Delivered from the darkness, a woman finds herself plunged into a passion that is DEEPER THAN MIDNIGHT . . .

At eighteen, Corinne Bishop was a beautiful, spirited young woman living a life of privilege as the adopted daughter of a wealthy family. Her world was changed in an instant when she was stolen away and held prisoner by the malevolent vampire Dragos. After many years of captivity and torment, Corinne is rescued by the Order, a cadre of vampire warriors embroiled in a war against Dragos and his followers. Her innocence taken, Corinne has lost a piece of her heart as well--the one thing that gave her hope during her imprisonment, and the only thing that matters to her now that she is free.

Assigned to safeguard Corinne on her trip home is a formidable golden-eyed Breed male called Hunter. Once Dragos's most deadly assassin, Hunter now works for the Order, and he's hell-bent on making Dragos pay for his manifold sins. Bonded to Corinne by their mutual desire, Hunter will have to decide how far he'll go to end Dragos's reign of evil--even if carrying out his mission means shattering Corinne's tender heart.

Title: DEEPER THAN MIDNIGHT
Author: Lara Adrian
Series: Midnight Breed, book 9
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Dell Books
Year of release: 2011, June 28
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Source: Received a digital ARC for review via author’s assistant

First line:
The club was private, very much off the beaten path, and for damned good reason.

Memorable Scenes:
- hand-to-hand combat between Hunter and a Gen One assassin> awesome fight scene
- Hunter and Corinne's first kiss > TYPEREND for their romance; tentative, sweet and tender
- the fight scenes > Lara Adrian knows how to write breathtaking fight scenes

SPOILER WARNING:
This review may contain spoilerish information about the heroine, so if you don’t want to know stuff beforehand, I urge you to not read the review if you haven’t read this book yet.

Hunter is a born and bred killing machine by The Order's enemy but joined The Order instead when the chance was there. He’s seemingly emotionless, deliberate, logical, lethal and ruthless, yet he can also be tender, honorable and even compassionate.

Corinne Bishop was abducted and kept prisoner by the Order's enemy and rescued in previous book of the series. Her Breed talent is sonokinetic energy (sound manipulation). She’s defiant, stubborn and a survivor. There were moments where Corinne stubbornness in pursuing a certain something (spoiler: her son, his whereabouts and thinking he would welcome her and not be the killing machine she rationally knew he must surely have become) annoyed me and I wished she would listen to Hunter instead of clinging to hopeless hope against her better judgment. Yet without this part of her characterization a lot of strength in the emotional element of the plot would've been less strong and maybe even lost. And the way it played out towards the end of the book was brilliantly done and left me with a satisfied feeling.

DEEPER THAN MIDNIGHT starts off action-packed and fast-paced with Hunter and Chase trying to find information on an Enforcement Agency operative suspected of being a mole for the enemy. The tone was set and I settled in for a thrilling read that took me from Boston to Detroit to New Orleans and back to Boston all the while the war with the Order's enemy is taken up a notch and the search for the enemy in order to eliminate him runs alongside the search of a mother for the child that was taken away from her at birth.

The way Lara Adrian continues the on-going plot by tying up loose treads and creating/setting up new ones at the same time and how all the subplots turn out to be connected in some way is just brilliant. It's the one constant aspect that I love in this series.

One element I missed in the first part of the book was the romance. This book is very plot-driven and it felt like the romance was sacrificed in favor of that in the first part of it. I felt the romantic connection being built between Corinne and Hunter but the all-consuming, steamy chemistry that most of the other couples in this series had, wasn't there in the first 10-15 chapters. Reading on I understood the reason for this, with both Corinne's tortured past that left her scarred both physically and emotionally and Hunter's upbringing that was void of emotions and filled with violence, this was the only way their romance could've been written and worked. And I need to say that in the second part of the book the romance took a more prominent place, which made up for the lack of it in the first part.

Not only the camaraderie between the warriors but the closeness and bond between the Breedmates is something that I love in this series and they're becoming more and more tight-knit with every installment. I also love that they don’t disappear into the background after their HEA (as it’s known to happen to heroines in other popular PNR series) with the occasional mention here or there. No, they stay in the forefront, crucial in the overall plot and help their mates in the battle against evil.

Sterling Chase's storyline has intrigued me from the moment he first appeared in this series in MIDNIGHT AWAKENING (book 3). Knowing his book is next is making me giddy as all hell. He's so volatile and on the brink of snapping and giving in to his rage, the lust for pain and the Bloodlust...I can't wait to read his journey to redemption and his HEA. I’m really trying to tone down my expectations for his book as to not be disappointed when they’re set too high but am slightly failing at it as I really, really look forward to it.

Fights, chases, action-sequences...next to the ongoing plot, the back-stories and the intriguing characters, they are the thriving force behind my love for this series. Lara Adrian writes action scenes and plots that resonate with me in a way like few other PNR authors on my shelves do. Even when I don’t click with the characters, which has happened in a few of the previous books, I keep coming back to this series and devouring the books the moment they are available because of Lara Adrian’s writing and the ongoing plot arc that just enthralls me every single time.

DEEPER THAN MIDNIGHT was another great installment in a series that quickly became one of my favorites on my PNR shelf. Though the romance got off on a slow start and the plot was the more driving force behind this part, it was a very satisfying read and I was sad when I reached the last page and realized I have to wait till January to see where the cliffhanger type ending in the overall plot is going to lead us.

Favorite Quotes:
(Chase) He welcomed the agony of his wounds, the fiery kiss of deep pain that
made him feel alive. Just about the only thing that gave him any feeling at all. And, like a junkie, he pursued that feeling with reckless, desperate abandon.
Better than the alternative. Pain was the dark, wicked high that kept him from craving another, more dangerous mistress. Without pain, all he would have was hunger.

And then he was kissing her. Gently, unhurried, he brushed his lips across hers. His kiss was almost tentative, as though he didn't know how to take more than what she was willing to give him. As intoxicating as his mouth felt against hers, it was also sweet, the first time she'd ever been touched so carefully, so full of tenderness. That a formidable male like Hunter could possess such patience and restraint astonished her.

We were born to be his assassins. His Hunters, and nothing more."
"Hunters." The word sounded wooden on her tongue. "I thought Hunter was your name. Is it your name?"
He could see her confusion. Her frown furrowed deeper as she quietly processed all that she was hearing. "Hunter is the only thing I've been called from the day I was born. It is what I am. What I will always be."