In this next installment in the Immortals After Dark Series, USA Today Bestselling author Kresley Cole delivers a scorching tale about a forbidding vampire who lives in the shadows and the beautiful assassin who hunts him there.
A vampire soldier weary of life...
Centuries ago, Sebastian Wroth was turned into a vampire—a nightmare in his mind—against his will. Burdened with hatred and alone for ages, he sees little reason to live. Until an exquisite, fey creature comes to kill him, inadvertently saving him instead.
A valkyrie assassin dispatched to destroy him...
When Kaderin the Cold Hearted lost her two beloved sisters to a vampire attack long ago, a benevolent force deadened her sorrow—accidentally extinguishing all of her emotions. Yet whenever she encounters Sebastian, her feelings—particularly lust—emerge multiplied. For the first time, she's unable to complete a kill.
Competitors in a legendary hunt...
The prize of the month-long contest is powerful enough to change history, and Kaderin will do anything to win it for her sisters. Wanting only to win her, forever, Sebastian competes as well, taking every opportunity—as they travel to ancient tombs and through catacombs, seeking relics around the world—to use her new feelings to seduce her. But when forced to choose between the vampire she's falling for and reuniting her family, how can Kaderin live without either?
My Review:
In No Rest For The Wicked, the third installment of Kresley Cole’s (KC) Immortals After Dark Series, we continue with Nikolai’s side of the family and how they find their Brides.
We learn that once Nikolai was turned into a vampire, he sets out to turn his entire family as well. His sisters, unfortunately, didn’t survive the transition and two of his brothers, Sebastian and Conrad, resented Nikolai for centuries for turning them into abominations.
Sebastian, who was a scholar in life, now lurks in darkness, hiding away from the world, always hoping there will be a chance when he can get his brother back for turning him into the thing he hates the most. But then one day he chances upon Kaderin, a Valkyrie hired by the local townspeople to dispatch him.
Hearing his heart beat for the first time in centuries, he discovers she is his Bride. Kaderin is also likewise affected when she first meets Sebastian and cannot control the attraction she feels toward the vampire.
But though Kaderin gives in to her lust, she quickly leaves Sebastian, fearing she’ll turn into the laughingstock of the Lore when they find out she’s fallen for a vampire. Sebastian is love-struck and sets to follow her, turning into the only vampire who can trace to a person – not a place.
Sebastian finds Kaderin at The Talisman’s Hie, a tournament for supernatural beings hosted by Riora, a goddess who is giving the winner the ultimate prize – Thrane’s Key: a talisman that can take you back in time allowing you to correct a past mistake.
Every Lore Being intent on erasing a past misdeed from different factions shows up to win the coveted prize and Sebastian and Kaderin are thrust in the middle of everything. Should they team up and win the prize, or is it every supe for themselves?
What I liked about No Rest For The Wicked:
BOWEN! Oh, Bowen your story is so tragic and you’re such a tortured hero, I can’t help but fall in love with you. *faints* I was rooting for you to win. 
Humor. As in every KC book, there is a lot of humor and pop culture references that kept me chuckling along the way as I skimmed read this book. Just love how much the Valkyries hate nymphs! LOL
What I disliked about No Rest For The Wicked:
Lack of Transition. I’m not sure what is wrong with me and KC’s shaky startups from book 1-3. It takes me awhile to acclimate since –correct me if I’m wrong – but a book series is supposed to take off from where the previous book ended. Instead we get all sorts of cray-cray settings and different characters that I always start thinking somehow they are related or I’m trying to find what links one to the other. Gah! In this book we are just literally dropped into Sebastian’s home where sexxy times ensue with Kaderin.
*SPOILERS* But in the last book, timid Emma destroyed Demestriu, the king of the vampires, who turned out to be her father. What happened after that? Did the vampire Horde swear allegiance to her? Did Kristoff, Nikolai’s general, come to see her? What??? Put aside the sexxy times with obscure characters, KC, WTF happened with that? 
We don’t hear anything about this until book 12!!! Are you kidding me?
No Harpies! As I kept reading about the Hie tournament, I kept asking myself where have I read this before? This sounds sooooo familiar, bad familiar mind you, not good familiar. Then it hit me:
The Harpy Games! Noooo! *screams in horror* The Hie tournament in this book reminded me of the Gena Showalter’s Harpy Games – and y’all know I needed brain bleach to make me forget that book and it obviously didn’t work I felt about that book.
The only difference being of course, that the tournament is open to everyone and oh by the way, pay attention fellow readers, this book marks SEVERAL “catch-up book” moments to come as obscure characters who participated in the Hie each get their book. Yippee! I’ll need to order brain bleach by the truck loads. *le sigh*
Can’t Skip It: I wish I could give this book 1 kiss and tell you to skip it, unless of course you ACTUALLY enjoyed GS’ Harpy Games *eye vein bursts*, but unfortunately you can’t. As stated above, several coming books stem from this one and you’ll be lost if you do kiss it good-bye. But in plots that go nowhere and take up our reading time, Kaderin sets out to win the Hie to bring back her dead Valkyrie sisters. As of book 12, I have no clue what became of this storyline. *smh*
“You know what the prize is?” she asked, but Bowen wasn’t listening. The witches had just arrived—one called Mariketa the Awaited and another woman Kaderin didn’t know—and he was busy scowling at them. “If you’re this easily distracted,” Kaderin said, “I’ll have no problems.”
