Pearl's World of Romance - Reviews with a Passion: Kiss of Crimson

June 16, 2007

Kiss of Crimson - Lara Adrian

5:31 PM |

He comes to her more dead than alive, a towering black-clad stranger riddled with bullets and rapidly losing blood. As she struggles to save him, veterinarian Tess Culver is unaware that the man calling himself Dante is no man at all, but one of the Breed, vampire warriors engaged in a desperate battle. In a single erotically charged moment Tess is plunged into his world--a shifting, shadowed place where bands of Rogue vampires stalk the night, cutting a swath of terror.

Haunted by visions of a dark future, Dante lives and fights like there is no tomorrow. Tess is a complication he does not need--but now, with his brethren under attack, he must shield Tess from a growing threat that includes Dante himself. For with one reckless, irresistible kiss, she has become an inextricable part of his underworld realm . . . and his touch awakens her to hidden gifts, desires, and hungers she never knew she possessed. Bonded by blood, Dante and Tess must work together to thwart deadly enemies, even as they discover a passion that transcends the boundaries of life itself . . .

One word: WOW!

This is the story of Dante and Tess. Dante, warrior at the core with a curse passed on to him by his mother, he has premonitions of death. As said Dante is a hardcore warrior, until he meets his Breedmate Tess. Meeting her shows him there’s more in life than just fighting, feeding and living to serve the Order.
Tess, fitting the Breedmates, feels different, isolated, left out from the rest of the world. As a Breedmate she also has a gift, that of healing. A gift she sees as a terrible curse and keeps hidden from everyone in her life. She is drawn to Dante but doesn’t understand why she is so attracted to him.

If you read my review of Kiss of Midnight (book 1) you know I had trouble getting into the book at first but that was seriously taken care of by the end of the book.
And Lara Adrian has continued her excellent work in Kiss of Crimson.
I was drawn further into this amazing world of Breed, the Order, the Rogues and the Breedmates.
In this book there’s all the more character building and a lot less of the endless descriptions Kiss of Midnight started with.
It was fast-paced, more intense from the very opening scene right through to the exerpt of the next book (Tegan’s!) at the end.

The war between the Order and the Rogues continues in this book in which the Warriors also have to fight against the distribution of a drug that turns normal Breed into Rogues.
The secondary characters were fabulous! There was the introduction of some characters of whom I’m certain will play a bigger role in books to come. I will not disclose too much about them for fear of spoilers but when you read the book, you’ll know who I mean.

I was hesitant after Kiss of Midnight, but with Kiss of Crimson Lara Adrian has really won me over and gotten me hooked on the Warriors of the Midnight Breed.
Tegan’s book is next in December 2007 and I’m truly looking forward to it, most definitely after reading the excerpt in Kiss of Crimson!

Quotes:

This close, the scent of her was inebriating and lush. He breathed in through his mouth, letting the spicy sweetness of her sift through his teeth, relishing the way it played across his tongue.

After Nico asks Dante if he would quit the Order for Tess, Dante answers: “I would quite breathing for her, if she asked it of me.”

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