Review: The Warlord Wants Forever (Immortals After Dark #1) by Kresley Cole

Nikolai Wroth, once a ruthless human warlord in the 1700s and now a general in the rebel vampire army, needs to find his Bride, the one woman who can render him truly alive. As a turned human, he doesn’t enjoy a heartbeat or breaths and is consequently weaker than fully blooded vampires. He wants his Bride for the power she will bring him and can hardly believe it when his heart beats for Myst the Coveted, a mad, fey, mythological creature.

     Myst is known throughout the world as the most beautiful Valkyrie, part chillingly fierce warrior, part beguiling seductress who can “make you want her even as she’s killing you.” She has devoted her life to protecting an ancient, powerful jewel and to fighting the vampires, and she now sees a way to torment one—for with Wroth’s heartbeat comes consuming sexual desire that can only be slaked by her.
     She eludes him for five years, but he has finally chased her to ground and stolen the jewel which commands her, giving him absolute power over her. While he possesses it, he can make her do anything, and he plans to in order for her to experience first hand the agonizing, unending lust she’d purposely subjected him to for half a decade. Yet when Wroth realizes he wants more from her and frees her, will she come back to him?
     The first in Cole's Immortals After Dark series was originally published as one of three novellas in "Playing Easy to Get". It was also available on its own as a special promotional ebook from Simon & Schuster.

My Review:

We begin The Warlord Wants Forever as Myst, a beguiling Valkyrie, lies captured in Ivo’s (a vampire who kills his victims and drinks from the vein) fortress. Later we learn she let herself be captured as her Valkyrie sisters are trying to gather information about the vampires’ plans – their enemies for many centuries.

The vampires in this series are everyone and their mother’s enemies and the only good vampire is a dead one. Rumors abound about a different type of vampire – Forbearers – who don’t drink their victims to death and don’t drink from the vein; they are recognizable as their eyes are not fully red. Still, the Valkyries kill first and ask questions later and have never left any vampire alive in their wake.

As Myst lies in her cell, Ivo’s castle is under siege and the opposing force (Forbearers) wins, making Ivo exit swiftly – without Myst. Nikolai has the command of the invading force and as he inspects Ivo’s dungeons, he finds Myst. To get information from her, Nikolai threatens to torture Myst.

Myst, who is equipped with equal doses of superhuman strength, cunning, and snarkiness seduces the unsuspecting Forbearer- Blooding him (this occurs when a mythical creature from the Lore finds his mate. In a vampire’s case, their heart beats again. They desire no other female and they are fiercely protective of their mate.) We learn Nikolai is not the first vampire to think Myst is his mate as she tells him she waits until the vampires are caught off guard hearing their first heartbeat when she strikes and kills them.

But something is different about Nikolai, and Myst decides not to kill him. One, she really likes the way he kisses, and two he’s drop dead gorgeous. When her Valkyrie sisters arrive to rescue her, they find Myst locking lips with the love-crazed vampire.

In an act of cruelty – to show her sisters she doesn’t care at all about Nikolai – she lets the vampire live, damning him to excruciating pain until he meets his release with his Bride. Her sisters find her actions exceptionally devious and let up on their teasing.

They go back to their home in Louisiana and everything is business as usual. But when five long years pass, Myst grows more nervous and impatient upon hearing vampires have been spotted near her home.

Could it be Nikolai, her gorgeous Warlord come to find her at last? And what will he do to her after she’s kept him tortured in agony for five years, denying him to be with his Bride? Will she live long enough to find out?

What I didn’t like about Warlord Wants Forever and the Immortals After Dark Series.

Prologue. Do yourself a favor and don’t even bother reading the prologue in this book. It’s all sorts of confusing and made no sense to me. Long story short: some woman in history was so brave that at her death she appeared before Woden and Freya and they either made her pregnant or she was already pregnant and the daughter she had was powerful . . . uh or something and voila Valkyries. LOL I don’t know; I still don’t get the origin story of the Valkyries. If you can make sense of it, let me know, though it’ll just be like algebra to me: goes in one ear and out the other, and it’s information I’ll never have use for the rest of my life: x+2y = I don’t care.  

Timeline Issues. I was very confused at the beginning of the book. The way it read, I thought the timeline was based on ye olden times with talks of warlords, castles, and dungeons. But then there were TV and sexy lingerie references that hurled me from the past to the present. It was all sorts of confusing and I finally sorted things out a few pages later.

“Catch-up Book” Moment. We get our first “catch-up book” moment in this book. Murdoch, Nikolai’s brother, has Nikolai propped up, helping him walk as they search for Myst in Louisiana’s back alleys. Once Murdoch brings him to Myst, he pats Nikolai on the back and leaves them to it. We see what happens when Murdoch rounds the corner after leaving his brother on BOOK 8! *smh* If this wasn’t bad enough, we get every little detail of the cameos Murdock makes in the following books to recap events leading to book 8.

IAD Series Dislikes:

Blood Memories. Drinking someone’s blood and getting their memories is one of my favorite vampire traits. It sure saves a lot of time, but in the IAD Series the vampires get nightmares from their victim’s memories and this in turn makes them lose their sanity and turns their eyes red (when they kill their victim). What a buzzkill.

Clusterfuck. In the IAD Series, a structured outline is missing from book to book – somewhat but not entirely similar to Gena Showalter’s (GS) Lords of the Underworld Series. GS reins herself in though, in the latter part of her series, whereas Kresley Cole (KC) throws new characters, settings, languages (you name it, she’s got it) in the mix just when we think we’ve got shit down.