He bit out, “What are they doing here?”
Kaderin quirked a brow. “They’re here to compete. As they do every Hie.”
She knew the Lykae never purchased magicks from the House of Witches—the Lore’s mystical mercenaries. Kaderin had heard a hundred discountable rumors why, and on occasion, she’d speculated at the truth. She couldn’t imagine life without the convenience of spells—which could vampire-proof chains and trace-proof cages—any more than she could imagine life without showers. Both scenarios were barbaric to Kaderin.
Now, seeing Bowen’s expression, Kaderin wondered if the Lykae eschewed buying spells simply because the witches creeped them out. “Do you know what the prize is?” she asked again.
“I doona ken exactly,” he said, his attention locked on the two. “But I know enough to warn you that I’ll kill for it.” He finally faced her to say, “And I daresay killing you would jeopardize the Lykae’s tenuous truce with the Valkyrie.”
“So, because of Emma and Lachlain’s marriage, I should back out? Even though this is my competition, and has been since you were a wittle puppy?”
He shrugged his broad shoulders. “I’d rather no’ hurt you, all in all. I’ve never struck a female, much less done the damage I’ve heard this contest calls for. Damage like you’ve meted out.”
“Werewolf, don’t hate the player—hate the game.” She turned from him, dismissing him. An early broken leg would put the dog out.
At least there wasn’t a vamp—
The vampire appeared out of thin air.
Her claws scrabbled along the railing as she fought to stay upright.
How in the hell did he find me? She had marble under four claws from where she’d just saved herself from a fall.
He’d first appeared in the back of the gallery, and now she watched as he traced into a darkened corner. No one had noticed him yet—or they’d be scattering as if someone had puled the fire alarm—because he was able to half-trace, barely visible and unscentable to the low creatures. She’d seen vampires who were able to do that clever trick, but they’d been much older.
Yet she’d seen him perfectly. And, great Freya, if he’d been handsome before, now the vampire was devastating. Everything about him was different. He’d gained muscle in the last week, making his shoulders broader and the muscles in his arms and legs fuller. His clothing was casual but expensive, with a tailored fit that highlighted his powerful body. His thick, straight black hair was still long but trimmed.
But how in the hell did he find Riora’s temple?
Her first thought was that there was a Valkyrie stoolie, feeding him information about her movements. But no, even the rogue ones she feuded with would never betray her—especially not to a vampire. It must have been the villagers. Those little punks! Her eyes narrowed. Those little condemned punks.
A young winged demon unwittingly scampered past his leg, and from Sebastian’s reaction, Kaderin knew he’d never seen beings like these. He was hiding his surprise well, which was a good habit to have, since the denizens here would home in on all his reactions, seeking out a weakness.
If he limped, their claws would be drawn to his leg. If he fell to his knees, their fangs would go for his jugular without thought.
Such was the world of the Lore.
“Valkyrie,” Bowen intoned from behind her. “I’ve something for you.”
How dare he interrupt her staring? She turned and beheld...diamonds. A gorgeous diamond necklace, offered in his palm. One of the few Valkyrie weaknesses was the fact that glittering jewels could mesmerize them. Valkyrie had inherited the need to acquire from their goddess mother Freya, and stones like these held a fatal attraction of sorts. Not just any shiny bauble—cubic zirconia wouldn’t do it—but deep, vibrant diamonds.
Valkyrie trained exhaustively to be able to resist, yet Kaderin hadn’t bothered in centuries. Aversion training tended to be tricky when there was no inclination to possess.
Had Kaderin been a feeler, she would have been spellbound by the dazzling stones, as he obviously intended. She might have been fascinated by the way the temple’s fires illumined them, making them sparkle, or enthralled with the tiny pinprick spears of flame-red light. Glint, glint, glint...
She jerked her gaze up. Odd that she wasn’t a feeler, and yet something very akin to fury was threading through her veins right now. “Very clever, Bowen. Yet your tricks won’t work with me.”
But damn if they almost hadn’t. Shake it off. Don’t hand this weakness to him.
When he grinned with satisfaction, she resisted the urge to glare and made her expression blank before she turned to find the vampire again. Two of the nymphs were trailing him.
“These tricks work with other Valkyrie,” Bowen said. “Do they no’?”
Without glancing away from Sebastian, she said, “Try it with Regin or Myst. Then let me know how that works out for you.” Could those nymph tramps stand any closer to Sebastian?
Kaderin had never understood Myst’s particular dislike of them. Now Kaderin knew Myst was right—they were a bunch of little hookers.
Rating: 2 Kisses
Lols @ your brain bleach comment. I actually skipped this one.
ReplyDeleteLoved the review ;)