Dark Desires After Dusk (Immortals After Dark, #5)
Kresley Cole
RITA Award-winning author Kresley Cole continues her bestselling Immortals After Dark series with this electrifying tale of a ruthless demon mercenary and the lovely young halfling who enchants him. A seductive beauty he can never have, yet can't resist... Cadeon Woede will stop at nothing to atone for the one wrong that will haunt him forever. But once he secures the key to his redemption, the halfling Holly Ashwin, Cade finds that the woman he thought he could use for his own ends and then forget haunts him as much as his past. A tormented warrior she should fear, but can't deny... Raised as a human, Holly never knew that some frightening legends are real until she encounters a brutal demon who inexplicably guards her like a treasure. Thrust into a sensual new world of myth and power, with him as her protector, she begins to crave the demon's wicked touch. Surrender to dark desires... Yet just when he earns Holly's trust, will Cade be forced to betray the only woman who can sate his wildest needs -- and claim his heart?
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3 stars
OVERALL: While it was fun to watch Holly come into her own self, I didn't love the hero Cade and overall felt like there was less tension and conflict in this story compared to previous IAD books. This is a road-trip romance with forced proximity and numerous steamy sessions, but landed a bit flat for me.
Content Warnings: sexually explicit content, profanity, violence, murder, betrayal, blood, (mentioned) death of a family member, mentioned serial killer
This was the first IAD I read instead of listened to, which was okay with me as I'd not loved Cade's accent in earlier audios.
At 53%: I read the first half of the book very quickly, and even just a couple days later I'm struggling to remember what happened...
Cadeon and Holly are essentially on a roadtrip where they're getting the next leg at each destination like the Amazing Race. Holly is trying to come to grips with her own changing nature and is also fighting her growing attraction to Cade. I liked Holly as a character and enjoyed reading her "awakening" to her true self.
Cade was not a great hero for me--he wasn't making good decisions or much sense--he is trying to get Holly to open up and have a good time, and he is determined to use their time together for her to experience as much pleasure as possible. But he's able to 100% shut down any thought of how he will betray her or what their time together will ultimately do to both of them...??
I felt like overall the characters were okay but I didn't love Cade, and this book lacked some internal conflict and tension. That's not super fair of me to say because it was there, I just felt it was weak and didn't care about the internal conflicts. And the external conflicts/action/fights of enemies was too easy, even for the recently-turned Holly, who should have been under-trained and weaker? They just blew easily through the major plot conflicts. Not sure why this book didn't resonate with me as much as others.
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