A Midnight Breed Novel (The Midnight Breed Series Book 2)

Started off great, but became incomplete - just like the other books. The plot is good, the dialogue is good but then when the h and H get together, it's over. Like what happened to Tess's business? How did she wind it down? What happened to her old life? As if happily ever after bounces out of left field and smacks her in the face and boom everything else disintegrates and is no more like a pathetic case of amnesia. It's as if now that the woman has her male, the rest of her life means absolutely nothing.

I really enjoyed this book and it's characters. It seems the series is getting better and better with each passing book.. This series is going on my favorites shelf......! Great author and great book.

With book #1 I decided to avoid comparing the Midnight Breed series with the Black Dagger Brotherhood. BUT I kinda did end up comparing the two in several ways, so I'm going to again try to minimalize my comparisons and stick to reviewing what Kiss of Crimson is actually about and how Lara Adrian has developed her vampires in book #2.

For the sake of this review I'm going to assume you've read Kiss of Midnight (if not then you can check out my review). Kiss of Crimson begins a few months after the conclusion of Kiss of Midnight. This time the vamp in focus is Dante. Dante is the Breed warrior who has absolutely no interest in finding a Breedmate and is really against the idea (he likes variety). Dante is too busy trying to avoid the death visions he gets (as part of his 'gift').

Dante is gravely injured at the beginning of the book and feeds/attacks Tess. Tess is a Vet with a dark past, numerous secrets and a unique skill. After he's feed from Tess, he realises she's a Breedmate and he's accidentally bound them together (or at least partially bound them). Tess has absolutely no knowledge of vampires or anything supernatural and is kept in the dark about Dante's true nature for a large part of the novel.

What I really appreciated about this book is how Adrian avoids the insta-love thing. Yes, there is an instant connection, but both Dante and Tess seem desperate to avoid anything more. Tess is running from her past and Dante his future! I also enjoyed how Tess stood up to Dante and had a fiercely independent streak, she is even less willing to give in than him!

The 'Crimson' mentioned in the title is a party drug, popular with the young Darkhaven vamps. It was developed by Tess's ex-boyfriend for humans, but with vamps it causes them to turn Rogue. The Rogues are arming themselves for battle and looking to increase their numbers.

A new edition is the Darkhaven vampire Chase. He is an outsider who ends up working with the Breed warriors. I found Chase annoying at first, but once Adrian divulged his motivations I found him increasing interesting - a certain smutty club scene comes to mind.

I enjoyed Kiss of Crimson and although there are still numerous similarities to BDB I found that the Midnight Breed series is starting to take a different direction and is growing in pace and intrigue.

4 Stars in my Sky!

My fav non-spoiler quotes:
*A fighter? Tess wondered, some of her interest fading already. She had no use for violent men, even if they looked and sounded like fallen angels.
*The fact that the guy knew Tess, and no doubt knew her intimately, flipped a trigger on Dante's rage.
*He'd made it inside with only a few minutes to spare before dawn crested over the city to put a nice toast on his UV-allergic skin.

Also reviewed on my Blog Zili in the Sky! http://ziliinthesky.blogspot.co.uk

Finding out that Dante was next I was excited because he is so damn adamant about not having a mate. It is funny how it is always the ones that are against it that seem to fall the fastest.

Now we learn in the first book that a breedmate is a female that is born with this mark on their body somewhere, they are special to the breed. We also learn in the first book in order to become a mate they have to give their blood to their male. The breedmate's are humans but when they give their blood and take their mates as well it creates a bond one that will hold strong. It also causes the female to stay at the age they were when they bond as well as live as long as their mate.

Now Dante comes across Tess litterally as the walking dead. He should be dead and if it were any normal human he would be but he needs one thing from her. The one thing he needs is her blood to heal him. There is stuff in this book that happens that just shows you how the Rouges are doing things to turn more of the breed to their side. How they are trying to take over. Who knows exactly why just yet. I will have to continue to read to find that out.