KC throws in Valkyries, vampires, werewolves (Lykae), fey, demons, sorceresses, witches, and all sorts of combinations and 99 flavors of supernatural creatures in her books. Sure, I like to mix things up – variety being the flavor of life and all, but just when it seems you’re following a storyline, the next book will feature minor characters irrelevant to what’s going on and who would be better suited in a side story apart from the main one. Then you have to wait ages for the storylines you do want to read about (bitter much, Julie? LOL)

Dreaded “catch-up books”. To make matters worse, KC features several books I like to refer to as “catch-up books”. As you read KC’s books, say for example books 2 –6, there are some things happening in the background say like oh, someone gets kidnapped, but something more life threatening is happening in forefront of the book, so the characters put aside said kidnapping and dedicate their time and efforts to the problem at hand. Well, in a “catch-up book” you’ll get a recap of every single detail from book 2-6 from the kidnappee’s point of view, and starting at 50% of the book, you’ll get why the person was kidnapped and their storyline. *le sigh* Can you say, “I feel jipped for paying for a book that has a recap and only half a story”?

WTF, Julie? So you might be asking yourself why I’m even reading this series if there is just so much about it I don’t like. Well, the answer is simple: book 12, Lothaire. When I began book blogging last year, there was SO much uproar over this book, I was curious to find out why. Thinking PR hype and a gorgeous male model were to blame, I approached this series in the frame of mind that I wouldn’t like it, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised with several books in the series. Sure, I wanted to quit at several stops as it was daunting that I’d have to wade through 11 books to get to why almost every book blog and their mother was gushing about Lothaire.

But even when I wanted to quit, the snarky Valkyries, irresistible Lykae men, and Lothaire have kept me going and I’m currently reading book 11 in the series. Lothaire lurks in the background of some books, in others he’s not mentioned at all. He is definitely an enigma and I’m very curious to find out what his story is all about. He does not appear in The Warlord Wants Forever, as he is introduced in the next book, A Hunger Like No Other.

I’m crossing my fingers and hoping Lothaire doesn’t disappoint.  

 

What I like about The Warlord Wants Forever and the Immortal After Dark Series (IAD).

Valkyries. Okay confession time. I do and don’t like the Valkyries – as a matter of fact it’s a case by case or in this instance, a book by book basis. As I began reading about the Valkyries, I couldn’t help but find them extremely similar to GS’ Harpies and we all know how much I dislike I feel about GS’ Harpies. Still they have their funny moments and aren’t as annoying – though they do share a lot of similar qualities such as super strength, they love to fight, and they are thought of as the big bad in the Lore (mythical) world. My favorite Valkyrie is Nix, and just like her sisters, they are funny, crazy, and full of pop-culture references I’m glad I’m not too old to get. In Warlord Wants Forever, I enjoyed reading about Myst and her sisters, so it’s a pass grade here.

Hott Read. This was the major factor that saved the book for me. The sex scenes were so scorching hott, I couldn’t help but curl my toes in several places. After five long years of poor Nikolai waiting to claim his Bride, when he finally catches up with her, KC achieves a scorch factor that is guaranteed to melt your lips off! *faints*

 

He stopped, lifting his head above the milling crowd, then swung around to her direction. His gaze fell directly on her, his eyes black, feral and riveted to her with a look of utter possession. When Murdoch’s gaze followed Wroth’s, he gave her an almost pitying expression, then he slapped Wroth on the back before tracing away.

The blood left her face. She leapt to the roof of the adjoining building, gaining speed for the next— She screamed as Wroth’s gaunt visage appeared directly in front of her. Traced. She sprinted in the other direction, but he snatched her around her chest, pinning her to him, making her feel his erection thick against her.

She elbowed his throat, dropped from his arms, and dove over the edge of the roof. She tumbled into a high-walled courtyard, landing on hands and feet, then scrambled up to leap out of the darkened space. But her speed was no match for his tracing.

He snagged her again, and though she fought, he was somehow stronger even in his condition—maybe because of his condition.

One of his hands yanked up her short skirt.

“Wroth! Don’t do this!”

“Five years of hell,” he sneered, palming her ass roughly. “You deserve to be fucked till you can’t walk.”

She gasped, trembling. “So the warlord claims his prize? It figures that you’d take your Bride whether she wants it or not. You’d make me remember being forced?”

After a pause he bit out, “No. God, no.”

She heard him freeing himself.

“Myst,” he groaned, “just feel me.” He took her hand and made her cup his heavy sack, then grip his shaft.

Never had she felt such hardness.

“Rub the head,” he rasped in her ear, making her shiver as she felt the moisture. “That’s as close as I can get without you. I need to fuck you so bad I’m sick with it.”

“Wroth, don’t…”

With a bitter curse, he lowered his head, forehead against her neck, but he only thrust against her ass. “Can’t stop,” he grated, and she knew then that he wasn’t going to take her body, just touch it, use it.

Why would he refrain for her…?

His fingers strummed her nipple. Lightning. No, she couldn’t want this. His breath was hot on her and made her body go liquid. She could want it, just as she did every night in her lonely bed. The air was sultry, redolent with the scent of jasmine and even more moist than usual from the pounding fountain in the corner. No one was home.

He wouldn’t take her, so why not enjoy this for mere moments?

When she went soft in his grasp, lacing her arms back to lock behind his head, he growled and kicked his feet against hers, making her spread her legs.

Rating: 4 Kisses