book four, months have passed since the team left Rio in the cave near Prague. He is still hidden deep within, but he is giving in to his mind and the dreams and the anger. He feels he is of no use to the team, the scars are too much for him to bear and no one will be able to look at him like that anymore, he is sure of it, his plan, to use the explosives he has with him him to close of the cave and close himself into the cave. The problem is that he is weak, he is no longer feeding and he is having trouble standing or concentrating. He just sleeps.
On an unplanned vacation of her own, Dylan Alexander is walking past the caves when she sees a ghost asking her to help him, help who she thinks, Dylan hates this, she has seen random ghosts all her life and she has never understood why, on curiosity she wanders into the cave, only to awaken a sleeping Rio and notice a drawing on the wall that has her confused, it looks exactly like her own birthmark. As she takes pictures, the confusions clears from Rio and he realizes he has a mess to clean up.
I am always so impressed with the writing and the way the story flows in this series, that I am turning page after page and before I know it I am done with the book and I am still wanting more. I love this series. I really feel it is well written and easy to connect to and even if you don't like a typical dark, foreboding vampire series, you might like this. These vampires are anything but dark and foreboding. The are powerful warriors. Each over six feet tall, well built and full of muscles with patterns of glyphs, sorta like tattoos that they are born with, over a majority of their bodies that change color depending on mood.
Even though this is book four, and you get a great deal of Rio's story in the previous books, you could still pick this book up and read it without reading the others. Of course if you did that, you would probably be hooked and running out to catch up!
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Midnight Awakening
Midnight Breed Novel, Book Three
by Lara Adrian
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Midnight Awakening is the third book in the Midnight Breed series. Even though it is a part of a series, and it is best read in order, if you happened upon this book and read it without knowing of the first two books, you would be able to follow the story and enjoy it well enough.
This book finds us focusing on Tegan, who is a first generation breed and his struggles over the many centuries he has been around, his hurts and how he has shut his emotions down so deeply so as to not awakening the feelings that almost killed him in the past. He has fought the dreaded Bloodlust and come out on top, but it cost him the ultimate sacrifice. Tegan is over six feet tall, has the glyphs and the sexist thing, he is described at one point in a pair of blue jeans with the top button undone. The image of this is enough to make my knees go weak! Something about the glyphs and the muscles of these Breed males just does me in!
We are re-introduced to Elise, who has been raised all her life in the Darkhavens, but after the deaths of her mate and her son, she has taken it upon herself to fight the rogues herself. Elise is also the sister-in-law to Sterling, or better known as Harvard, and he has always wanted her for his own, even when she was married to his brother. This truth comes up, Elise never realized it in all the time she lived with Sterling.
We also travel to Germany in this book and met, Andreas, who is a Darkhaven member, but one who has been helped by the Order in the past and is willing to go out of his way to help them now. He is above the corruption that is being found in the Darkhavens in the previous books, and most likely in the future books as well.
I loved the book, as well as the first two, loved the way it was written and how the story and characters flowed. I got into them and wanted to know more about them and to find out what happens. But I find that the more I read the books, the less I feel able to reveal in the reviews, because I don't want to give away too much, and I kinda feel protective of the story's now that I have read so far into the series.
All I can say is it is gonna be a LONG wait for the next book to get here next week!
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Kiss of Midnight
Midnight Breed Novel, Book One
by Lara Adrian
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is the first book in the Midnight Breed Series, which follows a lineage of Vampires bent on protecting the Human race from learning about their exsistance.
We are introduced to Lucan, probably one of the oldest of the Breed and learn the history of how the Breed began and was started. We also meet the other warriors working with him, Tegan, another older Breed; Dante, Rio, Nikolai, Conlan and Gideon. As we learn of the Warriors and what they do and how they protect the human race from "Rogue" Vampires, we learning another interesting fact, all of the Breed are male.
There are a line of females, called Breedmates, that are actually human woman that have a specific genetic difference that allows them to mate and produce offspring for the Breed. They are highly valued and honored and respected. The thing is, can you image what a shock to the system it is to the women when they find out they are Breedmates?
The first book follows Lucan through a rough period where he is fighting an addiction called Bloodlust, it is the taking of too much blood, more than needed to sustane him, and it is what turns vampires rogue and very dangerous. As an older generation vampire he must fight it more and be weary of it all the time, and as he is fighting he discovers a woman that has the uncanny knack for actually seeing the vampires, for photographing their homes and for not being susceptible to the memory erase that the vampires use when they have to on humans to allow them to forget encounters with vampires. Then, while trying to protect Gabrielle he discovers she is a Breedmate, and he knows even more that he has to protect her, and he has to explain everything to her, which doesn't go as well as he wishes.
All of this is occurring as the Rogues are organizing and launching a full war on the Breed, things are changing and life is getting more and more dangerous for the Breed and the Humans, and can this small bunch of warriors be enough to fight them all off.
I loved this book! I loved the way the story line developed, I felt for both the mains in the book, and in fact I was so excited to see where the next book would go and to keep following all the characters. I really enjoyed the depth that the author went to, to bring the people to life, to give them a real personality and a history and to make you feel for them. You wanted them to work things out, you wanted happiness and you wanted the good guys to win. It was so well written and flowed so well, that I sat to read and before I knew it the book was done!
The other thing that I really was impressed with was the descriptions of the Breed. The men are large, usually over six foot and well built with lots of muscles. They also carry dermoglyphs, which look kinda like tattoos, but are naturally occurring and change colors based on moods. i can picture these men in my head, and they are something else. There is just something about them that attracts you and makes you wish they were real.
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The Concealing
by D.E.L. Connor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Five teens, the best of friends, find that they are not only friends, but they have a mission in life. They are Spirit Warriors, they can move their own spirit to share the body of an animal, then back to their own body. What a trick to learn when you are 15! Spirit Warriors follows these five friends as they are brought to a time when they are needed to use their powers to defeat an evil. They have trained and looked for the evil for awhile now, but when they are finally confronted with it, they are surprised. It came in a disguise that no one would have expected and almost lead them into trouble.
The Spirit Warriors is well written and entertaining, and with the main characters all being in the middle teens, they bring in a world of issues from that same teen life. This makes the story good for the teen and young adult market, while keeping the topics of abuse and homosexuality, which are mentioned in a brighter light. As the discussion progresses one night, one of the guys admits his true leanings to the friends, and the discussion is nothing short of heart-warming. Nothing of the actually abuse is described but more alluded to, and so I find that they way the kids work through finding out these things to be beneficial to readers. The abuse is never talked about, but only realized after the fact and then the fight to make sure people know what really happened is encouraging.
Some will say this is the perfect book for girls, and while there are three girl teens in the main cast, there are also three boys throughout the book, two in the original circle of five, and a newcomer that will end up playing a large role in the end. I find that it has a mix that although girls will get it and enjoy it, there is still enough action and adventure to interest the boys as well. It is a coming-of-age novel that has to deal with the harsh realities of life, and at the same time, it entertains you with the spirits.
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