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Title: Demons From The Dark
Sexual Content: Explicit sex scenes. Mention of child abuse and rape. Rating:
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Description
From New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole comes this scorching tale of a demon outcast poisoned with vampire blood and the vulnerable young witch he vows to protect—even from himself.
A DANGEROUS DEMON SHE CAN'T RESIST . . .
Malkom Slaine: tormented by his sordid past and racked by vampiric hungers, he's pushed to the brink by the green-eyed beauty under his guard.
A MADDENING WITCH HE ACHES TO CLAIM . . .
Carrow Graie: hiding her own sorrows, she lives only for the next party or prank. Until she meets a tortured warrior worth saving.
TRAPPED TOGETHER IN A SAVAGE PRISON . . .
In order for Malkom and Carrow to survive, he must unleash both the demon and vampire inside him. When Malkom becomes the nightmare his own people feared, will he lose the woman he craves body and soul?
Review
As a reader, I feel that the only thing better than a good book is book that defies my expectations. DEMON FROM THE DARK was my first Kresley Cole novel, and I’ll admit, I expected it to be a formulaic story with soul-mates and improbable sex. I was delighted to find a laugh-out-loud, clever book with well-detailed characters who, yes, also had soul-mates and improbable sex.
DEMON FROM THE DARK is the eighth installment of the Immortals After Dark series (tenth if you count two novellas), and in it Cole has created a world with violent, paranormal tones (A dark Hell dimension with roving bands of monsters? A mysterious military lab where abducted people are tortured and murdered? Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras? This series is definitely not set in Mayberry).
When so much effort is placed on building an alternate reality, a common narrative pitfall is to forget to weave in accessible characters and motivations. Cole not only avoids this mistake, she did a phenomenal job of “humanizing” her paranormal cast.
A prime example of that wonderful characterization is the interplay between Carrow and Malkom. I know I will reread sections of this book devoted to their relationship again and again (No, “relationship sections” isn’t a euphemism for sex scenes). I mean all of the pages that show a smart, funny, New Orleans party girl scrabbling through a demonic desert while her enormous, barbarous, inarticulate “soul-mate” chases her around with a hard-on and tries to woo her with decapitated heads. Think an adult Beauty and the Beast, if Beast couldn’t speak English and Beauty could lob fireballs. The relationship between Malkom and Carrow is both funny and touching to read, and while the soul-mate gambit opens the door to explain why Malkom doesn’t just kill Carrow on sight, Cole doesn’t skimp on giving the reader reasons why these two belong together.
In DEMON FROM THE DARK, Cole has written a great book illustrating what happens when some of the more over the top situations in paranormal romance are taken to their natural (and thoroughly entertaining) conclusion. I look forward to reading more of her books, regardless of series or plot line, in the hopes of finding more such charismatic characters.
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Nice review, I recently went through and read all the books in this series, including the short stories, and I loved them all. I'm definetly looking forward to Regin's story in February. And of course nix and Lothaire whenever they come.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you enjoyed the book. Kresley Cole is one of my favourite authors. Though I must say, if you like this one, you will LOVE A Hunger Like No Other. My personal fav. in the series.
ReplyDeleteI ran out and bought five Kresley Cole eBooks from Barnes and Nobles, and now I'm wrestling with their customer service department to fix formatting issues in three of them that make them unreadable (teeny, tiny type... that I'm still tempted to read with my nose pressed against the screen).
ReplyDeleteJessica, one of the broken ones was was Hunger Like No Other, I can't wait to read it!
Thomas, I couldn't find an eBook copy of her first short story in the Immortals After Dark series, should I wait to hunt it down in print before I jump into the rest of them?
Right now I'm salving my Cole cravings with her historical romances. I found "The Captain of all Pleasures" pretty forgettable (er, but still plan on reading "The Price of Pleasure). "If You Dare" has completely swept me away, however, definitely going on my repeat-read shelf for Historicals.
I have just found Kresley Cole books too and I loved this one. You are so right with the Beauty and the Beast thing. That is exactly what this one was like, it was hilarious watching him try to win her :) Can't wait until the next one comes out!
ReplyDeleteHere's a link to the novella THE WARLORD WANTS FOREVER :) Someone on GR sent me the link. Apparently Kresley put it up a while back. Anyway, enjoy!
ReplyDeletehttp://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/books/SS.EMS/KresleyColeNovellaGiveaway.pdf
Oh and about DEMON FROM THE DARK being your first Kresley book... I'm shocked! But I'm also delighted you enjoyed it. This was my second favorite, with my first being WICKED DEEDS ON A WINTER'S NIGHT. It's book three (or four, if you count the novella as book 1) and focuses on Mariketa and Bowen.
ReplyDeleteLove love love love it!
I just borrowed this one from a friend of mine, it will be my first Kresley book as well. I'm even more excited to read it after reading your review!
ReplyDeleteI love this series, but I'm behind a couple books and someone said that I'd need to read those before starting Demon from the Dark. I'm just wondering b/c all of her other books were written so well as stand-alones. What's your opinion?
ReplyDeleteSpinecraker, I really enjoyed Demon from the Dark without reading any of the previous books, but there was definitely a lot of "name dropping" and cameos from characters I was obviously supposed to recognize from previous stories. I can be pretty single minded when I like certain characters, so I sailed right past these moments to follow Carrow and Malkom. It didn't impede how much I enjoyed the book at all. Depending on what type of reader you are, the background details might nag at you if you don't start from the beginning.
ReplyDeleteTori, read The Warlord Wants Forever, Myst is *wicked*. Loved it, thanks so much for the link!