I do know that after reading the first book I was interested to find out what would happen when one of the guys took blood from a breedmate but didn't know that is what they were. We get to find that out in this one. It is entertaining and interesting to see how things play out. Like I had said there are things that happen that leave you wondering what will happen next and how will things get worse before they get better. Because well lets face it, that is always how things go right!?

There is one part in this book that had me all hot and bothered! I have to say that I did love me some 'Harvard' in this book! We get to meet up with Sterling Chase. He is from the Darkhaven (which is where those from the breed go to live safely) he goes to the warriors to ask them to help find some of the kids that are missing from his Darkhaven. They are reluctant to help out, but agree. So we get to watch him and Dante interact and have to say it is entertaining. There is one scene with Sterling out at a dance club...OMG! SO HOT! Okay I will say I was instantly in love with him! I want his book like NOW! I can't wait to get started on the next one.

I started reading this series a little while back, I think it was around March/April. I read it right after I had read J.R Ward's BDB series and I caught the similarities immediately. However, with each book I have found that Lara Adrian has set her Midnight Breed apart and though there are still similarities, I have come to regard and love each series separately.
Adrian's Vamps are born from otherworldly creatures that crashed on earth and mated with human females. Yeah, they are alien vamps LOL. But the heroes of the novels are only descendants of that race and though they do have a thirst for blood, they share humanity with their human mothers.

All members of the race are males and they can only mate with certain human women that have the genetic elements that permit them to breed with them. These women are called Breedmates and are born with a birthmark that identify their status. They are reverenced and treated as treasures among the Breed.

The Series revolves around the Warriors of this Breed, The Order, that fight against their own nature. The Breed need to curb their thirst otherwise they might become addicted to blood and transform in what they call "rogues". The Order fight to protect the civilian Breeds and their mates against the Rogues and other villains that might want to harm them.
The warriors are hot, hot, hot men that any woman would drool over and each book focuses on each of them finding their mates. The smut is these books is fevering HOT and a great addition to the smut world =)

I don't want to get much into the plot, but suffice to say that I have found the story and their adventures to be very interesting ad gripping. Adrian was able to reach a very good balance between Action, drama and all the sex.

I totally recommend this series to any Paranormal Romance lover out there!

Originally Posted at Welcome to Larissa's Bookish Life {[...]}

In this sequel of Kiss of Midnight, Lara Adrian shows her talent by writing a story that was as compelling and exciting as the first installment.

This is Dante and Tess' story. Dante, the large dark Breed Warrior lives for his duty to help him fight off the horrendous vision he has of his own death. He watches the other warriors who are mated and does not understand the compulsion to be like that until one night, after he barely escapes a battle involving a new more difficult to stop Rogue and an explosion, he ends up finding refuge in the animal clinic of a beautiful vet named Tess. To save his life, he takes her blood and her memories of the occasion only to notice afterwards that he has drunk from a woman marked as a breedmate. He is now bond to her though he has no intentions of completing the ritual that will bind her to him. Dante determines to stay away and has the perfect excuse when Lucan assigns him to 'babysit' a Breed official named Chase who is working with the Warriors to locate the source of a new drug, Crimson, that has devastating affects on vampires. There is also word of missing Breed youth that they are to watch for as well. Through all this, Dante finds the need to come to Tess time and again. Their relationship begins slow and tentative because Tess has her own secrets. It takes betrayal and the actions of villains to show them both the truth. But is it too late?

This book has a few side stories going on with Sterling Chase and Tegan which hint at future stories.

The plot was full of action and nice and twisty. The building romance delivered well. I love how the villains and heroes are not cut and dry in black and white. I was saddened over a couple of the villains identities and what it cost a few of the heroes in the end to take care of them.

Looking forward to book three!

This series reminds me a bit of Christine Feehan's Ghostwalkers Series in that There is plot and also a sub plot - a male and a female having an irresistable attraction. This, however, has vampires as main characters. They are called the Breed. They come from aliens that landed and bred with humans. Some have crossed over to blood lust (rogues) and they kill humans wantonly. Others do not and within those is a warrior class who hunt the bad guys. That groups is the one she focuses on so far. This is a top notich series. If you like danger, and romance you will like this. In this second book a drug which is turning vampires rogue. Dante and other warriors discover this and are trying to get the drug off the street. It turns out that the person who has come up with the formula, a basically good person, thinks it is harmless - for humans it is. His X girlfriend is also a breed mate. She doesn't know she is. She just knows she doesn't fit in. I won't go further and give spoilers, but they are the main players.

As a Breed Warrior, Dante's first responsibility has always been to his team. He and the other Warriors prowl the streets of Boston every night in order to hunt Rogue vampires. The Rogue are those vampires who have lost all ability to think or feel; they function solely by bloodlust. They are a danger to humans and vampires alike.

The Warriors know that the Rogue have been rapidly growing in numbers. It seems that there is a new designer drug named Crimson on the streets that causes the transition to Rogue to happen more quickly. One after another, young civilian vampires are disappearing from their homes. As the kids get hooked on the Crimson drug, they are irretrievably lost to their friends and families.

After being severely injured in a fight with a Crimson addicted vampire, Dante is forced to seek refuge in an animal shelter. The veterinarian, Tess Culver, attempts to help the dying vampire. When Dante needs more than bandages to save his life, he does something to Tess that will forever change both of their lives. At some point, he will have to be honest with her. But can she ever accept him once she learns the truth?

I have to admit, Kiss of Crimson surprised me - in a good way. Although I enjoyed the first book in this series, I thought it could have been a lot better if it had set up subplots that could be threaded through future installments. This second book in the series did exactly that. We are introduced to two new characters named Chase and Elise, and they both have the potential to have interesting stories of their own. While Dante's story resolves by the end of this book, Chase and Elise's stories are left open. I thought this was a great improvement over the first book.

Actually, I can't think of anything to criticize in Kiss of Crimson. I was completely engrossed in the characters and storyline. It included the perfect amount of both action and romance without being over the top. There were unexpected twists at just the right moments. There was no pointless fluff in the book. And, the dialog was realistic and consistent. The whole book was a pleasant surprise and I can only hope that I will be just as happy with the 3rd book in the series.

Highly recommended for fans of paranormal romance, especially to those of you who have a soft spot for vampires.

Kiss of Crimson started right up on the action even though it takes place a few months after Lucan and Gabrielle in Book 1. Dante is out patrolling when he stumbles into a Rogue that doesn't react to titanium the way they normally do. The Rogue fights like an animal and Dante has a hard time taking him out when several other Rogues show up at the scene and blow up the dock. Dante barely escapes into the river and crawls upshore badly injured. He pulls himself into a vetrinary clinic needing to feed and finds Tess Culver alone. He tries to convince her that she's safe and she doesn't put up much of a fight through the feeding but stabs him with a syringe once he's closed the wound on her neck and he's realized that she has the mark of a Breedmate. The syringe knocks him out for a few minutes -- long enough for Tess to call a friend who gets worried and calls the police. Dante isn't out for long and has to scrub her memories so that he'll have time to properly explain things to her later. Obviously a beautiful start to a wonderful relationship

Dante heads back to the compound thinking that there's no way his night could possibly get worse when an agent from the Darkhaven comes by with unexpected news about vanishing teenage vampires and a new drug on the club scene that causes Bloodlust in the teens that take it. Those teens eventually become Rogue which would allow for Lucan's brother Marek to practically manufacture Rogue soldiers for his cause. Agent Chase Sterling wants to help the Order stop whoever is dealing in this drug and bring back the missing teenagers and Lucan has assigned Dante to babysit him.

The plot continues to complicate when Dante can't stop thinking about Tess and shows up at an art show just to see her. Tess has the gift of healing (even among the Breed) although before she met Dante she had sworn never to use her "curse" again. She uses her gift to heal a dog that Dante brought to her (to get closer to her, sneaky guy) and sort of helps Dante to fight off the death visions he's been having all his life. Also through a little digging Dante finds out that one of Tess' best friends is not only the dealer of the drug Crimson but also the man who created and pharms the drug. Agent Chase Sterling also has his own agenda and is looking for his nephew among the missing drug users to impress his widowed sister-in-law.

Eventually Dante and Chase catch Tess' friend Ben (the drug dealer that Tess didn't really know about) but Chase lets him go and then Ben gets kidnapped by Marek's minions. Tess was walking by Ben's apartment and Rogues set upon her and nearly killed her with their feeding. Dante goes berserk and pretty much takes out all the Rogues present before deciding that only his blood can heal her. This would complete the Breedmate process something that Dante had been reluctant to do without explaining the ramifications to her or even asking her permission.

Tess did go a little crazy when she realized what had happened and left the compound in broad daylight. Dante is felled by the same death vision he's had all his life but he realizes that it is not HIS death he sees, but Tess' and Dante realizes he can't just let her go to face her possible death. So Dante goes out in broad daylight with Agent Chase and Niko to save her and gets badly burned in the process. It's after this that Tess realizes that no matter what Dante inherently is he still loves her.

The story is more complicated and dramatic than the first and even our heroine Tess seems to be a stronger character than Gabrielle ever was. Tess' whole history and her overcoming her demons automatically make her a more realistic and courageous woman.

I believe the next one has to do with Tegan and Elise, which makes me wonder what is going to happen with Agent Chase (who had fancied Elise). I guess I'll have to read and see...

Loved the premise of the book which gave this second effort by Ms. Adrian more heft. She is certainly building on her franchise by introducing the story of Breed Warrior Dante and his Breedmate Tess. While not as lustily hot as the first book, the plot held my attention more than the first. A human (Ben Sullivan) has concocted a drug called Crimson which gives a quick fast high to the local ravers but for Vampires it has a chilling effect. Turning them into blood thirsty Rogue vampires who are harder for the Breed Warriors to kill.

What was great is that with the introduction of Ben Sullivan as the creator of Crimson you sort of got a strong 3 way plot going and parts of the book really worked with both Dante and ex-boyfriend (who still carries a tendre for Tess) fighting over her like a bone. But guess who wins out in the end. Also great was the things that Dante was willing to do in order to win Tess' affection (Harvard).

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS:

What needed more work? KEEP IT HOT! I think that the vampire/paranormal works are great for an intense level of SEX. I would have liked to see more of it. Especially with Tegan, Rio and Chase's books on the horizon. Tess had an ability that just sort of showed up but I thought a little bit more could have been done with it. Nora, that was no way for a girl to go out cuz she was pretty spunky and they needed to have done her more justice and she should NOT have gone out like that. Chase. I know he'll get his own book but he just sort of went from a Saville Row dressing accountant type to a what... he just literally walked off into the sunset... well moonset. Lucan, so what he's a stay at home warrior now? Rio, I thought Vamps could heal themselves or at least their metabolism allows for faster healing. So why is he pulling a Quasi-moto in the infirmary? Her endings. Ms. Adrian has the ability to wrap up many plots in the space of like 8 pages. It's sort of like when you have a thirst and grab a 1/2 glass of ice water and guzzle it down only to realize I'm still thirsty. Now I understand that Tegan's book is next. I thought his could have waited but we'll see what Ms. Adrian does with this. and I hope that Gideon (as the resident geek) is able to come up with an anti-rogue turning formula so that we can maybe see this series extend a bit past the original group with the introduction of new Breed Warriors or possibly former Rogue vamps getting into the save the race action.